Photo Forum is Changing rant.

[Iron Flatline]

I am spending more times at other communities where the conversations are more about the actual art and craft of photography than about the gear. I don't mind helping some beginners.

To re-make a point that I made recently, that I really believe might help the community - we ought to create a thick FAQ and a few locked series of threads that answer specific questions... which get asked again and again. Which dSLR is invariably answered with a number of set responses... let's get those down, and link to them whenever anyone asks. This would benefit the community by freeing it up from re-answering the same thing, and lead more quickly to finer discussions of what someone might specifically need.

...but yeah, my activity here is slowing down, too. There's a number of people whom I like to "converse" with, and if I see their names I get involved. But I definitely contribute a lot less frequently.

 

[Iron Flatline]

One other thing... you get out what you put in. If you want photographic discussions, or better comments, or more active participation, it will only happen if everyone does it. Waiting for others to go first never works.

 

[Overread]

refrencing to the FAQ for common questions is a good move = but I don't agree with locking - that is sending rather an elitist view to the new member saying
"we don't want you = you are not one of us - you are a newb"
Rather let them have their threads and link them to the FAQ and then let them ask any more questions.

And as the question of an FAQ has come up - any of the experienced members willing to craft some good indepth (and inpartial) advice for the common questions?
should we start archiving them to a list and then build the answeres from there? we already have a user FAQ based on linking to good posts and discusions being formed

 

[Alpha]

I think it's the wrong reason to join. Understanding the basics of exposure and DOF certainly do not make you an expert. I understand them quite well and I'm no expert. They are, however, requisites for having any mildly intelligent discussion about the technical aspects of shooting. I would hardly consider consider learning such basics to be any sort of considerable progress, though they do represent a step forward in some sense. In that case you aren't learning how to take a better picture per se, you're learning how to take a picture, which is something that you should have learned from reading the manual.

 

[D-50]

For a discussion forum to work correctly people need to bring some type of knowledge to the table, one should not expect to join up with zero knowledge and learn from this. If you think TPF is a good place to learn all you need to know about photography your photos will show the proof that it is not.

Uhm, I would bet $1.12 that the vast majority of people here joined to learn the basics. That is exactly the reason why I joined.

Its that atitude that is destroying the forum. If every new member would take the time to read older posts, search the net a little for basic info and possibly dare I say READ A BOOK ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY the forum would be a much better place with better subject matter for people at all levels.

"we don't want you = you are not one of us - you are a newb"

This should be true to an extent. not that we dont want you but we dont want to hear your opinion on a subject you have no knowledge on. Learn first and then teach.

 

[Overread]

For a discussion forum to work correctly people need to bring some type of knowledge to the table, one should not expect to join up with zero knowledge and learn from this. If you think TPF is a good place to learn all you need to know about photography your photos will show the proof that it is not.



Its that atitude that is destroying the forum. If every new member would take the time to read older posts, search the net a little for basic info and possibly dare I say READ A BOOK ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY the forum would be a much better place with better subject matter for people at all levels.

I think this difference of what you should come to a forum with is going to sidetrack and in the end it won't lead to any change - unless you get the mods to include a photography test before members can sign up - some people see this as a disscussion place and others as a teaching resource - it is either for it is both together. At the moment there are many students willing and needing to learn 0 but they are not keeping the other from talking about other things - you just need to think of a topic


ps - new thread going up by me in a moment to try and address the mass answering of common questions problem.

 

[Overread]

This should be true to an extent. not that we dont want you but we dont want to hear your opinion on a subject you have no knowledge on. Learn first and then teach.

we never learn anything to entirity - thus each must take a point of learning and at that point say that they know enough to teach another. That point differs for many - for some it an exam that tells them for others its getting the shots that they want. We cannont conform this on a free forum thus all we can do is keep helping the new and keep correcting those students that help and get it wrong

 

[EricBrian]

For a discussion forum to work correctly people need to bring some type of knowledge to the table, one should not expect to join up with zero knowledge and learn from this. If you think TPF is a good place to learn all you need to know about photography your photos will show the proof that it is not.



Its that atitude that is destroying the forum. If every new member would take the time to read older posts, search the net a little for basic info and possibly dare I say READ A BOOK ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY the forum would be a much better place with better subject matter for people at all levels.



This should be true to an extent. not that we dont want you but we dont want to hear your opinion on a subject you have no knowledge on. Learn first and then teach.

Yikes. I think you are probably not suited for forum life.

 

[Alpha]

Yikes. I think you are probably not suited for forum life.

Really, because I haven't seen a single person here who started out asking these inane questions grow to become a great photographer. The only ones who show marked improvement over time are those who seek guidance in improving their skills, not creating them from nothing.

 

[D-50]

I am for a forum that is an informative place. TPF was at a point in time a great place with thoughful discussions now it has turned into a lpace where beginers teach beginers and rarely is there talk of worthwile info for people who are not beginers.

Some of the recent threads on LAB editing are what Im looking for. These add value to the forum and are great for non-beginers, its just too bad that these type of conversatiosn have become few and far between.

Everyday I log on hoping to find a shred of useful info, most of the time I see poorly composed shots, repetative questions that really have no answer (What camera should I buy?), and people asking how to set up a business when they clearly do not unbdersand how to take a good photograph yet. I am truly a disefranchised member.

 

[LaFoto]

Hmmm. Weeeelll, I haven't thoroughly read through all the answers, but I feel there's two groups among those that are contributing to this thread, one is "the frustrated ones", and one is "the still new ones".

I've been member of TPF for well over 4 years now, and when I was a beginner to the forum, I no longer was a total beginner to photography, but had been on a total plateau in my learning curve for years.

It was thanks to all the very helpful people here on TPF that I have learned HEAPS in those past 4 years. Few of them are still around.

And I have always tried to give back. Always.

But after 4 and a half years of saying the same, Overread and EricBrian, your patience does begin to run thin at times. I must say so with a bit of a sigh in my voice, too.

I still try to give as much as I can, time permitting. And I still try to scrape together as much patience as I can find inside me in replying to more of the same newcomer questions.

But there are times when also I begin to wonder: why don't those interested in taking up photography as their hobby go into a camera shop and have a salesperson offer them this camera, and that, and another, and a fourth, why do they ask total strangers an opinion over a decision that they have to take all on their own in the end, anyway.

I would never THINK of asking what camera to buy or what lens or what flash. I always have to weigh my financial means against the needs I feel I have and decide from there ... just for example...

Sorry. This might be all beside the track this thread has taken by now, but I'm just feeling like saying to our very friendly, very engaged in their forum-work, new members that your patience CAN indeed run thin in the course of time.

 

[Overread]

Really, because I haven't seen a single person here who started out asking these inane questions grow to become a great photographer. The only ones who show marked improvement over time are those who seek guidance in improving their skills, not creating them from nothing.

*hides in shame and retreats away*
I have just not got there yet - remember your pasts people and remember those times that you asked your teacher (in person) or mentor or borther or father those very same questions - take a gander through your old shots and remember your roots

ps - the solution :
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1276445#post1276445

or at least an attempt at one!

 

[Emerana]

dare I say READ A BOOK ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY the forum would be a much better place with better subject matter for people at all levels.

Hey, if not for here I wouldn't have read understanding exposure. I had read the manual which was helpful but there was much I just didnt *get*. I bought a super thick technical book that just couldnt hold my attention. So I came here and was told about Understand Exposure and really learned alot. But I wouldnt have known about it without coming here.

 

[Alpha]

The only question I've ever asked of a more learned photographer is, "how do you decide when to trip the shutter?"

 

[Overread]

The only question I've ever asked of a more learned photographer is, "how do you decide when to trip the shutter?"

I would say then that you are the vast exception to the "normal"