So, I took at look at that "other" photo forum...

jake337 · Jan 23, 2012

The_Traveler said:
openphotographyforum.com isn't a photo site; its one of those aggregation sites.
do you have a better url?

Open Photography Forums

jwbryson1 · Jan 23, 2012

skieur said:
I think he means www.photoforum.com without "the". They seemed to have copied some ideas from here and avoided some mistakes.

skieur

That's the one. Snooooorrreee......

It's a ghost town.

unpopular · Jan 23, 2012

^^ they lost some of their more influential members. There were a lot of critique problems over there. I got into a lot of hot water for critiquing an image which I thought was in bad taste and ended up implying that a 'respected professional' was a pornographer. I still think the image was tacky... but maybe pornographic was a bit of a stretch.

Anyway, I ended up getting suspended while I was flouncing. That's why I am here.

I got annoyed with Bitter a while back and went back, it's like the entire community collapsed. I like to pretend it was all me

The critique was never their strongest point. Same kind of crappy critique you tend to get anywhere, but with a tendency to be über-positive about everything:

"it's out of focus, but I love the colors! what a cute dog! I love the bow! Four out of Five Stars!"

With nothing technically wrong with my images but of unorthodox subjects - my images received ZERO feedback. So there really was no reason for me to be there except to provide feedback on other's which didn't include "great colors" wouldn't be appreciated.

The_Traveler · Jan 23, 2012

I'm pretty familiar with the following forums (and I just looked at OpenPhotographyForums at it's fairly easy to categorize)

TPF - lots of activity, lots of new, often young photographers, good number of experienced photographers who don't past their own pictures a lot but do participate, critique is uneven with some good but fair number of 'attaboys' held in check by more experienced people, pictures posted range from horrible to pretty nice with the average being in ehh category, under-moderated thus snarky and bi-polar behavior sometimes prevails. (like a school cafeteria at lunch when the teachers are absent, no mayhem but food fights)

OpenPhotographyForums - not much activity, much older group, fairly to quite experienced, quite polite, pictures good quality but generally not very exciting. Home page posts in news and articles 2.5 years old. (teachers' lunch room)

NikonCafe - lots of activity with approximate age spread quite like TPF, pictures range from ugh to quite skilled, critiques are heavy into approval and attaboys (truth might be forbidden and lots of cliques), heavily moderated and any conflict is frowned upon and banished. (lunch room at Catholic school with all the nuns watching)

NikonGear - much quieter, much older and much more skillful group, Images range from technically proficient to sublime, not much in the way of C/C, most members are proficient so that this is a show and tell but when another member does critique they clearly know what they are saying. Moderation rare and usually unneeded, members keep things pretty even-tempered. Pay site for technical boards. (lunch in faculty dining room) [I am a mod at Nikongear and post there]

1x.com - very active, much less of a community feel, excellent critique and superb quality. If one isn't a paid member, postings must be approved for quality. As good quality as there is on the web.