So, I'm seeing dozens of moved threads...

[Ballistics]

What's the purpose of the Beginner's forum now? You can't post pictures for C+C here any more, or ask questions about gear, etc.

 

[cgipson1]

I kind of wonder about that too!

 

[dxqcanada2]

Beginners' Forum description:

Brand new to photography, or brushing up on some of the basics? Don’t be shy! Talk to other beginners and ask all your basic photographic questions here. This is NOT an actual gallery, but more of a place to ask questions and get feedback on technical issues. Use the TPF Galleries to show us some of the photos you have taken so far and get some review - so you can learn where there is room for improvement!

 

[cgipson1]

Beginners' Forum description:

Brand new to photography, or brushing up on some of the basics? Don’t be shy! Talk to other beginners and ask all your basic photographic questions here. This is NOT an actual gallery, but more of a place to ask questions and get feedback on technical issues. Use the TPF Galleries to show us some of the photos you have taken so far and get some review - so you can learn where there is room for improvement!

but it seems like half of the questions get moved elsewhere...... lol!

 

[Dao]

I think it is actually a good start. Photos that are for CC should be moved. Photos that shown here for basic questions should stay. For example, a beginner post a photo asking why there are some dark spots on the sky in his/her landscape photo should belongs to beginner. Or a beginner post a photo showing he/she could not create the desire effect he/she was looking for (i.e. background blur). I guess that can stay.

For others, even it is a beginner questions in that particular area, that should be moved. For example, I want to do off camera lighting, what kind of equipment I should start with (with $300 budget). Even it is a lighting beginner question, but it is not a beginner question, so I think it should move.

If a person ask what is the different between f/2.8 and f/4-f/5.6 in the lens description, that should stay.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

I thought the beginners forum was perfectly fine before all the changes. But that's just me. I think it's more work to enforce the new "rules" than to just allow beginners to post what they want here.

 

[cgipson1]

I feel like beginners used to learn a lot from seeing (hearing) the critique on the photos posted in the beginners section (Because that is where the beginners would look first!) Now they don't see that critique unless they know to check out every possible forum / thread for every possible post... since there is no single place for the beginners to post and get critique anymore.

Are they really supposed to check every thread that comes through.. hoping they will see some critique on a photo that is similar to what they produce? Yes.. they should post their own, but what if they don't want to.. that they are not confident enough to do that?

 

[tirediron]

TPTB felt that the Beginner's Forum was being over-crowded with too many questions and posts for which other forums are already provided, and that many people were only looking/posing in the Beginner's Forum, and lots of good/useful posts in other places were being missed.

 

[cgipson1]

TPTB felt that the Beginner's Forum was being over-crowded with too many questions and posts for which other forums are already provided, and that many people were only looking/posing in the Beginner's Forum, and lots of good/useful posts in other places were being missed.

Understood.. but that gave the beginners one single cohesive place to look, and to post! If they were / are beginners.. isn't the beginners forum where they belong (in general) no matter what the numbers are?

Now they miss all the beginner posts too.... as well as the ones they used to miss....

 

[tirediron]

TPTB felt that the Beginner's Forum was being over-crowded with too many questions and posts for which other forums are already provided, and that many people were only looking/posing in the Beginner's Forum, and lots of good/useful posts in other places were being missed.

Understood.. but that gave the beginners one single cohesive place to look, and to post! If they were / are beginners.. isn't the beginners forum where they belong (in general) no matter what the numbers are?

Now they miss all the beginner posts too.... as well as the ones they used to miss....

It's really a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' scenario. The hope/intent is that in addition to getting people into more of the other forums, that Beginners too will explore more and find things that they might have missed if they'd stayed safe and sound in 'Beginners'.

 

[Overread17 5]

Basic exposure questions are still allowed in Beginners - asking what the aperture does - why there is a dark band when they shoot 1/500sec with the flash etc... These are basic beginner level questions allowed in the section.

Once questions are getting more into the "critique please" area then its out to the galleries they have to go. We tried just having beginners posting photos in there and we ended with many who consider themselves beginners, but were several steps above the average beginner. As a result its simply easier to manage if we have a policy that general photos and critique go in the specific gallery subsections.

Furthermore its no bad thing to encourage people to look at the wider picture; to see and read critique on their betters as well as to aspire to a higher standard of shooting; rather than directly fostering and encouraging a Beginner" standard for them.

The galleries are not so overcrowded as beginners, which means more exposure time for their photos and threads and also means they can be more specific with looking at topics within niche interests .

 

[IByte]

but it seems like half of the questions get moved elsewhere...... lol!

Locked up and never seen again oo lol.

 

[cgipson1]

Basic exposure questions are still allowed in Beginners - asking what the aperture does - why there is a dark band when they shoot 1/500sec with the flash etc... These are basic beginner level questions allowed in the section.

Once questions are getting more into the "critique please" area then its out to the galleries they have to go. We tried just having beginners posting photos in there and we ended with many who consider themselves beginners, but were several steps above the average beginner. As a result its simply easier to manage if we have a policy that general photos and critique go in the specific gallery subsections.

Furthermore its no bad thing to encourage people to look at the wider picture; to see and read critique on their betters as well as to aspire to a higher standard of shooting; rather than directly fostering and encouraging a Beginner" standard for them.

The galleries are not so overcrowded as beginners, which means more exposure time for their photos and threads and also means they can be more specific with looking at topics within niche interests .

Well.. hopefully with time, it will actually work that way! You mods will be busy for a while getting everyone "trained"... especially with every new user automatically posting in the Beginners Forum because of the title it has!

 

[12sndsgood]

I kind of like the change, it's nice seeing posts in the actual forum sub sections where they belong. I was a beginner once and I for the most part managed to post in the right sections. For posting pictures I went to the pictures section. Before everyone just dumped everything into beginners because that's where evereyone else posted.

 

[Overread17 5]

We took "gallery" out of the Beginners title to try and help avoid the confusion; as well as the re-write of the description of Beginners itself.

Because of part of the forum software renaming the section again is not really on the cards (it seems renaming sections breaks part of the search engine code on the site; whilst its easy to change the name the resulting fix takes longer and causes some search problems so its not an action we really have open to us).
In addition we have requested moving the galleries up in the forum structure, though as yet no progress there (I'm unsure if its simply a choice the admin don't agree with or one which requires more background software work to enable without significant problems being caused as a result).