The forum has to be redone, What needs to stay?

On another non-camera forum, the site allows members to pay a donation. Their "rank" then lists them as a sponsoring member and as a sponsor, the forum is displayed ad-free. The donation payment can be for 3 months to a year.

I'm not a frequent poster here -- but I find enough value in the forums (even the rants now and then) to learn something and would pay a small fee to keep it going and ad free (or even ad light).
 
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I tend to agree with the suggestions about dropping Like/Dislike, or at least going for a more visually subtle implementation.

About the only other things I'd really like to see concern the handling of images:

1) Downsize images as necessary to avoid the scrollbar

2) I would love it if the forum automatically converted images that have been quoted in replies down to thumbnail size. This would leave the image recognizable but greatly reduce the need for scrolling and make it easier to focus on the text that goes along with the new reply. This is one thing (about the only thing TBH!) that I like about the POTN forums.
 
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LDS

Sep 14, 2012
1,763
293
YuengLinger said:
Finally, I'm not sure how you check member identity, but I've seen cases (much less lately) of posts from the same person using different names. Would IP checking be practical?

Not always. Legitimate users behind NAT/proxy servers may appear with the same IP. Unluckily, it's up to the moderators to spot such behaviours, IP data may help, but it's not a process that can be automated. And it takes very little to post from different IPs (i.e. your PC and your phone).
 
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How about a CR only forum for original rumors and official follow ups. Keep it easy for those that want only the "facts". Have a second forum to let the kitties sharpen their claws and shred each other.

Maybe a vendor only forum to allow vendors to post about events or new products. Only the Original vendor can post additional info on a thread. Have a second forum to let the kitties sharpen their claws and shred each other.

I like the like/dislike feature, just wish people would use it rather than the +1 posts. I use the dislike not to flag content I disagree with but to flag posts that have, what I judge to be, an inappropriate tone/attitude.

My biggest issue with CR is the sniping on the threads. It's really unfortunate that even a few of the most knowledgeable people here have sunken to cat fight mode.
 
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Canon Rumors Guy

Canon EOS 40D
CR Pro
Jul 20, 2010
10,779
3,157
Canada
www.canonrumors.com
SPKoko said:
I would like it to be smartphone-friendly and/or get Tapatalk access. This was discussed in the past and temporarily available AFAIR.

Thanks for keeping on the great work with the rumors and the forum!

The new forum will be responsive. Tapatalk was challenging to manage with the current forum software.
 
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Canon Rumors Guy

Canon EOS 40D
CR Pro
Jul 20, 2010
10,779
3,157
Canada
www.canonrumors.com
Lurker said:
How about a CR only forum for original rumors and official follow ups. Keep it easy for those that want only the "facts". Have a second forum to let the kitties sharpen their claws and shred each other.

Maybe a vendor only forum to allow vendors to post about events or new products. Only the Original vendor can post additional info on a thread. Have a second forum to let the kitties sharpen their claws and shred each other.

I like the like/dislike feature, just wish people would use it rather than the +1 posts. I use the dislike not to flag content I disagree with but to flag posts that have, what I judge to be, an inappropriate tone/attitude.

My biggest issue with CR is the sniping on the threads. It's really unfortunate that even a few of the most knowledgeable people here have sunken to cat fight mode.

Maintaining two forums would be difficult and hard to implement with the blog.

There doesn't seem to be a big market for "vendor" forums in the photography space.

Like/Dislike is..... I honestly don't know what to do about it.

As for the sniping, that's generally the way forums work. Our moderators do a great job of trying to keep it to a minimum, and honestly, this forum is pretty good considering the amount of activity.
 
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Jan 1, 2013
1,920
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CR,
There are lots of ideas floated so far.
Since you're the CR site and has all the rights to do what you want, put up one or two formats, in other links, the way you envision, then let us favor the changes.
You're never going to satisfy everyone all the time. Perhaps just choose the least unfavored items and go with the new format.
-r
 
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Please can we show how the replys are linked visually. (I think DPR do this)

often the interesting threads end up diverging into different conversations, being able to expand just one conversation would be brilliant:

i.e.

a starts thread.
b replys to a
c replys to a
d,e,g,h & i reply to c
f replys to b with a really nuanced comment that's lost in the replys to c.

so maybe select one post (such as b above) and "collapse not in conversation" and you only get
a b & f.

Additionally this could show genuine "replies to your posts" rather than "replys to threads you once posted to a very long time ago".

I know it would take a lot more tracking, but I think it would be a plus if it's possible to implement.
 
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mnclayshooter

I love shooting - clay pigeons and photos!
Oct 28, 2013
314
0
Minnesota, USA
Zv said:
I'd also like a way to unfollow a discussion. Or even a way to mute the new replies notification. The image gallery ones in particular - I posted one picture of a bird once and now I can't seem to shake the bird picture thread! People continually post in there, which is great, but can I leave it now?

+1
 
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PLEASE do not bring back a dislike button. It really sours the experience and makes the forum mean.

I remember being disinclined to post because any one of the thousands of readers who felt the urge to do so can slap you with a dislike for any reason or for bad reasons or for no reason at all. I never posted anything insulting or (I thought) entirely stupid, etc., but still I found I was getting nailed with negatives from people who, in some cases for sure, simply preferred a different piece of equipment or was wishing for some different feature in a future camera, etc.

I think it is human (or Troll) nature to bother with clicking "dislike" more readily than clicking "like". No one clicks "like" when they simply don't disagree, but they will click dislike at the drop of a hat.

It really made me log in less and post much much less. I was very happy when it went away.
 
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Zv said:
I'd also like a way to unfollow a discussion. Or even a way to mute the new replies notification. The image gallery ones in particular - I posted one picture of a bird once and now I can't seem to shake the bird picture thread! People continually post in there, which is great, but can I leave it now?

YES! Same exact thing. Start with allow me to un-follow that bird thread I mistakenly posted in . . .
 
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hbr

Oct 22, 2016
326
0
Wow, Craig. You move fast. Took a nap and came back to see the like/dislike thumbs gone along with a couple of other changes. Just a couple of comments here.

1) Often I would see a photo that someone posted that really was unique or that impressed me. Rather than write a reply saying, "Nice photo _______," I would click on the thumbs up image. What about a like only thumb for photos.

2) What about having a set size for posted photos, but when clicked, would open up another page allowing the photo to be seen in a larger size? I see that you are doing that on some posted photos.

Lots of luck on the changes.

Brian
 
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mnclayshooter

I love shooting - clay pigeons and photos!
Oct 28, 2013
314
0
Minnesota, USA
Image galleries rather than inline posts would help with the "reply" or "quoted" images being repeated over and over in threads. It makes seeing new/different images much more difficult, and heaven-forbid, you're on a slow connection, you're going to see the same night herron over and over before you ever see another bird pic.

I think ideally someone's post would link to a gallery and people could leave individual comments on a particular photo without quoting them inline in the forum - then all users could see all comments on a particular photo. And on that subject, is there really a need for a forum for gallery posts at that point? It could be a gallery for the images, and a forum for "how-to's or techniques" for particular types of photos. I've also wondered about adding a 5-star voting system to the photos. Not that this is a contest, but it could help elevate particularly spectacular photos so that more people can see them, rather than them getting buried in post 358 of a 1000-post thread.

Also, the idea of being able to "unsubscribe" from a thread is nice - make one comment in the bird thread, and you're hooked to it for life.

Lastly, keyword tagging could be useful - particularly for searching for a topic, rather than people using their own versions of things (or mis-spellings of them). For example. A pre-set list of keywords that can be applied to a post - Mark IV or 7D, eclipse photos, whatever. Using the wiki-engine, you might even be able to make it user-maintained so that an industrious sort of person/group (maybe non-CR moderators??) could help police the list, so that CR peeps don't have to.
 
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hbr said:
1) Often I would see a photo that someone posted that really was unique or that impressed me. Rather than write a reply saying, "Nice photo _______," I would click on the thumbs up image. What about a like only thumb for photos.

I would like to support this idea. It would make the photo threads much more readable/enjoyable. Right now every good picture is followed by a dozen post that basically say: nice photo/ nice job. Would be cool if one could just "like" a good photo just via a button (but please w/o dislike button). Also, could this system be used to, e.g., choose a "picture of the month"? By counting the likes?
People who want to criticize or more thoroughly comment a photo could still do it in the usual way.

Another thought: would it be possible to let the photo threads appear in a more gallery style way??

As someone else already mentioned: please make forward and backword arrows at the top and bottom of a thread page to quickly move forward (or backward) within a thread and w/o having to click the tiny numbers.

Great work in general, Craig, keep it that way :)

-Sebastian
 
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