[Chipp]

Hey all

I've received news that we've recently acquired a photography forum domain name - as such, the logical thing to do seems to be creating a community there. Given the success of our photography community here, if we were to transpose this onto a new website run by us, would you be interested in being a founding member?

Please post your thoughts!

Update:

I talked with admin a couple nights ago about the directions we'd look to take this project, and we decided on a few things both in terms of how it would relate to OCN and the feel of the community itself.
The new photo forum would not replace this forum here on OCN; also the vehicles and pets forums here will be recreated and each site in the 'family' will stand on its own
We are in talks with a very well-known web devloper who would be creating a layout for us that focusus as much on showcasing photos as it does forums and discussion. Given that it is a site about an artistic medium, we feel there should be a very artistic feel to the community's design as a whole and we're going to try and integrate member works into the layout in prominant ways
At least one extremely highly-popular photopgrapher on Flickr is willing to be a part of the community, creating a precedent of professional interaction and high quality content early on
We'd be looking for a group of 30 or so "founding members" who would be compensated in the early days in exchange for keeping livley, informative discussion running on the site to help build a memberbase

As with all of our sites (some more successful with others), we're looking to create a community experience that is second to none in the way that the website transcends being just a discussion board and becomes a major facet of the lives of its members. The thought is that by diving in head-first and really slamming all of our effort at building a great memberbase early in the site's life, we can avoid the somewhat floundering status that Carforum and Dogforum have maintained - though we are also going to pump major energy and development effort into those communities to get them back on track, too.

If any (or all) of that sounds like something you're interested in, please send me an email.

 

[riko99]

I think this would be a great idea to test out. Now the reason I say that is because there are not to many forums out there that are really that active (one reason I come here alot) so I believe it could work out well.

 

[mz-n10]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chipp Hey all I've received news that we've recently acquired a photography forum domain name - as such, the logical thing to do seems to be creating a community there. Given the success of our photography community here, if we were to transpose this onto a new website run by us, would you be interested in being a founding member? Please post your thoughts!

sounds interesting. i like the photo forums on OCN because its not separated into different companies. other forums i have used like to have canon and nikon in their own sub category and everyone else is grouped into OTHERs. i think without company specific groups it helps people from opening thousands of complaint threads (look at the sony alpha forums on DPR, non-stop whining).

Quote:

Originally Posted by riko99 I think this would be a great idea to test out. Now the reason I say that is because there are not to many forums out there that are really that active (one reason I come here alot) so I believe it could work out well.

nikonians, fred miranda, luminous landscape are all pretty active. you can get alot of help there from professionals there.

 

[Marin]

I feel like it should remain part of OCN and not a separate forum. While there are regulars in the sub-forum it's not enough to build a community off of.

And there's already other photography forums that are quite large, as pointed out by mz-n10. For photography, I'm a member of this forum: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php

 

[Volcom13]

I would like to get into photography. But learning about it from a PC forums is quite limited. So a new sister forum would be awesome. I could read up on some guides and start into the photography business.

 

[Ryan747]

Great idea, as long as it keeps the same format of OCN. "Rep, Trade Rating, etc."

 

[Danylu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marin I feel like it should remain part of OCN and not a separate forum. While there are regulars in the sub-forum it's not enough to build a community off of. And there's already other photography forums that are quite large, as pointed out by mz-n10. For photography, I'm a member of this forum: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php

That. It's like a ghost town in here at times.

 

[Boyboyd]

I actually think it would be better just to keep it as a sub-forum.

I like how cosy it is in here, don't think we could spread ourselves out enough to populate a dedicated forum.

 

[tagurtoast]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryan747 Great idea, as long as it keeps the same format of OCN. "Rep, Trade Rating, etc."

It would also be cool if you could use the same account across both and only one rep counter per user across both EG you can get one rep on OCN and you would also get that rep on PN

 

[2qwik2katch]

I just got into photography as a hobby and I think this would be a great idea!

 

[laboitenoire]

I dunno, it could be effective, but I agree that it seems like the forum around here feels a bit dead at times, so it might not be a heavily frequented site.

 

[Ryan747]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tagurtoast It would also be cool if you could use the same account across both and only one rep counter per user across both EG you can get one rep on OCN and you would also get that rep on PN

agreed %100

 

[Oo Alias oO]

^^ Was just about to say that, an intergrated site.

Sounds cool though, it needs to be linked though somehow.

 

[dudemanppl]

If you did make a separate one, I don't know how you could spread it.

 

[Oscuro]

To be honest, I don't think it will work out very well, due to the reasons stated: This is a fairly small community of people on this board. A LOT of the posts that happen here, are from "visitors" of the rest of the forum stopping in to ask for a recommendation for their next camera, or to throw up a "Hey! Look at my pics!" thread or post, and then they often don't show up again.

Sometimes, quite rarely, they stick around for a bit, and then disappear. Then there's the lunatics who stick around

.

In other words, I don't see it taking off as the original awesomeness that is OCN. I think it would end up being like the carforums.net adventure that still hasn't really garnered much of a following.

Part of the problem with setting up a full forum, is that it would be in competition with the already established pillars of the Photography world.

 

[beldecca]

Since I'm a member of a number of other online photo places, I have inkling to keep it part of OCN. However, I would like to see it broken out a little bit more.

For instance have a: "What Camera Should I Buy" sub-forum?

 

[Mr_Nibbles]

I would not use a new forum. POTN and this photo forum are all I need.

 

[laboitenoire]

Quote:

Originally Posted by beldecca Since I'm a member of a number of other online photo places, I have inkling to keep it part of OCN. However, I would like to see it broken out a little bit more. For instance have a: "What Camera Should I Buy" sub-forum?

Actually, that would be a good idea. Make a dedicated sub-forum to Photography (not part of Consumer Electronics) and then appoint a dedicated set of moderators who would just be focused on that part of the forum. Then we could have better management about stickies and the like.

 

[Braydog]

I'd be happy with something integrated. Although I do not have the required rep to sell, and have a fairly low post count to days since account was created ratio, I still like the fact that whenever I purchase something on here, the chances of it being a scam are about the lowest possible over the Internet. I feel that those who have worked hard for their statistics and privelage to sell would be getting the short end of the deal.

In addition, I think a completely separate site would not get as much traffic as this forum does, which would hurt it's effectiveness, and amount of reliable, useful content. It might reach that point someday down the road, but in the mean time it'd suffer.

Along the same lines though, I would love to see the photo section of ocn expanded. It would be nice to have a few sub forums for more specific and detailed categorization. Not sure if that's a possibility, but would be nice if it is.

 

[Xapoc]

I don't know if this is valid, but...

A reason the Photography sub-forum isn't visited as much as, say, Computer Peripherals could be because Photography is located near the bottom of the forum. Just throwing a suggestion out there, but if Photography were located near the top, it could garner more views. Maybe.

Also because this is primarily a computer forum over a "consumer electronics forum" the sub-forums related to computers gathers much more traffic than Photography. Say we did make a 100% Photography forum, while being 100% affiliated with OCN, it has the potential to grow larger than what a lot of us seem to believe it could -- me included.

One last thing. If Chipp thinks the Photography forum is successful (he explicitly typed success), and we already have acquired the domain, I say, "Why not?"