It’s been about 2 ½ months since the announcement that DPReview was shutting down… and while it’s been in Limbo for a while, forum activity has picked up and there are rumors that another entity might take it over.
So, where does that leave us, one of the “successor forums” in DPReview’s wake? After an initial surge of activity, things have gradually gotten pretty darn slow here. Other DPR-succeeding sites like DPRevived and DPRForum have also seen reduced activity, but they do benefit from being more generalized spaces rather than format-specific.
Quite frankly, I believe no alternative site wants all the load DPR had without having to invest heavily on storage, computing resources and bandwidth. I feel this site has become a real relaxing spot to give us a break from the highly active, but also very aggressive, general sites. I know that mu-43.com has been going for a while, but I kind of like it here better. Simpler, cleaner, and less cluttered.
I’m more into mu-43s than here I feel there is a stronger sense of . . .“Community” there. As it is I normally come here once a week or so. I think there needs to be more activity here to develop that sense of community. Some things that could be done:
Make it easier for users to create new hashtags.
Add a hashtag statistics page so users can track what topics are trending and which have long term interest.
Moderators could specifically ask people to review gear when they announce that they’ve acquired some. Maybe, at first, a form could be produced similar to the Consumer Reports user reviews where a series of leading questions are answered before the free form text area is available. That gives non-wordy types a chance to organize their thoughts before writing the actual review.
How about a software area? Where specific software that is used for m43s can be discussed?
Community challenges/group assignments.
These are just a few ideas I’ve “stolen”, er, “borrowed” from sites that I think are particularly successful.
I definitely prefer the layout here. Mu43 has the users and content advantage at the moment but the sure is just so clunky and reminds me of the annoying parts of phpBB.
There’s room for many on the internet. A variety is a good thing.
And most develop a certain tilt/view/type of content.
DPR was good for some stuff, not so great in the number of argumentative stuff…
I appreciate posts with variety, both in photo content and discussion. To that end forums where a small group ‘dominate’ is not very … engaging. That’s more like a small table of regulars at a pub/bar/coffee stop… There are obvious forums like that.
I posted fairly often in the beginning, to help get things going, now backing off a bit. I don’t wish to be in a small group of regulars - rather prefer a large group of diverse ideas/visions/objectives.
…hoping micro43 continues on that path.
no one place suits all, or covers all, well… IMO
Thx
Yuri
Edit: one thing I always prefer (and nice here…) are image threads which encourage multiple contributions of varying images from many members - Rather than, a thread which is just about one or a few images from one contributor, one subject.
One thread about one photo contribute/one subject are rare here, a good thing…
hope that continues…
Favorite - a frequent repeating thread/threads, over some period, open to any image, any intent is the high water mark of threads, for me…
I like the layout here. The image threads just have much more pop than any of the other forums. That said I do hope this place is here to stay but still will start posting on dpreview as well.