Tuesday, 1 February 2011

Parallel running.

Hi gang, it's time to try something new for a bit:
  • There have been some concerns raised that it's too clunky and difficult to post on this blog, and that the Forum and the blog are disjointed. I agree, as do many others.
  • There should be a quick and easy way to post links, comments and photos.
  • So, for two weeks, we're going to parallel run fotoGeeks on Facebook to see how we get on. The fotoGeeks Facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/FotoGeeks/122075167865141
  • I think we've all noticed that the group has stagnated a bit, and it's made us re-evaluate what we're all about.
Two drawbacks have been found with Facebook so far:
  • This can't be used on the NCC network
  • Facebook own the copyright on any photos you upload, but of course you can always post a link to a photo you've hosted elsewhere
This has been introduced in consultation with people as I've bumped into them.
  • What do you think?
  • What do you think the purpose of fotoGeeks is? Is it a place to link to photos and get other people to comment on them? Or do we have loftier goals around training, producing a calendar etc?
  • I no longer have the time to administer this site or manage the Challenges, so a 'self-maintaining' (to a degree) system like Facebook seems ideal, however Flickr has been suggested as another possible platform... any views on this?
We await your views and comments. This page and the forum will remain active for the foreseeable.

Regards, MP, TC and PB.

3 comments:

David said...

I wouldn't worry about stagnation. Everything has temporary lulls, in particular they can be associated to the time of year and weather in a lot of cases.

The purpose:
Calendars are nice, but not why I do this. For me I want to be part of a group which helps me and others to improve, by either feedback comments, encouragement, challenges, or just by giving tips when we are out in a group. Peer support, advice and encouragement really.

I'm not keen on Facebook for it. I can't put into words why not, but I just am not, I don't like the feel of it.

I like the flickr option, it is where I upload and host mine anyway, even when I use them on my photo blog.
It has a built in discussion area, favourite(like) feature and comments. Also the same photo can be submitted to other groups for feedback of general public flickr users too. But we can still keep our group invite only or similar.
I have started one here to try out and see what the options were. http://www.flickr.com/groups/ukfotogeeks/
It's also quick and easy to publish photos straight from lightroom. ;)
You still get up to 300mb on a free flickr account, so maybe that's enough after all per person each month for fotogeeks. Here are the differences between the free account and a pro one:- http://www.flickr.com/help/limits/#28
And lets face it, Flickr is built for photos. :)

Anonymous said...

Well said David. I agree with absolutely everything you've said.

David said...

I see this as one of the discussion/forum type issues.
Noone probably realises that this has been replied to, as it's not popped to the top of the page when it's been commented on, like a typical forum would. And thus has been dropped probably onto the second page by now.

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