To make G1 a better place..

[BenE]

Scott,

I believe the quality of photographers on this site is so far above any other that I am seeing at this time. A lot of really outstanding work, and in my opinion you are one of those. I will not mention others for fear of leaving someone out. Some I even do not believe I would like personally, but that in no way lessens my appreciation for their art.

As I have said before, when a comment is made that is somewhat negative, most (I say most) come back and make considerate replies. Most are willing to share, and many will take time to explain when asked a question.

A few big egos.,. sure. That is something I understand but have never been able to develop (an ego of my own). I should have one because in my part of the country I am the best photographer around.

I see photography declining in quality and value, as some on here have mentioned. In the portrait world, which is my main area, we see low cost, low quality portraits....... and weddings! Wedding photography that my 9 yr old grandson could do better.

Ok, maybe the number of posts is down, but those who are making that statement might consider posting more. I have come and gone here for a while, but have come to realize that more full time professionals and more who want to improve, whether they want to be full time or not, come and post.

A lot of Texans seem to roam around too.

[rolandogomez]

Well Rolando is still here. Actually I'm sitting "stuck from airport delays," at the Salt Lake City airport. I check the site almost everyday. I don't post as much for many reasons, including my ill Mom, who I'm driving down tomorrow to see, my busy schedule shooting, writing and this thing called family, I have five kids, most in school.

I've been trying to post the latest on my blog, and haven't had a chance there either--just been overwhelmed with this thing called life. Not to mention, on Jan. 12th in San Antonio, I had a workshop, on the 14th I was on the plane to FotoFusion, I was teaching/lectures at Fotofusion for a week and it's an event where no instructor gets paid, we volunteer, left Florida on the 20th, arrived home at 7:30 p.m., left the next day to shoot a national ad campaign (comes out as a full-page in Playboy, Sports Illustrated and Maxim), got home on the 23rd at 12:30 p.m., had a shoot at 2:30 p.m., finished at 9 p.m., was back at the airport to fly to Los Angeles the next day at 4:15 a.m.

These past few days I've taught at Julia Dean Photo School, had two dinner functions and I'll get home around 2:00 a.m., wake up, then drive two hours to see my Mom in the hospital, then drive two hours back.

Yes, my schedule is busy, but more important I still continue to promote G1 in many ways, including recent articles about my photography, both of my books, in my new book due out later this year, in two books by Michelle Perkins, and most recently Calumet Photographic Europe ran 9-ads (two-page) types advertising my European tour which include the URL for this site--the magazines were in two languages. I always promote this site at all my workshops, FotoFusion, Samy's Camera School, Julia Dean, Palm Beach Photographic Center, Photo Plus Expo, PMA, etc., etc.

I'm promoting G1 all I can. Yes, we have no staff programmer, in fact Igor (FFpro) just fixed our search feature and we do our best to streamline the site. The software that runs this forum is the same one used by many popular sites, including Playboy and forums tens times larger than this site. There is no button you can "click" on this site that will break the site, all you have to do is "click" links, which clearly state what they are in English, and see what it does. That is called effort.

Many people are on other sites that are simpler but also sites that are harder to navigate. I'm not going to rehash why we switched our format, it's been said a million times already, and it wasn't for advertisters, that has never changed. The main changes for this software included server issues with traffic, type of server, but more important security issues.

We do our best, we promote this site, and yes, I visit it almost daily and I don't post as much and some of that is my schedule and some of that is for personal business reasons. I encourage participation, we are not MM nor do we want to be that style of site. We are more focused and the original concept of GG/G1 was for photographers--it's photography oriented, more specifically, glamour and related genres.

Have to run, thanks to all those that are loyal members and remember, it's your house and it's what you make of it. Thanks, rg sends!

[lvthunder]

Originally Posted by rolandogomez

The software that runs this forum is the same one used by many popular sites, including Playboy and forums tens times larger than this site. There is no button you can "click" on this site that will break the site, all you have to do is "click" links, which clearly state what they are in English, and see what it does. That is called effort.

Many people are on other sites that are simpler but also sites that are harder to navigate. I'm not going to rehash why we switched our format, it's been said a million times already, and it wasn't for advertisters, that has never changed. The main changes for this software included server issues with traffic, type of server, but more important security issues.

I never would of guessed that this site runs on vBulletin. I visit vBulletin forums all the time, but these ones seem different. You must have some modules enabled that I haven't seen on other sites. I still don't know why I have to click a button under a post to activate the quick reply box? Also what does the multi button do? I clicked it and it changed from off to on, but that's all I could tell. People must be having trouble or else you wouldn't be seeing these remember back when posts.

I think the biggest effort to improve the site should be in the portfolio. All the information is alot bigger then the thumbnail. I would make the portfolio pages close to what OMP does. A decent size thumbnail with a title and model/photographer and that's it. No one looking at your portfolio cares about posted by (I would hope it's the person whose portfolio your looking at), Filesize, Dimensions, and Date. Since this is a photography site I wouldn't mind seeing some of the EXIF data when looking at the full size version.

[R_Fredrick_Smith]

Originally Posted by lvthunder

I never would of guessed that this site runs on vBulletin. I visit vBulletin forums all the time, but these ones seem different. You must have some modules enabled that I haven't seen on other sites. I still don't know why I have to click a button under a post to activate the quick reply box? Also what does the multi button do? I clicked it and it changed from off to on, but that's all I could tell. People must be having trouble or else you wouldn't be seeing these remember back when posts.

I think the biggest effort to improve the site should be in the portfolio. All the information is alot bigger then the thumbnail. I would make the portfolio pages close to what OMP does. A decent size thumbnail with a title and model/photographer and that's it. No one looking at your portfolio cares about posted by (I would hope it's the person whose portfolio your looking at), Filesize, Dimensions, and Date. Since this is a photography site I wouldn't mind seeing some of the EXIF data when looking at the full size version.

Multiquote allows you to toggle it on for several different posts in a tread and then when you hit Quote, it will include each post for which you turned the Mutiquote on. I've never found it practical if you have several large quotes, but it works well for small posts, so I just start a post, go the post I want to use, highlight something in it, and copy it to clipboard, then paste it into my post and then highlight it and click the quote Icon above the post box to make it a quote.

As for EXIF data, that will not generally work since the majority of photos are uploaded after being saved out of PS with Save for Web which removes the EXIF info. However, if the info is there, just download the free version Opanda and it will add the ability to see EXIF info for a photo that has it (by using the right click menu). But keep in mind that the compressed image saved out my the system (the "large" preview, has the EXIF stripped, even if it is there, so you would need to right click in the Lightbox mode).

By clicking quick reply under a post, you are saying you are making a reply to the post that the button is under. This keeps threads in a tree structure where it is thus easier to see who is replying to whom.

Cheers,
rfs

[lsc1]

Originally Posted by jimmyd

LSC-- Your MM/High School analogy is appropriate in so many ways. That's why I don't hang there much. I doubt too many serious shooters want G1 to become a clone of MM. If this place became as populated with wannabees and posers as MM is, you'd rarely see me here. I'm not saying there aren't serious shooters and legit models on MM, there are, I'm just saying there's an abundance who aren't and it is sooooooo tedious trying to distinguish who's who in those departments.

Yep, I agree that I personally don't want G1 to become anything like MM - well except for the activity level. I knew using MM as an example would be risky but I basically had to since there is very little else out there to compare against (that I know of). OMP and Camel are too far afield, there are a lot of great blogs including yours and strobist, but G1 really has no equivalent that I've found. Which is exactly the reason some tweaks probably need to happen here so the activity level can at least approach the potential of this site.

With RG's impossibly busy schedule, I can't see how he would have much time to set strategy and vision for growing G1 let alone focus on the navigation quirks people have been complaining about since the switch. Maybe G1 could get a little oxygen if RG selected a champion to take G1 to the next level while keeping ownership and ultimate veto power. Just an idea...don't make me get my bullet proof vest out.

[BenE]

I will admit I am not a fast learner at times, but I do not understand what all the fuss is about "navigation". I probably am not using all the features on the forum, but have no difficulty in looking and replying to posts. Where is the difficulty? If I want to learn another feature, I will do so, one at a time, and either ask or research.