General Chat

[Karl C]

Rant...

Is it me or is General Chat getting a little out of control?

Barking dogs? Lesbians? American Idol?

What happened to the policy of all threads had to be photography-related? Hell, it's even written in the forum description:

"An area for subjects not appropriate for the other forums. Keep it related in some way to photography even if only in the abstract. Political and religious discussions are absolutely prohibited."

Pekka even made a comment, in the lesbian thread, about keeping topics photography-related.

I understand and support the community-focused idea of POTN. However, I think it's time to start enforcing the rule about maintaining this a photography website - not a "just about anything goes" forum.

The forum can still maintain the same focus as a community but let's keep it on photography subjects.

/Rant

[eddarr]

There is a lesbian thread? I'll be back in a minute. Edit: not what I thought. Oh well.

You know, I don't mind ones like the barking dog. It at least started out seeking/receiving assistance. I haven't looked at that in a few days but I have a feeling it got of topic.

The Lesbos thread...what's the point? I set up my Yahoo and Google homepages to get crappy news items like that.

And who cares about American Idol.

[Stefan A]

I hope it does not get enforced. I like reading about random stuff.

Stefan

[Travisj]

Well it is general and you don't have to read it. Seems fairly easy to me, if it's not something that you really care to visit don't hit that little button.

[Karl C]

Well it is general and you don't have to read it. Seems fairly easy to me, if it's not something that you really care to visit don't hit that little button.

I agree with you which is why I don't read threads with titles unappealing to me. However, there are plenty of other forums to read non-photography threads/info.

[HarleyQuinn]

Here's my take.

For all intents and puposes I am a stay at home mom. I don't get much contact with someone over 4 ft tall and with people who can hold a conversation that doesn't revolve around Littlest Pet Shop and Star Wars.

I could go to a forum for Stay at home moms, but honestly I would be bored to tears. I love this place. I've learned so much from other peoples ideas, comments and experience. It's nice to be able to pop into General Chat and talk about a few other things now and then. It keeps me sane (as I can be). If I had to choose between the photo related stuff and GC, I would choose photo, but I would probably be alot more gripey than I am now.


I appreciate everything Pekka gives us here and I hope it doesn't change too much.

[alduin]

Well said, Lucy.

The vast majority of the forums here are photo-specific, but having the oddball general board where folks can go and are allowed to be off-topic can really help build the sense of community on a site.

Think of it like a local camera club. Sure, the majority of your activities with the club will be photography-related, but it can't be all shop talk all the time. =)

[HarleyQuinn]

Well said, Lucy.

The vast majority of the forums here are photo-specific, but having the oddball general board where folks can go and are allowed to be off-topic can really help build the sense of community on a site.

Think of it like a local camera club. Sure, the majority of your activities with the club will be photography-related, but it can't be all shop talk all the time. =)


Exactly! We're like the worlds biggest camera club. Only difference we can participate in our undies. Never try that with the local clubs, they get a little uncomfortable.

[alduin]

That would make for an interesting photowalk, to be sure.

[LBaldwin]

Exactly! We're like the worlds biggest camera club. Only difference we can participate in our undies. Never try that with the local clubs, they get a little uncomfortable.


Your undies..... or the club....?
I don't mind the odd rant or OT discussion but sometimes they can get lengthy and longwinded and go on and on and on and well you know.

So I try to keep it photo or photog related and if it drifts a smidge it's ok we have GPS.

[HarleyQuinn]

That would make for an interesting photowalk, to be sure.
Truly.

Your undies..... or the club....?
I don't mind the odd rant or OT discussion but sometimes they can get lengthy and longwinded and go on and on and on and well you know.

So I try to keep it photo or photog related and if it drifts a smidge it's ok we have GPS.
Depending on the location of the walk, both.

I understand about the veering so far off the path thing. When it happens though I just don't go back.

I would just hate to see it get too regimented here. I belong to another forum that revolves around a soap opera :o, well, they were so anal about OT that I got an infraction for mentioning Lost. That's just insane.

[prcrstn8]

I got an infractionHmmm, lessee ...

You're a mom, they gave you a time out. Sounds like karma to me.

Heh.

[Maureen Souza]

Exactly! We're like the worlds biggest camera club. Only difference we can participate in our undies. Never try that with the local clubs, they get a little uncomfortable.
:lol::lol::lol:

I think unless things get way out of line, GC should be left alone.

'Nuff said ;):D

[Karl C]

:lol::lol::lol:

I think unless things get way out of line, GC should be left alone.

'Nuff said ;):D

Do I detect (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=496023) some disagreement in Mod-land?

:p

[T.D.]

Do I detect (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=496023) some disagreement in Mod-land?

:p

Do I detect someone just trying to stir up trouble? :p

[HarleyQuinn]

Hmmm, lessee ...

You're a mom, they gave you a time out. Sounds like karma to me.

Heh.
LOL...

No, I got a warning and it seems by my kids way of thinking that don't mean a darn thing! :D

[Pekka]

:lol::lol::lol:

I think unless things get way out of line, GC should be left alone.

'Nuff said ;):D

Do I detect (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=496023) some disagreement in Mod-land?

:p

Both statements are valid. GC should be community chat, and as POTN is photo community chatting should be somehow related to photography and its member activities. But we will not hunt and kill OT threads unless things get way out of line and it's not community fun any more. Mods can think, too! :)

[Karl C]

Mods can think, too! :)

So many comments, so little time.

:p :lol:

[eddarr]

So many comments, so little time.

:p :lol:

I think I will let you see how far you can go before you get banned. Then I'll step in. Got your back man.

[Stocky]

Maybe there should be a time/post requirement on GC just like Glamor so that people like me can't start threads that piss off people like Karl :)

[Karl C]

I think I will let you see how far you can go before you get banned. Then I'll step in. Got your back man.

Thanks, bro. :D

Maybe there should be a time/post requirement on GC just like Glamor so that people like me can't start threads that piss off people like Karl :)

Nah, I've said my peace and moved on. The topic now falls into my DGAS category. :lol:

[Greg_C]

I'm another in favour of the current way the General Chat area has gone. I regularly post in a couple of the threads there. Our Brisbane Shutter and Cupppas thread(s) developed out of a POTN meet up, and just evolved on it's own. As a result of that thread have a group of friends to go out shooting with and we'll usually meet at least once a month. I shot a high school formal (prom) only last night with someone from here.

One thing we have is what we call Photo Tax, ie post a recent photo or link to a photo in a share to keep things generally photography related.

[Jon]

Maybe there should be a time/post requirement on GC just like Glamor so that people like me can't start threads that piss off people like Karl :)Good idea. People with over X posts in the Technical section may not post in the GC forum. If they have more than Y posts, they won't even see it. :{)#

Just, please, no threads about whatever mindless TV show is currently popular in your neck of the woods, and before posting that "hilarious" joke or clever innovation search to see if anyone else in the history of the world has ever heard it before. Hint - search "tripod joke", "string stabilizer" or "string tripod" before making any posts.

[Woolburr]

Good idea. People with over X posts in the Technical section may not post in the GC forum. If they have more than Y posts, they won't even see it. :{)#

Just, please, no threads about whatever mindless TV show is currently popular in your neck of the woods, and before posting that "hilarious" joke or clever innovation search to see if anyone else in the history of the world has ever heard it before. Hint - search "tripod joke", "string stabilizer" or "string tripod" before making any posts.

Hey....I just found the neatest trick for making a tripod................




But I'll save it for when we go shooting in July.

[condyk]

Is it me or is General Chat getting a little out of control?

I understand and support the community-focused idea of POTN. However, I think it's time to start enforcing the rule about maintaining this a photography website - not a "just about anything goes" forum.

I agree to some degree, tho' mainly individual threads are 'related in some way to photography even if only in the abstract'. However, I would like to see all the 'in-group' chatting threads moved to a separate area because the turn over in those threads is so constant (and irrelevant to the focus of this forum in the main) that all else just gets pushed down.

If these groups had their own 'space' they could just bump each other out of place. Really the amount of bumping that goes on is out of order, i.e. 'Oh I just got up at 3am and put the coffee on, is anyone else sad enough to be online right now as I just have to tell you about my belly-button fluff before I explode with boredom' kinda thing :rolleyes: However, it's also true that around half the Mods are very regular contributors to the Tupperware chat thread, for example, and even sport the same avatar branding, so not sure that will ever happen.

What is mildly disappointing, and note I don't lose sleep over it, is that when photography is discussed in such threads then it is useful, but just not shared across the forum like if the discussion took place within appropriate sections.

But it's a tough one because the overall forum is very, very large these days, and because it can be impersonal, some people will want to feel they 'belong' somewhere smaller and more in reach and to relate to specific people and small groups they know and feel some affinity with. I just don't think personally one needs a forum within a forum to do that.

I also find it weird that we have people with huge posting figures that are rarely, if ever, seen outside their chosen chat thread. it's like they live in a tiny viollage but never venture out beyond the village boundaries. Why are these people here? For company? Is that a bad thing? I suppose it doesn't really matter so long as Pekka is happy to support the bandwidth and storage.

[Col_M]

I agree with condyk, the large chat threads are starting to clog up the GD forum and are bumping everything else down. It's not the end of the world I'll admit and it doesn't really worry me but it does hinder reading that forum to an extent that I notice it when I visit there.

[theflyingkiwi]

I agree to some degree, tho' mainly individual threads are 'related in some way to photography even if only in the abstract'. However, I would like to see all the 'in-group' chatting threads moved to a separate area because the turn over in those threads is so constant (and irrelevant to the focus of this forum in the main) that all else just gets pushed down.

If these groups had their own 'space' they could just bump each other out of place. Really the amount of bumping that goes on is out of order, i.e. 'Oh I just got up at 3am and put the coffee on, is anyone else sad enough to be online right now as I just have to tell you about my belly-button fluff before I explode with boredom' kinda thing :rolleyes: However, it's also true that around half the Mods are very regular contributors to the Tupperware chat thread, for example, and even sport the same avatar branding, so not sure that will ever happen.

What is mildly disappointing, and note I don't lose sleep over it, is that when photography is discussed in such threads then it is useful, but just not shared across the forum like if the discussion took place within appropriate sections.

But it's a tough one because the overall forum is very, very large these days, and because it can be impersonal, some people will want to feel they 'belong' somewhere smaller and more in reach and to relate to specific people and small groups they know and feel some affinity with. I just don't think personally one needs a forum within a forum to do that.

I also find it weird that we have people with huge posting figures that are rarely, if ever, seen outside their chosen chat thread. it's like they live in a tiny viollage but never venture out beyond the village boundaries. Why are these people here? For company? Is that a bad thing? I suppose it doesn't really matter so long as Pekka is happy to support the bandwidth and storage.

oh are you feeling left out, do you want a hug ?

what's interesting about the big chats is that it gets more views vs the number of posts on that thread.

yes perhaps sometimes the larger chat threads do seem to take over the GC area, but they are places people are wanting to chat to people that they are friended over there time here on POTN.

I think it's a nice thing to see, I think it creates more of a general community with people world wide than would otherwise not exist due to the large size of the forum.

perhaps the larger chats should become a sub category of the GC area?

[condyk]

oh are you feeling left out, do you want a hug ?


:cool: Hardly. I think there are a number of people in some of those threads who would happily knife me in the back as they did it :rolleyes:

I personally don't think there is much of real substance in 'online relationships' - we are communicating with facsimilies of real people. Real people are so much richer in depth and complexity than those we ever encounter online. I also think that once a thread has moved beyond 3-4 pages it is likely to be exhausted with respect to the original point and should just die. What a lot of you guys have is access to free online chat rooms that are no longer really connected to the rest of the forum. But if these little villages meet a need to 'connect' with others virtually then, as I say, as long as Pekka is happy to pay for them then no doubt they'll continue. But at some future point the GC will be so packed with chat room stuff it really won't be functional for the stuff that is normally in there. You may say well they are popular and they are but really for a small minority only. I've started and run lots of GC threads there for a while but let them die naturally and people move on. I think that keeps the forum fresh and stops an in group mentality from forming. Like fresh, flowing water through the forum rather that it becoming lots of stagnant ponds.

[theflyingkiwi]

:cool: Hardly. I think there are a number of people in some of those threads who would happily knife me in the back as they did it :rolleyes:

I personally don't think there is much of real substance in 'online relationships' - we are communicating with facsimilies of real people. Real people are so much richer in depth and complexity than those we ever encounter online. I also think that once a thread has moved beyond 3-4 pages it is likely to be exhausted with respect to the original point and should just die. What a lot of you guys have is access to free online chat rooms that are no longer really connected to the rest of the forum. But if these little villages meet a need to 'connect' with others virtually then, as I say, as long as Pekka is happy to pay for them then no doubt they'll continue. But at some future point the GC will be so packed with chat room stuff it really won't be functional for the stuff that is normally in there. You may say well they are popular and they are but really for a small minority only. I've started and run lots of GC threads there for a while but let them die naturally and people move on. I think that keeps the forum fresh and stops an in group mentality from forming. Like fresh, flowing water through the forum rather that it becoming lots of stagnant ponds.

I can understand where you are coming from. I know that for the 2 that I montior, the people with in that group often get together for a meet. it's seems to me that in most cases it has turned that online chat in to real friendships that have connected in RL.

but as you said, Pekka seems to be happy to let these threads continue then since he is the owner who are we to judge.

[condyk]

... for the 2 that I montior, the people with in that group often get together for a meet. it's seems to me that in most cases it has turned that online chat in to real friendships that have connected in RL.


i think that is really good but does seem to be more a 'members activities' driven thing, i.e. it has a point beyond chat, rather than just the chat room thing ... if you see the distinction. Of course, chat has 'a point' but I just don't think it belongs on a forum. That's my conclusion on this matter and I got other things to do now ;-)