Hi Gordon, and welcome.
Gordon C wrote:I've spent way more than I should trying to work out subscribing to this group.
There is no group. This is the Canon section of the forum. This means that within this section you make posts that would probably have more relevance to a Canon shooter. Perhaps a question about Canon glass, for instance. Maybe news of a new Canon
model.
Similar news about a Nikon
model might be posed within the Nikon section.
Images for critique would be posted into the Image Critiques section.
Yes i have read the
FAQ'a
Excellent.
I am a subscriber to the Brisbane group and want to join the Canon group because I am a Canon user.
There is a group for each capital city, but I'm thinking of killing those groups, because they serve no real purpose. When I created this site, I thought that geographical groupings might make sense. They do, but they are not used.
You cannot join any Canon group here simply because there is no such thing. As noted above, we have a Canon section, which is where Canon posts are made.
I make this observation, the controllers of this site are pretty intimidating and the site is difficult to navigate.
With all due respect, no way in hell!
First of, the site: we use phpbb3, one of the more popular forum software packages available. It's used around the world, in thousands of sites, by millions of users. While I don't ascribe to the popular maxim that millions of users can't be wrong, I'd like to suggest to you that millions of users can't be wrong.
As to the site controllers being "intimidating" ... give me a bloody break! We have lots of small issues to deal with, often caused by the failure of users to do simple things - simple things that you have done, such as reading the
FAQ. We have lives. Real lives. Nobody here does this for money: each of the
mods here are volunteers, and donate their time, their efforts, their knowledge, freely, and in good will. Again, they have lives. Jobs. Families. Their privacy, and their right to enjoy their lives, as they see fit, needs to be respected by all.
Further, this is a website. A private website. In order to make things comfortable for all people who visit, we have certain rules that we expect people to follow. When people fail to follow those rules, that has the potential to cause issues. Posting too large an image can make things difficult for those with slower dial-up connections, for instance. Posting of spam is not permitted. Breaching of copyright is stealing, and we don't accept that sort of behaviour as a core value within this community: would you like people to steal your photos?
We have nearly 3000 members. Not all are active, but of those who are, some occasionally forget some of the rules, and others never bother to even make themselves aware of them.
How would you suggest that a small group of unpaid volunteer helpers deal with these on their own time?
In all honesty, I think that the
mods here are the best possible team of
mods any site owner could hope to have helping him. They provide excellent counsel when asked, they act in a retrained and conservative and helpful manner, and they contribute, actively, to the wellbeing of this community.
That just leaves me. I'm a grumpy old man. Deal with it
I think it's fair to say that those who know me know me to be a fair and reasonable individual. I listen, and I have a slow fuse. Until you piss me off.
If new members are wanted and recruitment of new members is an objective of this organisation then some thought might be given to intimidating appearance of information and advice to new members.
Ok ... you need to slow down a bit here. You're making way too many assumptions. And they're just plain wrong.
What organisation? There's no organisation. This is merely a website. A private website. You visit. You read. You contribute. Hopefully you come to minimeets, meet with others, and enjoy their companionship. Many have made new and lasting friendships directly as a result of their involvement here.
Who says we want new members? Who says we are recruiting? Where have you seen our ads looking for members? The fact is that none of this is the case. We attract members directly as a result of the fact that we have some useful content here, along with what many seem to perceive as good management policies, such as no pissing contests, and no personal attacks.
I freely accept that some might actually like pissing contests, or that they can flame others. That's fine, but they may not do that here. There are plenty of sites that permit that behaviour, and they are welcome to visit those sites. I care not.
That we attract members, without any sort of effort at all, should present, to you, a message. We do no recruiting, but people join us. I have no interest in owning a large site. I wish to have a site that has quality members, and quality content. We have the latter, but it is far larger than I ever dreamed it might have been. Such is life. I'm sure I'll get over it.
As to information and advice to new members ... what would you say about the message headed, and I quote,
"Important Stuff" "New to DSLRUsers.com?" ? It's right there, at the very top of the front page. How might you describe that message? Would you not agree that this is "advice to new members" ? How else might you describe it?
Additionally, I have no real idea how to upload an image even though I have read the instructions (no more than 150K and 800 pixels), but what file type? You want jpegs, raw, what?
Well, you do not upload images. Not here. We provide no facilities for the storage of images.
As others have said, you arrange for your own hosting. That can be at a commercial hosting site, such as pbase or smugmug, or it can be within your own webspace. You upload and display your images there. You then post, here, a link to those images.
Not to the pages that hold those images, but to the actual images. That is a trap for some.
As you prepare your images for upload you need to pay attention to the image size (maximum of any side of the image should not exceed 800 pixels) and the actual filesize, which should not exceed, as a guide, abotu 150KB. jpg is the best option for this, as all browsers support jpg.
I realise that I risk being attacked for these points, but I can always leave cant I?
Yes you can, or you can ask questions, and learn about ... I'd say pretty well almost anything at all, such is the depth of knowledge and experience and spirit of our membership base.
That choice is your's, but calling the operators here "intimidating" is not going to endear you to too many people. Certainly not me.
Hopefully I have cleared up some confusion on your part. Genuine questions are always welcome.
Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:44 pm
