Isn't it sad

[faisal]

Want me to call you a waaaambulance?

That's the whole point of losing the brand designation so everyone posts together

Anyway it was just an idea... at this rate the forum will be dead soon and no one wants to attempt to fix it...

I agree.....

[RichNY]

This is sad. I've learned a lot in this forum and made some good friends here thru the years. My trip to Oz last wouldn't have been the same without meeting KIWI and Rooz.

[Phill D]

Hang on guys this forum isn't dead yet. Lets keep posting as long as Jeff can keep the show on the road.

[faisal]

Hang on guys this forum isn't dead yet. Lets keep posting as long as Jeff can keep the show on the road.

That is exactly what I'm trying to do...especially since I spend sooooo much time online

[belljam]

The other forums have lost some traffic, but not at this level. There could be many reasons. For me the first; as stated before is caustic answers and making any newcomer feeling unwelcome. It's not a few rogue contributors, if you don't think it's you I suggest you go over your post history, even if it's in the thousands. If you find even one comment that wasn't helpful or kind hearted then you're part of the problem. I've seen mean spirited answers to beginner questions and new members shunned, questions and inquiries never replied....One solution is to open a new section: 'Ask/post anything without worry'. Where any member new, old, beginnner, old salt can ask any question and get an answer without sarcasm, insults, offensive remarks. Any member who breeches the etiquette gets banned from that thread. It's an idea

Amen to that! I registered here a few years ago but for one reason or another didn't post very much. I decided to come back and give it an honest go a few months ago and was immediately greeted by nastiness by K1W1 (the OP (!) who is scratching his head about why this forum has gone down hill). Just one example - I posted an innocent question about perhaps introducing avatars for this forum (not a command or a "thou shalt" but a simple suggestion in the forum feedback area. This is the response I got from K1W1:

I've been a member here of 6 or so years and I hadn't even noticed that there weren't any. I guess that indicates how little they mean to me.
I think that coming from a person who only posts on average 3 times a year the suggestion about injecting personality is a little rich. Perhaps you could show us your personality by actually contributing.

http://www.dcresource.com/forums/sho...539#post429539

Frankly I think it's a "little rich" that someone who laments the demise of this forum cannot see the forest for the trees. It is precisely this type of unprovoked nastiness that turns people off of a site. Just because K1W1 is the self proclaimed godfather of this site he wouldn't suffer an innocent suggestion from a junior member. Well he got his way....I learned my lesson and left the forum. However when I just read this thread I just had to come back and post this comment. I hate when people can't see themselves for who they really are - K1W1 - you might want to wonder why you were one of the last ones standing around here. I'm positive you've directly contributed to driving away hundreds of people with your nasty, caustic and divisive posts. Congratulations.

I am someone that has posts in the thousands at various other photography sites and was giving it a shot to get involved over here. Frankly life is too short and my time too limited to bother jousting with such self-absorbed boobs.

[Phill D]

Ok valid points here but I dont think this forum has suffered as much as some others from caustic comments. As far as I'm concerened the key is to be honest without being personal. It serves no purpose to have a go at a new poster, or an old poster for that matter. Genuine differences of opinion are normal life and should be taken as such. Often a lot of usefull information is gained by watchers to such exchanges but it's the moderators job to police these if they do get out of hand. I for one will miss some of K1W1s posts if he does fully bail out. In the example you sited I agree he expressed his opinion in a less than friendly way which in effect gained your response above that also has a non friendly edge to it. If you both continued then this could have easily escalated into tit-for-tat posts bad feelings and a ban unless you both adopted a bit more conciliatory stance. If a frendly forum is the aim then people need to think about the way they phrase their posts so it is largely self policing, the stepping in of the moderator in my view is a last resort. I'm no angel I'm sure and my english phrasing leaves a lot to be desired but I think this is the only mildly critical post I've typed. No offense is meant to anyone this is just my honest opinion. Oh and ignor the spelling and punctuation I'm pretty **** at that too.

[Rooz]

I think you're all being a little melodramatic to tell you the truth. If you want to post, then post. If you dont then dont. You can blame individuals or groups of people all day long but it wont help the situation whining about it. Sometimes conversations can get a bit heated, sometimes a quip reply is made. Deal with it and move on.

As for the "friendliness" factor. There was a heck of alot more heated exchanges years ago when this forum was booming with members like coldrain, rhys and that other muppet, you know constant aperture guy, were here. The forum was 100x more active then despite all that. For those that think the odd frustrated post is to blame, well you're kidding yourself. Its not the posts that are the problem. Its a combination of many things, most of which have been expressed here in this thread. Id add to that, jeffs enthusiasm for the forum is non existent really. The forum changes were a nice start to a change but havent had follow thru so are clumsy, borderline ugly and unexciting.

If ive offended people in the past, well, thats life. Im not going to apologise for it. We're all people and all different. Sometimes we're gonna offend or be offended. Thats life. If people really want the forum to be active again then it needs to be interesting. And interesting to me means diversity and different sorts of characters posting and engaging eachother.

Whats not interesting is the incessant whining.

[Esoterra]

Coldrain....wow that name brings back a lot of forum memories. He used to worship Mac...now look where we are at!

[tim11]

Get over it people. It's not the fault of K1W1, or anyone else for that matter, for being mean to new members. New members aren't always that wimpy as you think.
Like Rooz said already, a few years ago there are more arguements, disagreements, flame threads, name callings every single day of the week but the forum was running hot like on fire.
As for the forum is dying, there are many factors but mean spirited isn't one of them. In fact, this forum is more friendly compared to some.

[RichNY]

Ok, so who is going to reach out and get Coldy back to the forums