Announcing the New Photography Life Discussion board!

As we speak I’m very excited to announce a mission that I’ve been engaged on for the previous few weeks, which will likely be considered one of the new pillars of Photography Life. Welcome to our brand-new discussion board! Sure, the timing of this announcement isn’t a coincidence – I do know that many different boards have been popping up recently in response to DPReview’s sudden closure. However that is additionally an concept I’ve been planning for years – a greater, quicker, extra optimistic, and extra sustainable discussion board for photographers of all ranges.

You’ll be able to test it out and join by clicking on the above picture, or by the following hyperlink:

Our discussion board isn’t meant to exchange the DPReview discussion board, however moderately to be constructed round the optimistic and educated photographers who learn Photography Life. Lots of the present DPR discussion board members have already scattered to numerous websites starting from Fb teams to Reddit, new boards like DPRevived and DPRForum, to present boards like BCG, Photo.net, UglyHedgehog and FredMiranda, and that’s not possible going to vary.

Why am I linking to these boards if we’re launching a discussion board of our personal? Merely put, I think about them to not be opponents, however different members of the pictures neighborhood. It has all the time been my philosophy that the on-line pictures world is sufficiently big for individuals to share, to not compete over a small slice of the pie – I felt this manner about DPReview, and I really feel the similar about these pictures boards and different pictures web sites. We will likely be linking to those different boards many occasions in the future and collaborating with them each time attainable.

With that stated, right here is why I imagine in the Photography Life Discussion board so strongly:

1. I’ll by no means promote Photography Life, and that is my promise to this neighborhood. Spencer and I solely personal Photography Life, and we’re dedicated to not solely preserve it operating, however to all the time preserve it free and away from exterior industrial palms. That has been the mannequin of the website since 2007 once I wrote my first weblog put up, and I promise to maintain it this manner. Different boards may get deserted and destroyed like in the case of DPR if the head firm goes underneath, whereas this one won’t.
2. In comparison with virtually all different pictures web sites, now we have low working prices and run all the pieces ourselves. It’s not an issue sustaining the Photography Life Discussion board (and Photography Life basically) even throughout the robust financial occasions that we face at this time and should face in the future.
3. Spencer and I are photographers before everything. Now we have already made all of our industrial movies free to the neighborhood, and we’ll all the time give again to different photographers. If I ever can not retain this discussion board for any purpose, I promise to work with different neighborhood members to completely migrate and transition the discussion board, so {that a} DPR-like state of affairs doesn’t occur once more. Any private info would clearly be scraped earlier than any transition, as we take your private information very critically.
4. Since I’ve beforehand run a large discussion board with a whole lot of 1000’s of posts and hundreds of thousands of views, I do know what it takes on the admin, enterprise, and upkeep sides to run a big discussion board. Photography Life itself reaches over 2 million hits a month, roughly 30 million whole requests month-to-month, so now we have the structure and the skillset to scale a busy discussion board.
5. Lastly, I believe the solely sustainable mannequin of operating a distinct segment discussion board is thru an present web site that’s already busy and worthwhile. That’s how DPR had it for many years, and it’s the solely approach to do it. As soon as tens of 1000’s of individuals begin posting a lot of pictures and growing the web site’s internet hosting prices, the solely alternative is to make individuals pay a subscription worth (and kill the discussion board in the course of) or have it tied to an already profitable enterprise.

Promoting is presently turned off on the Photography Life Discussion board, but when issues begin getting out of hand, I can add promoting as wanted to instantly cowl admin and internet hosting prices. If the discussion board pays for itself and doubtlessly a moderator or two in the future, that may be a great final result.

As a result of Spencer and I are all the time reachable, we’re very attentive to requests for brand spanking new options and discussion board enhancements. In the early days, you could discover some bugs or issues we should always do in another way, so please tell us in the Web site Suggestions & Assist part. You may as well ask me in the feedback part beneath you probably have any questions on issues like hosting, caching, anti-spam insurance policies, and many others., as I don’t wish to muddle this announcement with technical particulars.

Thanks to our loyal Photography Life readers, and welcome to the Photography Life Discussion board.

P.S. Please don’t neglect to learn our Discussion board Neighborhood Tips!