Photographic forum - Need Help getting it going

[DaveM]

Well I started a Photographic forum a few month back and it is really going no place fast, so I am looking for anyone that would be interested in joining up and helping out to get some content and action going on this forum. I do have a few other members but am really struggling to get them engaged in the forum at all.

Here is a link to the forum http://www.photographtalk.com

 

[Member_68162]

I was going to join but didn't want a username that was 5 characters long. Also, I've kind of made it a point not to join photography forums that do not show full size images to guests (I won't be blackmailed into joining anything).

 

[DaveM]

Well no one was trying to blackmail anyone into joining and it only struck me now that it only shows thumbnails to guest but that is an easy fix really.

There we go both issues sorted, @PaulK thanks for pointing those out to me.

 

[Member_68162]

Well no one was trying to blackmail anyone into joining...

I didn't think so but it's the impression that I get when I see such things.

I had been meaning to join for a little while now but have been very busy. I would love to have my own photography forum but can't see competing with the likes of Flickr.

I joined your forum and keep getting:

The following error occurred:
You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action.
You may need to join a group to have permission to view this page.

When doing things like trying to add an avatar or read the Forum Rules And Guidelines.

 

[DaveM]

@PaulK sorted out you had been caught in the spam trap on your username

 

[Goodfella]

Ill join in the near future, currently shooting with my d80

 

[Member_68162]

@PaulK sorted out you had been caught in the spam trap on your username

LOL, that's what I get for being a pain.

 

[DaveM]

LOL, that's what I get for being a pain.

Well it is always better that we know about these small issues as some just get overlooked. I must say I am very impressed with the out the box anti spam that XF has once setup correctly

 

[RobParker]

I think a problem you're going to have is that it seems 90% of the photos are yours and to be brutally honest, they're not very good. Most of the ones I looked at randomly were ones I'd have binned if I'd have taken them (out of focus, poor composition, etc) but you're featuring them in their own threads.

To compete against something like TalkPhotography (which is a great photo forum running XF) you really need some USP which you don't have (yet).

The photos you're featuring from 500px, etc. Do you have the photographers permission to use them? e.g. http://www.photographtalk.com/threads/dark-stormy-place-by-aaron-j-groen.5673/

 

[RobParker]

You also have far too many forums with too much overlap.

Street/People, Animals/Nature, Urban/Structure, etc.

 

[petertdavis]

Another suggestion..... when you're trying to break into a competitive market like that, instead of trying to cover every single aspect of the market and doing none very well, try to go after a single niche of the market and be the best resource available in that one thing. Pick any one of your sub-forums, and make that the theme of the forum. Expand into related niches when you grow.

 

[Rich]

you need a nitch , i have nyphotoforum.com and even with a nitch everyone comes and goes. Facebook killed the photo forum

 

[RobParker]

Facebook killed the photo forum

No it didn't. There are a lot of very popular photo forums around and I hardly know any photographers who use Facebook in the way they'd use a forum. Flickr/500px/etc is the competition and even then, forums are much better for critique, learning, etc.

 

[Rich]

No it didn't. There are a lot of very popular photo forums around and I hardly know any photographers who use Facebook in the way they'd use a forum. Flickr/500px/etc is the competition and even then, forums are much better for critique, learning, etc.

True its better , but not true about the hit most forums took from it