Suggestion Box

[Darren Rowse]

Feel free to give your feedback and suggestions for the DPS forums here.

Keep in mind that we're really still in a testing mode and there will be bugs to sort out but in the mean time let us know what you'd like to see in terms of categories for discussion, features and more.

[sid1987]

i cant see my profile picture in the posts i make..

[Darren Rowse]

it's the avatar that shows.... it has to be an 80 x 80 pixel picture maximum

[sid1987]

how do i upload an avatar picture? there isnt an option for upload in the "edit avatar" menu..

[Darren Rowse]

you don't see the field that lets you browse your computer?

I got to it by clicking User CP, then Edit Avatar, then it's option 2 - 'Option 2 - Upload Image From Your Computer'...

[youloveben]

Yeah, I'm having the same problem here, Darren. I can find *where*
to upload an avatar, but the radio button is greyed out with the words "Do not use an avatar" next to it... It won't give us an option to upload anything.

BTW, I'm using the savior of the internets, Firefox.

[Darren Rowse]

ok - will check into my back end to see if there's an option for me to switch it on.

[Joshua Schroeder]

I've been able to upload my avatar, but it isn't showing up anywhere, other than in the User CP's avatar settings page.

[NaturesPixel]

I've been able to upload my avatar, but it isn't showing up anywhere, other than in the User CP's avatar settings page.


you and me both Joshua.. only Avatar i see is Darrens lucky sod ;)

[Bail]

Somethings I may suggest.

1. Disable images in sigs and/or limit lines in sigs - I am not sure if that has already been done. But If not, I would suggest turning them off or limiting them to a size. IIRC you need an addon script if your going to limit the size of images in sigs for VB. Reason being is that some members like to have their whole life story in their sig along with HUGE images. Not only will it slow the site more, It becomes annoying to look at when that one member replys more then twice in a thread.

2. Add a critique section -user can post and image and the others can give advice to better the person or answer their question of why their photo is not comming out as planed.

3. OT policy - Threads in other forums that I moderate get throwing WAY off topic rather quick. Someone could be asking a question on the Nikon D50 and then a whole argument will start about canon vs. nikon which could derail the thread.

4. Admin/Mod forum - Keep it private from regular members. You can discuss forum problems or member problems without getting everyone worked up. It's also great where if a staff has a moderating question and it could allow other mods to answer w/o using PM's.

5. Images per post - It would be great if you can limit how many images a user could post in a reply/thread. I know people that could put in as many as 100 photos per reply. It would kill those on 56k.


6. Some Child forums could be
- DPS Meets
- OT
- Gear for sale/trade
- Critique my photo
- camera hacks?

Maybe some of the above could help you out. For the future.
-Bail

[jewels inet]

This is the first time I've used this kind of forum.
I was happy to see the choice to display linear newest first. But now I'm not sure I will like that choice. At least I have a choice.

I saw this mesaage.
You have turned off private messages. You may not view or send private messages until you turn them on by editing your profile.

But when I went back to profile to change the private messaging, that option was not there. I see that it is under Edit Options.

[NaturesPixel]

ooh i got one... ok with the assignments that we get .. how about pinning the current ones (sticky) that way when know what the current ones are.. unlike over at flickr... then when you post new assignment .. you unstick the old and stick the new :)

just makes for a cleaner easier forum to read :D

[Nicole]

One thing I could think of is in regards to some of the comments about tutorials. I'd like to see the tutorials in a separate forum maybe.

This way, all the tutorials would be in a single forum, rather than having to say search through each of the technique sections. It would make it easier to see what topics have been covered, and would give a central spot to ask questions regarding the tutorial.

If a separate forum was not the preferred way to go with tutorials, then perhaps putting a sticky at the top listing and linking to all tutorials may be another way to organise.

Regardless of how it's organised, I think it would be good to have a complete listing since it's easier to find something new, especially if there was a good tutorial that you may never have looked at if it were in one of the technique forums that you might not read because you assume it won't have anything of interest.

I think that having tutorials in the forum could be really useful because the person writing the tutorial may be more likely to be answer specific questions. There have been times where I've read tutorials online, and people leave comments asking questions and nobody ever answers, so I really hope that tutorials are covered in the forum when things are all fully up and running.

Just my 2 cents :) Really enjoying the forum so far

[Darren Rowse]

Nicole - do you mean to post the tutorials that we've posted over on the blog here in the forums as well?

If so - there can be a problem with this as search engines dont like the same content in two places.

However - we could post the first paragraph of tutorials here in the forums and then have discussion on each here as well.....

Thanks for the suggestion - will give it some more thought.

[Nicole]

Makes sense that the search engines wouldn't like that very much.

Perhaps like you've said, a small summary here to start discussion (e.g. first paragraph linking to the full article at the blog, then a link at the bottom of the blog back to the forum topic for discussion).

A simple sticky then accomplishes a list of topics where you can either link to the discussions within the forum or the blog (whichever makes more sense) so that people can see what the available topics are (help avoids multiple topics on the same subject too)

Just some organisational thoughts :) Keep up the good work

[hitkaiser]

suggestion for assignment (if not already done): self portraits

would also be nice if we could vote for oustanding photos each assignment, ala photofriday.com, not a competition, just recognition and a good way to "summarise" an assignment in 5 images or so

[Darren Rowse]

good idea on the self portraits. We have done it already over at the Flickr group but we can do it again :-)

[Joshua Schroeder]

Another suggestion:
Under the equipment and gear forum, how about a sub-forum for software? I'd like to discuss what people are using for RAW processing and library management. Of course, this would be a good place for discussing technical stuff about Photoshop and whatever other tools people are using for similar tasks.

[ptbelly]

I noticed that the typeface (font) that is used for the articles on DPS has changed. I searched for a cached page of the old edition to compare the two. (I'm no expert so I couldn't guess as to what the fonts being used are- some people can just glance at type and identify it right away)

But take a look-
There are typefaces out there that are designed to work specifically on the web, they are simpler and generally more legible at smaller sizes. (But even within these some are much, much better than others, you can't take their "web" label at face value- seeing is believing)

The new typeface being used is not quite as simplified as the old- note the lowercase "l", "g", & "i".

The point size of the type has gone down quite a bit as well, and being that the new typeface is a bit harder to read, the smaller size doesn't help.

This might not seem like such a significant suggestion, but whether people are conscious of it or not, the eye fatigue from reading large amounts of difficult text could affect their experience on the site.

I'd suggest reverting back to what was used on the old design or searching for a typeface that would be more appropriate for web use. They say the devil's in the details. I'd guess that this is one of the details that website critics take into consideration when judging the merit of a site.

Hope this is helpful,
*j

[ptbelly]

I noticed that with the new design of DPS, at the bottom of each article is a link titled "Read the rest of this entry". With the old DPS design this link was only apparent if the article was longer than what could be displayed. But now it is at the bottom of every article even if the entire article is already visible! I find it rather annoying because I feel like I waste time clicking on it to read the next paragraph only to find that there is no "rest of the entry" before I return to the main page again. Too much down time! (The information superhighway has severely hindered my patience!)

*j

[jmadigan]

Why is the page so narrow? I'd much rather prefer a variable width page that will stretch to accommodate however wide my browser is.

[jewels inet]

Darren, I saw this great quote
Creativity has nothing to do with the expense of the camera ... it has everything to do with the mind and eye of the user. by Englishteacher
http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/showpost.php?p=770&postcount=4

Just wondered if we could have a thread to make note of comments that make you think.

[Bail]

I am not sure if it's me but I am unable to see my subscribed posts in the control panel. I use that to see the replys in the threads that I post in. I've posted in many threads and I know they have replys but I can't find them as easy now that there are near 400 members.

[Darren Rowse]

jewels - feel free to start a thread like that in the General Chitchat section.

Bail - not sure why - I've not changed any settings on that.

[mattdm]

Why is the page so narrow? I'd much rather prefer a variable width page that will stretch to accommodate however wide my browser is.

Really long lines of text make pages hard to read, because rather than scanning down them vertically, you have to shuffle your eyes back and forth. And if they're too long, you have to search (subconsciously, hopefully) for the beginning of each line. Optimal column width for fast reading is about 40 characters, give or take a dozen.

[mattdm]

In the equipment section, I think it'd be useful to divide forums into SLR and compact cameras.

Perhaps the traffic doesn't warrant it yet, though.

[Seltzer]

Other things for the future: maybe a review section for people to review their cams and their personal experiences (could just go under the current Cams section though)
A buy/sell/trade section?
I'm sure more will come up as the forum progresses

[whitemug]

in another photo-critique forum i've seen, they've also encouraged people to "rate" the uploaded photo on a range of one smiley to five smilies, depending on how they see the photo. this becomes part of the critique syntax, so to speak.

would that work here? :)

[whitemug]

here's another observation:

i noticed that in the "technique" section, we only have forums for landscape, portrait, and macro photography. perhaps we can include other specific genres like sports, events, weddings, product/advertising, studio, black&white, and lomography?

for an amateur photographer like me, i can use these different genres as a way for me to decide which one i can focus on.

[Darren Rowse]

all good suggestions friends.

I'm definitely reading them all and digesting them.

Initially there won't be heaps of changes made as I don't want to overwhelm everyone with a forum that is always making big changes but this list of your suggestions will be returned to again and again in the coming months.

We'll keep making tweaks but at some point in the new year I'll do some reviewing of some of your bigger ideas also. This will give us a chance to continue to build traffic and members which will help a lot with some of the ideas you're all suggesting.

Thanks. Keep the suggestions coming.

[RandomConnections]

I wonder if it would be possible to have a section for announcing photo contests and competitions. I just found out about one that is being sponsored by the Nature Conservancy, with submission via Flickr. This one's just for bragging rights, but there might be others with monetary awards.

As for the Nature Conservancy contest, more instructions are available on the Nature Conservancy discussion group (http://www.flickr.com/groups/thenatureconservancy/) on Flickr. If you're interested, you better hurry. Deadline is December 31.

[beckywithasmile]

How about a section for book suggestions. You could even have different ones for things like photoshop, film photography, beginning photography and other issues users might have.

I picked up a couple of books from the library and learned a little about ps on them and would love to share the titles with others.

Thanks for the great Forums. Keep up the great work!

[Suze]

[QUOTE=Darren Rowse;10]Feel free to give your feedback and suggestions for the DPS forums here.QUOTE]

I'd love a spot for those of us who are not only new to digital but new to caring about how the photo is taken, to ask potentially silly (basic?) questions.

I'd hate to clog up a great list by asking questions that, in all honesty, I'm sure 99% of people on the list know the answer to.

Feel free to tell me that's not what this list is about :-), it's just that it would be so much easier to be in one forum rather than having to join another somewhere to get some more basic info.

Again, my thanks for the site & email, I'm really starting to think about the photos I take.

Suze

[KRIS]

Hi,

Can we have a thread on foggy mornings? Moody Pics.
My ISP has blocked Zookoda and I am not able to read the tutorials. Will the tutorials be posted on feeds as well, I really do not want to miss the topics sent yesterday.

Thanks,

[Nicole]

I'd love a spot for those of us who are not only new to digital but new to caring about how the photo is taken, to ask potentially silly (basic?) questions.

I'd hate to clog up a great list by asking questions that, in all honesty, I'm sure 99% of people on the list know the answer to.


Feel free to post your questions in whatever technique forum they fit in. We're all pretty friendly over there :) And the only silly question is the question that isn't asked. Everyone learns when someone asks a question :)

[KRIS]

Dear Darren,

My ISP have blocked the zookoda website. Is there any other way possible to get your articcles?

Thanks

[KRIS]

Hi,

Can we get a rating of some sort organised for the good pics posted on each thread or assignment?

This will increase creativity as well as serve as an example on how to take good pics.

Also this will improve techniques and will give some ideas about what kind of pics make the grade.

Thanks,

[Suze]

Feel free to post your questions in whatever technique forum they fit in. We're all pretty friendly over there :) And the only silly question is the question that isn't asked. Everyone learns when someone asks a question :)

Thanks Nicole! I'll try and get brave LOL
Suze

[jb683]

I am new to all of this so I'm going to need a little help. I have posted several images but it shows up as an attachment. How can I get my pictures to show up on the post like most everyone else does?

[wulf]

I am new to all of this so I'm going to need a little help. I have posted several images but it shows up as an attachment. How can I get my pictures to show up on the post like most everyone else does?
Do the images live anywhere else on the web (Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/) for many people here but also other places) or are you wanting to upload them directly from your computer?

Wulf

[jb683]

I am trying to upload them directly from my computer.

[wulf]

What format are the images? If JPEG, they should show up (as far as I'm aware).

However, I would highly recommend signing up with a free online service like Flickr (you can always go onto a paid-account later but the free one should last you for a while). Once your image is up, it is automatically available at a range of different sizes so you can post a reasonable sized preview here and then allow those who want to head over and view it full-sized.

Wulf

[jb683]

All of the ones I've posted have been in the jpg format, but I think I will give Flickr a try.
Thanks for the help

[Saralonde]

Just a thought, on this thread http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4958&posted=1#post4958, someone was wondering if it was ok to edit someone's shot. Perhaps people could add something to their sigs giving a kind of blanket ok to others here to try their luck with pping a posted pic.
I've added a line below to try it out. Think it would work?