3 Changes at DPS and An Update on Where We’re At

As I mentioned in today’s weekly newsletter – there are a few changes happening at DPS at the moment. I wanted to write a short post to let you know what’s happening.

3 Changes at DPS

1. New Forum Sections

In the last 24 hours we’ve launched two new sections in our forum.

• Critique section and is especially designed for those wanting to show two different photos that they can’t choose between. Ask our readers which they like best, why and how they’d improve the shots.

2. New Design – Coming Soon

DPS is getting a makeover. In the last week a designer has begun work on overhauling the look of the whole DPS site. As part of the new design we’re not just getting a new look – we’re getting two new blogs (one on post production and one on cameras and gear), a completely reworked front page (it’ll aggregate content from the blogs and forum) and a few new features.

The design isn’t going to go live until January (these things take time and this is a fairly major overhaul) but I’m really excited about the work that has already been done. I know some of you are quite attached to the current design and it’ll take a little time to get used to seeing things look so different – but I’m confident that the new look will give our community a much more modern look and feel as well as help improve the functionality and navigation of the site.

3. Prizes in Assignments

Many of you have asked for this – and we’ve finally started to find companies willing to sponsor some more regular competitions in our Crumpler who have put up a bag a week for the next month!).

Update on the State of DPS

While I’m talking DPS – let me give you a short update on how the community has been going of late.

If I had to choose one word to describe the last 12 months I’d have to say ‘growth’ (or perhaps ‘explosion’ would be better).

• 1 Millions Visitors a Month – We’re regularly seeing over a million readers to the site each month now. Together they are viewing over 3 million pages of content. Those numbers alone are mind boggling to me and I’m really excited to see the growth.
• 125,000 Subscribers – Subscriber numbers to the site have also exploded in the last 12 months – those getting email updates and RSS updates now number over 125,000. If you’re not already subscribed there are three ways to keep in touch – we outline them here.
• 27,000 Forum Members – I remember the days when we used to celebrate every time our forum member numbers grew by another 100 people. Now it isn’t unusual to see 100 join up in a day and to see 300 or more on the forum at the one time.

I’d like to Thank

Of course with new members to our forum we’ve had to grow our moderation team. I want to acknowledge their hard work – particularly that of Sime who heads up the Admin of the site, Linda who is also an Admin and to Leisa who was in the Admin role for 2 years of the site and who has recently stepped out of that role.

The other group of people that I want to acknowledge is our writing team here on the DPS blog. Over the last year we’ve developed a great group of regular writers who many of you have come to know and love. Thanks to each of you – particularly Natalie, Neil, Christina and Peter.

Lastly – I want to thank all DPS readers, subscribers and members – it’s been a massive year and none of it would have been possible without you. A special thanks to those of you who have contributed by spreading the news of DPS to your friends, blog readers, family, workmates, fellow students etc!

2008 looks like being another year of change at DPS. The new design will kick off some of that change but there are plenty of other new things coming. I spent some time brainstorming earlier in the week about things that I’d like to see happen with DPS and there are so many ideas that I came away from the exercise very excited. Watch this space!

Thanks for letting me navel gaze a little with this post – I hope it’s given you a little insight into what’s been happening at DPS and where we’re headed as we move into the new year. I’d love to hear your ideas on how you’d like to see DPS grow going forward – feel free to leave your comments below!