What type of threads do you get on photo forums?

I know many of you are members of other photo forums too, so wondered, what type of threads do you come across on photography forums? (not just this one - but all of them)

Here's a few:

Photo threads - people posting photos to share/show others
Photo threads 2 - people posting photos to get feedback/C&C
Photo threads 3 - people posting photos asking others to help fix/edit

Discussion threads - people starting a general discussion
News/rumours threads - people posting rumours or news they've heard/found
Question threads - people looking for a specific answer to a question

Can you think of more?

Which ones do you think you get most frequently?
Which do you like posting yourself, or participating in most?

AZZ

PM sent about another photo site I belong to, may give some ideas.

Bazza

Thanks Bazza, but I am not looking for links to other photo forums

I'm interested in all of your personal experiences of forums, what you see, what you like to participate in etc.

I'm not really a member of any others! I was a member of Photography Ireland for a while, and there were regular threads about meet ups which is nice

xx

I'm on another photography forum but it's so huge that pretty much anything ticks over whether it be 'photographic' or not simply down to the sheer number of members.

We're a small friendly community with Photography as the one common theme so as soon as we digress to other topics it's going to be slow.

In terms of the photography aspect I've always found YoP a friendly (almost family like) group that like to share stuff for general comment - not too serious and therefore a little sensitive when it comes to taking crit.

It's difficult to suggest ideas because I think a lot has to do with numbers but I would like to see a lot more in the way of discussion about photography techniques, tutorials or themes for us to partake in, general photography discussion, kit discussion, ask a silly question type threads and of course competitions.

Another site I belong to has periodic knock-out competitions, monthly competitions, (Theme and Open), where the members vote for the winner and runners up. There is a rota of members who give light-hearted, although honest, comments and critiques on the competition entries.

There are threads where different events are taking place, some of which result in people meeting up - it has been arranged that members from Canada meet up with members when they visit on holiday.

There has also been periodic challenges, that are voted on. These challenges include not only specific subjects, but photo manipulation. All this as well as general and photographic chat.

Thanks for the information guys

Can you tell me how these themes/knock out competitions etc work?

Perhaps another way of looking at it, might be to ask: "What type of threads get posted most on photography forums". In say a top 10 list.

Ok. The knock-out competitions: Participating members enter up to three photographs into a thread. The thread is usually open to entries for a month. This is an 'open' competition.

The draws are then made, based on the numbers 8, 16, 32 and 64. These are the only numbers that will equate to being drawn, two by two until there are two photographs remaining. If there are odd numbers outside the prime numbers, then each round will have some 'byes'.

Once the rounds are decided, the organiser then posts the photographs into pairs, drawn from 'the hat', into a new thread. Members vote for their favourite of each pair, using the built in forum poll voting. Voting is for three days.

Once round one is over, the winners are placed back into the hat with the 'byes' and the second round is drawn, including 'byes'. This will continue until the prime numbers are reached Ie: 64, 32, 16, 8, for the final stages of the competition, and continues until there is a winner.

If any two pairs are drawn in one round, then a re-vote is arranged before the next round. If a further draw is reached, then the organiser cast the final vote.

Members can, and are expected to, vote for their own entry. If two photographs from the same member are selected in any one pair, then that is the luck of the draw.

The competition lasts for three/four weeks depending on the number of entries. There is usually four knock-out competitions in a year. They have proved to be very popular.

The monthly competition (Open and Theme): Entries are posted into a competition album. The organiser then sets the competition, with each member giving a score of one to ten for each photograph. The photograph with the most votes wins. Entries are limited to one per member and, again, members can vote for their own entries.

A dedicated 'voting page' is used for these competitions, the results from which are entered into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is configured to give each participating member a maximum 10 points for their own entry, if they vote. This alleviates the spectre of members voting for their own image to gain an advantage.

The competitions are open for entries from the 1st to the 15th of each month. The 25th to the 30/31st of the month is used for voting.

The themes are worked out from member's suggestions and posted for the year, so that members can bear in mind what the themes are when out and about with their cameras.

Im on 3 other forums, all fulfill something different, one is a large american based forum and the bird section is high quality, providing good images and information on species i rarely see in the UK. It does tend to ignore posts from outside of the USA.

No2 is probably the main UK forum, and has over 50 sub forums covering all aspects of photography, feedback can depend on timing as posts can just disappear of the screen if its busy.

No3 has a strong competition based element, with photos of the day, week and month, as well as selected subjects where all can enter, it is a bit cliquey, but the standard of images can be quite high, quite heavy on the HDR/ P&P side.