Phil Askey was smart to sell when he did

Have you taken a look at other forums lately? Traffic is really slow everywhere, not just here in Oly "we're a dying system" forum.

Even Canon and Nikon forums are pretty darn slow compared to what they were just a few years ago. Fuji, Sony Nex and mFTs are the only places still showing a little life.

The forums pick up when news is released, but they used to be thriving 'communities' year round. Even reviews don't seem to attract nearly as much attention as they once did. I guess the constant stupid fighting has killed that in all the brand forums, not just here.

Maybe I'm wrong, since I don't have numbers to back this up. But my memory is of a much livelier place even in the absence of news.

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Roberto M.

i read from one of the DPR's staff posts that the forums create about 5% of traffic the site receives, i believe they said that click thrus and first time visitors make the majority, so we are the noisy minority
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working as intended

Pikme said:

Maybe I'm wrong, since I don't have numbers to back this up. But my memory is of a much livelier place even in the absence of news.

Click to expand...

You're wrong. If the forums had any real function on this website, they'd be real forums, with subsections and real moderation, not just a boiling chatboard.

illy said:

i read from one of the DPR's staff posts that the forums create about 5% of traffic the site receives, i believe they said that click thrus and first time visitors make the majority, so we are the noisy minority
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working as intended

Click to expand...

Yep, which is why I tend to choke on those posts which state that if Olympus only did what a few people on this forum want, they would sell cameras like hot cakes.

All the good information and discussion found here is pretty much like that little restaurant you find by accident...

--

Some people operate cameras. Others use them to create images. There is a difference.

http://ikkens.zenfolio.com/

http://sarob-w.deviantart.com/

CharlesB58 said:

All the good information and discussion found here is pretty much like that little restaurant you find by accident...

Click to expand...

It can't be different when every thread which drops off page 1 basically ceases to exist. It's a chatroom, not a forum. A forum would have sections, archiving, search within sections and so on.

illy said:

i read from one of the DPR's staff posts that the forums create about 5% of traffic the site receives

Click to expand...

That's actually VERY surprising to me. I work for a site that publishes reviews of tech gear and our discussion forums generate 60+ percent of our total traffic every year.

I wouldn't have expected the forum traffic on DPR to be only 5 percent of the total traffic.

Heck, even when you do a Google search for a specific camera question it's more likely that Google will link you to a forum post than the official review of the camera (assuming you didn't search for something like "Canon Powershot G12 Review") ... so that would suggest that even the forums get good traffic from search engines.

I realize the active forum members in any forum like this are just a small "vocal minority" but it seems almost unbelievable that the forums only account for 5 percent of DPR's traffic.

I bet its worth 5x what he sold it for now

--
Riley

any similarity to persons living or dead is coincidental and unintended
support 1022 Sunday Scapes'

Did the traffic move to the comments of the news/reviews ??

First impressions shooting with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 ( news page ):

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/02/21/Hands-On-First-Impressions-Olympus-OMD-EM5
244 comments.

Hands-on with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 ( the article belonging to above news )
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/5118208599/hands-on-with-the-olympus-om-d-e-m5
comments: 195

--
cheers

Mr.NoFlash

JJJPhoto said:

illy said:

i read from one of the DPR's staff posts that the forums create about 5% of traffic the site receives

Click to expand...

That's actually VERY surprising to me. I work for a site that publishes reviews of tech gear and our discussion forums generate 60+ percent of our total traffic every year.

I wouldn't have expected the forum traffic on DPR to be only 5 percent of the total traffic.

Heck, even when you do a Google search for a specific camera question it's more likely that Google will link you to a forum post than the official review of the camera (assuming you didn't search for something like "Canon Powershot G12 Review") ... so that would suggest that even the forums get good traffic from search engines.

I realize the active forum members in any forum like this are just a small "vocal minority" but it seems almost unbelievable that the forums only account for 5 percent of DPR's traffic.

Click to expand...

Look no further:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&message=39310213

Forum posters represent around 2% of our daily visitors, forum traffic as a percentage of total site traffic has fallen slowly but steadily since 2007. The forums are a hugely important part of DPR, but they do not represent the majority of our users, or anything near.

Rriley said:

I bet its worth 5x what he sold it for now

Click to expand...

It's worth a lot to Amazon because of what Amazon is. Otherwise, I have to believe the overall traffic has really died down.

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Roberto M.

Great Bustard said:

JJJPhoto said:

illy said:

i read from one of the DPR's staff posts that the forums create about 5% of traffic the site receives

Click to expand...

That's actually VERY surprising to me. I work for a site that publishes reviews of tech gear and our discussion forums generate 60+ percent of our total traffic every year.

I wouldn't have expected the forum traffic on DPR to be only 5 percent of the total traffic.

Heck, even when you do a Google search for a specific camera question it's more likely that Google will link you to a forum post than the official review of the camera (assuming you didn't search for something like "Canon Powershot G12 Review") ... so that would suggest that even the forums get good traffic from search engines.

I realize the active forum members in any forum like this are just a small "vocal minority" but it seems almost unbelievable that the forums only account for 5 percent of DPR's traffic.

Click to expand...

Look no further:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&message=39310213

Forum posters represent around 2% of our daily visitors, forum traffic as a percentage of total site traffic has fallen slowly but steadily since 2007. The forums are a hugely important part of DPR, but they do not represent the majority of our users, or anything near.

Click to expand...

thx GB, i new i was close but 2% is lower than expected.
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working as intended

JJJPhoto said:

illy said:

i read from one of the DPR's staff posts that the forums create about 5% of traffic the site receives

Click to expand...

That's actually VERY surprising to me. I work for a site that publishes reviews of tech gear and our discussion forums generate 60+ percent of our total traffic every year.

I wouldn't have expected the forum traffic on DPR to be only 5 percent of the total traffic.

Click to expand...

I wonder if it's 5% traffic or 5% bandwidth. Considering dpreview is a photographic centric site that services a huge amount of images, most at full resolution in their reviews and galleries (not to mention more and more video samples and previews), 5% of bandwidth would actually be quite a feat for generally plain text requests.

I'd be surprised if it was 5% traffic though... on the other hand given how highly dpreview is ranked in google and other search engines, perhaps it's not surprising. I could guess that many people come for the reviews and previews through google, or other linked sites, and the forums are just here for the rest of us who should be working but like to correct the rest of the internet on this or that topic lol...
--
Cloverdale, B.C., Canada
Currently shooting: Nikon D3S, D700
http://www.joesiv.com

They don't have pictures of beautiful sites in London. I looked at the galleries a lot more when it was there. Now it's just boring Washington (apologies for those in Washington). There's just not a lot of classic decor and architecture as there is over seas.
--
Make it a Great day!

I don't visit as often as I used to, simply because 4/3 is, at present, a functionally stabilised system with little happening. I only log in if there is a particular thread I wish to comment on. How does DPR differentiate between the non-logged in me and a first-time visitor? And before you say cookies I will add that I use Firefox, run noscript, adblock and clear cookies when exiting firefox so it wouldn't be easy for them to tell.

Mike

Pikme said:

Rriley said:

I bet its worth 5x what he sold it for now

Click to expand...

It's worth a lot to Amazon because of what Amazon is.

Click to expand...

yeah but, that is how things are valued, commercial worth

Pikme said:

Otherwise, I have to believe the overall traffic has really died down.

Click to expand...

couldnt say and couldnt care myself,
1022 probably isnt a good barometer of that,
1041 OTOH is crazy busy

Pikme said:

--
Roberto M.

Click to expand...

--
Riley

any similarity to persons living or dead is coincidental and unintended
support 1022 Sunday Scapes'

These were taken with my Olympus E-500...Washington state is on one side...Oregon state is on the other side in these pictures along the Columbia River. I don't know the statistics for Washington state, but Oregon state is slightly larger than the entire UK. Washington state is nearly the same size...a little larger or a little smaller. There's so much opportunity to take pictures in Washington state from small towns, cities, coastal rain forests, tall mountains to dry deserts. Oregon is right next door, not too far away, where we have nearly the same. Yes, we don't have Old World architecture as much, but there's excellent places to take photos. And let's not forget nearby Canada...some great photo ops there too.

Great Bustard said:

Forum posters represent around 2% of our daily visitors

Click to expand...

assume that only "1" out of "10" forum readers actually post something (ever), forum influence might be bigger...

Traffic can speed up with the activity of just a few people. A lot of it just depends on who wants to get involved. It is slow here...have to admit. So, after I got my new Canon T2i DSLR camera and two EF-S lenses (I'm using Olympus DSLR gear too), I saw how slow that forum was, so I started a "Show Your Snaps" thread. I was surprised how many people were interested, and things have picked up a little over there. There's been many people on this forum and OTF that have also kept things also going despite the negative publicity surrounding Olympus over the latest scandal etc.

Digirame said:

Traffic can speed up with the activity of just a few people. A lot of it just depends on who wants to get involved. It is slow here...have to admit. So, after I got my new Canon T2i DSLR camera and two EF-S lenses (I'm using Olympus DSLR gear too), I saw how slow that forum was, so I started a "Show Your Snaps" thread. I was surprised how many people were interested, and things have picked up a little over there. There's been many people on this forum and OTF that have also kept things also going despite the negative publicity surrounding Olympus over the latest scandal etc.

Click to expand...

Yes, you mention one big solution to save this forum.

From my experiences (browsing forum around Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China), they mix many things very well in the forum. A thread titled with any body, lens, or other subjects by collecting everyone's photos can surive for years because all the photos providers will feel that they are part of the thread. That's why they will keep coming back by posting their recent photos. I can tell that they make lots of friends there during the sharing and discussion. They also have different categories (bird, portrait, travel, and...) with many photos providing by everyone. It is like the mixing of flickr with dpreview forum. This is photography website; is it better to have more photo threds in the forum? Some experts will even score and comment your photos in some websits - http://www.photosharp.com.tw/DGPHOTO20/

Is it the culture difference? I don't know; but I know this is for sure a good way for the long run of a forum because they are part of the forum.

In addition, they have much less fighting there because of the rules. Please think about it do you have much time to see the meanless long arguing in many threads? For a long time you will tire of them including the good threads. Wish dpreview will see this as a reference for their improvement.

Please check these links below to understand what I mean (Olympus only) :

It is ok you don't read other language but you know how to check each thread or item.

Taiwan (population 20 million):

http://www.mobile01.com/topiclist.php?f=249

http://zfc.tw/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=12

http://www.olddo.com/bbs/frame.php?frameon=yes

Hong Kong (population 8 million):

http://www.omuser.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=13

China:

http://www.four-thirds.cn/forum/forum-44-1.html

Great photos.

The problems is to get them off their bums out into the country to take those type of pictures. Also the type of pictures they take have to appeal to the casual shooter and show detail and variation.

--
Collin

(Aficionado Olympus DSLR )

http://collinbaxter.zenfolio.com/
http://www.pbase.com/collinbaxter

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. (George Carlin)

New Seventh Wonder of the World.