This photo thread is a high point of forum participation for a lot of folks, both here and in M43, (they are up to three or four filled threads per week with people posting and commenting very actively).
When people take an active role in sharing and communicating about their images, we all benefit, and it brings the group closer together in a nice camaraderie.
Unfortunately, this does not seem to have spilled over into regular forum behavior, and it has gotten very frustrating to step past the level of active trolling and downright mean-spriritedness that seems to be always about to jump to the surface.
This past week, I, and a bunch of other folks, had the temerity to suggest that FF had some visible advantages over M43 in a thread asking about the format differences (in the Sony FF forum, no less, not over in M43, where I would have expected some of the responses I got ).
Things got real mean real quick, with some commentary about my photographic and PP skills taking a truly nasty turn (and not deservedly....Not everything I shoot is great, but overall, I am not bad at what I do). This was followed by a lot of jump-on-the-bandwagon, ad-hominem posting towards me.
The end result of all of this was that, for the first time in my 10 years on DPR, I have made most of the 1000 photos in my gallery here private, and seriously considered just leaving the forums entirely.
I don't know what the answer or solution is, actually. I would hope that the community that we are developing in this weekly photo thread eventually seeps through the rest of the forum. Anyone else have any ideas about how to get that to happen? I'm fresh out.
In my very first experience on DPR, I was aggressively attacked.
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/53164609
I persevered, and have over the past three years, developed a reasonable relationship with Dan. We still disagree occasionally, but usually without rancor.
Coming from the relatively cossetting environment of LuLa, I was initially taken aback by the roughness of DPR. Nonetheless, I have gotten a whole lot out of DPR, and spend more time here than any other online forum.
I still find that people jump on me with more heat than light from time to time, but it seems to happen less often over time. Dunno why, though.
I have developed a few strategies for dealing with vituperation.
Don't reply in kind.
Stick to the facts.
Don't question the other person's biases, knowledge, or ability, even if he (it's usually a he) questions yours.
If a conversation is irreversibly headed down a rabbit hole, don't reply.
If things get really bad, click the complain button. I have only done this a couple of times, but have been surprised and gratified by the swift actions of the moderators.
Janet, your reputation precedes you. I can't imagine people who have been following you for any length of time being hostile. Thank you so much for all you (and Bob) do for this forum.
Jim
