minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I agree with everybody!

Like Mike says, FYC has a certain magic that I wouldn't want to compromise in any way. I want our growth to continue in the same trajectory we have begun, and hold onto our magic.

Agree with Billy that a lot of what we are doing is teaching and learning - teaching each other about everything related to photography - art, literature, composition, technique, visual perception, processing, you name it- and learning together about things new to us. Education is a function that no one else is really doing on UHH, so it may as well be us! This can remain informal or we can develop more formal approaches or both.

Agree with Bob we want more participation. I know a number of folks who read our section, and never post. I hope we can find ways to draw them in. Perhaps they've been discouraged elsewhere by feedback that was unsupportive. We've proved here, though, that is possible to be honest and respectful -and helpful- all at the same time. We need to keep on inviting others, but also encouraging them to be active. We have fun here!

If you check the All Sections page now and then you can see how many folks are subscribed to all sections, how many topics, and how many posts. Having been a stats geek in another life, I check this stuff often. The numbers suggest that our little "outlier" section is very healthy, very active, and growing slowly but steadily in spite of no real advertisement anywhere other than member-to-member contact. Our average acquisition rate is about 1 per day, so it won't be long before St3v3M can get us on the newsletter, which ought to bring in more folks.

I appreciate St3v3M for his work here and all of you for helping make our little "village" what it is.

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

I may have opened the doors, but it took everyone here to make it what it is! S-

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

Bobs thoughts about participation are good ones. Getting people to contribute images will be a slow process as the bar was possibly set too high standards wise from day one. Normal images were almost discouraged by the headlong rush to be artistic. There is nothing wrong with a picture of Rover the Golden Retriever sat in his kennel looking cute. But as confidence grows then posted images will increase.
However it would be an improvement if those that critique the work of others make the effort when signed in to critique as many posts as time allows. Frank manages to critique every post as does ol' Billy.
Sometimes it has the feel of the dreaded gallery where it seems stuff is posted to receive nice words from ones buddies
Excuses such as "its not a genre I understand" do not wash. I often feel photographic landscape work does not work and genuinely do not like it. But still comment and not always negatively.
Takes a little effort to comment on all images but makes newcomers feel part of our community and makes the place look lively to someone thinking of dipping their toes in the water.
Buddy comment will still happen which is fine but get ya buddies to comment on other images as well.
A welcome letter from management via PM to newbies asking them and inviting them to comment?

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Noted!!! S-

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

I am a proponent of a learning centre for the section. I realize there are places everywhere on the web. There have already been some good tutorials in this section but if one wasn't aware they would have a hard time finding them. Take this for example (http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-348839-1.html#5861206) a good tip from Bob Yankle but if you haven't looked and followed this particular thread you'd never know about it. I have no clue how to organize or put the Learning Center together but feel it would be an asset to the section. It could be as simple as a page of links from with in the section but good descriptions of the links are a must. It would be great if someone more knowledgeable than me would give this some thought.

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

I've been giving this some thought too, and want to get the lecture series up and running when I return from across the pond, but think an easy way to categorize these are to prefix them with names like; Lecture Series - xyz, Tutorial - xyz, but of course we could make it all inclusive and call them Learning Center - xyz too!

We'll take an informal vote and put it to the test. Luckily I can edit the titles as need be so we can really organize them!

What a wonderful idea - The Learning Center! S-

trc Loc: Logan, OH

Greetings to Everyone,

First, let me say thank you to Steve for making me aware of this section of the UHH Forum. Secondly, thank you for inviting me to join and I am sure I can learn a lot here, and hope I may be able to contribute one thing while I am here. I have so much to learn about photography and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone is offering and what I can hopefully absorb. Perhaps I will get to a point where I can make a worthwhile contribution to pay everyone back for sharing their expertise in photography.

Thirdly, I would like to know what the secret hand shake is in case I am asked to give it sometime! :-) Thank you everyone for this additional learning opportunity.

Best Regards,
Tom

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

I was invited to join this forum and happy for the invitation and for my joining.
I think this sections works for that very reason it is small and tight knit. That is one of the reasons why it works so well. Not every member of UHH either knows about this forum or wants to join it. To me most of the other sections may have more participants but none better than those who contribute in here. Those who do take the time to either post or answer a post do so with much thought. Not that the other sections don't have knowledgeable contributors but you have to wade through a lot of post to get to the good ones, But I feel more thought goes into a response in this section than a mere thumbs up, or, the name calling because someone doesn't agree with your view. I am afraid once we hit the 200 mark and go into the "public" domain we will lose that.

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

So the secret handshake is... (oh no, I'm going through a tunnel...)

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

I understand your concern NJ. All the more reason for everyone that participates give thought out responses to keep the example set. If I wanted an atta boy I would post somewhere else. I choose this section to post in as I feel I get comment I can learn from....sure I like an atta boy as much as anyone else but it is the comment for improvement of my images that I seek.

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

198 Users as of now

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

Ok one more and than cut it off. lol

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Who shall we choose...?

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

Next one to join is the caboose. :)

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I truly understand what you mean! When we first started out, we wanted more, more, more members, then you begin to think: oh oh, what will we do if they all show up? With growth, other challenges appear (think small town vs gigantic city). It is inevitable, though, that we will grow. We, the "first citizens" of this special community, owe it to ourselves and to the new arrivals to hold on to our original mission and "small town" values, and teach new folks how to be good citizens here. This is a different climate than exists elsewhere, and we want to keep what we love about it even while we grow larger.