Photon Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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I realized when I started reading this thread that yesterday was my tenth anniversary as an FM brat. One thing I certainly learned from experience is that it gets tiresome to see lengthy quotes in a reply. Nonetheless, I'm quoting three people below, because they caught what I think is the state of affairs.
15Bit wrote:
I'm not sure it is any worse than when i joined, but i came here several years too late to be part of the clique of early users and the small family "feel" that i'm sure the place had in the early days.
Some topics seem to provoke quite heated debate, generally hardware/software where one person's experience doesn't mirror that of another and the two sides are unwilling to accept the validity of the others' experience. Mostly these seem to get smoothed over within thread, but there are the odd topics that veer wildly off-course and become too personal. They generally get moderated out of existence pretty quickly, as we are good at reported them when they get out of hand.
I've also noticed that the same topics tend to keep re-appearing, and once you've answered the same question 3 or 4 times you tend to make answers briefer and briefer, and then misunderstandings can occur. (Photon's emphasis)
Finally, it is easy to forget that a lot of members here have english as a second language, and misunderstandings can occur due to that.
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RCicala wrote:
I agree it's worse the last few years and agree that it's not FM. It seems to just be society.
When I take a mental step back and realize to some posters being 'right' on a largely anonymous internet forum is obviously incredibly important emotionally - well, that makes me realize I don't ever want to become that guy and I'm not angry anymore.
+1
I do enjoy it when I feel that people are actually listening to me (and I to them), and a connection, even OT humor, seems worthwhile. However, emotional arguments in this medium have no interest for me.
alundeb wrote:
Just a thought. The common knowledge about gear is at a much higher level now than say 7 years ago. At that time, we were enthusiastic about helping each other collecting knowledge. One example: Dynamic range. We developed methods to find it, we did experiments and shared our data here. Everyone was happy to find out things, and eager to learn more. Now there is a great availability of objective tests, and we know a lot more than we used to. In addition, the availability of superb gear is much higher. I think this has influenced the discussions a lot. Now it is a lot about "you don't really need that". Nobody will be happy in such a discussion.
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Very good point. Ten years ago, I joined FM in large part because I didn't know what to do with raw files. Following the trails through that technical area, I learned things about configuring cameras that were somewhat unfamiliar to me (back button focus, e.g.). This was a good clearinghouse of useful info. We had people willing to write articles - essentially tutorials - explaining color management, anti-aliasing filters, Bayer mosaics, theoretical and practical sensor resolution, the difference between film and digital response curves, etc.
Now, all of these topics are covered extensively on the web, and are often a part of the early education of photographers who have any technical interest (not to mention engineers), so the younger people on FM have no need of such discussions except to dispute (discuss) minutia. It's only natural for a certain amount of combativeness to result. When people beat on me, I just abandon a thread. I'm not going to be pushed out of FM.
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