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welshwizard645

welshwizard645

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Don't know if it's already been mentioned on here...

but in the early days, before I discovered TP, I used to contribute to the forums on the AP website. Just noticed it is no more.... not as if it is dormant or anything, so whatever the poster has put up has vanished.

Thought it was very good at the start, but like a lot of forums (except TP) lost visitors to other social networks...

RIP AP forum
 
There was a continuation group that was active for a while after the publishers closed down the original. I can't find it now, probably because I can't even remember what they called it.
 
I think it lost some momentum after one or two key players expired. It was always rather a clique imho but pleasant enough environment. Then I found TP
 
The magazine ownership changed hands and after a few years they closed the forum, I think citing the need to update the software as a reason. The active membership towards the end was very limited. A new forum has been set up by some of those members.
 
Like Lindsay, I found it a bit cliquey but an OK place to be. IIRC, a couple of ex-mods here used to be mods there too. Having known Yv for several years on another forum (not photography related) and IRL, I came here and have stayed.
I also went on one of the magazine's workshop days and had several shots in the mag many years ago, having been recruited via the forum.
 
Similarly in the world of Land Rover ownership, the various magazines had forums (fora?), which were a mine of information.
All gone now :(
 
I agree with some others, it was very much an old boys club, you were in or out.
 
Cockney said:
I agree with some others, it was very much an old boys club, you were in or out.
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It definitely went that way and I suspect that was what led the publishers to dump it.

It's good that this site has so far avoided that happening, despite the ill will of one or two people.
 
TP is remarkable really. I think it's the only forum I know that hasn't suffered from wholesale defections to FB.
 
PeteNaples said:
Similarly in the world of Land Rover ownership, the various magazines had forums (fora?), which were a mine of information.
All gone now :(
Click to expand...
LRUK Forums is still going, I see; probably thanks to Big Sandy, one of the founders. I was a moderator there for a few years until it went quiet due to the rise of Fæcesbook groups. :-(
 
So what used to happen before forums? Because photography had the currency of being a 'thing' and an evolving culture going back years. Forums are NEW!

Think on it. I had a film scanner long before I had internet. But the digital march was obviously in progress.

Anyway, TP has a rude vigour that it's hard to imagine any others matching - and I haven't really bothered with any others. I like its UK basis - which to me confers a grounded quality, even though photography (as a 'thing', again, and a practice) is international.

I know that I've changed the subject slightly. But I never bothered with the AP forum, just as I never bothered with the AP magazine, which looked like a limp rag with its floppy paper. And how much can you say about photography, week after week, without being repetitive?

Anyway ....

Let's get on with life!
 
droj said:
So what used to happen before forums? Because photography had the currency of being a 'thing' and an evolving culture going back years. Forums are NEW!
Click to expand...
Obviously forums owe their existence to the WWW, but as far as I’m aware, as soon as the internet became popular enough, bulletin boards grew attracting populations with common beliefs.

Pre internet, camera clubs are almost as old as photography itself. See also the RPS and other communal activities.

For me personally, I never fancied camera clubs, but read loads of magazines back in the pre internet days, and also did a night school course.
 
News Groups, you've all forgotten News Groups?
 
Before the net AP and other mags. were my main sources of information.
Like Phil., I did a night school course.
 
lindsay said:
I think it lost some momentum after one or two key players expired. It was always rather a clique imho but pleasant enough environment. Then I found TP
Click to expand...

I used to post there and this was my experience and so much so that people (er...me..) were issued temporary bans for daring to question a chosen one. Some of the stuff posted there was just off the wall. I remember a mod claiming that his Canon 5D's never suffered sensor contamination when he transported them lens off and sensor exposed on the back seat of his car.

Sad that it's gone but it was IMO and at least when I was posting there a dubious place and not just because I posted there.
 
lindsay said:
I think it lost some momentum after one or two key players expired. It was always rather a clique imho but pleasant enough environment. Then I found TP
Click to expand...

Nod said:
Like Lindsay, I found it a bit cliquey but an OK place to be. IIRC, a couple of ex-mods here used to be mods there too. Having known Yv for several years on another forum (not photography related) and IRL, I came here and have stayed.
I also went on one of the magazine's workshop days and had several shots in the mag many years ago, having been recruited via the forum.
Click to expand...

Cockney said:
I agree with some others, it was very much an old boys club, you were in or out.
Click to expand...

Yes, very much a cliquey forum and @Nod, I remember you! ;)
 
Before the WWW and even earlier, a weekly magazine was great, the Letters pages were where some degree of discussion could be had. Indeed as editor of a monthly amateur radio magazine now, I wish people would write to me more! Everyone goes to a forum or FB now, so of course the advertisers drop away, and the editorial/feature content becomes a real; struggle to maintain at a suitable standard of interest and energy - hence reducing subscriber/reader numbers and an ageing demographic of the readership.
The AP forum for me was only of occasional interest, and after a while became rather dull through lack of genuine discussion. The great thing about TP I think is that we have very broad but also deep coverage of topics and image genres and a degree of international representation which prevents it getting too parochial, and a good age profile in the sense that we are not all old codgers - only some of us!
 
Marc said:
Yes, very much a cliquey forum and @Nod, I remember you! ;)
Click to expand...


TBH, I don't remember too much about my time there - it was when Mr Meningioma was getting a hold and my brane wasn't at its best!!! Pretty sure you were Fab(?s) back then, as you were here (again, ?) a few years ago.
 
lindsay said:
Before the WWW and even earlier, a weekly magazine was great,
Click to expand...
I read AP every week, in the local library!

Interesting as AP often was, the magazine which really got me going was the (then) brand new "SLR Magazine", or at least, the first six or seven issues of it. I still think that the second issue was the best example of a photographic magazine I've ever read, and I've still got that original magazine, The article on a now forgotten photographer called Cyril Bernard has continued to influence my photography ever since...

Cyril Bernard article SLR Camera July 1967 TZ70 TZ70 P1030587.JPG
 
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