Hi All:

Is it my imagination, or has it gotten a bit quiet around here? Hybrid is the only forum site I've participated in on a regular basis, so maybe it's just a summer thing. I don't know about y'all, but I'd feel like something was missing if hybrid went kaput. Any thoughts? (excluding that I'm being a pain in the backside for nagging about this:) ).

Denise

All internet forums tend to quiet down a bit in the summer, so I wouldn't be too concerned that the forum is in decline.

I read the forum all the time, but haven't had much reason to post anything.

my sense has been an increase of messages lately, not as many as apug, but frankly, i don't mind.

People are working, not sitting around trying to create chaos :)

i can't peak for sean, but i find it hard to belive he measures the success just by numbers. If i remember correctly at one time he indicated that he was over joyed when Apug had 10 post a day.

I don't have the feeling that people are going to disappear.

there are lots of digital post card type(camera club) websites, this isn't one of them; or at least i hope it never falls into that classification.

just my 2cents

Yes it's slow, but that's not a bad thing. There are quite a few
photography related forums online that are very active, but an
awful lot of the commenting is just chit chat and socializing, and
repetition of information. I'm not saying that's a bad thing....
but I don't mind that Hybrid Photo is quiet. I know if I have a
question, I'll get excellent help here. I scan the forum nearly
every day, and if I can be of help to someone I'm glad to do so.

Just think of the "quiet" here as the sound of artists making art
instead of talking about it :cool:

susan

The site has slowed marginally. Sean has asked me to make a banner that will be put on APUG and this will drive more traffic to the site. In addition to the banner I'd like to hear what any suggestions...

I think the plan for a banner on APUG is a wonderful idea. A cross-pollination of ideas can't help but enrich all.

I believe that photography is unique among all human endeavors (disclaimer: I unabashedly admit that, for me, the pursuit of photography merges with the metaphysical).
It is possible to be a great artist with only a cellphone camera or a roll of 35mm slides developed by a drugstore and not understand anything about the technology but pushing a button. Or, you can be a great scientist who understands the chemical structures of sensitizing dyes without being able to get a roll of film to the drugstore. However, most of us fall somewhere in between - trying our best to channel Leonardo da Vinci.

Any effort that pulls the disparate facets of photography together and recognizes the Whole just has to be a good thing.

John,

I'll comment that IMO this forum is difficult and fatiguing to read physically and thus I don't visit very often. The blue and orange against white (or is it a pale blue ?) coupled with the small font size put me off. I feel as though I'm staring into a lightbulb when I read this forum.

Any chance the look could be switched to a darker and simpler gray scheme like APUG? Simple is good.

I'd also suggest adopting the layout of APUG in the gallery presentation pages.

Joe

John,

I'll comment that IMO this forum is difficult and fatiguing to read physically and thus I don't visit very often. The blue and orange against white (or is it a pale blue ?) coupled with the small font size put me off. I feel as though I'm staring into a lightbulb when I read this forum.

Any chance the look could be switched to a darker and simpler gray scheme like APUG? Simple is good.

I'd also suggest adopting the layout of APUG in the gallery presentation pages.

Joe
Ditto what Joe wrote.

Don Bryant

Yeah, I agree with Joe also. Darker and simpler would be good.

Susan

I had to go to APUG to see the difference. I agree with Joe; that simple black on grey is a lot easier on the eyes than the white with blue and orange. I hadn't noticed it consciously, but now that it's brought to my attention, yeah...
kt

Joe, Susan, Don, KT
Prior to this I did receive a complaint about the white background. The contrast of the site can be lowered, but it will not wind up looking like apug. I need to hear from more folks regarding this. In another thread there was a similar amount of people who liked the white background. I'll make a poll on this and see if we can get a consensus.

The gallery used here is different and cheaper than apug's. At some point we may be able to migrate to apugs or better.

The color scheme was mentioned above and I'd like to comment on that.

I've never seen the relationship between the blue and orange colors. They
are opposites, and as such, tend to be jarring and to draw my eye away from
the forum content. They battle each other. Imo a more harmonious
combination with a greyed-down chroma would add some visual interest
without drawing attention to itself. Or maybe just one accent color, also
with a softer chroma.

Also, the font used in the navigation bars is still very awkward to read. I
thought I would get used to it, but I never have. In general, reversed-out
type is easy to read, but the way this font bleeds off the edges of the
colored ellipses negates that advantage.

The colors and the navigation bars are certainly an opportunity to establish
a certain sense of style to the forum pages, and I think it's a good idea that
could just use a little tweaking.

As I said in another post, it's much easier to criticize an existing design than
it is to CREATE a design. (I'm trying to design my own website and it's killing
me to make all those decisions, and I keep second-guessing my choices...
arrrggghhhh). I've tried here to give some logical reasons for my comments
as well as offer suggestions that might be helpful.

Susan

John, I have to agree that something a little softer on the eyes might be better. A lot of floaters in these old eyes and reading via radiative light is difficult with the high contrast. A kick in font size would help as well.

As for it being slow here, I agree that that is not a bad thing considering chit chat is readily available on APUG and others. Growing is fine, but I love the fact there is a get to the point kind of attitude here.

Bill

Thanks guys. I did start another thread for site review. It can be found here:
http://www.hybridphoto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=447

Hi All:

Anyone still satisfied with the participation on hybrid?

I promise that if I'm the only one who wants more, I'll never bring up the subject again (Or, I'll just the follow the example of my peers: no subject at all unless it's to ask a digital question).

Peace and Creativity,
Denise

Perhaps more activity would be nice, but not if it degrades to ranting, ravings, or water cooler gossip. there are a lot of site already filling that "need".

Every time I login to apug I get frustrated by the message at the top-right corner, mentioning about 8965 (or more) new posts since last login ;). I'm quite happy that here it's up to 10 and I manage to select easily what I want to read and actually read it.

I'm satisfied with Hybrid.

There are plenty of huge photo sites with all the drama and endless discussions
about "what is art", "why do we photograph/paint", etc.. I don't want Hybrid to
become another one of those.

I agree that quiet is better. It seems that when information is needed, people rise to the occasion.