Moderation

Shortly after the Sony A1 was launched, I started a thread in the EOS R forum basically saying that in most respects my R5 was as good as or better than the Sony which was $2,500 more expensive. Now, you may or may not agree with me 😁, but nobody was able to dispute it and/or convince me otherwise, because the thread was summarily deleted. When I asked for a reason, I was told that it was in the wrong forum because I wasn't discussing EOS R cameras!! (But remember it was deleted, not moved to the Sony forum.)

I used to moderate a very busy and successful forum (not a photography one) so I know what a thankless task it can be. But this decision was ludicrous, and I had no recourse. What's more, other threads making basically the same point appeared in the following days and were not deleted or locked, but if I had started another I would have run the risk of a ban for disrespecting the moderator's decision. Well, for the record I have no respect for the moderator in question, due to this and at least one more incident which I won't bore you all with. It's heartening to learn from some of the comments in this thread that I'm not alone!

No, because they decided to close a social media site that may have mental health ramifications for the participants. Maybe Amazon doesn't want the bad publicity. Maybe they would make concessions. Maybe they'll just say screw you.

And you have no idea if it represents any revenue or not.

LOL! Scared of losing their "power and influence" in internet photography land?

I believe that a brand new team of moderators would serve this site best.

Going off topic of course is not a federal crime - it just belongs in a separate thread with the appropriate title. When the content of a thread reaches the point that the new input on the original topic is exhausted - then time to wrap it up and move on. Most threads do end up in the weeds to some extent. I think for the most part the 150 post limit of DPR was just too long for most threads. More than once I contacted a Mod and asked for a post to be locked when it was clear to me it had run its course and noting new was being added to the original topic. So if something comes up in a thread that is "off topic" but of interest - start a new thread with an appropriate title.

Asking for a thread to be locked ... this is too much, IMO.

Threads can be locked/archived after certain time of no activity, if needed.

Why would they need to be archived? Is there a benefit to that (as opposed to just letting them sink down in the thread lists)?

One concern I'd have is that we would want the content of all threads to be accessible from a single search interface. If the content is unified for searching, then it's hard to say what meaning "archiving" really has. If searches are not unified, it will be a PIA to find old threads with important information (unless you already know their archive status).

You can't force a business to continue operating just because someone might not be able to handle it's closure.

Agreed.

Besides which, it would be a very slippery slope. If you could successfully mount that argument against Amazon, well... just about anything anyone (private person or corporate entity) does might have mental health ramifications for someone, somewhere.

In that respect, it's probably best if we are all left to take responsibility for preserving our own mental health, including finding ways to recognize and manage addictions (including social media addictions). ; )

I disagree with practically everyone.

I prefer more moderation over spam and personal attacks. If I become uncivil, delete the post. I prefer that anyway. The purpose of the board is to discuss photography. Of course don’t delete opinions you disagree with but uncivil comments, such as quoting Ken Rockwell as a knowledgeable source, should not be tolerated.

🙂 It could be an honest mistake…

I didn't suggest you could. I'm certainly not suggesting I would take them to court over mental health issues over shutting down DPR. I was just piggybacking off Bobn2's post. But I am surprised in trigger happy litigation USA (and Canada to a lesser extent) that someone didn't give it a shot.

Ah, okay. Gotcha 👍

I know Rockwell is overbearing and annoying but his library of lens reviews is very useful. Not so much his opinions, but his very detailed descriptions. You can learn a lot about unfamiliar gear from his articles. Just ignore his pronouncements.

@ArvoJ

Holy Moley man... if the guy is trying to turn-a-buck, why the heck would that upset you.