[pepperberry farm]

I just took a quick look at the stats you've been batting about in this thread....

(I spend way too much time here)

[Just1MoreDave]

I was amazed to see that "Brother #2" - the first member after Adam - was from Estonia! Reps, who posted last in 2020. PF spread far and wide from the very start.

Does anyone remember how the site was originally "advertised"?

I saw some posts about it on dpreview. I found them when I got my *ist DS, and their forum was decent. I didn't see the point of another forum at the time, so I didn't switch over immediately. It wasn't long before the differences became clear.

[Rondec]

I just took a quick look at the stats you've been batting about in this thread....

(I spend way too much time here)

I think you are the clubhouse leader in terms of likes with a strong lead on second place.

Good job!

(It would be interesting to look at ratio of posts to likes -- looks like you average around 0.78 likes per post, which seems like a very good percentage).

[pepperberry farm]

I think you are the clubhouse leader in terms of likes with a strong lead on second place.

Good job!

(It would be interesting to look at ratio of posts to likes -- looks like you average around 0.78 likes per post, which seems like a very good percentage).

dubious honors, at best for me.....

[UncleVanya]

dubious honors, at best for me.....

Lol. I love your posts!

[pepperberry farm]

Lol. I love your posts!

thank you...

[scratchpaddy]

I'm apparently fifth on the likes page. It appears to me that posting lots of images is the way to accrue likes.

For sure. That's pretty much all I've done in the past few years, and I see I've climbed my way up to page 4 on the "likes" scale. I kind of lost interest in discussing gear. From a technical perspective, my gear does everything I need it to, so what's there to talk about? I just have fun with it, and share the results.

My actual connection to Pentax has gotten pretty tenuous. I just sometimes use Pentax (or Takumar) lenses, and I love using them, but that's it. But as others have said, I stick around for the wonderful community here. I haven't found anywhere else nearly as nice.

[savoche]

It would be interesting to look at ratio of posts to likes -- looks like you average around 0.78 likes per post, which seems like a very good percentage

Indeed. That's an impressive ratio, and even more so with Pepperberry's total number of posts! Not that you are too far behind - on either account.

dubious honors, at best for me.....

Says you. The general membership don't seem to see the dubiousness of it

[savoche]

For sure. That's pretty much all I've done in the past few years, and I see I've climbed my way up to page 4 on the "likes" scale. I kind of lost interest in discussing gear. From a technical perspective, my gear does everything I need it to, so what's there to talk about? I just have fun with it, and share the results.

My actual connection to Pentax has gotten pretty tenuous. I just sometimes use Pentax (or Takumar) lenses, and I love using them, but that's it.

I think it's quite natural to lose some interest in gear once you get to a "good enough" level. When you gear doesn't limit you any more, why look for something better? And what brand your hammer is doesn't really matter as long as it handles well.

Of course, for some discussing gear is an important part of their hobby, and there's nothing wrong with that. I tend to oscillate between the two.

But as others have said, I stick around for the wonderful community here. I haven't found anywhere else nearly as nice.

You are not alone. And I think that the long-standing and very active members are the main factor in keeping the community alive. The activity level here is really quite impressive!

[Rondec]

I think it's quite natural to lose some interest in gear once you get to a "good enough" level. When you gear doesn't limit you any more, why look for something better? And what brand your hammer is doesn't really matter as long as it handles well.

Of course, for some discussing gear is an important part of their hobby, and there's nothing wrong with that. I tend to oscillate between the two.



You are not alone. And I think that the long-standing and very active members are the main factor in keeping the community alive. The activity level here is really quite impressive!

I think you really get attached to people over time -- seeing their posts and sometimes picking up just a little bit on the struggles they are going through. I was quite sad when Rupert passed, the same with Photolady, and knowing that some of our other members are not doing well weighs on my heart.

It really is a community.

I have always liked the words of John Donne,

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."

Truly, when anyone of our community moves on, the rest of the community becomes less -- whatever the reason might have been that they decide to move on.

[scratchpaddy]

I think it's quite natural to lose some interest in gear once you get to a "good enough" level. When you gear doesn't limit you any more, why look for something better? And what brand your hammer is doesn't really matter as long as it handles well.

Of course, for some discussing gear is an important part of their hobby, and there's nothing wrong with that. I tend to oscillate between the two.

Exactly. There's a good tool to fit every hand nowadays.

There was a period after dawn of digital photography when we made tremendous technical progress every year. There really was a lot to talk about, with the leaps and bounds made in reducing noise, increasing resolution, better autofocus, etc. It was exciting... but I feel like it's not like that anymore. Given the capitalist society we live in, everyone's attention is still on the latest and greatest products for sale, and it's just this new stuff I've lost interest in talking about. Not because it's bad. Just the opposite: everything modern has gotten so good that I feel like there's not much to talk about to set one product apart from another. Just pick out the one that fits your own niche the best.

I guess I do still enjoy talking about some gear, but more along the lines of the old and obsolete. Pentax has a long history, so there's still plenty of discussion along those lines here. I'd enjoy discussing even more esoteric things, like adapting other optics never meant to take pictures onto a camera, but it seems like there's not as much interest in that anywhere. There's another forum, MFlenses, with a bit more focus on that kind of thing, but I never get around to joining in. That whole forum is kind of dead compared to here, and it's not the community I know and love. So, here I remain.

[R.Miller]

Absolutely. I look at camera gear as tools to get an end result. I have two saws. A table saw and a chop saw. Both cut wood but do it differently based on the need. By the same token I now have two different camera platforms. One that excels for low light, macro and bad weather and the other for light weight hiking and improved long reach. The common thing about both is I can discuss and share images from either one here and not get criticized about how deficient the gear is. Coming from film and ASA 200 I never felt the digital cameras all the way back to the K100D we bad really. But my tolerance lever is probably much higher than others. Not that it's bad to want clean images at high iso either.

Some like to play around with gear for the gear itself and that is fine to. It's all good.

[JensE]

I think you really get attached to people over time -- seeing their posts and sometimes picking up just a little bit on the struggles they are going through.

That relation can be very asymmetric, btw. I usually immediately recognize your often very personal photographs but doubt that outside of the single-in group anybody on the forum would remember any of mine, because they're few and far in between.

While I recognize and relate to people on the forum mostly through their photographs, a few like @photoptimist stand out to by their enormously thoughtful text contributions, so it feels like I know them, despite not even having exchanged any written word personally.

[robgski]

I stumbled into this thread:
Ned gets a new camera - PentaxForums.com

It struck me how few of these posters are still posting here. Then as in the past I wondered what happened to them. Did they move on? Did they pass away? Did they get banned? Do they still shoot Pentax?

Just musing.

Sometime back I asked a similar question as to how many people who introduced themselves on the Welcome and Introduction thread became consistently active PF members. IIRC, The number was pretty low, so it is nice to see new members stick around long enough to become old members.

[normhead]

Sometime back I asked a similar question as to how many people who introduced themselves on the Welcome and Introduction thread became consistently active PF members. IIRC, The number was pretty low, so it is nice to see new members stick around long enough to become old members.

Maybe some are so smart, they pick it all up inside a few days.