Improvements to the Site and Forums!

[Bioshox]

Well, I beta tested PHPBB 3.0 for months before it's initial release, after using PHP 2.0 I saw lots of changes and features, after its release hardly any Modification's came out, nor did styles, It's been out approx 2 years now and there's probably only 30 Styles and 30 mods if you search hard enough!

So the probability of finding gallery modification for this Software is slim, PHPBB is by far the worst software for community's out right now, although it's legacy version 2.0 was very good! And it held very good modifications and styles!

There are multiple free different BB Software on the Internet right now

SMF is the best at the moment, its easy to use, there are plenty modifications and styles, and you will probably find a gallery for that one - http://www.simplemachines.org/

and MyBB and that's second after SMF, it also holds good features, mods and styles - http://www.mybboard.net/

You can get software which converts PHPBB to either of this software, bringing members, posts, forums, pictures ect over with it!

I recommend you look into this

Thanks
Jacob

[Paul Jones]

The important information could be higher up the page and a map would be good to.

I feel that the point he makes is about hierarchy of information; my first instinct was to scroll down the page and see if anything jumped out. When it didn't I had to scan read the whole page. I think the address, meeting times and joining fee could be more prominent as these are key bits.

I've re-written parts of the 'Join Us' page and moved the membership fee higher up the page.

There's a direct link to the 'Location' page in the text.

The 'Location' page has a map.

http://www.adaps.org.uk/join.htm

[Brian]

I like the idea of member galleries but I really think that would bog the website down and up our server usage .. but after looking at other local club sites I am suprised that we at least don't have a contests page .. I know Len has posted the winners from the recent digital contest in the forum, which I thikn is an excelent idea , but I think it would be nice if we had a contest page with, monthly contests catalogued by year, and the top 10 images from contests displayed, so Joe Public can come and look at the quality of our work without having to wade through pages of forum posts.

My concern with Jacobs first post (and forgive me if I got your point wrong) we are a photo club and as much as Photo manipulations in PS or what ever software you use is now accepted, Imageshack, DA and others can be seen as "Stock" galleries (I should know thats what my main DA account is) ... This shouldn't really be allowed in club contests .. it should be all your own work .. ok mashed together from a raft of your own pics on your hard drive but deffo not taking someone else's picture's to include in your contest entry. Sorry if I got the wrong end of the stick here though Jacob

[Bioshox]

I like the idea of member galleries but I really think that would bog the website down and up our server usage .. but after looking at other local club sites I am suprised that we at least don't have a contests page .. I know Len has posted the winners from the recent digital contest in the forum, which I thikn is an excelent idea , but I think it would be nice if we had a contest page with, monthly contests catalogued by year, and the top 10 images from contests displayed, so Joe Public can come and look at the quality of our work without having to wade through pages of forum posts.

My concern with Jacobs first post (and forgive me if I got your point wrong) we are a photo club and as much as Photo manipulations in PS or what ever software you use is now accepted, Imageshack, DA and others can be seen as "Stock" galleries (I should know thats what my main DA account is) ... This shouldn't really be allowed in club contests .. it should be all your own work .. ok mashed together from a raft of your own pics on your hard drive but deffo not taking someone else's picture's to include in your contest entry. Sorry if I got the wrong end of the stick here though Jacob

Nope, completely wrong about deviantART.
DeviantART is an Art community. iv been using it since version three and iv beta tested all versions up to now!

Its a community for Artists to post there work and receive comments, maybe resources are there, but that's because its a large scale art community, they have expos all over the world from the top artists on that site.

Its an all round community from Web Designs to Stock Images to Photography, to Poems ect!

Imageshack is not a gallery either, its an online Image Hosting facility incase you dont have your own webspace. If I wanted to post an image on this website without using there own hosting and the upload feature on this BB I would use Imageshack, Tinypic, Sixpop ect and then I could put the BB code on any other website and forum to link to the same image instead of using the individual board hosting.

I hope that clears it up .

Also i recommend everyone checks out DepthCORE. Not sure if anyone is interested in Digital Art but this is definitely the place to be for inspiration, web designs ect! http://www.depthcore.com/ from Photo Manipulation to Pure Digital Art.

Thanks
Jacob.

[Walter Brooks]

Thanks for the link to Depthcore, some interesting images there

Walter

[Brian]

I like the idea of member galleries but I really think that would bog the website down and up our server usage .. but after looking at other local club sites I am suprised that we at least don't have a contests page .. I know Len has posted the winners from the recent digital contest in the forum, which I thikn is an excelent idea , but I think it would be nice if we had a contest page with, monthly contests catalogued by year, and the top 10 images from contests displayed, so Joe Public can come and look at the quality of our work without having to wade through pages of forum posts.

My concern with Jacobs first post (and forgive me if I got your point wrong) we are a photo club and as much as Photo manipulations in PS or what ever software you use is now accepted, Imageshack, DA and others can be seen as "Stock" galleries (I should know thats what my main DA account is) ... This shouldn't really be allowed in club contests .. it should be all your own work .. ok mashed together from a raft of your own pics on your hard drive but deffo not taking someone else's picture's to include in your contest entry. Sorry if I got the wrong end of the stick here though Jacob

Nope, completely wrong about deviantART.
DeviantART is an Art community. iv been using it since version three and iv beta tested all versions up to now!

Its a community for Artists to post there work and receive comments, maybe resources are there, but that's because its a large scale art community, they have expos all over the world from the top artists on that site.

Its an all round community from Web Designs to Stock Images to Photography, to Poems ect!

Imageshack is not a gallery either, its an online Image Hosting facility incase you dont have your own webspace. If I wanted to post an image on this website without using there own hosting and the upload feature on this BB I would use Imageshack, Tinypic, Sixpop ect and then I could put the BB code on any other website and forum to link to the same image instead of using the individual board hosting.

I hope that clears it up .

Also i recommend everyone checks out DepthCORE. Not sure if anyone is interested in Digital Art but this is definitely the place to be for inspiration, web designs ect! http://www.depthcore.com/ from Photo Manipulation to Pure Digital Art.

Thanks
Jacob.

I too have been a long standing member of DA and have hovered around the site since about V2 or 3 myself .. And I know how exactly it works ... but from how it works and in relation to the photography you see in adaps I can't see any connection .. Ok you can display your pictures there, granted, but what use is that to a contest or club night ? As I said, I may have got you wrong, but with using DA in your photography would be like just being a normal Photo Manipulator and using images from DA as stock and the whole point of the club is YEAH make a "collage" or photo manip but all the pictures HAVE to be yours .. and not gathered from a stock library .. that would make us a PhotoShop/Manipulations/Art club and thats not what we are ... Any way like I said I nmay have got you wrong on where you were heading

P.S I prefer http://www.cgsociety.org/ to depthCORE

[Brian]

I like the idea of member galleries but I really think that would bog the website down and up our server usage .. but after looking at other local club sites I am suprised that we at least don't have a contests page .. I know Len has posted the winners from the recent digital contest in the forum, which I thikn is an excelent idea , but I think it would be nice if we had a contest page with, monthly contests catalogued by year, and the top 10 images from contests displayed, so Joe Public can come and look at the quality of our work without having to wade through pages of forum posts.

My concern with Jacobs first post (and forgive me if I got your point wrong) we are a photo club and as much as Photo manipulations in PS or what ever software you use is now accepted, Imageshack, DA and others can be seen as "Stock" galleries (I should know thats what my main DA account is) ... This shouldn't really be allowed in club contests .. it should be all your own work .. ok mashed together from a raft of your own pics on your hard drive but deffo not taking someone else's picture's to include in your contest entry. Sorry if I got the wrong end of the stick here though Jacob

Nope, completely wrong about deviantART.
DeviantART is an Art community. iv been using it since version three and iv beta tested all versions up to now!

Its a community for Artists to post there work and receive comments, maybe resources are there, but that's because its a large scale art community, they have expos all over the world from the top artists on that site.

Its an all round community from Web Designs to Stock Images to Photography, to Poems ect!

Imageshack is not a gallery either, its an online Image Hosting facility incase you dont have your own webspace. If I wanted to post an image on this website without using there own hosting and the upload feature on this BB I would use Imageshack, Tinypic, Sixpop ect and then I could put the BB code on any other website and forum to link to the same image instead of using the individual board hosting.

I hope that clears it up .

Also i recommend everyone checks out DepthCORE. Not sure if anyone is interested in Digital Art but this is definitely the place to be for inspiration, web designs ect! http://www.depthcore.com/ from Photo Manipulation to Pure Digital Art.

Thanks
Jacob.

Oh and after the complete shambles V5 was I would never own up to beta testing that crock of 5H1T, D.A.'s darkest hours .. not that the bloatware website is any better as it stands now but hell who am I to complain

[Bioshox]

Brian, sorry, you're completely wrong.

DeviantART is an Art Community. A Community, is somewhere someone goes, to post there work, get comments and feedback, its Nothing, to do with a club night, or ADAP's but its a place people can go for idea's, help on art.

Sorry, I'm a very good Member of DeviantART, how can you justify its a shambles? When thousands and thousands of pieces of art are uploaded every second?

From the comments you have made it seems like you don't fully see the point in DeviantART or what the site actually is.
Iv been a member of Multiple Forums, Community's and Web Projects since I was 7, When DeviantART first started. For my age I have exceptional knowledge on Web Technology's/Community's, Computing and mostly everything on the Technical side of life.

I do not use DeviantART for my Photographs, I do not use any resources from there website, unless I'm designing a piece of Digital Art or Web Design, then I might use some pre-made Web 2.0 Icon or something, I use DeviantART to showcase my work.

Community's such as ephotozine doesn't appeal to me at all because of its design, its all over the place and in my eyes very badly designed for a Photography Community, DeviantART is very well designed, coded and uses a good variety of web technology.

And I'm quite proud to say I'm a Beta Tester of one of the largest Artist Community's alive today. Just like I am when I say I am for Microsoft, Google and other software vender's and Operating Systems, your comments are just like saying Vista was rubbish and id be ashamed to say I use it, the only reason it was deemed rubbish in the first place was because no one had the correct hardware to run it, Microsoft got a few things wrong with it yeah, but on the whole it was a very good operating system, if you go and buy Win 7 on release, its Vista with a new GUI and Kernel and a few removed features and improved features. Companies such as Apple and Linux still cannot compete with Windows.

Although the last paragraph is merely my opinion on art community's, of course it is personal preference.

I hope that clears up what DeviantART is for.

And I don't use DepthCORE although its a very nice site.

DeviantART is the only Good Standing Art Community alive today, as alot shut down about 2 years ago as before I decided to take up Photography I did Graphic Design and learnt that for a good 4 years!

Thanks,
Jacob.

ps. sorry if i seem abit GRR in this post I don't intend it to be!