Banning on DPReview.

Anything else you want to get off your chest or any public chat you want to continue away from a main topic
User avatar
Cogito
Grand Caliph
Posts: 256
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:41 pm
Location: Chatteris, Cambridgeshire.

Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by Cogito »

Silly question because I'm paranoid. Does DPR actually tell you you've been banned or is it just impossible to post? Not only can't I post, I can't even read any posts............
Tony
Be you ever so high, the law is above you. Lord Denning
David Kilpatrick
Site Admin
Posts: 5985
Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 1:14 pm
Location: Kelso, Scotland
Contact:

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by David Kilpatrick »

DPRreview puts up a notice telling me I am banned when I try to log in. I can read posts - anyone can read posts, you don't have to log in to do so. But you can not read 'My Threads' (only logged in dPreview readers can do that), post replies, view details of posters to send personal messages, or anything else. I appear to be banned permanently, officially because I launched into Richard Butler's immature use of the word 'slovenly' to describe the frames per second shooting rate of the A350. It happens to be the fastest shooting rate of any live view DSLR! They changed the report, and banned me.

David
User avatar
Cogito
Grand Caliph
Posts: 256
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:41 pm
Location: Chatteris, Cambridgeshire.

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by Cogito »

David Kilpatrick wrote:DPRreview puts up a notice telling me I am banned when I try to log in. I can read posts - anyone can read posts, you don't have to log in to do so.
That's what I thought! It was probably a glitch in the system which they haven't bothered to comment on. Lasted for several hours but this morning I could get on again!
David Kilpatrick wrote:But you can not read 'My Threads' (only logged in dPreview readers can do that), post replies, view details of posters to send personal messages, or anything else. I appear to be banned permanently, officially because I launched into Richard Butler's immature use of the word 'slovenly' to describe the frames per second shooting rate of the A350. It happens to be the fastest shooting rate of any live view DSLR! The changed the report, and banned me.
David
Yeah! I know the story, it's a great shame. The reporting on DPReview has gone downhill, the reviews are at best tardy, as you pointed out the use of English is a sad reflection on the educational system, the forums have become battlegrounds and much as you're missed you're well out of there.
Tony
Be you ever so high, the law is above you. Lord Denning
User avatar
Greg Beetham
Tower of Babel
Posts: 6117
Joined: Sun May 27, 2007 3:25 pm
Location: Townsville, Qld. Australia
Contact:

The thing I don't follow is,

Unread post by Greg Beetham »

if any one of the regular DPR users took issue with the use of the word "slovenly" in the review and criticized it in a self initiated post I doubt anyone at DPR would have taken much notice, there has often been quite loud criticism of DPR's alleged bias etc. by posters various without any visible repercussions, sometimes the subject of the annoyance (a DPR employee) even becomes embroiled in the kerfuffel, arguing in his defence, pointing out deficiencies in various posters arguments etc. .....so why such an extreme response in Davids case ?? it's surely not worth a permanent ban.
I have to admit I'm a little baffled.
Greg
ps. I think there might be an element of journalistic jealousy-envy involved...... :mrgreen:
User avatar
bakubo
Tower of Babel
Posts: 5865
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:55 am
Location: Japan
Contact:

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by bakubo »

Today the following 2 threads were started about DK and his ridiculous ban:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=28631445

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=28634814
David Kilpatrick
Site Admin
Posts: 5985
Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 1:14 pm
Location: Kelso, Scotland
Contact:

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by David Kilpatrick »

I have read the threads and as usual, attempted a login:

User Login
To access the feature you selected you must first login. If you have not yet registered you can register here. If you have forgotten your password please click here.
Problem: You are banned from these forums, [email protected]

Which I assume means I remain banned. However, I'm not sure I want to return to dPreview's forums with a feeling of being an unwelcome visitor - or under scrutiny.

Photoclubalpha does not take up much of my time and can not for financial reasons. In fact two-thirds of my time is spend producing Master Photo Digital ten times a year (and the same proportion of our son Richard's time - he has just secured a contract to run the user website for another photographic brand). dPreview did not take up much time. I think it has the best forum structure I've ever seen. I am a very fast reader especially at superficial level, something which started when I was pre-school and only got better when I learned shorthand and worked for a newspaper, often with the job of scanning every single daily paper for news items we could follow up. Phil's forum format enables me to spot things of interest very swiftly and get to them.

Dyxum.com is nothing like so transparent, and neither is the PHPBB3 forum we are using here. I find them clumsy and time consuming to follow and post in. My wife, in contrast, hates the dPreview format which she finds too small, busy and impersonal and prefers forums with lots of avatars, sigs, sidebar stuff and big space. My main reason for not using dyxum.com more is that I can't see things of interest at a single glance on entry. Also, dyxum.com has fewer outsiders coming in with questions that need answering - same here. dPreview is filled with new forum readers, and I am sad to see that some don't even get a reply to questions now. That is dPreview's weakness - they do not have staff or contracted forum moderator/leaders who can at least show the courtesy of saying hello to a new poster.

I have tried to find a 'skin' or CSS for BB3 which could make this forum more like dPreview's in compactness and quick-glance updating, but no such thing appears to exist. After all, it's just a database of entries, and it should be possible to view it in an entirely different shell, but I am not a programmer.

Thanks everyone for the 'support' on dPreview - it's like being ejected from Big Brother and getting cheering crowd outside :-)

David
User avatar
Cogito
Grand Caliph
Posts: 256
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:41 pm
Location: Chatteris, Cambridgeshire.

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by Cogito »

David Kilpatrick wrote:I have read the threads and as usual, attempted a login:
Which I assume means I remain banned. However, I'm not sure I want to return to dPreview's forums with a feeling of being an unwelcome visitor - or under scrutiny.
David
Unwelcome??? Just look at the response!! Your time is obviously valuable to many people and so even spending a little there could prove expensive, but your input is equally valuable to many, many camera users.
Whether DPR relents or not, you are and will be missed.

Oh! And by the way, got my first edition of Photoworld today. My only comment? It's too small! Image. I've already read it - ALL! Very interesting and a good read. Thank you.
Tony
Be you ever so high, the law is above you. Lord Denning
David Kilpatrick
Site Admin
Posts: 5985
Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 1:14 pm
Location: Kelso, Scotland
Contact:

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by David Kilpatrick »

Nick Green, posting on dPreview where I am unable to reply, says this:

"DK's posts are sometimes far from accurate. For instance he has helped promote a myth that the Sony sensors used in the A200 - 350 are significantly better than the A100. Basically DK is biased towards Sony and against the spirit of DPreview. I know DK posts some useful stuff here - but the facts are there - he misleads too often."

Just to make it quite clear, I own and use A100, A200 and A350. The sensors of the A200 and A350 are superior to the A100 (or at least, the overall combination of sensor and firmware and image processing chain is superior). This includes a better dynamic range and lower high ISO noise, and the A350 is included in that despite having 14.2 megapixels.

What is really damaging is someone able to state that two years of progress and development making a superior sensor/processor outcome possible is a 'myth', and not be challenged to produce evidence that the A200/300 and 350 are NOT a significant advance on the A100. I do not peddle myths and I do not favour Sony over any other maker; if you want a state of the art 10 megapixel sensor get the Canon 1000D, you may not like the camera much but within its working limits (tightly defined by Canon) of 100-1600 ISO it's as good as a Sony between 100 and 400. On the other hand, the Live View is awful and it's no wonder Canon disable it by default in the camera as delivered and require a byzantine menu-setting process and some obscure button presses to make it actually function (if any upgrading digicam owner tried it next to an A350/300 they just wouldn't buy the Canon, end of story).

David
Ken_A700
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:52 am

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by Ken_A700 »

David,
You now know why I swallowed some pride and ended my voluntary absence from the board. Its gets frustrating to see the stuff people post as fact with out even a Google to see if it is true.
Its clear to me there are some immature folks who have no business being in any facsimile of a journalistic enterprise.. Critics who fold under criticism are some of the worst hypocrites.

Do what works for you..

Keep writing valuable stuff we can all learn from..

Ken
David Kilpatrick
Site Admin
Posts: 5985
Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 1:14 pm
Location: Kelso, Scotland
Contact:

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by David Kilpatrick »

Hi Ken - good to see you here in updated guise!

David
User avatar
bakubo
Tower of Babel
Posts: 5865
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:55 am
Location: Japan
Contact:

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by bakubo »

Yes, I agree that dpreview has the best forum software design I have seen. I am fairly sure they wrote their own. The software that this forum, dyxum, and many other internet forums use is not as good in a few important ways. The photo.net forum software, I believe, was written by Philip Greenspun some years ago, but it is more like the software here than the software at dpreview. Here are some of the major things I prefer about the dpreview software:

1. I don't like the flat view style (dpreview has threaded and flat view) because you can't tell which response goes with what. With the threaded view you can have many sub-conversations in any thread. That is very powerful. I don't see any reason at all why the software that you use here couldn't be modified to do that. I'm wondering if that is something that is configurable and can be turned on? The Yahoo Groups software is not as good as dpreview, but they do allow something similar if you select Group by Topic. Sometimes it doesn't get the messages grouped properly though since they are actually just e-mails and it depends on the subject line being the same. The software you use doesn't depend on that since there is never any ambiguity to the software which reply goes with which thread. Also, I like being able to see quickly exactly which posts I haven't read yet (because the subject line is still displayed by the browser as a link I haven't clicked on before). I can quickly go in and see what is new and who has posted.

2. Because you can have a threaded view it is easy to reply to exactly the post you want and it is clear to everyone which one that is (except for people using flat view).

3. I like and use My Threads all the time to see if a thread I participated in has been updated.

4. The dpreview forum software is generally pretty fast. Maybe they just have better and faster servers though.

Items 1-3 should be relatively simple for the phpbb software to do. I have never used it though so I don't know if they allow it to be configured to do it.

Some things I like about the software you and others use are:

1. I like the text options at the top of the reply window (B, i, u, etc.).

2. The option to have an e-mail sent when there is a reply. Of course, if it is a busy forum like dpreview then that would be a big load on the system because there might be so many e-mails going out every minute. With a busy forum you would probably want to disable this option.

3. Ability to sort threads in various ways.

4. I like View unanswered posts, View new posts, and View active topics.

Another thing that I think makes the dpreview forums more dynamic is that they are not broken up into so many different forums except (mostly) based on camera brand/models rather than many sub-topics. With many sub-topics it is harder to quickly see what is new since one new post might be in the Flash forum, the next one might be in the Off Topic forum, the next might be in the Lens Lore forum, and so on. Using View new posts though results in something similar. Sometimes it is a bit difficult to decide which forum to post a new message.
Carlj
Heirophant
Posts: 67
Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:39 pm
Location: Stoke on Trent

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by Carlj »

Judging by the response David got at DP re: the ban, if half of the posts appeared here, we'd be deluged whenever we hit the unread posts button :?

BTW, can I sub to the mag via paper formats?
Javelin
Emperor of a Minor Galaxy
Posts: 1856
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2008 4:51 pm

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by Javelin »

The DPR forum software is defiantly the best. Dyxum I find un readable . I've tried and tried .. theres just too many forums that split the conversations up too much. when I first started posting there I was on a laptop at 1024x738 and it was impossible to see any of the pictures. DPRS embedded picture handling is a real plus
bakubo wrote:Yes, I agree that dpreview has the best forum software design I have seen. I am fairly sure they wrote their own. The software that this forum, dyxum, and many other internet forums use is not as good in a few important ways. The photo.net forum software, I believe, was written by Philip Greenspun some years ago, but it is more like the software here than the software at dpreview. Here are some of the major things I prefer about the dpreview software:
David Kilpatrick
Site Admin
Posts: 5985
Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 1:14 pm
Location: Kelso, Scotland
Contact:

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by David Kilpatrick »

Carlj wrote:Judging by the response David got at DP re: the ban, if half of the posts appeared here, we'd be deluged whenever we hit the unread posts button :?

BTW, can I sub to the mag via paper formats?
Yes, the magazine sub if paid for is paper- real magazine delivered, honest!

Also, you can fax credit card details for a sub now to 01573 226000 if you don't want to use email. I just got a new multifunction fax/copy/scan/print laser machine and I am receiving faxes reliably.

David
User avatar
bakubo
Tower of Babel
Posts: 5865
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:55 am
Location: Japan
Contact:

Re: Banning on DPReview.

Unread post by bakubo »

By the way, my post above about the advantages of the dpreview forum software was in response to something David had written somewhere, I thought in this thread but now I think it was elsewhere, about how he wished that the phpbb3 software could be configured/changed to be more like the dpreview forums. It was not meant as a dig at this site's forums.
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests