Photoclubalpha

Have you ever heard the following?

It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

If you are dissatisfied with the discussion in the forum then please start threads that interest you, post responses to threads that go in the direction you want, etc.

Actually, one thing that I think would be an excellent change to this forum (and dpreview) is to go to the model that some websites are starting to do. Only allow verified people to post here and people use their real name. Everyone knows who I am since I have never tried to hide it and all of my posts have a link to my website and on dpreview I have always used my own name. I would be absolutely fine with changing my id to my name. OneGuyKs, Winkler Prins, and others, I am sure, would be fine also with making their identity public. No anonymity really raises the level of a forum a lot since it is harder to make potshots at people when everyone knows who you are.

What do you think?

Agree!

bakubo wrote:No anonymity really raises the level of a forum a lot since it is harder to make potshots at people when everyone knows who you are.

What do you think?

The other day I sold a lens through another forum, the buyer, before Paypal me googled my name and, of course, my website(s) shown up, then my Facebook profile(s), Linkedin, Flickr (that I barely use) DPR, Dyxum, Twitter, Minolta at Yahoo groups... So yes, I do believe real names are good.

In other hand, real names won't stop some people with bipolar-like behaviors...

I agree. The discussion of protecting ones privacy by use of a nickname is a non-issue. You use the internet so your privacy is forfeited.

I would have no trouble using my real name. My nickname is actually my real name, but with an initial as my firstname.

Mark

I am a sentient hologram.

Atgets_Apprentice wrote:I am a sentient hologram.

Shouldn't that be in the "funnies"?



My name is mostly in my id.
I believe this forum should be a place for open, civil, friendly discussion.
I am for using our names.

Thanks

Thank you for the responses so far.

There is a place for "real" names and a place for Nick Names. Not everyone want s to go the "bar where everyone knows your name", especially on a public forum. There is no need for this forum to become closed.

I'm more than happy for Nick Names/Pseudonyms to continue to be used on this forum. It's been pretty good so far. There is room for disagreement and ALL threads will have the occasional diversion from the topic. Some people on this forum are not native English speakers which can sometimes make the writer sound "blunt" where this is not the writers intention.

Seems like some have got a little sensitive of late. Is it because Barry refuses to be a happy little fan boy? We need a separate thread on why Sony camera "marketing" sucks so badly. Perhaps I'll start one.

Well to be fair I would describe my experiences over the last few years as:

"A Series of Unfortunate Events"

I am probably quite rare in that I've had nothing but problems since day 1 with DSLR's
Km5d had first black frame, despite buying late in production I got hit there
I went through 3 x A200's to get one that didn't have junk in the viewfinder brand new out of the box
I tried Pentax and had a K-x that was essentially useless with SR when used in a certain shutter range (around 1/60-1/100 sec) the mirror slap interfered with the SR causing blurred shots, I then got a K-r that solved that problem, and introduced a new one (massive front focus in low kelvin light)
I bought 3 x D90's all of which had serious back focus problems, 2 trips to service for one body and it was still not right. I then had to fight with an online seller to get a refund on that.
Then I got 2 x D7000's both of which had inconsistent AF and back focus (even with AF fine tune being used) one went for a trip to service which didn't really help that much, the other I sent back to amazon for a refund.
As a last gasp attempt to continue with A mount I picked up an A57 and we know what happened there. I bit my lip with the EVF/SLT aspect at least being prepared to give it a shot and I did. Until I noticed a whopping great green line across some images with strong backlighting, and the level gauge was well off when held vertical shutter release down.

Now I can deal with "problems" if they actually get sorted out, and that's my problem

Pentax were easy enough to get in touch with, but amazingly just ignored the K-r FF problem and worse actually gave me false information (ie it will be fixed with firmware) as the AF module was faulty and they didn't re-call the product or offer a fix I find that astonishingly bad customer support. Worse I was encouraged to write letters to the company (UK and Japan) both of which simply got ignored, not even a standard letter/reply. At that stage I think it was obvious that I don't want to buy that maker's products.

Nikon are easy to get in touch with live chat, email, phone support is all great. Sadly getting the actual problems sorted didn't happen despite 3 attempts at repair all failed. Turnaround is quick enough but the problem was there (dodgy AF) so I can't say I was impressed with that so bye bye Nikon

With the Km5d I've not had any issues since the FBF was repaired it came back in about 2 weeks no problems to report. With the third A200 that was fine I didn't have any issues with that body when I had it (AF wasn't great in low light) but overall it was fine.

A57 well we know the story there next week will be week 6 since I sent the camera in for repair! You can read my dedicated thread to get an idea of Sony support/service!

Now the one good news story was when I got my Metz flash stuck on a D90 body. I sent it to Intro 2020 who deal with all things Metz in the UK/Eire.
I got to speak to someone quickly, they were knowledgeable, they were friendly and polite. I send the flash and body off, I got a confirmation letter to say they had received it, and it returned in a week which is pretty fast to me. Overall superb service and because of this, I continue to use Metz products

So having issues is one thing, if they are dealt with in a quick, customer geared way with minimal inconvenience that leads to a "positive" customer experience and increased brand loyalty. If things drag out, or don't get fixed properly then that obviously makes things rather less great for the buyer.

So if I come across as a glass half empty kinda person, you're wrong. The glass slipped out of my hand, it broke on the floor and I cut my fingers picking up the pieces!

NevHi wrote:Not everyone want s to go the "bar where everyone knows your name", especially on a public forum.

Yes, we all know that there are people on the internet who meticulously maintain their anonymity (by never using their name, never disclosing their location, never mentioning anything about themselves, and usually never posting any photos) because it gives them cover to make potshots at people (aka drive-by shooting), make ridiculous, authoritative claims as if they have insider knowledge about stuff they are just guessing at, and so on.

"No anonymity really raises the level of a forum a lot since it is harder to make potshots at people when everyone knows who you are."

There are less problems on this forum with posters than just about any other I ever go to. I can only think of one (U.S.) person who DK has ever binned. It's what people WRITE, not what their name is. We don't have "anonymous" comments on this forum (see http://www.theregister.co.uk for anonymous vs real ). Here comments are ALL attached to a name. Just skip the names you don't want to read. You already know the names of people you can trust. Real names add nothing to this because this forum does not have anonymity. All forums have more lurkers than contributors. Many studies have been done on this see for e.g Jakob Nielsen's "Alertbox" series http://www.nngroup.com/articles/

Don't change what is not broken!

NevHi wrote:Don't change what is not broken!

That is a certainly reasonable point of view.

By the way, I am gratified this thread was interesting enough for you to come out of lurk mode. Welcome back!

I'm not quite sure what advantages the change is designed to bring.

If someone has a very common name, then there is little problem in using it in a forum name, however a distinctive name might leave someone in a position where their home address could be found - which might worry some people.

Where there are sales concerned, there are also problems of scammers passing themselves off, so there is always an element of buyer beware: where looking for duplicate accounts, looking at IP addresses can be effective (although these can also be masked).

I’ve never worried too much about using my real name, I live in an out of the way place off the beaten path down in the southern hemisphere that is actually hard to get too, it doesn’t even have an international airport. Although there has been international airlines come and go without much success.
Townsville is just too ordinary I think, the only really interesting thing might be the huge 1000ft rock right in the middle of it, well that and Magnetic Is, a sort of touristy place which actually isn’t too bad, (some very nice beaches), good mainly because it’s generally not overrun with tourists, it’s probably got just the right mix of locals, retirees and tourists that just about anyone could stay there and no one would notice, or care, (which probably happens).
As far as the forum goes I guess I would feel like I could get to know someone better (and possibly respect them more) if they had a real name instead of some alias, and I’d be inclined to listen to what they had to say much more, or take them more seriously.
I think the thing that bugs me about names is that few sign their name (first) at the bottom of a post which makes it difficult to address them properly in a reply without trying to find out, which I don’t do, because I never snoop, it does make it easier when people put their real name on a photo as a copyright I guess, as long as you don’t have a memory like mine.
Of course there are people that I’ve known for years and their first name has cropped up enough that I already know what it is.
Greg

Reminds me of the time I was getting "fan mail" and questions asked about what cameras I would recommend for night shooting supernatural investigations and stuff like that.
On the assumption that I was "the Ghosthunter" from GHI who has the same name.
Other than that the usual thing I get is "The quiet man" from people in person (which is annoying as I'm the real thing and his was a stage name)
And in the UK I'm "a paddy" and was called that since primary school, even though I have a pure English accent not a drop of Eire there.

It's not actually an Irish/Celtic name anyway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FitzGerald_dynasty

On Greg I could not find that much something about Automotive paint, 60 years old and not much more