Rebel
06-30-2007, 05:00 PM
Forum URL is www.digi-darkroom.com
My forums are based around digital photography, however like most forums we have an active lifestyle section as well. This thread could be quite short, BUT its about something that matters to me! To be completely honest my reasons for why I do it are fairly complex, I guess its a hobby, and I really enjoy it.:)
I guess in many ways The Digital Darkroom could be considered old fashioned, we don't allow any swearing (however mild), someone once said we have a page and a half of rules that boil down to a single sentence We are a family friendly forum and want to remain that way I think he summed it up pretty well!
I used to be the Administrator of a commercial forum with about 15000 members, but I had a dispute with the company owner and left that forum. In many ways it was a shame, because I made a lot of friends there, including, I believed, the owner himself, and I REALLY enjoyed being part of the site, however these things happen.
I am disabled and I do not work for health reasons, so I need something to keep my mind occupied, and since I have been involved in photography for over 40 years. (I started out in photography as a child and my father was a professional photographer during and after the 2nd world war before me.) When a friend asked if I would be interested in starting a photographic review site I agreed and we started trying to set a review site up together. The review site did not materialized for various reasons, however, as a result of the split from the commercial site I used to be part of, the forums developed. I took total control of the The Digital Darkroom about 12 months after we first formed (My friend who I started the venture with is still a moderator on the site).
The Digital Darkroom doesn't sell web space or anything else to help pay the costs, I felt it was important to be completely independent from any influences, so I have continued to pay for the forums, the hosting, the domains and all the other expenses, just as I have from the very first day The Digital Darkroom was started and accept these as a consequence of my hobby. For the same reasons we have no advertising on the site, and we don't have any revenue generating schemes in place, as I said, we are old fashioned.
A number of members have offered to donate towards the running costs of the forums, but this was something I wanted to avoid as long as I could, partially because of my personal situation, but also because I enjoy giving something back to a community. Whilst the situation regarding accepting donations may change in the future, if it does, it will be limited to extremely small voluntary donations only. I would hate to feel I am trying to obtain money from friends (and I consider most of the forum members good friends) unnecessarily, and I have no intention of trying to make a profit out of our community.
Over the last 5 years these forums have grown and become respected by equipment manufacturers and members alike, I would like to see that continue to grow, and I honestly believe the members, the moderating team and I can help that to happen.
The Digital Darkroom does not have any hacks installed, to be honest I do not have any need for them, the members tend to be slightly older than many forums, and we don't (touch wood) have a problem with personal attacks or forum trolls, in fact every new member is individually checked and although a few trolls/spammers get in, they are few and far between.
The Digital Darkroom forums are multi cultural, whilst I am based in the UK over 50% of the forum membership is US based, but we have members from Singapore, Australia, Canada, all over Europe, the far east and many more countries that I can't remember.
If anything makes The Digital Darkroom special, its the members themselves, they are friendly, and really want to help other enthusiasts of all levels there are only be about 3500 of them, and like all forums there are a few hardcore users, but we have 100,000 plus unique visitors every month so hopefully we will continue to grow.
As for why The Digital Darkroom should win this contest, well I can't answer that, only my members can tell you if we deserve that, BUT if this thread encourages any newcomers to visit us, then we are winners whatever the competition result.
My forums are based around digital photography, however like most forums we have an active lifestyle section as well. This thread could be quite short, BUT its about something that matters to me! To be completely honest my reasons for why I do it are fairly complex, I guess its a hobby, and I really enjoy it.:)
I guess in many ways The Digital Darkroom could be considered old fashioned, we don't allow any swearing (however mild), someone once said we have a page and a half of rules that boil down to a single sentence We are a family friendly forum and want to remain that way I think he summed it up pretty well!
I used to be the Administrator of a commercial forum with about 15000 members, but I had a dispute with the company owner and left that forum. In many ways it was a shame, because I made a lot of friends there, including, I believed, the owner himself, and I REALLY enjoyed being part of the site, however these things happen.
I am disabled and I do not work for health reasons, so I need something to keep my mind occupied, and since I have been involved in photography for over 40 years. (I started out in photography as a child and my father was a professional photographer during and after the 2nd world war before me.) When a friend asked if I would be interested in starting a photographic review site I agreed and we started trying to set a review site up together. The review site did not materialized for various reasons, however, as a result of the split from the commercial site I used to be part of, the forums developed. I took total control of the The Digital Darkroom about 12 months after we first formed (My friend who I started the venture with is still a moderator on the site).
The Digital Darkroom doesn't sell web space or anything else to help pay the costs, I felt it was important to be completely independent from any influences, so I have continued to pay for the forums, the hosting, the domains and all the other expenses, just as I have from the very first day The Digital Darkroom was started and accept these as a consequence of my hobby. For the same reasons we have no advertising on the site, and we don't have any revenue generating schemes in place, as I said, we are old fashioned.
A number of members have offered to donate towards the running costs of the forums, but this was something I wanted to avoid as long as I could, partially because of my personal situation, but also because I enjoy giving something back to a community. Whilst the situation regarding accepting donations may change in the future, if it does, it will be limited to extremely small voluntary donations only. I would hate to feel I am trying to obtain money from friends (and I consider most of the forum members good friends) unnecessarily, and I have no intention of trying to make a profit out of our community.
Over the last 5 years these forums have grown and become respected by equipment manufacturers and members alike, I would like to see that continue to grow, and I honestly believe the members, the moderating team and I can help that to happen.
The Digital Darkroom does not have any hacks installed, to be honest I do not have any need for them, the members tend to be slightly older than many forums, and we don't (touch wood) have a problem with personal attacks or forum trolls, in fact every new member is individually checked and although a few trolls/spammers get in, they are few and far between.
The Digital Darkroom forums are multi cultural, whilst I am based in the UK over 50% of the forum membership is US based, but we have members from Singapore, Australia, Canada, all over Europe, the far east and many more countries that I can't remember.
If anything makes The Digital Darkroom special, its the members themselves, they are friendly, and really want to help other enthusiasts of all levels there are only be about 3500 of them, and like all forums there are a few hardcore users, but we have 100,000 plus unique visitors every month so hopefully we will continue to grow.
As for why The Digital Darkroom should win this contest, well I can't answer that, only my members can tell you if we deserve that, BUT if this thread encourages any newcomers to visit us, then we are winners whatever the competition result.
