It’s Like A Whole New Site!

[Photo-John]

It's Like A Whole New Site!

It?s been a while since I've written a "State of the Site" editorial. If you've been on the site since the New Year, hopefully you've noticed some of the improvements that have been keeping me so busy. We've got a new forum system, new gallery software, better integration between important sections of the sites, and I've started doing serious camera tests. It's been a long time since we've really worked on major site improvements. I think we've more than made up for that in the past few months. Hopefully you're enjoying the changes we've made.

The new forums, complete with real user profiles, are the best. I love the new system and I hope you do too. It will help everyone get to know each other better, attract new users, and strengthen the PhotographyREVIEW.com / PCPhotoREVIEW.com community. If you haven't seen the new forums yet, please login, update your profile, add an avatar, and take a good look around. The profile page allows you to list your equipment and experience, shows posts and threads you've made, and lists reviews you post. In the future it will also allow us to show a lot of other interesting and useful information about our community members. If you haven't registered, you can register here.

The new gallery might be the most exciting change we've made since the day we launched PhotographyREVIEW.com. As a photographer, I've never been happy with any of the gallery software we've used. Except for the original Vision Gallery, everything else fell far short, aesthetically. And the features and organization were never very good, either. The new gallery addresses all of those problems and I'm very proud of it. A good gallery is critical for a serious photography site. Now, you can upload images at any resolution, indicate what camera, lens, and film were used, view galleries by photographer, post ratings, search by camera or lens used, and lots more. Hopefully we can all start using our new Member Galleries as personal, online portfolios. I've always wanted PhotographyREVIEW.com to be a place that advertising agencies, galleries, photographers, and magazines look to for great photography. The Photo Project and Photo Critique forum are also being moved to the new gallery system. And I even plan to bring back the Vision Gallery, now that we have a worthy means to present fine art photography. With the new gallery, I feel like PhotographyREVIEW.com has come of age. We've always had the best owner-posted camera review section. And now we have a great gallery of great images to compliment the photo gear information.

We've also been making some more subtle refinements. The three main elements of the sites - the reviews, the forums, and the galleries - have been further cross-linked and better integrated. All photographer-posted content - message board posts, gallery photos, and reviews - is now linked to the photographer's profile page. Every photo in the new gallery links to the photographer's profile page, the photographer's personal gallery, and relevant photo equipment reviews. Each review links to the author's profile page. And every forum post has a link to the poster's profile page, which has links for all reviews and message board posts by that photographer. The key elements of the site are nearly perfectly integrated, with links to complimentary and relevant content, right where you need them. It's all at your fingertips. This is how I always envisioned the sites working and I'm very, very excited to be able to announce these changes.

The best community, posting the best camera reviews, sharing the best photography, with the friendliest, most useful, and educational forums - that's what I want PhotographyREVIEW.com and PCPhotoREVIEW.com to be. We've come a long way since PhotographyREVIEW.com was launched, in July of 1999. I appreciate your feedback, contributions, faith, and continued support. This is a group effort. Without you - the community - there would be no PhotographyREVIEW.com or PCPhotoREVIEW.com. Please give our moderators, the other community members, and yourselves the respect and recognition you've earned. And spread the word about the best photography community on the Internet. The more photographers we bring into the fold, the richer the sites will be for everyone.

Thanks!

Photo-John