OK Folks, what is Missing? How can we improve RFF ?

Stephen,

First, many thanks for making this website possible and maintaining. I have learned a lot.

+1 for not letting the OP delete a whole thread.

The threads represent a shared resource with much information not provided by the OP that simply disappears when this happens.

Giorgio
 
home page appearance

home page appearance

On the home page, move the Photos from the Gallery closer to the top of the page so that it spans the full width of the window, and enlarge the thumbnail size by 50%.
 
I used to have a "collection" at the gallery in which there are 12 images shown. Since RFF switched to the new version, I can see far more images than the 12 that I once chose for my collection. Is this a new setting in the gallery that adds images?
 
raid said:
I used to have a "collection" at the gallery in which there are 12 images shown. Since RFF switched to the new version, I can see far more images than the 12 that I once chose for my collection. Is this a new setting in the gallery that adds images?
Click to expand...
Before migrating to the new gallery software, we used to have Albums. If you had a photo in more than one Album, it was duplicated, so there were as many copies of it online as entries in Albums. The new software has Collections. When you designate a photo for more than one Collection, the one uploaded file is just tagged with the Collections it belongs to, so only one copy is needed. More efficient.

In the transition, the new gallery was essentially "flattened" so that all the previous Album contents appear together. Those that were in multiple Albums would then be seen as duplicates. Each instance of the photo has its own set of "looks" and comments.
 
Not certain how everyone else feels about this, but on other sites users have the ability to "like" a post. I think this would be a neat feature for W/NW threads where I really like a picture, but I feel like a new post saying "great shot" would detract from the overall flow of the images. It's a small pat on the back for the shooter.
 
Yeah, I got a problem! I log in, type in a comment, and if more than two or three minutes have gone by when I press 'reply' it asks me to log in again, when I do and click proceed all I get is a blank white screen!
 
Chris101 said:
I'd vote no for a 'like' button if I had a vote. Turns posting into a popularity contest, and deprives us of the thoughts of the "liker".
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+1

It just takes up space and has not practical function.
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And +1 for smaller images in threads and flags in classifieds.

Don't really see a need for a special phone/tablet version. RFF runs fine in Opera on both my phone and my tablet.
 
VTHokiEE said:
Not certain how everyone else feels about this, but on other sites users have the ability to "like" a post. I think this would be a neat feature for W/NW threads where I really like a picture, but I feel like a new post saying "great shot" would detract from the overall flow of the images. It's a small pat on the back for the shooter.
Click to expand...

+1 and few more needed characters ;-)
 
Here's some examples of great sites and their features
Flickr - fantastic ability to wander through images by searching for tags or following groups
Love having technical details easily available- RFF tried allowing users to select their equipment, however it's very clunky, user defined tags much better

Quora/Reddit - upvote the best answers, this is great for straight questions instead of long threads

Likes on photos or posts - for forum posts, instead of quoting and repeating a post with the words "thanks" or "very nice", much cleaner to just click like
 
A modern fully responsive UI; email notifications that actually work :)

Best answer feature
Likes
Properly Embedded Vimeo, YouTube, etc
 
RFF doesn't work well on mobile devices. (No, Tapatalk isn't the answer!) The template needs to be updated to use responsive design so that web pages automatically optimise themselves to suit the device displaying them, including resizing images for optimal size and loading speed.
 
To be fully responsive is more than just a template or theme, it's an upgrade or replacement of the entire system. But such an upgrade will bring a huge number of modern features along with it.
 
splitimageview said:
To be fully responsive is more than just a template or theme, it's an upgrade or replacement of the entire system. But such an upgrade will bring a huge number of modern features along with it.
Click to expand...
I agree. But responsive-ish should be doable mostly with template bodging - php, css, javascript, etc. I've done so for friends' websites and forums, including mine. Won't be perfect but will be much more phone friendly and wouldn't cost much in time or money...
 
Sure, that could be hacked together, but a properly designed conversion to something like Xenforo would be far better/easier to manage/maintain in the long run, and bring along a lot more modern features.
 
+1 for responsive and +1 for the lens review database.

The latter is also a potential long term traffic pull (unique content) helping to insure that the site and community survive as the Internet changes.

I still peruse this Flickr group when messing about with lenses, looking for clues as to how I might make pictures with a particular lens. https://www.flickr.com/groups/m-mount/
 
Nice question!

I think forum could be improved by making a more profound and extensive DIY/Repair subforum.
RF´s can be perfectly fixed by users don´t believe in that aryan demi god leica expertise. I don´t send the flat tire of my merc back to germany to get fixed nor inflated.

Also improvement will occur by cutting away all the other cameras that aren´t real RF´s.
No matter how alike is a mirrorless camera to a RF, the similarity of those cameras is only an aesthetic wannabe issue, nothing to learn from.

Those are my two improvements for the forum.
 
Lots of interesting ideas shared already, but like many others I'm largely satisfied with RFF, and have been for many years (despite being away the past few of those years).

One improvement that I think could make a huge difference is a bit of an overhaul of the design of the site, to be honest. Taking a look at l-camera-forum, they've made it responsive (so I can read it equally well on my phone as on my laptop), and the typography in general is far easier on the eyes (using larger, dark text on light background instead of the reverse which is used here).

While I’ve not done much work on forums, I have been doing web design and development for the past ~10 years or so, and would be happy to lend a hand if this is something other people feel would be welcome. It wouldn't be quick to do, but I think it could be really beneficial. (To be clear: I wouldn't want to take this on on my own; it would be a ton of work and I think would require a few people working together as time permits.)

EDIT: Just noticed a couple other folks commenting on the same idea. And I agree, Tapatalk is horrible. ;)
 
We are looking at transitioning to Xenforo which should be fine for the forums.

However the problem is getting the something like the existing home page, classifieds and galleries into something as good and compatible with Xenforo.

no easy task so far.

Stephen
 
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