Increased activity on site

[glennab]

Hi Volunteers!

I don't know if you've caught this, but I'm aware that most of the time that I'm on the forum, the number of "users online" has increased considerably.  Not only more members, but also more guests.  Are we finally getting noticed?  Must be John and his stars!

GG

[cmpentecost]

I agree, and it's a good thing!

To those of you who have noticed that Kurt Struve has been missing from the forums, I contacted him, and all is well.  He's busy with his wedding preparations and many other exciting plans in his life, and promises to be back with us soon.

Christine

[kiska]

A question. Roughly, out of 500 members, how many "do the work"?

[John]

A question. Roughly, out of 500 members, how many "do the work"?

Good question.  While there are 500 registered members on the forum, I think the actual number of 'active' members is a small percentage of that number.  But I agree, there has been increased activity and I'm hoping that some of the changes put in place will facilitate this forum being more of a repeat destination for those who take the time and effort to sign up.

I'm always open for suggestions, so if there is something that you'd like to see here, let me know and we can see if we can make it work.

Thanks!

[RosyBijou]

Hi John,

I have a suggestion:

Certain people (are you listening, Kenny?)... have made tutorials for different things, that I think we all find to be really useful (when we find them).  Right now, though, those tutorials seem like little gold nuggets--don't know where they are, wouldn't have a clue how to find them (especially as a new forum member), but really psyched to stumble upon one.

How about another forum category for tutorials only, maybe under the info exchange heading.  Not for advice seeking, like we already have, but specifically for links to tutorials...  I think it's great to have program specific information exchange places, but if I'm stuck on something, I don't necessarily think to look under photoshop discussion because I will often use 2 or 3 different programs for a single restoration...

So, for example, Kenny would have a thread labeled: "Uploading images to PhotoShelter" with the first entry being the link to his YouTube tut. 
--He would have a second thread with the link to his sandwich technique.  (Those are the only two of Kenny's that I know about at this time...) 
--I could provide a step-by-step list to registering and uploading to ImageShack (because I had to write it down as I was trying to figure it out)  but wouldn't have a clue on how to do all that for any of the other image hosting services that others use...
--If someone else has gone to the trouble of spelling out a specific technique, they can post it there...

I think it'd be a really helpful resource...

[OPRAng]

A question. Roughly, out of 500 members, how many "do the work"?

Good Question! We have a total of over 1,050 registered OPR volunteers on Photoshelter--Add to that 4 members of the board of directors (Dave, Becky, Mike and me), John (web site guru), and Christine (distribution coordinator).  Now you can see why we hit such a huge bottle neck with the quality control thing. We had over 1000 people restoring photos and only 2-3 tracking them and doing quality control on them.

We are still amazed at the response we have gotten from volunteers around the world. If you haven't seen the map--check it out. It is on the OPR home page. Each dot represents a location for someone on the forum, and as you see not all volunteers are on the forum.

We are so lucky to have all of you, and so are the many families we have already met and will meet in the future.

Angela

[cmpentecost]

This may not be the best spot to post this, but if you read this....stand up and start clapping your hands, hoot and holler, and give high 5's to the OPR staff -- Dave, Becky, Mike, Angela and John.  I am 110% blown away by what they have done to accomplish what they did in OPR, all while working real jobs.  It's amazing.  I now have "behind the door" views, and am floored by what it must have took to get this task up ad running.  I know the amount of time I am spending at my "new job", love what I am doing, but now realize what is involved.  Some of us complained about not getting photos, or the delay in getting responses to our questions.  Whew....if I only knew....

So....count your blessings, thank the OPR crew, and enjoy what you are doing!!

Christine

[glennab]

Chris, I think this is a perfect place to give credit to the wonderful people who started OPR.  And to you for taking some of the load off of them.  I'm just a volunteer, and working full time, doing restorations, participating in the forum AND trying to keep up the rest of my life is a test.  How Dave, Ange, Becky, Mike and John have done it is beyond me.  All of you will forever be superheroes to me!

And John -- the site just gets better and better.  You must love doing this!

I'm not sure what to think of the new marquee.  I would have been okay with bigger stars!

Right now there are 11 people on the forum.  Woo Hoo!

GG

[John]

You noticed it!

We'll see how it works over the next few days and see how often the names change. I think it's a good positive reinforecement for encouraging board participation.

I'd also like to chime in and say that I've been and am a member of several online communities and have either become jaded due to clashing attitudes, or stopped participating altogether due to a lack of community spirit in many of them.  OPR is the absolute BEST forum there is if you want to be truly inspired by the generosity of the human spirit.

So while we might not be the biggest online community out there, that's not necessarily a bad thing. 

So here's a big  :wnw: to every person who has taken the leap of faith to join OPR and truly make the world of a fellow human being a better place. 

[John]

Hi John,

I have a suggestion:

Certain people (are you listening, Kenny?)... have made tutorials for different things, that I think we all find to be really useful (when we find them).  Right now, though, those tutorials seem like little gold nuggets--don't know where they are, wouldn't have a clue how to find them (especially as a new forum member), but really psyched to stumble upon one.

How about another forum category for tutorials only, maybe under the info exchange heading.  Not for advice seeking, like we already have, but specifically for links to tutorials...  I think it's great to have program specific information exchange places, but if I'm stuck on something, I don't necessarily think to look under photoshop discussion because I will often use 2 or 3 different programs for a single restoration...

So, for example, Kenny would have a thread labeled: "Uploading images to PhotoShelter" with the first entry being the link to his YouTube tut. 
--He would have a second thread with the link to his sandwich technique.  (Those are the only two of Kenny's that I know about at this time...) 
--I could provide a step-by-step list to registering and uploading to ImageShack (because I had to write it down as I was trying to figure it out)  but wouldn't have a clue on how to do all that for any of the other image hosting services that others use...
--If someone else has gone to the trouble of spelling out a specific technique, they can post it there...

I think it'd be a really helpful resource...

and this is definitely do-able... we did have OPR Academy at one point that was supposed to be a repository of such tutorials, but we kind of lost track of Mark Wilson who was going to be in charge of it.  btw, does anyone know if he's okay?

But we definitely should not have our knowledge base spread out across the boards re: tutorials, so I'll set a place up where that information can be collected.  If anyone has anything that they would like included in that just shoot me a PM or an email and I can include it.  I can also set up a download library, so if anyone has anything they'd like to share in terms of PS workflows/curves, etc. we can include them there as well.

anything else I'm missing?

[RosyBijou]

So, a download library would have pdf's--like Kiska just posted--?  (I've got that open on my desktop right now, playing with it--that one's definitely gonna get saved in my personal files...)  -- so we could download the articles?   That would be terrific!

[glennab]

Yes, yes, yes!  A special thread with all our gems of wisdom would be the best.  There were several techniques that I wanted to try on my forever-ongoing restoration, and I have no idea where they are.  PDFs would work especially well.  They could be stored with the rest of our OPR information, either electronically or printed out.  Great idea!

Glenna

[John]

So, a download library would have pdf's--like Kiska just posted--?  (I've got that open on my desktop right now, playing with it--that one's definitely gonna get saved in my personal files...)  -- so we could download the articles?   That would be terrific!

That is right, in addition to a board dedicated to tutorials, if there is any additional documentation (i.e. pdf's), we can make that available for download as well.

If any of the documentation is created by OPR members, I think it'd be great if they can make sure that OPR is prominently displayed so that if anyone not involved with OPR downloads it they can at least remember the kind folks who made it available to them.  ;)

[david_gr]

Would a search capability or maybe an index be doable without too much effort?  There is so much good stuff out here but some times you don't have time or willingness  :) to look for it?

I agree with Glenna & Chris about the folks who started OPR.  I admire and respect what they have done.  :up:

David Gr

[John]

Would a search capability or maybe an index be doable without too much effort?  There is so much good stuff out here but some times you don't have time or willingness  :) to look for it?

I agree with Glenna & Chris about the folks who started OPR.  I admire and respect what they have done.  :up:

David Gr

There should be a search box on the left side of the forum... and there's also a tab at the top.  Let me know if these are not working for you... (and for my sake, I hope they are!  ;) )