Well I am not sure of the solution but it would be a terrible shame to lose this site. I use it a lot for looking at work and sculpting ideas. I do try and do assignments but I do not always have the time to dedicate to them and not all of the places I am working have internet. So I do not know what to do or how to resolve it but I do say it would be a shame to lose it so lets pick an assignment and all make a concious effort to shoot it and publish it and get the other stundents here...... So what is an assignemtn we can all do? How about one of the key elements of photography, a plastic Knife Fork and Spoon?

Thanks very much for the feedback. And I do realize that I am as guilty as the next for not contributing much content lately; obviously it does help if we have a driving force behind new content. Problem is that I have been swamped and digital imaging is just one of the services I offer. I was really hoping that someone would jump in, but I know we are all busy with other things.

It's good to know that people are using the site, but it's hard to tell the reaction when I am so disconnected from the end user. The interesting thing is I am working usability issues for other projects, but I have more direct access to the end user. Perhaps I need to take a trip to Missoula to hang at the Old Post and see what people really want (only half joking by the way).

R,
C

Oh, Coby! :( Don't get discouraged!!

I actually wasn't aware of the other groups you mentioned... well, except Facebook... so I checked them out. The Flickr group has only 8 members, MySpace has only 17... Facebook has 48, but I joined the group and haven't done anything with it. And none of those 3 have all that much going on in terms of activity.

Speaking personally, I am quite frankly overwhelmed with all of the different social networking options out there. It's a lot to keep up with, particularly for people like us (photographers/designers/business owners) that have time-consuming careers. I would have a lot more time to spend on sites like these if I had a more regular 9-5 type job that didn't involve things like bringing work home and regular travel, or if I wasn't trying to juggle the day job with freelance work.

I do have a MySpace account, but haven't done anything with it really... I just have the generic page and haven't put a photo or anything on it. Facebook has been my major outlet, mostly because I find it so easy to use and because most of the people I want to connect with are on there. And I don't even have a Flickr account... which is kind of amazing because it seems anyone with a camera has one... maybe that's why I have stayed away!

While I feel activity here has fallen off in recent times, what keeps me coming back is the email newsletters that you send that show recent activity... if it wasn't for that, I would forget to check in more often.

As far as changes/improvements for this site... Things that might increase my involvement, particularly with things like the photo assignments and galleries, would be the ability to link to an image hosted elsewhere. What often keeps me from posting an image is the added hassle of creating a web-size image and uploading... doesn't seem like a big deal, but when you are part of several different sites (personal web portfolio, smugmug, sportsshooter, sialumni, etc, etc), it's tedious to be trying to upload pics all over the place. Facebook allows me to link in smugmug galleries, and other sites allow me to link to an image hosted with smugmug rather than upload it in to their system. I know some people are happy to upload their images all over the internet, but I am more guarded with my stuff. Not that I think any of it is priceless art or anything, but I just don't want to lose track of where all I have freely shared my creative work.

Secondly, speaking as a designer, one thing that has kind of struck me about this site is that, for a site that is centered around photography, it is actually kind of low on visuals. The quotes thing at the top is kind of fun, but I think I would rather see that space used to display random images. You could even have it set to use a random photo as the background image behind the random quotes... even if that image is dramatically cropped to fit the space -- it could be kind of abstract looking then, I don't know... would have to see it in practice.

As for increasing membership/traffic here... I don't know if it is just a marketing issue... do new graduates of RMSP know about the site? Maybe the name is a deterrant to those that are DI grads or simply workshop grads, even though we are open to all. Perhaps finding a way to integrate with the other site, particularly flickr, would be a way to join efforts.

It's hard to know what the answer is, and being on the inside -- doing all the work of keeping up the site and keeping it going -- can be hard because you wonder if your efforts matter... if anyone is even using the site. Believe me, I know!! At least the sites I manage are for work, so I am paid for my efforts... you are doing this out of the goodness of your heart!

Anybody else have any ideas??

-Erin

Thanks Erin. Yeah, a little discouraging, but don't worry I am not going anywhere and neither is sialumni. Great feedback btw. Lack of visuals reflects my own design aesthetic as well as trying to keep it relatively low bandwidth. I am more than willing to bring more images into the design, but that may mean I start asking for donations to cover expenses. As you know bandwidth costs money and if we do grow AND add more visuals I will need to start covering costs. Also starting to work with Drupal this week as another project is pushing me that way. May mean we make another switch next year. Too soon to tell but it may help with some of the issues we have had with features. Also may make it easier to address your mash-up/integration issues, which is a very good point. I was on track to continue tweaking this framework, but other powers have pushed me towards Drupal.
R,
C

Just out of curiousity... What kind of bandwidth numbers are we looking at with this site? And storage size? What are the hosting costs, if I may ask? Since I had to shop recently for new server space for our site at work, I have recently checked out a lot of feature-rich, low-cost options (I work for a non-profit afterall!).

A little hard to pin down exact cost, but it's running me about 10 bucks a month right now. I have not computed exact cost as I have a reseller account, so SIAlumni just takes a chunk. The problem I run into is being able to divide my account into the right size chunks. I am running a bit short on disk space right now. We are running about 250 megs for the site and it grows each month. Not too bad until you start running backups. When we have a busy month we only run about 1-2 gig of transfer. So I guess I should say that the problem NOW is disk space and I would prefer we do not run into the same problem with bandwidth. The overall cost in dollars is not too bad right now, but over the next year I have other sites that will start to eat into both bandwidth and disk space.

I enjoy this site too, but have had a very busy few months, with work and sick parents. I did shoot for shapes btw, and have some other stuff to share, but I'll have to post it later on.

thanks again for making this happen Coby,
donn

And your welcome. Best wishes for your family too.

BTW, Erin had mentioned that the the number of social networking sites is overwhelming. Very correct and it has not gone unnoticed. One of the problems is keeping track of all your sign on credentials for each site. One of the features I am most interested in with Drupal is the ability to tie into single sign on services - one set of credentials will get you into several different sites.

Hi Coby,

It has been awhile. This site looks different than your original site. It seems the URL is the same but I rencently trashed my bookmark because it was no longer working.

Anyway, glad to have found you all again (through the reference in the new RMSP catalog). Let me lurk for awhile and I;ll join in again when the moment seems right.
Jim

Welcome back! I hope more folks see that write up in the catalog. Almost make it worth having to publish a head shot :-)