Nonetheless, in the end I am disappointed about the whole turn of events. There was a lot of good information being presented on that forum that is sadly missed. Mark
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Hindsight is 20/20, but looking back I think RG and even Drew underestimated the value of the information that was given freely.
I remember a year or so ago RG featured some guy that had made the transition from film to digital and wrote this whole article like the guy invented the process. This isn't a knock on the person they featured, but it seemed odd to me to feature someone that had never posted on the forum, while they had people actively giving free and useful information that had amazing resumes.
I made mention of this to RG and never got a response, which wasn't that unusual.
It was also amazing to me that RG had this wealth of talent that was obviously willing to share, but RG and Company had no inclination to try to capitalize on it, much less even give it anything other than censorship.
Later when Drew took control I don't think he had a complete history of the forums and I would imagine was given some pretty one sided accounts of how things worked and the history of the site.
in a way, it's a shame that someone didn't pick up on this and capitalize on this resource, because in my experience I have never seen any open public discussion that had so much real information backed up with real life experience.
The photographers that brought substance to that forum are a different breed than most of the self promoters we see in my industry.
They are working photographers that spend their time shooting and improving their art and business skills and have little time for the one hand clapping style of self promotion that seems to have permeated not only the profession of photography, but life in general.
The fact that they were willing to share openly and freely was a more a testament to their character than to any form of ego or financial self interest.
They are Pulitzer prize winners, well respected professionals with studios and expereince world wide. Many of them were some of the ealiest adopters of digital capture and their imagery is seen daily on a global stage.
I personally know many of these people and I can assure you their character, humor, talent, accomplishments and unselfish attitude is something that is rare in our society and it is a shame that it was under appreciated.
JR