Hi everyone, three year member @ FM and never even knew you guys were here. I guess there is a positive to everything. Looking forward to being a positive member here and already noticing alot of familar names.
Mike
same for me. Another FM user who bought a bunch of things there... Although FM was the best place to find things due to large volume, I always disliked their website being so horribly slow and not being able to mark things SOLD after 5 days (or whenever they retire) which was a lot of waste of time asking around. Search too slow and front page was bumped every minutes anyway...
Hopefully this site, which i just discovered from another FM user I bought from (Hi Debra ! NDeb/Kepola) will hopefully pick up the slack...
Wow, I just found out about this and I think it's a horribly lame decision on the part of FM.
I've been a member of FM for quite awhile.
What I don't understand is all the complaints I've seen in this thread about the B & S forum. I've bought and sold thousands of dollars of gear from that forum and never once did I have any of the problems that you people are complaining about.
Excessive bumping? Too many rules? I never saw it. It really was very simple to buy and sell stuff there. If your price was fair, your stuff sold. It it wasn't, it didn't. It' ain't rocket science. I sold stuff as recently as last November. Never ONCE did I ever have a bad transaction there.
Unlike most of you, I think it was totally a money-making venture by Fred. I think the theory that he "just had to do something" to stop all the "chaos" over at B&S is a total crock. FACE IT: HE DID IT TO MAKE MONEY.
I am extremely disappointed in FM. :pissed :pissed
What I don't understand is all the complaints I've seen in this thread about the B & S forum. I've bought and sold thousands of dollars of gear from that forum and never once did I have any of the problems that you people are complaining about.
Excessive bumping? Too many rules? I never saw it. It really was very simple to buy and sell stuff there. If your price was fair, your stuff sold.
FWIW, I agree (but from a buyer's perspective, not a seller's. I was only jerked around once.)
The demise of FM ...
... but how many of you were actually banned from the site? I was critical of the new policies and Mr Ego (Fred Miranda) banned me from the site. FWIW I never had any problems with the many transactions I made there, but always found the board very slow. It's good to have a separate brand specific site for buy and sell. This has a nice clean and readable interface and I hope it grows well as POTN has grown since Fred Ego in his lack of wisdom moved to a cash grab scenario.
Canon 50D, Box Brownie, Canon 17-85mm IS, Canon 70-200mm F2.8L, Sigma 10-20mm F4, Canon 50mm F1.4, Canon 50mm F1.8 Mk I, Canon 430EX II
I did not agree with the fee either, I just paypalled the fee for a month to sell my 135L and had to wait 24 hrs for the approval process and have since sold it on another forum.....$5 out the window for slow service
In the last monthes before the change FM was really going down hill and the Mod. at that time upset a lot of people but had no problem letting his thaughts be known.
I've done some trading in the past through FM and never had a problem. FM's one advantage over DGrin was (past tense) a larger subscriber base, which helped sellers sell and provided more variety for buyers to peruse.
That said, I would still buy at FM if I had reason to. But now that DGrin's subscriber base has grown so tremendously, it's close enough to FM's size (esp what's probably now the active base in FM's Buy & Sell Forums) that I just don't have motivation to give it a look any more. And as a Seller, the fees would keep me out of FM, even if there was a larger pool of buyers there (might as well eBay, at that point). And a "plus" at DGrin is that its forum software has always been soooo much better than FM's .
What I've loved about DGrin over the past 3 years is its positive, "just a good bunch of photo enthousiasts" atmosphere. I've been amazed how helpful the "pros" on the forum have been to help everyone else, regardless how novice or advanced they were. No egos, just helpfulness -- even when I've occasionally posted "dumb questions". And of course that has encouraged me to in turn offer suggestions to other posters when I happen to be able to contribute back. It's the people here that make DGrin what it is.
I'm sorry to see what happened over there at a "cousin" forum, and do hope that things improve for FM over time. In the spirit of DGrin positivity, I hope the complaints about FM have now been sufficiently aired, we can stop kicking that poor horse while it's down, and can in general turn to more positive topcis.
Canon EOS 7D ........ 24-105 f/4L | 50 f/1.4 | 70-200 f/2.8L IS + 1.4x II TC ........ 580EX
Supported by: Benro C-298 Flexpod tripod, MC96 monopod, Induro PHQ1 head
Also play with: studio strobes, umbrellas, softboxes, ...and a partridge in a pear tree...
Wow, I just found out about this and I think it's a horribly lame decision on the part of FM.
I've been a member of FM for quite awhile.
What I don't understand is all the complaints I've seen in this thread about the B & S forum. I've bought and sold thousands of dollars of gear from that forum and never once did I have any of the problems that you people are complaining about.
Excessive bumping? Too many rules? I never saw it. It really was very simple to buy and sell stuff there. If your price was fair, your stuff sold. It it wasn't, it didn't. It' ain't rocket science. I sold stuff as recently as last November. Never ONCE did I ever have a bad transaction there.
Unlike most of you, I think it was totally a money-making venture by Fred. I think the theory that he "just had to do something" to stop all the "chaos" over at B&S is a total crock. FACE IT: HE DID IT TO MAKE MONEY.
I am extremely disappointed in FM. :pissed :pissed
Holy delayed reaction, Batman!
I didn't live in B&S like some people did, but saw fallout in other areas of the board. Apparently there was a bunch of politics going on, largely spurred by the activities you missed. It's a shame things got to where they did, but nothing to do about it now. It's not like the whole board shut down or went pay only (RG, anyone?). I just put it down as growing pains and moved on (I recall the board back when it was much smaller & had the same feel as dgrin).
I didn't live in B&S like some people did, but saw fallout in other areas of the board. Apparently there was a bunch of politics going on, largely spurred by the activities you missed. It's a shame things got to where they did, but nothing to do about it now. It's not like the whole board shut down or went pay only (RG, anyone?). I just put it down as growing pains and moved on (I recall the board back when it was much smaller & had the same feel as dgrin).
I am also disappointed. Fred started all those poll discussions to see what people wanted, and promised changes, but nothing currently. No new servers, no change in post sorting, no mods, nothing. It does not take that long to change a sort parameter in the db side of the forum, nor does it take a ton of effort to locate a few good folks to help moderate. Start small, and work up. I don't know why he started those B&S threads and polls, only to pull them off, and then not follow up. I stuck up for the policies, and stated that business will pick up, but that was with the assumption that things would change and get more modern. Guess I was wrong... Oh well, I love this forum and POTN, two of my daily stops now.
7D, 70-200L IS, 17-55 IS 2.8, 150 2.8 macro, 12-24, 100-400L, 85 1.8, 50 1.4
Comments
same for me. Another FM user who bought a bunch of things there... Although FM was the best place to find things due to large volume, I always disliked their website being so horribly slow and not being able to mark things SOLD after 5 days (or whenever they retire) which was a lot of waste of time asking around. Search too slow and front page was bumped every minutes anyway...
Hopefully this site, which i just discovered from another FM user I bought from (Hi Debra ! NDeb/Kepola) will hopefully pick up the slack...
Lol.. yeah,.. it's like finding a new homerun to hang out in before school!
Hey, Giorgio!
Still thinking about that Elinchrom?
I've been a member of FM for quite awhile.
What I don't understand is all the complaints I've seen in this thread about the B & S forum. I've bought and sold thousands of dollars of gear from that forum and never once did I have any of the problems that you people are complaining about.
Excessive bumping? Too many rules? I never saw it. It really was very simple to buy and sell stuff there. If your price was fair, your stuff sold. It it wasn't, it didn't. It' ain't rocket science. I sold stuff as recently as last November. Never ONCE did I ever have a bad transaction there.
Unlike most of you, I think it was totally a money-making venture by Fred. I think the theory that he "just had to do something" to stop all the "chaos" over at B&S is a total crock. FACE IT: HE DID IT TO MAKE MONEY.
I am extremely disappointed in FM. :pissed :pissed
My site:Fine Image Photography
FWIW, I agree (but from a buyer's perspective, not a seller's. I was only jerked around once.)
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
... but how many of you were actually banned from the site? I was critical of the new policies and Mr Ego (Fred Miranda) banned me from the site. FWIW I never had any problems with the many transactions I made there, but always found the board very slow. It's good to have a separate brand specific site for buy and sell. This has a nice clean and readable interface and I hope it grows well as POTN has grown since Fred Ego in his lack of wisdom moved to a cash grab scenario.
In the last monthes before the change FM was really going down hill and the Mod. at that time upset a lot of people but had no problem letting his thaughts be known.
Dan
That said, I would still buy at FM if I had reason to. But now that DGrin's subscriber base has grown so tremendously, it's close enough to FM's size (esp what's probably now the active base in FM's Buy & Sell Forums) that I just don't have motivation to give it a look any more. And as a Seller, the fees would keep me out of FM, even if there was a larger pool of buyers there (might as well eBay, at that point). And a "plus" at DGrin is that its forum software has always been soooo much better than FM's
What I've loved about DGrin over the past 3 years is its positive, "just a good bunch of photo enthousiasts" atmosphere. I've been amazed how helpful the "pros" on the forum have been to help everyone else, regardless how novice or advanced they were. No egos, just helpfulness -- even when I've occasionally posted "dumb questions". And of course that has encouraged me to in turn offer suggestions to other posters when I happen to be able to contribute back. It's the people here that make DGrin what it is.
I'm sorry to see what happened over there at a "cousin" forum, and do hope that things improve for FM over time. In the spirit of DGrin positivity, I hope the complaints about FM have now been sufficiently aired, we can stop kicking that poor horse while it's down, and can in general turn to more positive topcis.
Supported by: Benro C-298 Flexpod tripod, MC96 monopod, Induro PHQ1 head
Also play with: studio strobes, umbrellas, softboxes, ...and a partridge in a pear tree...
Holy delayed reaction, Batman!
I didn't live in B&S like some people did, but saw fallout in other areas of the board. Apparently there was a bunch of politics going on, largely spurred by the activities you missed. It's a shame things got to where they did, but nothing to do about it now. It's not like the whole board shut down or went pay only (RG, anyone?). I just put it down as growing pains and moved on (I recall the board back when it was much smaller & had the same feel as dgrin).
http://www.chrislaudermilkphoto.com/
I am also disappointed. Fred started all those poll discussions to see what people wanted, and promised changes, but nothing currently. No new servers, no change in post sorting, no mods, nothing. It does not take that long to change a sort parameter in the db side of the forum, nor does it take a ton of effort to locate a few good folks to help moderate. Start small, and work up. I don't know why he started those B&S threads and polls, only to pull them off, and then not follow up. I stuck up for the policies, and stated that business will pick up, but that was with the assumption that things would change and get more modern. Guess I was wrong... Oh well, I love this forum and POTN, two of my daily stops now.