Retiring Digital Grin (DGrin) on February 13th
giberti
Registered Users, Vanilla Admin Posts: 27 SmugMug Employee
Hello D-Grin community!
I’d like to let you all know SmugMug has made the decision to retire Digital Grin (aka DGrin).
Photography online is alive and well: New capture techniques, technology, and increased access across the globe continue to drive our craft. While our forum may be closing, the opportunities to guide and shape the conversation around photography have never been bigger.
As you probably know, SmugMug acquired Flickr in 2018. As one of the first social networks, Flickr has a vibrant, engaged community. We're building a group there just for Digital Grin members, and it's free to join. We'd love to see you there to help us continue the conversation.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/dgrin/
Here's how the roadmap looks for the D-Grin forums:
Today:
- Let the existing community know about the plan
- Stop approving new members
February 1 (or there abouts)
- Restrict new posts
February 13 (or there abouts)
- Turn off the site and redirect the domain
Thank you for being part of this community and making it the special place it’s been.
Erik
Comments
Thanks for all the great times on here. Looking forward to seeing everyone over in the Flickr group!
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
Well, I am sorry to see Dgrin go, I understand. I will check out the flickr group.
Thanks for a good ride. I have learned so much from this group in this forum for many years.
Sherry P.
OK--I spent some time looking at Flickr yesterday and this morning. While the Flickr page looks nice for another photo hosting site with an established community, it doesn't seem to integrate the SmugMug community's current forum site very well, if at all. Maybe this move is supposed to change that? Granted, I am not fully familiar with the Flickr platform, but I have some thoughts and some questions.
I totally understand that Dgrin participation has declined over the last several years and it must be fairly expensive to maintain, especially if participation has declined. I also understand that Flickr might have a more vibrant community. When I was looking around and exploring Flickr, I lost track of how many times I got a message/pop-up/ad that says something like 'yeah, you can do some things free, but if you really want to participate you should pay money and upgrade to Flickr pro'. I even understand that as well. What I would like to know is: what about all of us who already spend the money to have Smugmug? Since Smugmug acquired Flickr, shouldn't our Smugmug account keep us from seeing these Flickr ads and requests to upgrade? I don't recall ever seeing the 'join Smugmug or be limited at Dgrin" messages. Maybe that's because I already had Smugmug though, I'm not sure.
Will the Dgrin community on Flickr be something similar to what we have on Dgrin? What I mean is: will there be categories for thread topics or is it more of a free for all discussion? I would like to see more organization there instead of just a blank page we're being moved to. Yes, I know we need to grow into the new space, but I would have hoped there would already be some framework there for us to move into.
Flickr doesn't seem to be as "user friendly" as Dgrin. I hope this also changes, or maybe it's because I'm just not familiar with Flickr. I've always thought I was savvy enough to quickly figure out most sites like this, but I will admit it is taking me longer to learn than it should.
If Smugmug is moving it's community to Flickr, does this mean our photo hosting will also be forced to move to Flickr? I sincerely hope not.
If what Flickr is now is all it will ever be (as a forum and Smugmug community), then I am really disappointed.
Please don't take these comments as a "Karen" rant. I am just a resigned and sad Dgrin & Smugmug user who really hopes that this Flickr platform will work out. Right now, it just doesn't appear to be looking so great.
Thanks,
Sherry Pollett
Nope. SmugMug will remain as the amazing platform that we all love. This is only impacting DGrin.
Thank you for the feedback.
Thanks for that info.
Sherry
Customizations in Smugmug style
Has anyone figured how to add a drop shadow to the active thumbnail as you move through each the main photo?
Allen
My Website index | My Blog
I joined Flickr, created a New Group, and made my first post there:
https://www.flickr.com/groups/14858471@N25/discuss/72157721922272119?new
Folks, don't hesitate. Flickr is an older forum, compared to some other photo-centric forums out there, and since SmugMug owns and operates it, it's friendly and inviting.
I'm sorry to see DGrin going away, but I've physically moved several times in my life and always made new friends along the way.
Let's make new friends now at Flickr and promote Photography and help others discover the shared beauty of our craft! 👍
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
Why join Flickr if you already have all your photo's on SmugMug?
I think it would have been much more logical if something would have been created on SmugMug, or are you offering free Flickr Pro subscriptions for SmugMug subscribers?
My SmugMug
I just joined the Flickr group. But I don't see a way to link to pics hosted on SmugMug. @giberti : Am I missing something obvious?
SmugMug is not changing or merging with Flickr. Your SmugMug account is not changing. Nothing on SmugMug is changing.
If anything, Flickr is adding some functions to replace DGrin, that's all.
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
I could be wrong, but it looks like the free Flickr account only allows you to upload a limited quantity of images, but not link to external image servers.
Flickr Pro appears to allow image linking to external servers, including SmugMug.
Sadly, I don't find much documentation on this subject, but the following URL might be helpful:
https://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157721416375668/
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
So this is what I found there:
Which does not address the issue, I'm afraid. As far as I can tell @pegelli is correct that we would need to upload pics to Flickr if they are to appear there. I do hope I'm wrong...
That's a pity.
I joined the DGrin group on Flickr, but I guess that if you need a Flickr Pro-account show all your photos there and can't link from the SmugMug account it will mean the end of my participation.
Pretty sad affair considering Flickr and Smugmug are the same company that they don't seem to take an extra step to better integrate their SmugMug customers.
My SmugMug
Thanks and goodbye dgrin! Extra thanks to @leftquark who answered all my questions and more about dgrin back when I ran the thing.
I just clicked "want to format your reply" in a Flickr discussion and apparently you can use HTML to include a non-Flickr photo. From the help text:
It looks like you use HTML <a href=""
I just tried this in the Flickr discussion using a shared html link from my smug site and it does work.
If you want to add your photos to the photo section of the dgrin group on Flickr you would still need to upload there, but the shared link does work to include photos in discussions.
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
^ Denise, it took about a day for your linked photo to show up in the discussion thread at DGrin Flickr. I will try another embed in my post. EDIT: OK, I just did that and I could see it immediately. I'm wondering how large a photo we can place in a post?
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
Could someone please post a link to the Dgrin Flickr group you are talking about? The one I see only has one post from me, and only Ziggy and someone named Werewolf are members.
^ never mind, I found it. I was searching on Dgrin not Digital Grin.
^ And I don't see any images at all.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/dgrin/pool/
Maybe you need to be a member?
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
I did join the group.
So now there are 2 dgrin groups?
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
I searched on dgrin and that little group was all that turned up. It didn't occur to me to say Digital Grin. It was started in 2012 and had no posts till I posted the other day. I think we can just ignore it.
So where we stand at the moment is this: It is possible to use photos that are on SmugMug without uploading them to Flickr in discussions. Those photos do not display for everyone, possibly a FireFox compatibility issue, but there are also long delays for some people. Help seems to be automated and helpless. I really hate to rain on the parade, but unless something changes (like being able to see photos on a photo sharing site!) I won't be participating in the new forum. Sorry guys. It's been fun.
I agree Richard.
These might be better places if you want to join an "old fashioned" general photography forum: https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/ or https://getdpi.com/forum/index.php
I'm a member of the second, haven't checked out the first one yet
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Looks like you found us over at the first! Glad you could join us there. Look around, post some stuff and feel welcome. They're all very friendly at FOP. You might see my same avatar there as you poke around.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
Just catching up on the discussion here. It is great to see a good number of Dgrin folks taking a look at the Digital Grin group on Flickr and thinking about the possibilities and limitations. @denisegoldberg - Thank you for exploring how to link a SmugMug photo into a Flickr discussion post. Hoping "we" figure out a way to make that work and if not, that people find another photography forum to join.
I have learned a lot from you all during my 15 years participating in the Dgrin forum and wish you all the best. Hope to bump into you on Flickr forum or perhaps another photography forum.
My SmugMug Galleries
Indeed David, looks to be an interesting forum with a lot higher activity than the past times on DGrin, I hope more of us will join there. For me it feels better than trying to make Flickr work.
Basically Flickr is a photo hosting/sharing site but trying to turning it into a forum seems far fetched and posting photo's from other hosting sites a bit too unreliable (and once they show they are quite small).
My SmugMug
Took a quick look at https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/ and it looks like it has a lot of the kind of thing that I've enjoyed on Dgrin. Not giving up on Flickr but making a note of this forum!
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>
I have joined the Flickr group but will definitely check out FOP. It does seem to be a lot like Dgrin was when I joined 18 years ago.