I'm glad a few of you are looking at FOP. When POTN shut down 14 months ago, about a dozen of us, soon also to be "homeless" were not going to let that community die. We looked at several forum softwares and chose one that would work with what we were used to. At the same time, many others were joining some of the other popular photography forums, but came around to FOP eventually. POTN members were used to discussing photos freely, commenting, thumbing up or otherwise rating each other's shots, and critiquing. Lots of the competing forums at the time (actually most of them) would simply not allow comments, which created a sterile and unfriendly situation. FOP, from the very planning stages, demanded a vibrant and community oriented environment where discussion was as important as the photos. That objective was met and continues. We do have those that simply will not caption their posted photos with any sort of when/where/why. We have attempted to coax the info out of them but some people will simply rather live as photography recluses. Oh well. However, most will place useful info right into their photo posts. Embedding from SM, Flickr, or uploading photos are all supported. And you will find plenty of themed threads, far more than on Dgrin. Or one can create just a simple thread with one's own photo(s) and keep it solo. More or less what we have always done here, but on a grander scale. And unlike the Vanilla software that underlies DGrin, FOP is very phone/pad usage friendly.
I have nothing against a DGrin community at Flickr. As a photo hosting site it is second only to Smugmug, and seems to be more popular in that regard. I plan to upload photos both to Flickr and to SM simultaneously, as I get more time to figure it all out. Simply put, Flickr as a forum, just plain sucks, and in my opinion is almost useless as such. So we shall try to create something there anyway. As I look around other groups there, it looks as if many were set up and have died a slow death or have been abandoned years ago. The photos are great and up-to-date in those thousands of other specialized groups, but discussions have almost always have gone silent. But we shall try.
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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
1
sapphire73Registered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,011moderator
@David_S85 Thanks for giving us some more background on the FOP forum. Life is busy just now but I do plant to explore FOP in the near future.
When I joined Flickr in 2009, a lot of the groups were encouraging interaction by asking you to comment on X number of previous submissions before posting your image. Some of those comments were useful but the input tended to be general affirmation along the lines of "wonderful," "great capture," etc. Not very helpful. In contrast, the Dgrin challenges usually involved giving and receiving a bit of helpful commentary. And back in 2009, Sherstone was moderating the challenges which involved everyone voting for the ones that best fit the theme - and prizes. The challenges evolved but continued to offer some degree of feedback. So I spent much more of my time on Dgrin but still enjoying seeing the work of others on Flickr.
Hope to continue seeing "Dgrin friends" whether it is on Flickr, FOP, or even checking out your photo galleries to see some of your latest uploads.
I took @David_S85 's advice and checked out FOP, which looks promising. I was surprised to see that I could get Richard as a username. I still see no images at all on Flickr, so I'll probably delete my account there soon.
@David_S85 said:
I'm glad a few of you are looking at FOP. When POTN shut down 14 months ago, about a dozen of us, soon also to be "homeless" were not going to let that community die.
I was member at POTN, but I haven't been active in photography on years.
sapphire73Registered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,011moderator
I registered at FOP yesterday and agree that it has good potential and seems to have a lot of participation. Levina, an administrator of FOP, wrote this in response to one of my posts on FOP in which I mentioned Dgrin shutting down: "Your group is welcome to join us here, Gretchen. You are free to start your own threads and your own games here. On flick I saw mention of a mini game? Just start it up here."
I was able to get sappire73 as a username on FOP but not on Flickr.
I registered at https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/ today; I also was told by Sam there to spread the word. He said "We are small but have a good group of varied and talented photography enthusiasts."
@sapphire73 said:
I registered at FOP yesterday and agree that it has good potential and seems to have a lot of participation. Levina, an administrator of FOP, wrote this in response to one of my posts on FOP in which I mentioned Dgrin shutting down: "Your group is welcome to join us here, Gretchen. You are free to start your own threads and your own games here. On flick I saw mention of a mini game? Just start it up here."
I was able to get sappire73 as a username on FOP but not on Flickr.
Hmmmm. Odd, since Levina's account was closed more than a week ago. (EDIT: I see she contacted you on Flickr and not FOP) She was one of the founding members and was one of the admins. Well, glad that you are there. I wasn't wanting to cause a mass exodus from Flickr, but a good active photo forum is unusual these days. Both SM and Flickr photos work fine as uploads or embeds. One not so secret is we are working on a way to convert all embeds to permanent forum-based personal gallery photos. When Photobucket closed down a few years back, POTN was left with thousands of posts with big red "X" 's in older posts. We don't want that to ever happen a FOP since it renders disinterest in what were decent threads with great pictures. But for now, embed away (easiest method), or attachments work too.
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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
@David_S85 said:
I'm glad a few of you are looking at FOP. When POTN shut down 14 months ago, about a dozen of us, soon also to be "homeless" were not going to let that community die.
I was member at POTN, but I haven't been active in photography on years.
Why did they shut it down?
Hi Mike! Pekka, the POTN forum owner and programmer (custom software) announced mid-2023 that after more than 20 years, he was shutting the place down and the forum was not for sale. Later in 2024 we learned that Pekka had passed away. When the closing of POTN was announced, a small group of less than 20 users worked on a new forum that would basically take the place of that highly popular POTN forum. For those that don't know of the history of POTN, the registered user base was more than 100,000 photographers. FOP has a little less than 1,500 in a year and a half, and growing. Not bad. Many ex-Dgrinners that we haven't seen here in years have been at both POTN and now FOP, so you may see some familiar faces as you look around.
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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
@Richard said: @David_S85 : Do you know who owns FOP or how they are supported?
Member supported through donations. Look at the top of the main Forum Talk area. There are a few threads covering the details. There are at least two Admins that paid for the servers and software.
For those who want to make FOP look similar in appearance to Dgrin, on the very bottom of any page are selections for themes. Dark or Dark+ might be a good choice. I favor Midnight Blue+.
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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
0
sapphire73Registered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,011moderator
@sapphire73 said:
I registered at FOP yesterday and agree that it has good potential and seems to have a lot of participation. Levina, an administrator of FOP, wrote this in response to one of my posts on FOP in which I mentioned Dgrin shutting down: "Your group is welcome to join us here, Gretchen. You are free to start your own threads and your own games here. On flick I saw mention of a mini game? Just start it up here."
Hmmmm. Odd, since Levina's account was closed more than a week ago. (EDIT: I see she contacted you on Flickr and not FOP) She was one of the founding members and was one of the admins. Well, glad that you are there. I wasn't wanting to cause a mass exodus from Flickr, but a good active photo forum is unusual these days. Both SM and Flickr photos work fine as uploads or embeds. One not so secret is we are working on a way to convert all embeds to permanent forum-based personal gallery photos. When Photobucket closed down a few years back, POTN was left with thousands of posts with big red "X" 's in older posts. We don't want that to ever happen a FOP since it renders disinterest in what were decent threads with great pictures. But for now, embed away (easiest method), or attachments work too.
David, Levina reached out to me on both [old] FOP forum and Flickr after I posted three photos on FOP and happened to mention that Dgrin was shutting down. But now I realize that I had inadvertently joined the old forum. That will teach me to do this kind of thing late at night!
sapphire73Registered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,011moderator
edited January 29, 2025
I had previously written something here asking about possible Dgrin games on Flickr or FOP but see that https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/ has a rich array of games and challenges already.
sapphire73Registered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,011moderator
For those of you who have registered with Focus on Photography, might you be willing to share your username? Since there is a Dgrin group on Flickr, it is easier to see fellow Dgrin members there.
My FOP username is sapphire73 and the same avatar as here.
@sapphire73 said:
For those of you who have registered with Focus on Photography, might you be willing to share your username? Since there is a Dgrin group on Flickr, it is easier to see fellow Dgrin members there.
That's good to know. Looks like I joined the wrong one.... And that explains why I saw a lot more content before when I was looking at the real FOP forum!
From what I read there was a disagreement between Levina and some others in the team and Levina left (or was booted out) and started her own website using a very similar set-up
So https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/ is the original Focus on Photography website that was set up late 2023 when POTN stopped (the original owner Pekka was sick and died a couple month later) and https://focus-on-photography.net/ is the new Focus on Photography forum that was set up by Levina after she left the "first" Focus on Photography forum. If you look at the dates of posts/resources you'll see the "new" forum only started early january 2025.
You'll see a lot of the same members on both fora.
Think of it what you may, but I think it's a bit devious to start a new forum with exactly the same name and very similar set-up after you left the previous forum with a disagreement. I have only joined the "old" forum and have no plans to join the "new" one.
My avatar is the same on Flickr and FoP, my FoP username is the same as DGrin and pegelli1 on Flickr.
Well, there's more to it than that, but suffice to say that the real forum is where we need to be at, and not the one with the shortened URL. And I am happy you are there, Pieter.
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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
3
sapphire73Registered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,011moderator
I have now successfully joined the real FOP forum. Will introduce myself when things settle down around here. But my mixup also explains why I wasn't seeing any of you in the other one...
@slpollett said:
I am also going to FOP as it looks much better than Flickr. I joined the Flickr group, but I am not a fan and probably won't spend any time there.
Sherry, I don't see you there. This is the FOP that most of us have joined: https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/. Is that where you are? (Maybe with a different name?)
@denisegoldberg , I did join FOP under slpollett. I have not received the email to confirm my email. I have requested it to be re-sent several times, but I haven't received it yet. I have verified that the email address is correct and is the one I use. I received an email from dgrin to notify me of this message and I'm receiving mail from other sources, but still nothing from FOP. I'm working on it!
@slpollett said: @denisegoldberg , I did join FOP under slpollett. I have not received the email to confirm my email. I have requested it to be re-sent several times, but I haven't received it yet. I have verified that the email address is correct and is the one I use. I received an email from dgrin to notify me of this message and I'm receiving mail from other sources, but still nothing from FOP. I'm working on it!
Sherry
Sherry, your registration and contact attempts at FOP have not yet been received, as of 8pm Chicago time tonight. Is it possible you registered at the fake FOP forum instead?
@David_S85 , Below is a screenshot of my screen. I think this is the correct site, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
I looked for a way to delete the profile, but I didn't see a way. It says my profile is uneditable since I haven't confirmed my account yet, which I can't do until I get the email.
Yes, that's the correct one. Note: There are several color themes available, including Dark and Dark+, which would be more familiar to Dgrinners. This one is Midnight Blue+.
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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
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sapphire73Registered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,011moderator
Thank you for reminding us about the various color options. I just went in and changed the style of my FOP display.
Comments
I'm glad a few of you are looking at FOP. When POTN shut down 14 months ago, about a dozen of us, soon also to be "homeless" were not going to let that community die. We looked at several forum softwares and chose one that would work with what we were used to. At the same time, many others were joining some of the other popular photography forums, but came around to FOP eventually. POTN members were used to discussing photos freely, commenting, thumbing up or otherwise rating each other's shots, and critiquing. Lots of the competing forums at the time (actually most of them) would simply not allow comments, which created a sterile and unfriendly situation. FOP, from the very planning stages, demanded a vibrant and community oriented environment where discussion was as important as the photos. That objective was met and continues. We do have those that simply will not caption their posted photos with any sort of when/where/why. We have attempted to coax the info out of them but some people will simply rather live as photography recluses. Oh well. However, most will place useful info right into their photo posts. Embedding from SM, Flickr, or uploading photos are all supported. And you will find plenty of themed threads, far more than on Dgrin. Or one can create just a simple thread with one's own photo(s) and keep it solo. More or less what we have always done here, but on a grander scale. And unlike the Vanilla software that underlies DGrin, FOP is very phone/pad usage friendly.
I have nothing against a DGrin community at Flickr. As a photo hosting site it is second only to Smugmug, and seems to be more popular in that regard. I plan to upload photos both to Flickr and to SM simultaneously, as I get more time to figure it all out. Simply put, Flickr as a forum, just plain sucks, and in my opinion is almost useless as such. So we shall try to create something there anyway. As I look around other groups there, it looks as if many were set up and have died a slow death or have been abandoned years ago. The photos are great and up-to-date in those thousands of other specialized groups, but discussions have almost always have gone silent. But we shall try.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
@David_S85 Thanks for giving us some more background on the FOP forum. Life is busy just now but I do plant to explore FOP in the near future.
When I joined Flickr in 2009, a lot of the groups were encouraging interaction by asking you to comment on X number of previous submissions before posting your image. Some of those comments were useful but the input tended to be general affirmation along the lines of "wonderful," "great capture," etc. Not very helpful. In contrast, the Dgrin challenges usually involved giving and receiving a bit of helpful commentary. And back in 2009, Sherstone was moderating the challenges which involved everyone voting for the ones that best fit the theme - and prizes. The challenges evolved but continued to offer some degree of feedback. So I spent much more of my time on Dgrin but still enjoying seeing the work of others on Flickr.
Hope to continue seeing "Dgrin friends" whether it is on Flickr, FOP, or even checking out your photo galleries to see some of your latest uploads.
My SmugMug Galleries
I took @David_S85 's advice and checked out FOP, which looks promising. I was surprised to see that I could get Richard as a username. I still see no images at all on Flickr, so I'll probably delete my account there soon.
I was member at POTN, but I haven't been active in photography on years.
Why did they shut it down?
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I registered at FOP yesterday and agree that it has good potential and seems to have a lot of participation. Levina, an administrator of FOP, wrote this in response to one of my posts on FOP in which I mentioned Dgrin shutting down: "Your group is welcome to join us here, Gretchen. You are free to start your own threads and your own games here. On flick I saw mention of a mini game? Just start it up here."
I was able to get sappire73 as a username on FOP but not on Flickr.
My SmugMug Galleries
I registered at https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/ today; I also was told by Sam there to spread the word. He said "We are small but have a good group of varied and talented photography enthusiasts."
Thanks for the suggestion @David_S85
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Hmmmm. Odd, since Levina's account was closed more than a week ago. (EDIT: I see she contacted you on Flickr and not FOP) She was one of the founding members and was one of the admins. Well, glad that you are there. I wasn't wanting to cause a mass exodus from Flickr, but a good active photo forum is unusual these days. Both SM and Flickr photos work fine as uploads or embeds. One not so secret is we are working on a way to convert all embeds to permanent forum-based personal gallery photos. When Photobucket closed down a few years back, POTN was left with thousands of posts with big red "X" 's in older posts. We don't want that to ever happen a FOP since it renders disinterest in what were decent threads with great pictures. But for now, embed away (easiest method), or attachments work too.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
Hi Mike! Pekka, the POTN forum owner and programmer (custom software) announced mid-2023 that after more than 20 years, he was shutting the place down and the forum was not for sale. Later in 2024 we learned that Pekka had passed away. When the closing of POTN was announced, a small group of less than 20 users worked on a new forum that would basically take the place of that highly popular POTN forum. For those that don't know of the history of POTN, the registered user base was more than 100,000 photographers. FOP has a little less than 1,500 in a year and a half, and growing. Not bad. Many ex-Dgrinners that we haven't seen here in years have been at both POTN and now FOP, so you may see some familiar faces as you look around.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
@David_S85 : Do you know who owns FOP or how they are supported?
Member supported through donations. Look at the top of the main Forum Talk area. There are a few threads covering the details. There are at least two Admins that paid for the servers and software.
For those who want to make FOP look similar in appearance to Dgrin, on the very bottom of any page are selections for themes. Dark or Dark+ might be a good choice. I favor Midnight Blue+.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
David, Levina reached out to me on both [old] FOP forum and Flickr after I posted three photos on FOP and happened to mention that Dgrin was shutting down. But now I realize that I had inadvertently joined the old forum. That will teach me to do this kind of thing late at night!
My SmugMug Galleries
I had previously written something here asking about possible Dgrin games on Flickr or FOP but see that https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/ has a rich array of games and challenges already.
My SmugMug Galleries
For those of you who have registered with Focus on Photography, might you be willing to share your username? Since there is a Dgrin group on Flickr, it is easier to see fellow Dgrin members there.
My FOP username is sapphire73 and the same avatar as here.
My SmugMug Galleries
Same name, same avatar.
Same name, different avatar.
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Different name, same avatar. David Watts.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
I have just learned that there is a fake FOP forum that is attempting to siphon off our membership.
Not the actual FOP forum:
https://focus-on-photography.net/
The real FOP forum:
https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/
please note the addition of "-forum" in the name.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
That's good to know. Looks like I joined the wrong one.... And that explains why I saw a lot more content before when I was looking at the real FOP forum!
My SmugMug Galleries
From what I read there was a disagreement between Levina and some others in the team and Levina left (or was booted out) and started her own website using a very similar set-up
So https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/ is the original Focus on Photography website that was set up late 2023 when POTN stopped (the original owner Pekka was sick and died a couple month later) and https://focus-on-photography.net/ is the new Focus on Photography forum that was set up by Levina after she left the "first" Focus on Photography forum. If you look at the dates of posts/resources you'll see the "new" forum only started early january 2025.
You'll see a lot of the same members on both fora.
Think of it what you may, but I think it's a bit devious to start a new forum with exactly the same name and very similar set-up after you left the previous forum with a disagreement. I have only joined the "old" forum and have no plans to join the "new" one.
My avatar is the same on Flickr and FoP, my FoP username is the same as DGrin and pegelli1 on Flickr.
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Well, there's more to it than that, but suffice to say that the real forum is where we need to be at, and not the one with the shortened URL. And I am happy you are there, Pieter.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
I have now successfully joined the real FOP forum. Will introduce myself when things settle down around here. But my mixup also explains why I wasn't seeing any of you in the other one...
My SmugMug Galleries
I am also going to FOP as it looks much better than Flickr. I joined the Flickr group, but I am not a fan and probably won't spend any time there.
Sherry P.
Sherry, I don't see you there. This is the FOP that most of us have joined: https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/. Is that where you are? (Maybe with a different name?)
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
@denisegoldberg , I did join FOP under slpollett. I have not received the email to confirm my email. I have requested it to be re-sent several times, but I haven't received it yet. I have verified that the email address is correct and is the one I use. I received an email from dgrin to notify me of this message and I'm receiving mail from other sources, but still nothing from FOP. I'm working on it!
Sherry
Allen is now over at the true FOP.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
Sherry, your registration and contact attempts at FOP have not yet been received, as of 8pm Chicago time tonight. Is it possible you registered at the fake FOP forum instead?
Real one:
https://focus-on-photography-forum.net/
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
@David_S85 , Below is a screenshot of my screen. I think this is the correct site, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
I looked for a way to delete the profile, but I didn't see a way. It says my profile is uneditable since I haven't confirmed my account yet, which I can't do until I get the email.
Open to ideas.
Sherry
Yes, that's the correct one. Note: There are several color themes available, including Dark and Dark+, which would be more familiar to Dgrinners. This one is Midnight Blue+.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
Thank you for reminding us about the various color options. I just went in and changed the style of my FOP display.
My SmugMug Galleries
Hikin Mike is now also posting at (the real) FOP.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky