Who are the SE photography members?

Question

I still don’t understand what types of members contribute to Photo SE.

I often find myself frustrated and tempted to just give up and move on to another forum.

My dilemma is that sometimes I see some info that indicate a pro or someone very knowledgeable, but other times, often amongst very highly ranked members, I see moronic answers or comments that show a lack of basic understanding about photography.

Well, more precisely a lack of practical understanding, like someone who has read the manuals, knows the theory, but has no empirical grasp.

I guess I could just restrain myself to just read, and not ask Q or give A. given the reception that my QA typically get, I am sure that many would like me to move on. Sorry but I call a cat a cat, and when I see tunnel vision mediocrity in what I read, or see...

I mean sometimes I see things that make me want to scream and swear, but if I am even mildly critical, or express an unpopular opinion, I get DVs and closed. I know that some of my views are controversial, and that I am long-winded and don’t always get the point across clearly.

I am also a bit unbalanced as I only recently made the move to digital, and still looking for some gear, though so far, contrary of what I read I see not much difference, I still produce much better results by doing everything manually at base Iso.

I am confused, I know that SE has a lot of programmers, engineers, academics; scientists…are they as photo hobbyists, the main contributors?

Answer 1

You probably aren't going to get a satisfactory answer to this question. It appears you have formed an opinion of the "voting base" of Photo.SE, judging from the premise of your question.

I know that SE has a lot of programmers, engineers, academics; scientists…are they as photo hobbyists, the main contributors?

Does it matter? Amateur, hobbyist, professional... what is the difference? Judge them by the quality of their contributions here. But therein lies the rub. It sounds like you're questioning the wisdom of the crowd (the reputation system). It's an anonymous system, so you can't be exactly sure who is downvoting/upvoting you.

But the crowd seems to have judged your average contributions here lower than other contributors with at least your level of participation. Do you let that play into confirmation bias, and deem "the crowd" as not worthy of your time/consideration/participation, or do you take that information on board, as an indicator that the only constant in your interactions with this site and its members is you?

I often find myself frustrated and tempted to just give up and move on to another forum.

That is understandable. Only you can judge if a community is right for you. Your frustration is palpable, and you seem genuine in your desire to be part of a community (although as you noted, this one might not be your home).

I offer this frank observation: your positive contributions are more or less offset by your dismissive or disdainful responses to individuals. Negative reactions here tend to be swift and harsh. That is necessary for a self-policing community. But in my opinion, this community is also forgiving, usually with a short memory, such that positive changes in contributions are rewarded.

As I noted in my answer to your other recent meta question, it's obvious you have lots of experience and knowledge to share. Where and with whom you share it is entirely up to you. I doubt you'll find people begging for you to stay. I hope you don't find people begging for you to leave. But if you do stay, please be prepared to expect more of the same response if you bring more of the same contributions.

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Having said that, keep in mind that active and/or long-term participants here, as with all Stack Exchanges, maintain (or at least, should strive to maintain) a different standard than most other net communities. Stack Exchange sites are supposed be (quoting from the site's Tour page):

This site is all about getting answers. It's not a discussion forum. There's no chit-chat.

Just questions... ...and answers. Good answers are voted up and rise to the top.

The best answers show up first so that they are always easy to find. The person who asked can mark one answer as "accepted".

In essence, it's a community-moderated exercise in search engine optimization. That's it. It's designed to produce quick, high-quality answers (gold) to Google searches, without having to wade through the normal blather (dross) typical of most discussion forums.

That means that the community voters, editors, and moderators try to keep in mind the good of the site. Answers that are directly dismissive of or disrepectful to other users, that veer towards ad hominem, are quickly downvoted or removed. Questions that are argumentative, that will appear to generate more heat than light, are quickly downvoted or closed. They are not good for the site.

I think your questions and answers that have received the most negative attention tend to fall into the above categories.

Answer 2

I don't think that some of your comments are mildly critical or even unpopular. They are rude.

...sorry, as of now they don't even rate as beginner's amateur photos

Your Q almost read as a joke

...earn me some downvotes, Canon Rebels are rubish, Sony is shit, Nikon Dx is for...

What could you have meant by "Nikon Dx is for..."? Why don't you fill in the blank here? What expletive did you want to lead us to? Are you trying to be funny?

This was all in a single thread to a brand new member of the community and many more examples exist.

In this thread you mentioned:

I am confused, I know that SE has a lot of programmers, engineers, academics; scientists…are they as photo hobbyists, the main contributors?

Yeah, so what if a lot of the members here are programmers, engineers, or academics? That gives you no more right to be rude or talk down to them. I don't see how that changes the conversation at all. The whole idea behind this site is that the community gets to vote on the best answers, if you don't agree with an answer, you get to downvote it and contribute your own answer.

Again, here I think that the bottom line is that you are being rude to new members, general members, and even went so far as to do so in this thread which is just mind boggling to me.

Answer 3

I'm going to bite.

I'm a FT software engineer. I used to be a FT pro-photographer, at one point running a pool of photographers for a magazine. Before the critcism comes in, about why I switched profession; 1. The money, 2. I'm now a hobbyist. I get to pick and shoot what I want/when I want. 3. I get to enjoy it again. But you name it, I've probably tried something similar at some point. I've taught and worked with people of all levels and now do a lot within my local photographic community. I don't know everything but I believe this gives me the experience/wisdom to provide some answers in some areas.

First off as scottbb perfectly described it, SE is a Q&A. It's not a forum. If you wish to have long extended discussions on topic. This is not the place.

Now to answer your hidden real question of 'why all the downvotes', and I'm going to be brutally honest.

• Your answers are rude/offensive. You actually attack other answerers in your answers. I'm British. I have a very dry sense of wit and humour... there's neither in there.
• You express opinion as fact. as an example you say a 50mm f1/.8 is better than a 24-70 f/2.8L II which creates grey uncontrastey images in comparison. Erm. What? If this was the least bit true.. With that logic Canon wouldn't be shifting any of their pro lenses, as they're just white elephants.. nothing to do with the quality of the optics actually costing more to produce.
• You come across extremely arrogant, and your questions are more 'why do others do things differently to me' than genuine questions. Routinely you've attacked zoom lens users, users of AF and high ISO. This again is more your opinion, dislike and sometimes even misunderstanding then fact. You make it sound like people who don't do things the same way as you are not real photographers. In your early posts you said you had a camera years ago and it went in a drawer, had never touched a digital camera and wanting to get into the industry, so in some cases these views could very well be antiquated.
• You go off topic and rant. Some of your answers are massive, coming across more as juvenile and an area to vent. Any good information is actually lost in noise.

I'm now going to answer what should have been your real question of 'how do I redeem myself and get some upvotes'

• Don't write answers purely to attack other answers. That's the point of the voting system/comments. Be polite.
• Keep on topic.
• Don't express opinions as fact. Just because you think something's better; provide evidence to say why they shouldn't use high ISO or shouldn't go near a zoom lens. If it's wrong or the collective community disagree you will get downvotes.

Photography IS very subjective. But in many of the questions asked on here, there are more definitive answers.