DPreview Closure Theory )

[Serge]

From - https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/67003045
"I think with these big corporations, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing, and, frankly, does not care. That is my guess. WIll they lose money on camera equipment and sales? Sure. Does anyone care? Naw. It's too little to bother with. Chump change to Amazon. Someone in a board room took a five-second look and asked, what's DPReview? Before the answer came, said 'Get rid of it.' And that was that. It is like the guy who got rejected by the girl. Two weeks later reject guy is still trying to figure out why and imagining elaborate reasons. (Answer she didn't like him-he wasn't "hot"-that's it). Meanwhile, the girl has gone on 5 more dates and doesn't even remember said guy anymore"
I laughed a long time... ))

 

[dirk]

That is funny.

But to be serious again:

The communication to the users is somehow strange. Or the lack of it. To be diplomatic.

Last update was on April 7th. That one was very vague and announced almost the opposite of the first announcement.

Today it is 9 days later and still no more information, no roadmap, no status quo, no explanation what they are planning to do in more details with dates etc. The moderators know nothing.

We are only 3 weeks old and communicate almost daily to our users and our moderators know exactly what is going on.

This is not only a question of David and Goliath, it is also a question how much you value your "costumers", your users and your "employees", your moderators.

Treat others like you want to be treated.

 

[Serge]

That is funny.

But to be serious again:

The communication to the users is somehow strange. Or the lack of it. To be diplomatic.

Last update was on April 7th. That one was very vague and announced almost the opposite of the first announcement.

Today it is 9 days later and still no more information, no roadmap, no status quo, no explanation what they are planning to do in more details with dates etc. The moderators know nothing.

We are only 3 weeks old and communicate almost daily to our users and our moderators know exactly what is going on.

This is not only a question of David and Goliath, it is also a question how much you value your "costumers", your users and your "employees", your moderators.

Treat others like you want to be treated.

Agree. The process is already underway there, and even if they give it back, respect for it will be lost - "with your taste in your mouth". And the staff themselves will already have lost their enthusiasm for the maintenance of this resource (IMO).

About user feedback... Yes, that's true, but from my experience it's extremely difficult to be in touch with as many users as DPREVIEW had, but it can be done... if only there was the will. It's a process that takes a lot of time and effort, and I'm aware of the cost. Don't forget the fatigue and addiction factor....
By the way, this is why I have so much respect for you, Dirk, for the realisation of this DPRF project, regardless of how it "ends up".

The overall DPREVIEW was a self-organisation of certain forums and forum moderators who almost never had any frequent interaction with the DPREVIEW administration. And the administration had no time to be in contact with the forum moderators. That's the point.

 

[PentUp]

The forums were a mere by-product of DPReview. The main focus of DPR was (or was supposed to be) reviews of digital photography equipment...

 

[Serge]

The forums were a mere by-product of DPReview. The main focus of DPR was (or was supposed to be) reviews of digital photography equipment...

Sadly, this is already "history"

 

[dirk]

The forums were a mere by-product of DPReview. The main focus of DPR was (or was supposed to be) reviews of digital photography equipment...

I agree and this is why the forum will not be archived in my view.

But still you need to communicate with these users and employees properly. This is a marketing desaster for Amazon. The same as it was when Elon Musk took over Twitter.

 

[DrLex]

It is indeed total chaos. The whole site still seems to be working, but nobody knows until when. They even published a new review after the originally announced closure date!

If they really plan to turn it into an archive, as a user I would expect a timeline of when functionality will become read-only. For instance the challenges currently still work and I wouldn't mind hosting a few more challenges, but it would be pretty pointless if they would be aborted half-way through. Even now the challenges are already sort of pointless because only few people still bother voting.

 

[dirk]

I wouldn't mind hosting a few more challenges, but it would be pretty pointless if they would be aborted half-way through

Just start them here. I hope we can start with challenges next week.

 

[clewis010]

I agree and this is why the forum will not be archived in my view.

But still you need to communicate with these users and employees properly. This is a marketing desaster for Amazon. The same as it was when Elon Musk took over Twitter.

I don't agree that it's a marketing disaster for Amazon. Perhaps amongst a very small community of camera and photography enthusiasts. But it won't do anything to hurt Amazon's main business and, most likely, many of those camera and photography enthusiasts will continue to use Amazon for some purchases simply because they are convenient and, usually, reasonably priced. Most Amazon customers will have never heard or DPReview and, most likely, most Amazon management hadn't either.

For what it's worth, I cut back significantly on my use of Amazon after being subject to a couple of attempted scams. When I called Amazon, they didn't want to know. Fortunately, my credit card company did want to know, cancelled the scam transactions and issued a new card. In addition, I've almost never used Amazon for camera or photography related purchases.

 

[ChrisMT]

But the thread was on dpr closure theory. What’s your theories? I agree with Serge, someone randomly decided, they don’t really know. It’s actually quite crazy.