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First things first. In my opinion a good group requires the joined forces. The more the merrier is often true. But it then also means that one has to be ready to compromise. If you wish to administrate a group alone, then you may not reach the success. And that is because the group can not grow beyond certain limits. Groups administrated alone are in danger to turn into a dumping grounds. People may continue contributing in them, but they really never visit the group pages to see what other group members are doing.

So, be ready to collaborate. Form a band of at least three people, who all get to administrate the group. The third person's role then is useful to avoid ties when opinions disagree. And three persons is often good to make sure that there is at least one available, if some of the group members has something to ask from admins.

Then makes sure that one of the team members is technically skilled, and one is good with languages. So, the nerd knows how to set up the group in multiple languages, and the language genius is able to make sure that the group becomes internationally appealing. The third could then be socially skilled. I've seen and left few groups that turned out battle grounds, when admins where not able to work together. So, someone working as a mediator can turn out as useful.

And only after all this becomes the choice of topic. Having more administrators then also help to choose the topic. It should not be too specific. If the topic is very narrow, then there will never be enough members to join and contribute. And if the topic is too broad, the group may turn out unattractive. People does not become and stay inspired if there are no challenge to participate. And again, the danger to become a dumping ground only increases.

It does not mean the group would need some weekly or monthly challenges declared. But the well chosen group topic, and contributions seen there, can work as a motivation for others to join the group, contribute, and even visit the group pages regularly to see what other members are doing.

16 comments

Colin Ashcroft said:

An interesting read. I am a member of over 40 groups and almost all of them I have joined to be polite (I said yes when asked) and then take no active part. Most are just ad hoc galleries but some are real collections. The groups with a challenge are different and could have a wider purpose.

The idea of a group becoming a battleground is an extreme reason for leaving (or not joining) a group but I guess most people are like me join a group when invited and probably rarely or never look at the contributions but don’t think about leaving.

I think I will look now and leave the groups I have never looked at.

3 years ago

Sami Serola (inactiv… replied to Colin Ashcroft:

Well, I also do appreciate the value of "shared collections". Some groups offer that. So, if and when someone wish to browse pictures of Yosemite Park, one can either run a photo search, or see if there is a group for it.

www.ipernity.com/group/yosemite_np

Some people administrating such groups, also do not require joining to their groups. Instead they only suggest adding some image to their groups. See Ghislaine's comment:
www.ipernity.com/blog/serola/4734810/comment/62214166#comment62214166

I have also more articles on this topic:

Observations on ipernity groups
www.ipernity.com/blog/serola/4698122

More observations on ipernity groups
www.ipernity.com/blog/serola/4733574

Ghislaine said:

À mon arrivée sur Ipernity, j'ai aussi rejoint de trop nombreux groupes, que j'ai finalement quittés, parce que les administrateurs étaient absents...de leur groupe
Je reste sur certains, parce que malgré ces "absences" quelques participants les font vivre, parce qu'il m'est facile de les visiter.
Je reste sur les groupes bien ciblés, encadrés par le ou les administrateurs, dans lesquels les dépôts sont comptés.
Et comme tu le sais je suis sur quelques groupes de challenge, qui m'obligent, j'espère à quitter ma "zone de confort". Même si je commente peu, comme me l'a fait remarqué Janano, je regarde beaucoup les contributions.
Je ne n'adhère plus aux groupes "fourre-tout".

Enfin j'ai hérité récemment de la co-administration de crazy pics d'alains (je suis seule depuis octobre) :
- j'ai repris le nom du groupe en 3 langues, paramétré les alertes, commencer à exclure quelques images anciennes hors sujet.
- je recherche des images adaptées, tout en limitant mes chargements.
- je maintiens le cadre d'origine
- ensuite, je verrais pour inviter de nouveaux membres d'Ipernity qui auront accepté mes propositions, et je réévaluerai la viabilité du groupe. (J'en ai noté quelques unes dans ta galerie, que je te demanderai...sans que tu sois dans l'obligation d'adhérer)
- Et il faudra que je choisisse un autre co-administrateur présent, capable d'éviter l'écueil des groupes : laisser passer tout et n'importe quoi.

3 years ago ( translate )

Sami Serola (inactiv… replied to Ghislaine:

I think groups like you have are also good. They provide a reviewed and selected collection on some interesting topic. Well administrated collection of pictures can be better than trying to find images with photo search. For example I have no idea how else to find "crazy pictures". So, human made selection is way better on some topics.

What I only miss are ways to advertise such grouped collections. Something would be needed to make people to find and visit them.

One way could be to start advertising those groups on Club News. At least someone like me could write an article on the subject. Collect a list of subject oriented groups, that can offer something better than photo search.

Club News could Highlight a Group of the Week or Group of the Month ?

Yes. IGA is soon. So, I would suggest this idea to new ima team, to avoid causing stress at the moment.

Colin Ashcroft replied to :

HappySnapper said:

I first joined a Photo sharing site (Flickr) around 2010 when I retired and spent more time with my camera. As my screen name suggests "HappySnapper" that's all I did SNAP A SHOT. Joining groups was un-helpful as I wanted to learn more about taking proper photographs other than snapping. As I see things groups are about photographers who enjoy and specialise in one particular style or subject and meet via a group to share and discuss their upload. But the thing I find is many photographers prefer to keep secret the information about their camera settings, and what, when and how the situation came about for their upload and so I learn NOTHING. For fear of offending another member nobody offers constructive advise while others don't feel qualified enough to offer constructive advise on photos offered to them for viewing. SO WHY BOTHER USING A GROUP?
So I joined a photo club and we all know about them, EGO's that stand perpendicular, each time my monthly project was shown on screen was met with an eerie silence and those popular members of the club when it was their projects that came up for display was met with thunderous applause. But there was some advise and good advice at that from the "HOW TO sessions".
With this in mind I think there is space for a group for questions and answers, that is post an image with a question including what they wanted to achieve from taking the photo with a reply from those more experienced members in the format of how they would have taken the same photo.

Sami Serola (inactiv… replied to HappySnapper:

I personally wish to find a group where rules require EXIF shown, or at least the basic exposure data explained on the photo caption.

The idea of questions and answers sounds good. Maybe the experienced members should even keep their contributions away, and focus only on giving advices. I could even consider trying to share my knowledge. I consider myself as being experienced when it comes to finding a good exposure, choice of focal length etc.

Post processing is on the other hand something where we all can learn something new. So, sharing post processing tricks could be one topic where experienced photographers could have something to share.

Following on from my previous comment, there is a group called "Ask an Expert" however the title really does not fit in with it's activities. From what I saw it is mostly members who have taken photos of flowers or insects and are asking for identification. What I had in mind was to upload a photo which I have given my best but still does not meet my expectation and then ask what else I could do if I revisited the location and shot.

And that is what I was also thinking of. Suggestions given like time of day to get better light, point of view to change background etc.

I understand Maurice’s comments about the experiences joining a camera club. I had a very mixed experience met some nice people who did share advice and experiences. There were also people who knew more , thought they knew more or wanted to look and sound like they knew more than others BUT unlikely to share any expertise other my Canon is bigger than your Nikon etc. Many potential members were put off by their initial contact with too many of these people.

My friend Trevor who still has an Ipernity account (not his original one) was the leader of the club in its best days and he encouraged people to try to learn how to critique other people’s photographs. I find this difficult to this day even if invited to comment I would be unlikely to feel I had anything useful to say about someone else’s composition decisions beyond the very basic advice I could give someone with little experience,

Trevor was keen on a Group here called In My Opinion. There was the opportunity to post and invite a critique of your photo and to be acceptable there was an obligation to critique the previous photograph posted by someone else ( just looked and it was the previous 3 photographs). The majority of the users have gone from Ipernity so it is difficult to see how it worked but it did (at least to some extent). A Group like that could be a solution for you Maurice.

Sami Serola (inactiv… said:

There are number of ways to share and learn.

One possibility could be a group, where:

1) More of technical challenges, where challenge descriptions already gives information and links to useful how-to articles, or describes clearly what the goal is.

2) Also post processing challenges given, similarly giving instructions on how to achieve certain goal.

3) Is a private group, OR group members were ask to share private images on that group only. People can afterwards upload a new public copy of their images, if they want. But the idea is to keep the discussion limited inside the group only. It then gives more safe discussion environment, and keeps away the distraction caused by non-members out.

4) Members would be explicitly told to ask questions on where they wish to get ideas, suggestions, and feedback.

EDIT: Some typos corrected.

I am sure private groups do exist (Probably of a Erotic nature) where the group is by invitation only, also cannot be found by searching. "Project 21" was originally in this mode for a U3A photo group who's meetings were cancelled due to Coronavirus.
In Project 19 I hope to direct members to tutorial web sites and articles which offer incentives and ideas for the current Project. As for me offering advise I am a "Snapper" and not qualified to offer advise, I try to comment from what I have learnt.
With Critique, that is a tough one to call, two accomplished photographers could have different ideas on what they would advise to improve a photograph and so may cause conflict between themselves. Fortunately I have a couple of contacts who I consider accomplished in their speciality subject or editing skills and have asked them for advise via Iper Mail.

Bad thing about private groups is that they are somewhat impossible to find and join to. So, a public group where members are asked to publish their otherwise private images is better. Visitors can see the group and contributions, and even comments. But only the members of the group can comment. So, the group advertises itself with what can be viewed. To participate, one then has to apply to join the group.

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