Comments on: Good to Bad – Nikonians.org

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:09:30 +0000

After a popular Nikon mailing list in the 90’s passed away I found Nikonians when I was looking for an alternative. While I did enjoy the site I missed my mailing list. After a while I found D1scussion.com. So, when Nikonians went pay for play I was not as sad as I might have been because most of my information was coming from D1scussion instead.

Web address in the Web Site link.

By: Donald Core

Donald Core — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:52:14 +0000

Sorry, J. Ramon Palacios – Nikonians Founder and Administrator.
If you think I’m going to pay for free information from other users! you are crazy.
Well done “Ian Lee” lets move to free web sites.
…” Esta LOCO Ramon “…

By: Mark Smoker

Mark Smoker — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:58:46 +0000

As an amateur photographer, and an owner of a Nikon D80, I was an occasional surfer of the Nikonians website. I found it to be useful and informative. As a casual user, I did not find it compelling enough to actually pay for it, as there are too many free sources of digital photography information out there on the web today. BTW, no one actually mentioned just how much Nikonians is charging now…what are they charging?

By: Ian Lee

Ian Lee — Fri, 22 May 2009 23:18:09 +0000

@Ted, Thanks for the info. That explains it.

By: Ted P.

Ted P. — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:56:04 +0000

“The number of registered users at Nikonians continues to increase, because people need to re-register to get another 30 days access, but the volume and quality of posts has noticeably declined.”

This just means that:
1. Nikonians keep a tally of registered members, whether they’re active or deactivated. This is false advertising on their part. They should not consider deactivated members into the total count.
2. After your 25-day or 30-day free membership expires, you can sign on with another ID. Doing so increases the number of registered members yet again.

By: Ian Lee

Ian Lee — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:52:14 +0000

@Chris, thanks for stopping by and sharing a your user experience of Nikonians.org. Can you elaborate more on:

“The number of registered users at Nikonians continues to increase, because people need to re-register to get another 30 days access, but the volume and quality of posts has noticeably declined.”

I am not sure I follow why renewals have a 30-day period associated with it. Thanks in advance.

By: Chris Lilley

Chris Lilley — Fri, 22 May 2009 06:02:33 +0000

Nikonians has higher costs than other sites, as it uses (and maintains) custom forum software rather than benefiting from the economy of scale by using widely deployed, well-supported software like phpbb, vbulletin and so on.

Although most people think of Nikonians as the forum, its actually trying to do many more things (and not well) – a blog site, a shop, a picture hosting site, etc. Again, with custom software. Its unable to compete with better-supported alternatives (flickr or smugmug for hosting; wordpress, livejournal, blogger et. al.) The shop is also limited by its commercial ties to a particular manufacturer of ballheads (Markins), so the selection is limited and mainly oriented around tripods, plates and so on.

Lastly and more seriously, Nikonians is very bad at listening to its (paid) users and over-moderated.

Having locked out the users that provided its content, people are moving to alternatives like NikonCafe or NikonGear and this is likely to increase as the content ages. The number of registered users at Nikonians continues to increase, because people need to re-register to get another 30 days access, but the volume and quality of posts has noticeably declined.

After two years of being a paid subscriber, I am unlikely to renew when my subscription runs out; better content contributed by a wider range of Nikon enthusiasts is available at other sites, which continue to allow read access by everyone.

By: Ian Lee

Ian Lee — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:58:28 +0000

@JRP, thanks for dropping by with a note. It’s really too bad Nikonians, despite the large number of users and pageviews it was receiving, was not able to keep its doors opened without charging a membership fee. I am shocked actually. The worst part is that users are now locked out of content that they had originally contributed, me included. It’s truly a sad day when the very users who had helped build a community is now denied access to it.

By: J. Ramon Palacios

J. Ramon Palacios — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:52:36 +0000

Ian,
Thank you for your kind comments on Nikonians.
The economy has drastically changed and Internet is by no means saved from its effects.
Nikonians simply saw the writing in the wall some time before it was publicly admitted by anyone and we acted on it.
To illustrate the point, here are some facts recently published on one of the most successful Internet sites of our times.
Analysts of well respected world-class financial institutions have estimated that YouTube may have revenues of some $350 million USD in 2009, despite its size.
In contrast, its costs are projected at $700 million; and these figures are part of the optimistic scenario.
The main difference between Nikonians and YouTube is that YouTube is owned by Google and may therefore be allowed time to weather it. Nikonians.org cannot.
We feel very fortunate that new members keep coming in and staying at a larger rate than before.
We will continue to work in making Nikonians a unique photographic and personal experience, not a simple reference site.
Again, thank you very much for the mention.
Have a great time!
JRP
Nikonians Founder and Administrator

By: Andrew Boey

Andrew Boey — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 08:58:04 +0000

Try here,… it’s FREE:

http://www.nikonian.com.my

the free forum at:

http://forum.nikonian.com.my

Thanks everyone.

By: Ian Lee

Ian Lee — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:55:00 +0000

Thanks Chris,

Thanks for chiming in. I am already there and received a warm welcome. Appreciate your note here though!

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:53:06 +0000

Hi Ian,

I am a volunteer administrator at a free Nikon related photography site (url in the ‘website’ field) that has been active for 4 years. You are welcome to come visit the Nikon Cafe!