topic Re: Forum topics need sub-categories. in General Discussion

Forum Suggestion

MichaelTheMaven — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 18:37:25 GMT

Hi Monica & Canon Crew-

I know we are still getting started, but Ive been thinking about how we can make this forum as awesome as possible, and this is something you probably already know, but ultimately, I think you will get the most traffic when there are individual boards for each and every specific product you have. "Camera" or "Printers" for example is a little too general. I think each customer will want to be able to go to the specific board for their specific gear. If there are Canon specialists/engineers, plus pros who are familiar on board with that specific piece of equipment, then it should become the premeire place to get answers.

Just my 2 cents!

Best wishes

Michael

Re: Forum Suggestion

Monica — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 21:35:57 GMT

Thanks for the great suggestion, Michael! Our plan is to eventually have specific topics within the "Camera," "Printer," "Cinema EOS," and "Camcorder" discussions. Unfortunately before we can do that, we need more content! Once there are more discussions about specific equipment or topics, we will then create new boards and move the threads to those boards.

@MichaelTheMaven wrote:

Hi Monica & Canon Crew-

I know we are still getting started, but Ive been thinking about how we can make this forum as awesome as possible, and this is something you probably already know, but ultimately, I think you will get the most traffic when there are individual boards for each and every specific product you have. "Camera" or "Printers" for example is a little too general. I think each customer will want to be able to go to the specific board for their specific gear. If there are Canon specialists/engineers, plus pros who are familiar on board with that specific piece of equipment, then it should become the premeire place to get answers.

Just my 2 cents!

Best wishes

Michael

Re: Forum Suggestion

Chris — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 18:38:58 GMT

I think that is a good approach Monica. I don't think you want to create too many categories and find that some are rarely used.

Can you tell us if these forums were intended for discussion of equipment only, or did you also have other things in mind, such as the technique, art, and philosophy of photography?

Re: Forum Suggestion

CanonEOS600D — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 07:48:25 GMT

I do hope sometime sooner or later there will be Powershot Specific and EOS Specific forum so things can be discussed based on the model line and I and others can jump right into the right boards to answer questions and discuss (based on our own knowledge).

Re: Forum Suggestion

Monica — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:02:29 GMT

@Chris wrote:
I think that is a good approach Monica. I don't think you want to create too many categories and find that some are rarely used.

Can you tell us if these forums were intended for discussion of equipment only, or did you also have other things in mind, such as the technique, art, and philosophy of photography?

Hi Chris,

This forum is intended to discuss equipment, as well as any other imaging topics such as technique, art, and philosophy of photography. We wanted to get a feel of what the public wanted to discuss before creating these types of specific boards. If you have any suggestions that you would like to see, please let us know. We're open to any suggestion!

Forum topics need sub-categories.

PUREBRAD — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 02:23:14 GMT

Hello Canon!

Super idea in opening an online forum for your current and prospective customers!

Forum feedback...

Each of the main forum topics needs sub-categories.

For example, after clicking the "Camera" topic, 3 subcategories should pop-up; "EOS Film," "EOS Digital," and "Powershot."

As a DSLR owner (50D), I am looking for other threads related to DSLR's. Though the forum is new and traffic is light, very shortly as traffic increases, it is going to become very burdensome and exhaustive to filter through posts related to film and Powershot products, to find threads related to DSLRs.

Add a "Lens" subcategory and several subs to that... EF, EF-S, L, FD (and older), and M.

Same thing with printers. It is burdensome to skim through posts related to office printers when I'm looking for assistance with say, a new "Pixma Pro-1."

I wouldn't necessarily wait until traffic picks up to do such. As it is currently, It gives the forum an overall feeling of disorganization, and potential users may be diswayed by this.

Still, great job! Good luck in the future!

Re: Forum topics need sub-categories.

PUREBRAD — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 02:28:24 GMT

Also, please add the following to your spell-check dictionary.

Your spell checker didn't recognize the following terms and tried to replace them.

EOS EGOS

Powershot Overshot

DSLR DSL

EF IF

Pixma Pixie

Re: Forum topics need sub-categories.

jfo — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 02:57:35 GMT

I had the EXACT same first thought upon visiting these forums! Also, a sub-forum for accessories, maybe (e.g. Speedlites/transmitters/remotes/intervalometers/etc).

Re: Forum topics need sub-categories.

jfo — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 02:56:20 GMT

Also, maybe some filtering of usernames. e.g. This one might look official and cause problems for less-discerning users: http://forums.usa.canon.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/537

Re: Forum Suggestion

jfo — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 03:14:52 GMT

Hi Monica,

Excited to be involved with this community.

Another user and I echo Michael and Chris' thoughts in this thread here: http://forums.usa.canon.com/t5/General-Discussion/Forum-topics-need-sub-categories/m-p/747#M77

With the lack of more specific boards, this 'General' forum is already the catch-all for discussions on

Here's a "lens" thread is in the Cinema EOS forum, but as a general question and considering the smaller user-base of Cinema EOS compared to DSLR owners, its "home" would be better in a "lens" forum: http://forums.usa.canon.com/t5/Cinema-EOS/How-To-Clean-Your-Canon-Lenses/m-p/59#U59

Re: Forum topics need sub-categories.

stevepow — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 07:26:04 GMT

Agree with all the above.

Re: Forum Suggestion

BrickR — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 02:51:52 GMT

Great suggestion and I'm sure it will come to be.

My first thought on entering was that it felt like a warehouse. Everything was in one place, which made it hard to find specific topics. I bet it will start to section off to be easier to find specific subjects soon.

Re: Forum Suggestion

jfo — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:45:40 GMT

@Monica wrote:
Thanks for the great suggestion, Michael! Our plan is to eventually have specific topics within the "Camera," "Printer," "Cinema EOS," and "Camcorder" discussions. Unfortunately before we can do that, we need more content! Once there are more discussions about specific equipment or topics, we will then create new boards and move the threads to those boards.

@MichaelTheMaven wrote:
Hi Monica & Canon Crew-

I know we are still getting started, but Ive been thinking about how we can make this forum as awesome as possible, and this is something you probably already know, but ultimately, I think you will get the most traffic when there are individual boards for each and every specific product you have. "Camera" or "Printers" for example is a little too general. I think each customer will want to be able to go to the specific board for their specific gear. If there are Canon specialists/engineers, plus pros who are familiar on board with that specific piece of equipment, then it should become the premeire place to get answers.

Just my 2 cents!

Best wishes

Michael

Hey Monica,

Its beginning to get taxing to look through the Camera forum, and as more users join, this will only get worse.

Yet another topic was posted on this issue today: forums.usa.canon.com/t5/Camera/Camera-Discussions-too-broad/m-p/1285/

Can we be more pre-emptive about this?

Re: Forum topics need sub-categories.

kevinb — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:25:09 GMT

I completely agree. But, I do understand having the forum configured as it currently is. If there were many different areas to begin with, it would feel very empty and many new users would probably lose interest quickly. It is all about perseption with a new community! 😃

Re: Forum Suggestion

ConciergePhoto — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:55:00 GMT

Thanks, I was going to interject my 2-cents, but seems like everyone is looking for the same thing.. I totally agree we need a better breakdown at least based on HOW you use the camera if not a more specific camera / point-shoot / dslr breakdown as well. Looking forward to more from this forum.

Re: Forum topics need sub-categories.

Bob_A — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 05:06:24 GMT

I agree that the forum really needs sub categories. In addition to the ideas already mentioned a completely separate section on Speedlights would be helpful with sub-categories like "General talk about Speedlites" and "Off-camera flash".

Re: Forum topics need sub-categories.

Bob_A — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 05:13:18 GMT

True kevinb, it could turn a few people off to see empty sub-forums. However one other Canon forum I visit currently has close to 2000 users active at any moment. That forum also had humble beginnings 🙂 If you don't get things organized at the start it can become a jumbled mess that is hard to extract anything of value from.

Re: Forum topics need sub-categories.

jfo — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:35:42 GMT

We have sub-forums! Thanks moderators and admins!

(Where did some of you go? The new sub-forums need more interesting discussion!)