APUG.ORG to PHOTRIO.COM Migration, Final Details.

Photo Engineer said:

I've talked to Sean on the phone. Does that count? He is NOT a young lady by any means.

PE

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It's been too long Ron, will have to have a catch up soon when the dust settles.

greg zinselmeier said:

there was a girl like this in high school.. . . . she gave it away to everybody. . .. . then bitched because she got no respect... well!!!! dont give it away for free!!!

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Very nice, classy SLUT SHAMING. Well done. *look at the stat of APUG members* oh right, old white males. Got it. Funny how stereotype works both ways.

MattKing said:

It is funny, and sad, that so few of the points in this thread make direct reference to whether the impending change will make the website experience BETTER for those who are either using it now, or will use it in the future.
Including for Sean, for whom I will be forever grateful.
My outlook on this is that I THINK it will make things better, because it will make it possible to more fully involve those who use "hybrid" methods. If it does that, and also maintains the value to those who wish to discuss the non-hybrid world, and continues to provide a healthy, vibrant internet community to us who came here for the joy of a community that values the world of film and other non-digital things, it will be both an "artistic" success, and I expect a financial one.
I get great joy in helping those who are essentially new to film. It isn't the least troublesome to me that they might not be printing optically. I just want to be able to both value what I like to do, and discuss it with those who also value it, and are comfortable with rules that keep them on topic while they are where they are.

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I agree. The reality is that many film users don't have a choice - they have to utilize a hybrid workflow. Many - especially younger film users - don't have the space available for a darkroom. And even if they do, new film users aren't will to commit the energy to build a darkroom until they know they want to continue. And community darkrooms are scarce and getting scarcer.

Goodbye APUG. Hello Photrio!

Daisy... Daisy...

Seems like the dust just settled - a bit!

PE

Everything looks great. A masterful job. I know there is a weight off your shoulders now, Sean. I think everyone who is not a subscriber should jump on-board. This was obviously a stressful, time-consuming and expensive transition. Sean deserves more than a pat on the back.

faberryman said:

Everything looks great. A masterful job. I know there is a weight off your shoulders now, Sean. I think everyone who is not a subscriber should jump on-board. This was obviously a stressful, time-consuming and expensive transition. Sean deserves more than a pat on the back.

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Well, personally, I'd like to buy him and his family a holiday.

A dollar a piece from each of us would do nicely.
In fact, a dollar from everyone who has ever created an account here and we could add an extra few rooms to his house and throw a heated inground swimming pool into the bargain!

Seems like a very smooth transition... job well done!!

Old-N-Feeble said:

I can't write what I want to at this moment without being uncivil... other than to call out the selfish USERS.

Okay, that's definitely uncivil... but true.

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The word you are reaching for is ABUSERS.

Sirius Glass said:

The word you are reaching for is ABUSERS.

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I should have edited that...

I was only referring to those who use this forum extensively, and can very easily afford the subscription fee, but refuse to support the website.

Pain free. Nothing to gripe about and yet I can peak at the rest whenever I want.

I like the new avatar feature that post the first two letters of the screen name if there is not avatar. It makes it much easier to find posts by particular people.

Wayne said:

We need an APUG.COM bumper sticker

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Some people don't like to adorn their car with stickers. I'd prefer a t-shirt (singlet) or a cap. I can see it now... Kodak yellow box color with red and black. Maybe silk screen of a camera. Which camera? Maybe assorted varieties. Money would have to be paid up front.

All sorts of money-raising opportunities exist. Chatbooks are inexpensive and a series of them, with members photos and descriptions, could be offered for sale to the membership and others. Again, money would have to be collected first before doing any work.

Wayne said:

We need an APUG.COM bumper sticker

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It is/was apug.org, not .com. A member in California used to make sweatshirts and T-shirts. I bought a black hooded sweatshirt with the APUG logo on the front about 11 years ago. The cuffs are kinda worn out, but I still wear it.

Theo Sulphate said:

Some people don't like to adorn their car with stickers. I'd prefer a t-shirt (singlet) or a cap. I can see it now... Kodak yellow box color with red and black. Maybe silk screen of a camera. Which camera? Maybe assorted varieties. Money would have to be paid up front.

All sorts of money-raising opportunities exist. Chatbooks are inexpensive and a series of them, with members photos and descriptions, could be offered for sale to the membership and others. Again, money would have to be collected first before doing any work.

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With choice of camera such as Minolta, Nikon, Canon, Leica, Alpa, Hasselblad, Rollei, Speed Graphic, Graflex, ... The shirts would be silk screened as each order comes in.

@Theo Sulphate @winger @Sirius Glass Just added a "Shop" link to the menu. That should be going in a few days and will have branded clothing, accessories of all kinds, stickers, etc. Can I ask what you guys think a reasonable price for a t-shirt is? The margins are pretty low so to make the Shop actually contribute to revenue a shirt might need to be around $20-24. Or maybe I sell them at cost and consider it free advertising?

winger said:

It is/was apug.org, not .com. A member in California used to make sweatshirts and T-shirts. I bought a black hooded sweatshirt with the APUG logo on the front about 11 years ago. The cuffs are kinda worn out, but I still wear it.

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Obvious slip of the lip, but thank you for the corrections. I was dead serious and would put an APUG sticker on my cars in a second, but I won't put Photrio on them. I was proud when I referred people to the ANALOG PHOTOGRAPHY USERS GROUP. Photrio is about as appealing a name as US Bank Stadium or Safeco Field.

Wayne said:

Obvious slip of the lip, but thank you for the corrections. I was dead serious and would put an APUG sticker on my cars in a second, but I won't put Photrio on them. I was proud when I referred people to the ANALOG PHOTOGRAPHY USERS GROUP. Photrio is about as appealing a name as US Bank Stadium or Safeco Field.

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Hi Wayne, I did link to several posts discussing why we had to make this move and I understand it's hard to see the brand change for some. How would you feel pointing people to APUG and the site no longer exists? Or it's a site with 25 guys arguing about dilutions, while the analog crowd moved on to sites/social media that also support hybrid and digital? This was the reality. I wasn't prepared to let something we've built on for 15yrs evaporate or go out of business. We did what we had to do. So far, the new stats are exceeding my expectations and I am becoming hopeful we can keep this ship afloat. And we have not even been indexed by google or promoted the new site in any way. Today we are currently averaging a user registration 4x that of APUG, I haven't seen numbers like that in 10yrs. I keep getting private messages and emails from people saying they have come back now that they can talk film AND hybrid or digital. That's a good thing imo.

Sean said:

I keep getting private messages and emails from people saying they have come back now that they can talk film AND hybrid or digital. That's a good thing imo.

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this is great news !

Sean said:

@Theo Sulphate @winger @Sirius Glass Just added a "Shop" link to the menu. That should be going in a few days and will have branded clothing, accessories of all kinds, stickers, etc. Can I ask what you guys think a reasonable price for a t-shirt is? The margins are pretty low so to make the Shop actually contribute to revenue a shirt might need to be around $20-24. Or maybe I sell them at cost and consider it free advertising?

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I bought a tee earlier this year to support AIDS/HIV research - cost me $30. I was happy to pay that (sadly, the shipping was a price gouge).
For me, it's not so much the cost of the individual item/s it's how much I get slugged for postage - it's a worldwide problem and whilst I don't expect it to be free, I expect it to be fair

Case in point, I wanted to purchase a small Memorial Cross from the RBL in the UK (and make an additional donation) - cost to post such a small item was going to be GBP28!!! Suffice to say, they lost the sale and the extra donation.

Sean said:

. . . And we have not even been indexed by google or promoted the new site in any way. Today we are currently averaging a user registration 4x that of APUG, I haven't seen numbers like that in 10yrs. I keep getting private messages and emails from people saying they have come back now that they can talk film AND hybrid or digital. That's a good thing imo. (my bolding)

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And this says it all.

How often do we hear of businesses (big and small) shutting up shop because they took waaaaaaaay to long to adapt to their customer wants? (Could Kodak could be named in that "elite" group perhaps to a point.)

I'm amazed at how many digital/hybrid posts are popping up (yes I watch all 3 threads - I want to keep abreast of all things photographic) with information that I've been after for many years. And looking at some of these threads, I can see how dormant they've been until this migration - suddenly they are like rabbits, breeding responses left, right and centre!!

And amongst all these answers there are a lot of regular APUG users that I guess I didn't expect to be chiming in, yet they are giving advice freely AND asking questions.

The APUG product was great and met the needs of many analog only photographers out there, but it needed to adapt to the market climate. More and more people are switching to both analog & digital or just want to be able to discuss "Scanning to make a good image to post online" without being hounded to death, for asking such a "blasphemous" question.

If all members want, is to see analog uncheck the boxes at the top that say "hybrid" & "digital" - APUG is still there, it has just been rebranded to make it more welcoming to those people who aren't quite so enlightened to where photography came from, and that it's more than a selfie with an iPhone. If the name change is the *only* thing that is bugging members - might I suggest you all take a step back from the computer screen and have a look at what's happening in the world right now, to regain some perspective.

In the grand scheme of things, renaming a website, a brand, or a 5* hotel group is so low on the "world problems scale", they don't even rate a mention.

Sean said:

...Can I ask what you guys think a reasonable price for a t-shirt is? The margins are pretty low so to make the Shop actually contribute to revenue a shirt might need to be around $20-24. Or maybe I sell them at cost and consider it free advertising?

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$20-$25 wouldn't be excessive for a specialty shirt that's "cool".

Long ago, I think I paid that much for an "Island Hoppers" shirt (from Magnum P.I. television program). It's my most prized shirt.

Theo Sulphate said:

$20-$25 wouldn't be excessive for a specialty shirt that's "cool".

Long ago, I think I paid that much for an "Island Hoppers" shirt (from Magnum P.I. television program). It's my most prized shirt.

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Crazy as it seems, you pay about $25 for regular Levis tees in Australia (and they aren't the greatest quality).

Sean said:

@Theo Sulphate @winger @Sirius Glass Just added a "Shop" link to the menu. That should be going in a few days and will have branded clothing, accessories of all kinds, stickers, etc. Can I ask what you guys think a reasonable price for a t-shirt is? The margins are pretty low so to make the Shop actually contribute to revenue a shirt might need to be around $20-24. Or maybe I sell them at cost and consider it free advertising?

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I went to Grand Teton and Yellowstone this June and bought T-shirts ranging from $17 to $28. I bought a few National Park T-shirts through teespring.com after we got back and they were $25. I'd buy an APUG one or a Photrio one (maybe both).

If you're at all interested, I drew up a design I've never had printed that has outlines of different film types and says "Yes, I can still get film for this." If I knew how to screenprint, I'd do it myself, but I don't. You can use it if you want.