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Discussion
9 Years Ago
Hey! I dont want to start any drama or anything, Iv'e noticed some people tend to get kinda picky around here lol.. But it seems to me groups are kind of just..A place where people post there photos and never check it or anything..kinda like a repetivie cycle.. I try to interact in groups as much as I can. but i notice not a lot of people do.. for example, a group with 2k plus members,, gets 100 photo entries a day or more.. and no one ever checks discussions or anything. I dont know if its just me, please note im not saying all groups are like this i am in some great groups, But ive just noticed this kind of being a trend?.. Let me know your thoughts on it!! :)
Reply Order
9 Years Ago
I'd like to be more active in the groups I belong to, but whenever I go to my Group tab, all I see are a string of thank-you posts. I've probably missed some good discussions because they are buried somewhere there. Sigh.
9 Years Ago
When a group gets so specific such as "pet green lizards group" then it becomes a dumping ground.
9 Years Ago
Thanks, Delilah. Edward, are you sure the opposite isn't true? A dumping ground would be a group with a vague name, so you could put anything there. I'm not understanding what you mean.
9 Years Ago
Correct me if I am wrong but I believe group "ratings" are set by activity levels, even the posting of thank yous count. There are a few groups out there that have outstanding
discussions ongoing, some of us just don't have the time to join in.
9 Years Ago
Pamela, I see what you mean by ratings and activity levels, something I hadn't considered. So, if you're looking for a new group to join based on activity level, a lot of the activity could just be empty thank you posts pumping it up. Interesting!
9 Years Ago
I agree about the thank you's, A great idea i got from a group im in that i am going to do in the groups I admin, Is a thank you Thread, so it wont flood the discussion board and people can still post all the thank yous..
9 Years Ago
It would help a lot is groups would limit the thank yous to one thread. It would also be helpful if group admins would start some actual discussion threads and not just promotional threads. It seems kind of pointless to start a group and have nothing to discuss.
9 Years Ago
a group is a directory for stuff. most groups have no active forum, if they do it's - hey thanks for the feature. it often has little content, or nothing i'm interested in. a group about cars - i put cars in. i don't talk about them, because i'm not into it. same with all the other bizarre groups we have. so yeah, dumping ground.
---Mike Savad
9 Years Ago
My horse paintings group is like Mike said, but I do contests, share the group and the contests when I can. So do members. I don't have time to monitor any group discussions. I put important info in the discussion section and a more specific search for types of horses. I have it specific enough that I'm not innodated with images and am able to monitor submissions. I have strict rules so as to reduce problems and target a specific audience.
People do dump artwork into my group, but I also have members that care and participate since I'm not into the discussion portion much, I'd say the emphasis is more in the contests and updates. Lately, no time for that either as I'm preparing for a show. Horse art in August and a studio tour in September.
http://fineartamerica.com/groups/horse-pictures.html
9 Years Ago
The largest selling individual artists on FAA have zero participation in the groups, contests or the threads. Does that tell us anything? I am not even sure they create a lot of views and if they are only views from FAA members, not sure what the value of them is.
I would much rather spend my time outside FAA trying to create views that hopefully are leading to sales.
9 Years Ago
Guilty!.. I joined a few when I first opened my account.. dumped a few images and moved on. I have re-visited some.. However, I've always been more interested in exploring alternative viewpoints rather than hanging around in gangs of particular "types". :o)
I joined a newbies2014 group... all the active members turned out to be horse lovers... and Mike Savad (member since birth and with millions and gazillions of followers)had an image featured..lol
I'd almost given up with groups altogether until I recently discovered Ed Meredith's "Art of Controversy" group..and my faith was restored.
9 Years Ago
groups are a way to be and get seen. i don't know if they work all that well, especially now that google has been sorting out content. but it doesn't hurt. its impossible to be active in all of them, i'm in well over a 1000 now. it increases activity which helps a bit in the search. and you never know who your buyer is. i enter the contests for the same reasons.
i also advertise out as well. you never know which things work. i'm hoping for more stats in the new update.
---Mike Savad
9 Years Ago
I find that the interesting discussions are usually in the general forum anyway. There are a few specialty groups like 'raw critique' that have a interesting group discussion. But I really don't have time for the click and vote exchange threads and the thanks for the favor. I think your odd of getting noticed and helping each other are much better posting real response in the general forum for each other than all the favor, comment, share you could do. So I kind of like FAA one big general forum you skim for interesting things and groups and contest to dump appropriate images into. I just don't have time for more than that.
-- mary ellen anderson
9 Years Ago
I am very selective in my group
Distinctive Images. I also tried to narrow the field so to speak for the very reason you suggest. I do not want my group to simply be a dumping ground.
As well, I have a single thread on the discussion page for thank you comments.
http://fineartamerica.com/groups/distinctive-images-.html
9 Years Ago
I started my groups in 2011. I held several contests, membership and image numbers grew quickly, but my activity levels were low. That's when I found out Recent Activity was just counting new discussions. By having all of those Thank You posts your group moves to the front. I tried the suggestion of just having one Thank You discussion for everyone to post to. One member pointed out she was missing out on some discussions she would have liked to participate in because she did not want to scroll through to find them. Some groups are not going to have a lot to talk about due to their subject. In my Watercolor Creativity group we could talk about techniques while the Importance of White in Artwork just has white whatever.
Any time you have activity with an image on FAA it helps. They become dumping grounds at some point. I would recognize some members removing and adding back their same images over and over again. Which I saw as extra work on my part. But they kept their work to the front of the groups while everyone else ended up many pages too far back in the group to ever be seen again.
9 Years Ago
Groups - gee - they are groups that bring that particular image together and most dump images into them to show their wares - like with like - sometimes it's one ups-man-ship or simply showing off. It's another way, perhaps, to add to the bit of 'marketing' you try to do on FAA, (although I wonder if 'collectors' really go to the groups). It might be interesting if search, say for fish - took you to a fish group rather than the 10,000 images that have fish as a tag. Discussions are generally dull or tedious with the 'thank you's' - if there are any in the group - except as was noted - it's a discussion group rather than a category group.
9 Years Ago
Well Jacob I'm not picky
I'll speak to you
But yeah it can be a little like the new kid on iz er fist day in a different school
But unlike your childhood school here you search out your own school - it's like one lot does not care too much for the other lot because both think that their style is the one that's cool.
So you join a group that you think is like minded only to find that they practice a form of communication where Twitter rule.
That's the way it is, that is the way the world is going.
I remember when I was in the Amy I was disappoint on two or three occasion when I did not receive a letter from my girlfriend.
A lot of people today do not know what SWALK means.
So you trudge along and eventually beautiful people emerge and guess what, they speak to you.