Hello everyone, I may be missing something. Why would it be interesting to use the code GOLD instead of HIDE? With HIDE more audience has access and therefore more chance of getting likes, right?
Yes and No. With Hide, everybody can access and leak the content outside. Something that already happens. With Gold only gold members can see and download, and since you have to have Likes to be Gold member, and the only way is to contribute to the forum,well you get it
BINGO! Using HIDE will allow you to obtain more Likes ... much more". As for leaking ... Gold Members leak just as much as regular members, maybe even more.
I'd say we made some good progress, george has been very thorough whenever e.g. I reported leaks where usually the leaker was identified and banned. But yes there will be always leaks, part of the game.
I thought you were going to taking an extended vacation from here. But, here you are riding my coat tails. That was a joke!
Unfortunately no vacation but lots of work (at work) and business travel, bit of browsing on the forum on a weekend is a bit of a distraction then
The choice is completely yours to make. I believe the original change was introduced here and similar questioning on rationale presented: https://p-v.club/threads/the-new-gold-button-how-to-post-content-for-gold-members-only.1991/ Really there is no personal reason to limit oneself to only posting Gold links if the goal is to acquire greater "likes." But do take note the site is set up to present a relative intuitive belief that "newer" and "the good stuff" is hidden behind the Gold tag - I've posted non-Gold material assuming I'd acquire greater likes but actually the post gets bumped lower in the que as more and more peeps post thereafter; so this may actually result in less people seeing one's post. [early on in my membership - I did this and was told to post it as Gold so that MORE people see it]. Understanding this - in addition to perusing the GOLD posts for newer content - it may be of benefit to also look at New Posts too. I believe another factor in choosing lies with where one is in achieving the 10K milestone. Understanding that Admin requires cash to run the site - posts behind the Gold tag incentivize subscribers and subsequent revenue generation to maintain daily operation. Leakers will leak and both new and those with history or recent paying subscribers (newly GOLD) will do so - but using the Gold tag may flesh out several newbie leakers (those who are well established no doubt have / had multiple accounts). Registration is presently closed for the forum - I think - but the actual vetting process could certainly be strengthened. My observance of the site and my limited time here indicate it's always a work-in-progress, much like anything else. And of importance - the community gets back based often on valuable input from its members . . .
As always @Nikon4life points out many important things in making a decision for you. I most certainly don't disagree with anything he's said here. Each member when deciding to share, must decide for him/her self which is better ... to HIDE or to GOLD? I think it probably depends more on what is being offered and how much of an impact it will make on the membership. For me, offering current software for Windows just doesn't make sense but to HIDE and receive as many "Likes" and comments (which keeps the thread higher in the forum listing) as possible. Too much emphasis is being put on leaking. Some people take from here and post elsewhere, others take from other places and post here. A gold member is just as apt to leak and a general member. People are people, sharing is sharing, stealing is stealing, leaking is leaking. It evens out over the long run as a general rule in my opinion.
Just seeing this pop up again in my notifications since I was following this thread and thought I'd chime in now with some more experience under my belt I didn't read up on all the other comments, so apologies if anything I say here is redundant. The reasons to post gold are: 1) You're supporting the ecosystem of the group. There are costs associated with hosting a forum like this so we help reinforce the idea that members should want to be Gold. You can either earn your way or pay your way into being Gold and those paying money, plus the little bit extra that the group owners pull in from group buys helps keep the platform alive. 2) You don't actually get more likes buy only using hide. This is an oft-repeated, but incorrect assertion that I too believed when I first started out, and it makes sense on its face: Make things easier to get and you get more likes. But you actually get more likes by posting gold. Maybe that wasn't always how it worked, but it works that way now. Your content rises to the top of the pile (of very often low quality or dead threads) and people can filter for Gold content easily. This means you post naturally gets more visibility. And then when people comment it bounces your thread back to the top. Which further reinforces the idea that people should buy Gold (see point number 1). All that said, it's up to you how you choose to post except in one instance. If you are posting a mirror to a thread that's marked Gold, you also must post your mirror as Gold.
@curiousdude - #1 - I more than support the ecosystem of the group and this site by what I bring to the table. It would be absolutely foolish for me to limit the potential "Likes" I will receive should I post them as Gold. I look at things a bit differently because of the types of items I post. In my opinion, what I offer helps bring new members into the fold. Part of the reason my "Like" totals are down per item posted is because the site is presently "Closed to new registrations". I don't know the reason for this, but you can't make money if your doors are closed! #2 - No hard feelings, but in my case you are dead wrong! And, I'm not convinced that you're correct in any case. I do get more "Likes" not posting as Gold. As long as the option to HIDE or GOLD is available, it depends on what is being offered as to which a potential poster must decide. Many members here don't care about "Likes" and feel they are doing their part to post items as Gold. That's great, but the overwhelming majority here do care about receiving the maximum potential of "Likes". I don't necessarily believe items raise in a forum listing just because they are Gold. They must first be desired, and if they are desired they will raise on their own merit regardless. Again, it just depends of what is being offered. Perhaps the Admin needs to determine what types of items can be posted as HIDE and which can only be posted as GOLD. Taking the choice away may be a way to go, but people who work hard to provide quality material, take the time to find it (and in so doing will probably be leaking it here ), test it themselves to do their reasonable best to insure that it works (without guarantee), etc., etc., most likely aren't going to be willing to do this if they are forced to post as Gold. Items posted as Gold aren't guaranteed to be of higher value than those items that are not. The long and short of it IS, without items of value being offered here the site would fail. The administration must continue to do its part by offering superior Gold items, i.e. the "Williams Academy AI Retouch Panel" for example. We the Contributors bring new members to the site, but it's quality items like that which convince them to purchase a Gold membership.
I agree with you for your specific posts - the various valuable software is essentially the foundation by which most (if not all) members / visitors here springboard their creative muses. Plus you additionally address questions promptly in your willingness to facilitate the functionality of the items posted. These should garner equal (if not more) "likes" because of your willingness to provide solutions - and your posts should incorporate that aspect (as they do). I don't think anyone has traditionally taken issue with informational posts utilizing the HIDE tags (i.e. Solid information = value). Right - they [he = specifically H1ghM1nd] does routinely post higher ticket items under the GOLD tags on somewhat of a schedule to encourage newer members to seek same. See: https://p-v.club/threads/upcoming-gold-content.36699/ This somewhat serves as a model for others to follow; and a handful of peeps have contributed fantastic educational material here which I'd happily pay a monthly sub. The variability of perceived "value" is an option I hope remains within this forum as it relates to tag choice - - - and I hope it's working to keep the site financially afloat for the foreseeable future . . .
@DesertFox - I was addressing the original post, not accusing you of not supporting the ecosystem. I think you may have taken what I said as a rebuttal to you personally, which was not my intent at all. I was trying to address the OP at a general overview level. Definitely no hard feelings here on my end! I think in your particular niche - with the type of content you're sharing, you're probably right that using hide makes more sense for you, particularly if your motivation is to share ubiquitous, entry level kind of stuff that most people will want. In general, though, the design of the site IS in fact set up to surface Gold content more often. It's even built right into the site navigation. As a simple example, when you click on the Gold Content heading, it surfaces all content with Gold tags in reverse chronological order. However, if you click on New Posts, it surfaces content based on the most recent interaction in the thread. So if a dead thread from two years ago received a comment requesting a mirror, it would be listed above your newly posted non-gold thread with no recent comments. It's just how the system is designed so it makes sense to leverage the built in abilities. Using Gold tags flows into the site design in a way that not using Gold tags doesn't. Content using the hide tag is largely search dependent to be seen, Gold content is not. This probably works just fine for your stuff, again, because if you're posting software content that is more ubiquitous, people are naturally going to be searching for it. For the kind of content I post, I depend on the site "helping out" a bit to have it surfaced. Many more people are going to be searching for the latest Capture One than Nick Page tutorials, for instance lol - not to mention that the search functionality can be a bit picky and not surface things if you don't word it correctly. I don't believe it has any Boolean operations built in. I recently discovered this when I was looking for "Dave Morrow" content and couldn't find it, only to have someone helpfully share with me that I needed to search for "Morrow's" to have it show up. All this to say... I think your logic holds up just fine for your content, but not for most of us. But, I do think that's why it's good we can choose which type of tag to use instead of being forced into using ONLY the hide or gold tags.
Agree that the perception of value is almost as important as the actual value from a site longevity perspective and I, too appreciate that it's structured this way.
@curiousdude - Yes, it did seem that you were attacking me a bit, especially since I am the one to blow this dormant question out of the water. You are far more analytical than I, and that's a good thing. I'll just leave it that for now. I have no problem with you in any way. Regarding your problems with searching for Dave Morrow, you must have had some communication with @george about this? Because searching for Dave Morrow, Dave, Morrow or Dave Morrow's, all return what appears to me as the same data. But I agree that the Search function could be improved. I've had discussions with george on this for almost as long as I've been a member.
To continue ... In the eight (8) months I've been absent from the site (at least as a contributor) there have been many changes. I don't want to offend anyone by not mentioning them by name, but I probably will and I'm truly sorry about that. The most outstanding additions in my absence have been you, @Coraline, and @mr.c. You and mr.c have brought a ton of great material people can learn and grow from. Coraline appears to have everything @lkngood doesn't ... and probably a lot she does. All of you along with @Nikon4life are so invaluable to this site. The membership has shifted considerably in my opinion over that eight month period. Based on the quick growth in Likes & Trophy Points the three of you have made, on one hand it seems people want to learn more about the programs they're interested in (perhaps more than just getting in there and getting it done). I do wonder where they find the time to read (study) all the material they download ... much of which covers the same ground, just written by different people. On the other hand they seem highly interested in Presets. It's almost like collecting Presets has replaced collecting baseball cards. I'm not knocking this, it's just something I've noticed. Something else I've noticed is just how much material Nikon4life has brought to the site. It's people like all of you that make this site strong ... and I hope profitable?
Thank you for your kind words and recognition. Similar to you I like giving back/sharing good stuff especially that hasn't been posted before on any site, which I am happily doing since I found out about this forum. No idea when to watch all of this, especially when one has a full time job but also agree that I doubt that the 7th Lightroom course is that useful. Even more so agree on the topic of those presets. Some AI based raised some interest for me, but have not applied them yet in a systematic manner. For me most presets only work in a very limited way for specific photos and certainly do not move photos from crap to a masterpiece when composition, lighting etc is off. I am not sure what gets most folks so excited about them. For me it is more when you develop a series to adjust one picture and then transfer over the processing to the others. But this again depends on the very specifics of that series and again will not rescue a photo where I have sucked at composition... or maybe I just missing an important piece here. I think quite a few of us are hunters & gatherers. And when one is really honest with oneself, how much has really been used...probably not that much that was really downloaded...on the other hand one trainer told me: if you take 1 useful tip away, the course was worth it even more when it had been 2 or even 3. Watching e.g. Dave Morrow I had a lot of deja vu's on tips that I somehow heard before but forgot or that makes a lot more sense since I am better at connecting the dots.Therefore, I very much like the forum beeing exposed to other photographers that I might have missed in the past. Not sure how much has changed as I do not the time before arriving here, but I appreciate several of the connections I could make through 1-1 conversations. Back on topic: My motivation to use gold is for the more exclusive material to have an incentive for others having a gold status and not just register, leech and run but either through other posts/reposts get points or through other means. Yes agree also with the search beeing a bit funny at times, but if posters could adhere to the guidance around website / author / title it usually does the trick. Probably not that easy to replace the inner workings of a forum software that easily.
