Posted by Jim Erhardt on August 21, 2009 at 8:08 AM
I would like to take this opportunity to shed some light on the views/replies counter that always seems to cause some confusion when people try to read too far into them, especially when there are many views but few replies. Here are some important points to keep in mind;
1. The NPN forums are open to public view. Not only that, but no registration or log-in is required to simply view the forums and all of the images they contain. As you know, a registration/log-in is required to post comments.
2. Go open up a new browser window right now and go to Google. Then type in the following search phrases and look what you find;
Those phrases cover much of the world of nature photography, wouldn't you say? How hard was it to find NPN?
3. Now take points 1 and 2 above and consider them together - anyone surfing the Internet who is interested in nature photography will usually end up on this site! As proof of this, check out this screen shot from our stats program from 2007 and this more recent one from 2009. As you can see in the "unique visitors" column, nearly 100,000 people visit NPN monthly!
Conclusion - NPN is visited by tens of thousands of nature lovers each month, most of whom are not photographers - much less NPN members. They surf into the NPN forums, enjoy the fantastic nature photography posted here and then leave. A tiny percentage of them are active NPN participants who are posting their own photos and commenting on others.
A few more points on this:
1. One has to be registered to use the forums in order to post comments.
2. The majority of those posting/commenting on NPN are paid members.
3. Anyone from anywhere in the world can view the forums!
Please keep this in mind when considering the ratio of views/comments on photos posted on this site.
Discussion
0 replies1. The NPN forums are open to public view. Not only that, but no registration or log-in is required to simply view the forums and all of the images they contain. As you know, a registration/log-in is required to post comments.
2. Go open up a new browser window right now and go to Google. Then type in the following search phrases and look what you find;
nature photography
wildlife photography
bird photography
nature photographers
UK nature photographers
Those phrases cover much of the world of nature photography, wouldn't you say? How hard was it to find NPN?
3. Now take points 1 and 2 above and consider them together - anyone surfing the Internet who is interested in nature photography will usually end up on this site! As proof of this, check out this screen shot from our stats program from 2007 and this more recent one from 2009. As you can see in the "unique visitors" column, nearly 100,000 people visit NPN monthly!
Conclusion - NPN is visited by tens of thousands of nature lovers each month, most of whom are not photographers - much less NPN members. They surf into the NPN forums, enjoy the fantastic nature photography posted here and then leave. A tiny percentage of them are active NPN participants who are posting their own photos and commenting on others.
A few more points on this:
1. One has to be registered to use the forums in order to post comments.
2. The majority of those posting/commenting on NPN are paid members.
3. Anyone from anywhere in the world can view the forums!
Please keep this in mind when considering the ratio of views/comments on photos posted on this site.