i don't know how many people are out there who just read and never post a picture or make a comment but until now i've been one of them. i have been hanging around here for about a month now and have taken the time to go through about the last four months messages to see the really great and interesting stuff you all post here but have only put one picture in the gallery myself and this is my first message. what i would like to say is that i see very little going on here from the moderators. there seems to be about half a dozen people here that keep things going but apart from them it is very disorganised and left alone. earlier messages from one of the moderators say that things are going to be kicked up a gear and things are going to be getting moving but just after that they stop bothering completely. the awful thing is people have starting posting comments which echo that which means they are sick of putting up with it now. if you ask me you need one of three things. 1 a moderator seperate to the other two who is good enuogh to run things by themselves because they may need to be. 2 new moderators. 3 the existing moderators to get real and do what they are supposed to. the thing that really made me laugh was the comments about how little time they had had to be here and then a new web site comes up which must have taken loads of time to do. it is a good site by thw way. all it needed was for them to say they were busy on a new project and stop treating you guys like children. thats just nasty. other people have started joining in. i would too if it was betterly organised and i am sure there are lots of others who read the messages who would as well.

Exactly what do the moderators need to do then?

Wow. go offline for a few hours and all hell breaks loose! Jeez - Dipsy, you obviously feel quite strongly about something which you admit you haven't been actively taking part in. Marshy has a great point in asking what they need to do, because the good thing about our forum (which you MUST have noticed by now if you've been reading through) is the respect and interaction we have amongst each other... this leaves little for the mods to do, really. The only thing I've seen gripes posted about have been the competition/ results, and hey, no-ones perfect!! (OK, at first I was bugged by the lack of results for last month too but lets face it, there's winners and losers and taking part is the bit which keeps them alive. The competitions, that is, not the winners and losers!) As for their setting up a website, whats the big deal? I'm in the middle of the same thing, so if I disappear for a couple of days to work on it, it's desertion and a lifetime ban, huh? If you would like to offer some practical solutions that make a reasonable difference to the forum with regard to the 'problems' you have found, please feel free.... they should make interesting reading.

Jordy we could improve on either way by having one other user to get thing working like the top menus where you can not click to see the past winner. I do not know syyd or colm personnaly and think they do howfully good job maintainning the whole site but they could name one of us to give them a hand in building a better photography newsgroups that have a faster response toward change. Team is power and more people we are better it will move and be effective. I must admit that i am a bit disapointed in not having the result in the contest. :o( It is challenging to see that someone whas selected to have a little something that you where not having in you picture... So colm and syyd if you read this thread and you need some helps we are here yo ! There is no shame there from time to time we need friend to relly on! So upload your load on our back we will split it and it will look like feather to the team!

I second the notion! Bsteph

I can volunteer my web services for the contest site, if the mods don't have the time to do it, though there might be a slight problem with collating, sending and uploading the data. Just e-mail me for anything. :-)

Thank you all.....particularly in that we have had a hell of a time, but I have some surprises coming for all you very very shortly, hang on to your shirts, you are GOING to love it. Syyd