Who remembers RFF when it started ?

I'm a relative newbie having just joined in March of 2013 shortly after being laid off from work and deciding to retire earlier than anticipated. I was referred by my niece's husband when I questioned him about my inherited cameras, an M3, IIa and Canon VI-T.
I totally blame all you guys and gals for my gearhead obsession with stuff now and not being satisfied with corner sharpness from some of my lenses. I'm glad I found this place as it is really humbling to read some of what is written here. I know I'm one of the 'lucky ones' who didn't have to wish they had or couldn't afford some of the best cameras ever made. I look at Jason's latest list of cameras and I realize I have 2.5 of them out of the ten listed (I count the IIa as half the early Leica listed) in my possession. I guess you could say I'm a closet wannabe photographer. I'll keep trying, and thanks for putting up with me here.
 
I was on Photo.net where things were getting a bit 'strange.' One of the moderators in those early years mentioned he thought my experience could be of value and so found a new home. Kind of dropped out of logging in and commenting for a time in recent years, but RFF is still a good place to scratch that photo gear itch [information] now and then.
 
dmr said:
The SD was the first "real camera" I owned, and the first 35 I regularly used, so I really did not have much to compare it with. Yeah, it's large(r) and a bit clumsy, but it is an excellent performer.

IIRC, back in the mid 2000-oughts, we did have a few other SD users here. I remember someone comparing the appearance to that of a "cheap transistor radio" or something like that.

The only real gripe I (still) have is that it's very easy to forget to turn the meter off and run down the battery.
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Cheap transistor radio is a good description 😊
 
According to my avatar alongside the posts, I joined in July 2004. Learned a lot, blathered even more (much of which appears to be gone for better or worse), left for a long time and was recently invited to come back, so I did.
 
I registered my Account when I was into film photography around 2008-2009, not that long compared to old folks here. Since then, THIS is the place I keep coming back and sharing my photos most.
I've learned a lot from passed memebers for instance TOM.A and ROGER.
This site has a particular "taste" and enormous of knowdledge.
 
Rob-F said:
I remember! I was an avid Photo.net member. I didn't join RFF right away; I guess I must have put it off for a year or so. Now, I rarely look at photo.net.
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I used to read a lot of their forum posts in the mid 2000s, particularly the Leica and Rangefinders subforum, and the occasional Contax T3 threads. Now I hardly go there at all, RFF is my online home for photography discussion. I used to be fairly active on DPReview but the number of idiot posters keeps me away now.
 
Archiver said:
I used to read a lot of their forum posts in the mid 2000s, particularly the Leica and Rangefinders subforum, and the occasional Contax T3 threads. Now I hardly go there at all, RFF is my online home for photography discussion. I used to be fairly active on DPReview but the number of idiot posters keeps me away now.
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I think I joined photonet in 2000, right after I bought my first computer. It was the place for photo discussions at the time. I enjoyed my time there until it became dominated by a few individuals whose goals seemed to be chasing off as many members as possible. I still go by the site today and see some of the better old crowd is still around, however, I don't participate. I just read some of the posts. It was a great site 20 years ago. Today I only hang out here and on a Fuji and a Nikon site. RFF is more inclusive and interesting. Better photos posted too, IMO.
 
Dogman said:
Better photos posted too, IMO.
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I agree. I am member on a few more forums and some of them seem to be geared towards wildlife or landscape photography (not my cup of tea) and others being dominated by users dumping their whole memory card on threads. In my mind, RFF has a slower but higher quality stream of pics being uploaded. Of course others might disagree...
 
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SolaresLarrave said:
I joined when I saw an announcement in the PopPhoto forums. Shortly afterwards, I got my first Leica. Back then it was like everyone in the forum was buying their first Leica as if it were a right of passage... I have learned a lot and done a lot and met a lot of people thanks to this forum!
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You were RFF’s best recruiter.
 
I was a long time Photo.net member since 1997 and contributed daily until a resident troll started harassing Leica users with never ending “dentist and fondler” posts. Don’t recall if Photo.net had moderators.
 
I'd been here about a year when Back Ally got his first 10,000 posts, that's about 23 years ago IIRC. There was a long thread congratulating him, all except this one crazy guy who started up his own personal I-hate-RFF website (after he was presumably banned). It offered Multi-page rebuttals of various posts on RFF, l-o-n-g anti Back Ally screeds, and weird porn links. The RFF sure made an impression on him!

Good times, always liked the spirit here and still see a lot of the old names. Lost my account in the changeover, so I'm back to being a newbie now.
 
Rayt said:
I was a long time Photo.net member since 1997 and contributed daily until a resident troll started harassing Leica users with never ending “dentist and fondler” posts. Don’t recall if Photo.net had moderators.
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I recall that as "wankers and fondlers". Pnet was a fun place until it wasn't anymore.
 
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