Very funny Opethian...no, this thread isn't going to be deleted.

The reasoning is very simple, and has been discussed at length. We decided to keep things as they always were and no go "Off Topic" at this time. It's always under review though.

The essense is the purpose of the site and the General Chat section was intended for non-specific photo chat that didn't relate directly to any section, but was still of interest to Pentax Users.

So, for example, perhaps chat about composition, a particular exhibition, lots of things. Which you can clearly see from the content of the section.

An exception is made for the Pointless Thread, in which we gossip, chat nonsense or whatever. That's the place for announcing a new love of golf. We want people arriving to get more benefit to using their Pentax cameras to not have to wade through too much off topic stuff. The principle is there and a reasonable amount of leeway given.

Think of this as well - if someone posts their love of Manchester United, how many threads do we get about all the other clubs? If I tell you all about my book collecting does someone with their new K-r really care? If I show you some macro images of my books then I can still sort of tell you in the Your Photos section if I want to. How about some golfing pictures?

As for the idea of personal reasons for moderation, there's no such agenda, full stop. Everybody gets treated the same and any perception of favour anyone has is no doubt because they don't know all the facts in any particular case.

Hope that clarifies!

Pickering is a great event, as are Haworth and also Bury.

I've seen some very powerful images from all of these places. Not mine unfortunately, not so far anyway.

So this is how we behave when a thread gets overlooked? Calm down please everyone.

If you want to get on with people as photographers then being intrusive and aggressive is not the way.

As for the photograph in question, it is easy to remove it, but the person involved has not complained as far as I understand it. I'll think that one over as in itself it doesn't seem to be offensive even if as alleged the method of taking it was offensive.

Peter has answered the question for you, but please remember we don't discuss moderation in the forum. Please send any query by PM where we will be happy to discuss it.

It's all depending upon circumstances. The speeds are recoprocals, so 1000 means 1/1000 second. The bigger the number the faster the speed. Speeds longer than 1/2 second are usually marked 1", 2", 4" etc. and this represents full seconds.

You will generally need a faster shutter speed as you zoom in, becasue the magnification exagerates camera shake.

Well I'd argue that you are a PU customer Chris, you use a PU product (the forum) which is supplied to you at no charge.

The forum was written by IT as it is to enable certain functionality and gel with EPZ as well, so we may be using many advantageous features that we are unaware of.

As for the last point, it's purely academic as we have no intention of doing anything like that.

Off topic thread closed. Not Pentax or photographically related.

Peter, your question has been asked before and the answer is that the company has many affiliations and no doubt different suppliers have different arrangements. I'm sure whoever wanted to be in a particular part of the site could negotiate to be so.

As for the lenses, then you get what it says on the tin.

Yes Chris, I run three other forums and pay for them, but there's just me and my son Mike doing it and the costs are low.

PU is part of a company that has premises and employs people. The team also custom made the site. This is a professional organisation with a professional organisation's costs and requirements to be profitable, so we are not talking about the same thing at all.

If you have constructive ideas then by all means put them in to the team for consideration.

What you haven't included Peter is that there is then a link to the EPZ review of each lens.

In other words, it's a reminder to bring those reviews back to our attention.

Although there's nothing exciting about it if you've already read them, it might help newer members realise there are articles there to be read and guide them towards them.

The buy now is quite normal as it helps advertisers want to support the site. Every EPZ review has a link to enable us to buy.