I'm curious if its possible to develop more 'collaborative projects' through PV. There are some things up on the wiki but its hard to tell what's happening with them. In the last year a few, experimental "concept film" ideas, have come into my head regarding community content, but I don't know where to start or if anyone would be interested. I believe there is potential here though (there was a pretty good response to Driftwood's 'sunset' competition, no?).

I'm not talking about large feature projects, just simple 2-5 minute shorts that people can easily contribute to and don't require any more kit than a single camera (and tripod:). These shorts or sketches can be about whatever people are interested in be it politics, philosophy or just everyday portraits of people or places. They can be abstract or narrative. It can even be a way to test or compare technologies like lenses or patches (for ex 'lets all use Sanity' or '35mm focal lengths only'). Or what about trying some sort of competition? I don't know, just sharing some thoughts here...

Yep Comps are good and I'll be announcing Sunset Competition winner shortly. The film is nearly edited and we're getting to choosing the nitty gritty opening / closing shots :-)

What I noticed first was that the categories menu is not showing from my android phone.

You can see mobile version. Check your phone browser setting to show full version, usually they have one.

Next thing I noticed (or didn't notice) was that the search bar is camouflaged with the banner. Maybe move it down to the menu or category bar or highlight it?

Yep, something like it. But if you fail to see "Input search terms" above Start New Topic ...

For Android smartphones
- choice to switch between "mobile" and "classic" appearence formats of the P-V site
- adding option to send PM someone from "mobile" appearence

ADDED: just checked browser settings: no option to switch between classic/mobile on mine (quite an old one: / rooted Froyo 2.2 / SpeedyMode kernel....but: "never change the winning team")

@tetakpatak

Check now.

On mobile theme check footer for "Full site" link. It must switch to full fleged version.

It'll reset back to mobile after 48 hours :-)

Works on my old iPhone.

P.S. And change the phone :-)

Maybe some semi-regular Skype hook-ups ... could be "topic-specific" for an hour or so, then a "free-form discussion". This would allow for good focussed discussions and for some random cross-pollination of ideas. We all have different skill-levels and areas of expertise.

If there was to be such a regular hook-up it would require someone to act as regular facillitator, basically to "pass around the talking stick" and keep it to time. The individual topic discussions could be lead by a different person each time (e.g. hack expert, steadicam expert, lighting expert, whatever).

Each session could start with going around the circle for people to provide quick 60-second introduction (e.g. location, shooting interests, gear status, personal mood).

If it is kept to a reasonable length e.g. 90mins or so, it would allow people to get a taste of it and then break off into private discussions if required.

I am not real savvy with the nuts-and-bolts of Skype and how you wrangle a group discussion with that technology, but I would be happy to develop this concept with anyone who is interested. PM me if you like.

A small chat "shout-box" under the banner only on the home page for quick questions/greetings that don't require a thread perhaps?

Thing here is that chat software makes very large load. We'll think about making temporary topics :-)

A weekly Personal-View User Highlight? This thread would highlight one user's background, goals, advice and video to share with everyone.

You can start one :-) as it was your initiative.

@tetakpatak

I'll try to make additional button in full version to make it even more easy.

Guys, much more simple things exist for such stuff - http://piratepad.net/

Maybe allow members to write or choose an identity in their profiles, such as Film Pro, TV/Broadcasting Pro, Enthusiast, etc. I'm not saying to have a title next to your nick every time you write something, but maybe be able to check it in the member profile area.

Absolutely agree here.

Would it be possible for a user to "block" another member, but in a personal level, meaning that I would be the only one not being able to see the "blocked" persons comments (maybe better if such comments appeared as hidden, in the same way comments with low scores are usually hidden in yahoo conversations)? I know this could create some meaning coherence issues (although at a user level), but since the user will be aware of it, it's not going to be a huge problem.

Yep, it is common function for forums. In fact it is more physological one, but I think it could be done in the future, we could just make his comments text same as background, so if you'll be very interested you could select it with mouse and read anyway :-)

@ahbleza

I think it belongs more to extending Profiles.

And we could just later restrict special search to this profile pages only.

All wikies merged as subcategories to FAQ wiki, separate wikies deleted.

http://www.personal-view.com/faqs