Here at DPReview, we don’t usually write news articles about ourselves, but today I’m making an exception to share an exciting update. We’ve added a full-time person to our team dedicated to managing our online forums.

This represents a significant investment in the future of DPReview and, more importantly, in you, our community.

The enduring value of our forums

DPReview’s forums have been a central part of our site since the very beginning, with millions of posts dating back as far as 1999. These forums are a vault of information dating to the early days of digital photography and are one of the most frequently cited forums on the internet by Google. To say they’ve had a massive impact on the digital photography community would be an understatement.

For the past 25 years, our forums have run more or less autonomously, thanks to an incredible team of dedicated volunteer moderators. Their commitment has been essential in preserving the expert-driven discussions that make our forums a reliable resource. The addition of a full-time Community Manager is not a replacement for these moderators, but an expansion of our commitment to the forums, allowing us to support our volunteers more effectively.

Meet our Community Manager

On that note, I’m thrilled to introduce our new Community Manager, Mathew Anderson, who joins us with over 15 years of experience managing large online communities. More importantly, Mathew is a DPReview reader and has used our camera reviews to guide his own purchases. In other words, he’s one of us, and he’s excited to engage with our community.

DPReview's new Community Manager, Mathew Anderson, at his desk preparing for an online community roundtable event.

Photo courtesy of Mathew Anderson

Mathew’s primary job at DPReview is to represent you – our readers and forum members. Consider him your advocate and key communications link to our team; don’t hesitate to send him a message if you need assistance or just want to say hello.

What this means for our forums

Adding a full-time person focused on community will allow us to bring you a better forum experience.

In the near term, this means we’ll be able to provide you with better support, more quickly. When you have a question or need assistance, we’ll be able to resolve it sooner. It will also allow us to deliver more consistent moderation. Our volunteer moderators are a dedicated bunch, but they need our guidance and support. Mathew is already working to provide them with better tools, improved communication channels, and direct support for challenging moderation decisions.

With about 85 different sub-forums, the DPReview forums are a busy place.

However, it’s when we look further out that things get really exciting. We’re planning to launch a number of new community initiatives, which may include things like staff-sponsored discussion threads, member spotlights, or even community events. This dedicated focus will help us do a better job surfacing interesting and informative content from users and finding ways to share it with you.

Finally, our team is working on some big changes behind the scenes that will kick our forum experience up a notch and will allow us to do things we haven’t done in the past. I won't give anything away right now, but you can consider this an official teaser that something is coming.

A commitment to our community

Our community is at the core of what we do. DPReview’s homepage may get the headlines, but it’s in our forums where people share knowledge, forge personal connections, and develop communities based on shared interests.

By adding a Community Manager to our team, we’re making an active investment not only in the future of our forums but in DPReview as a brand, and we’re excited to have you all along for the ride.

Finally, if you have a moment, please welcome Mathew to the DPReview team in this dedicated forum thread.

2025-8-6 03:00