A Call to Arms: STOP THE OVERMODERATION OF OUR THREADS!

[jwbryson1]

I find this a worthy discussion.

Have at it, by all means. But your tactics at starting it do remain questionable. Come, now.

Sorry, I'm not going to bite. The comments in red were meant to draw attention to an otherwise lengthy thread. A casual or bored reader may not read the whole thing. The red is easy to jump to.

The only part I was trying to be hyper expressive was the STOP IT part.

 

[terri]

I find this a worthy discussion.

So it will be locked shortly...

I mean it really is an allegory to modern media. If it is at all divisive and may actually cause the viewing audience to have their own non consumer based thought it gets shut down.

Ridiculous. This is a privately owned site and the mods are here to enforce the guidelines. Again, anyone is free to raise a question if they perceive an error was made; but I stand by my comments on the overly dramatic way this thread was started. And there IS a difference between starting threads for fun conversation and starting them on hot button topics to see how long it takes before the popcorn smilie comes out. You've freely admitted in the past it's part of your entertainment here; why bother denying it under some free speech nonsense that doesn't exist in this particular arena? Just sayin'.

 

[Ilovemycam]

OP, if you don't like it you got to open your own forum. Got to remember....NONE (And I've been on nearly 15 of them) of the online photo forums is run for luv of photography...they are run for luv of $. As such, whatever hurts ads hurts $.

That is why I seldom post pix here. Who wants to be bothered thinking how can I censor / butcher this or that pix to make it pass or ooops this one is not allowed...I forgot! Serious artists don't like to be stifled, they thrive on freedom. (I'm more photog than artist, but same thing.)

That is why I use Tumblr. But Tumblr has poor feedback. It is just like talking to yourself.

In any case, we got to be thankful for what we do have. They do a nice job here for what is offered. And if you want something more, you got to do it yourself.

 

[Overread]

OP, if you don't like it you got to open your own forum. Got to remember....NONE (And I've been on nearly 15 of them) of the online photo forums is run for luv of photography...they are run for luv of $. As such, whatever hurts ads hurts $.

That is why I seldom post pix here. Who wants to be bothered thinking how can I censor / butcher this or that pix to make it pass or ooops this one is not allowed...I forgot!

You do realise that the moderators here do do it for the love of photography right? Also it wouldn't matter if we earned off the revenue or not, we would still aim to ensure that all members of the site are treated fairly and with a level of respect. About the only user groups we kick out are spambots or those only seeking to further their own finances without paying their dues to the forum for advertising rights.


As for photos we don't have that many restrictions and most of them are on adult works (for which we do have our subscribers section). In addition you can pm a moderator to ask if photos are too risky or not - we will have a look and give you an answer and we are more than happy to do so.

 

[pixmedic]

The Mods are pretty lax on the NSFW stuff too. Noones closing down the boudoir threads because they arent in the subscribers section, and there are plenty of them being posted.

 

[amolitor]

Where's that obnoxious smily, now?

Ah yes.

 

[Derrel]

This is the first thread I opened today. I must say, I am disappointed in the degree of moderator push-back on the criticism that has been leveled.

 

[kathyt]

Hot button topics are going to keep this forum alive and allow everyone equal opportunity to voice their opinions.

"hot button" topics are often areas of dissent and disagreement which is why they often spiral out of control - when they do its all lumped upon moderators to have to way in and try and sort things out. Honestly we HATE having topics that we have to keep a close eye upon or that we have to keep dipping in and out of to remove comments or administer warnings to keep things from falling apart.

We also dislike that we have to restrict discussion on certain topics to the subscribers section (topics such as politics, religion, heck we've even been forced to add guns to that segment).


As I said the thread in question was simply rehashing old ground between members; airing views that they've shared before commonly and whilst the thread wasn't as yet down the drain I had difficulty seeing where else it was going to head. Weddings is a hotbutton topic that often, if left untouched, will simply spiral down into a general hate thread - akin to how natural light photographer threads can often go as well.

Whilst I do respect that not everyone must like everyone else, I do expect that members of the community can retain a level of respect for each other and for different groups present.



That said we are not draconian in our moves - if members strongly feel that the thread in question was closed too pre-emptily and that it could continue along a positive line that wouldn't just spiral down into ranting/hate then by all means make the case for it. We can unlock things as well as lock them if given reason do to so.

It can stay closed. I am sure the next one will be arriving shortly. I do fully understand if someone is being blatantly disrespectful or downright mean, but if that is not the case then I say let them ride. Here is my thinking on the "hot button" topics of photography...Most people do not go to college for this profession, nor do they receive a grade by a professor to evaluate their work and ideas. They only have their shallow group of peers, family, and friends guiding their photography journey and giving them overly inflated views and opinions of their work. If I never had anyone telling me different, that my images were really OOF and I needed to work on X,Y and Z, then I would never have pushed myself to improve. I probably would not be where I am today without the much needed, sometimes heart wrenching, critique and evaluations that I have received over the last few years. (business advice included!) This is mostly a self-taught profession, and some people will never fully have the eye and see the full picture of it if is not thrown in front of them. I was once one of those people. I learned a lot, I grew, and I rised above. I think it was Derrel who had a good post the other day about what level of photographer you are. Most people get stuck in the middle. This is the story of life. Sink or swim, but the ones that float in the middle will never see their full potential. Avoiding the hot button topics is doing a disservice to the forum because it would not complete the whole picture.

 

[amolitor]

This sucks. When are you going to get some moderators that DO bite? I want some people bitten. I don't really care who, just some people.

 

[Overread]

This is the first thread I opened today. I must say, I am disappointed in the degree of moderator push-back on the criticism that has been leveled.

Are you saying that we should be pushing back more?

Myself I've only served to provide my stance on the situation thus far and I've also left the field fully open to members to further justify the argument that the specific locked thread mentioned is valid to re-open (whilst the opening thread mentions that its part of a WAVE of over-moderation we've no other specific examples presented to discuss).

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

I think it was Derrel who had a good post the other day about what level of photographer you are. Most people get stuck in the middle.

Where is this thread/post?

 

[kathyt]

I think it was Derrel who had a good post the other day about what level of photographer you are. Most people get stuck in the middle.

Where is this thread/post?

He had a link. I will try and find it or maybe he will chime in.

 

[Overread]

kathy, your post seems to be wavering a little toward the view that the moderators are trying to discourage good critique on the site. I'll clarify that we've never ever operated with such a mindset either long or short term; indeed many of the mods (often leading by example as best we can) aim to encourage the quality of critique given on the forums.

We only lock or move in to break up threads when the critique has been left behind and, for whatever myriad of reasons, the thread has fallen into a general battle of wills or egos instead of focusing upon the critique.

We do have a problem pushing critique from the middle to the upper ranges - but honestly that is a problem I've seen on nearly every forum community. It's easy to get from beginner to medium and easy to get help in that regard. Going higher is harder to get help with and one has to network more and put more personal effort into it. We'd love to increase the amount of support, as a forum, that we can offer in that regard so are always open to user based projects and ideas as well as listening to users on how we can help in that regard.

 

[texkam]

Clearly, we can all agree that personal attacks against members of the forum, racist or derogatory commentary about an individual’s sexual preference or lifestyle, etc., should be dealt with quickly and convincingly.

The OP is nothing but a drunk, gang-bangin', selective color-usin', railroad track-shootin, homosexual crybaby that sucks at photography and therefore has no business shooting a wedding.


IBTL

 

[jwbryson1]

Clearly, we can all agree that personal attacks against members of the forum, racist or derogatory commentary about an individual’s sexual preference or lifestyle, etc., should be dealt with quickly and convincingly.

The OP is nothing but a drunk, gang-bangin', selective color-usin', railroad track-shootin, homosexual crybaby that sucks at photography and therefore has no business shooting a wedding.


IBTL

I am literally LOL. Nicely played! :mrgreen: