Revised Forum Guidelines - Please Read

Most of the guidelines seem fine to me. However, I would not want to see anything that prohibits people like Doug Herr from posting Leica SLR photos. IMO, telephoto and macro photos taken with Leicas should not be off limits--even though I don't think they would be considered rangefinder style.

 

I read this forum to see or find discussions about Leica SLR's and Leica Digital products--not just M series. Here's hoping it will still be acceptable to discuss all things Leica here.

 

Thanks for all your work to date in hosting and moderating this forum.

 

Maureen

Tony, Josh,<p>Thanks for your efforts. I think you are doing a good job. But I don't think this forum suffers a lack of rules. It suffers a lack of interesting topics and/or in depth discussions. Two days offline recently leaves me with a full page of new threads to browse. 5 of 10 are questions asked over and over again, 4 are showcases of latest scans, 1 is really new and interesting but doomed to be submerged by noise in no time. How many threads are actually kept burning for more than 48 hours? 1 out of 25?<p> Rather than putting up new fences I would suggest invitations to high quality posts and discussions. A ranking system for threads could be an incentive. I think the endeavour should be to make posts worth archiving. Cheers.

Any chance a point #16 couldn't be to ban comments on batteries from M3 users? Oh we all laugh so much when they always point out they don't need them. But enough is enough.

Hi -

I sent a check to become a subscriber 17 Oct 03 and as of yet I have not heard anything. Is there something else I am supposed to do?

 

Thanks

 

John Taber

Lutz,

 

Sadly, there are limits to what Tony or I (definitly I anyway) can do about the programming and design behing the photo.net and it's forums. There are a number of things that could be improved here. The first two I can think of would be:

 

1. The ability to turn off ratings/comments on your portfolios.

2. The ability to change what address your @photo.net address forwards to.

 

But those are the domain of guys like Brian Mottershead and the other programmer types. Tony and I don't really get to make decisionds like that. We're just volunteers here in the moderating and "content creation" departments. If they can be considered departments here.

John,

<P>

Post a question regarding your missing check on the Photonet site feedback forum <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=1562">here.</a>

I think profanity should be defined by the "Seven Dirty Words" rule.

Frank, try out the general unarchived forum. Wide variety of

topics, lots of traffic, plenty of gratuitous insults . . . it's just what

you say you want.

Enthusiasm to do a good job is fine, but like Frank said, there's an optimal level of moderation and it should be cut n' dry equitable.

 

Are we still doing those photo projects? That's a great idea, and differs from W/NW posts in that we aren't selecting ones from our ready-made collection.

cut n' dry equitable: <i>def.</I> what <i>I</i> think is fair<P>

; )

Look at that, something James and I can agree on.

 

The projects are a great thing. The people who come up with stuff like: Print Swapping, Ten Best, the photo projects, etc do more for this forum then most anyone.

 

I'd especially like to point out all of the cool things that Travis has brought up. You may not like all of his ideas, but he comes up with some of the best.

Like all rules/guidelines, it is all in the enforcement. That is especially true for #4. Could strike up an image of the "Patriot" Act.

 

Speaking of the Patriot Act (and other OT references), I think an important thing in building the level of friendship and camaraderie that is had here is being able to discuss things other than the number of scuffs on my RF.

 

I kinda had the understanding that the new guidelines were the old guidelines. So, I will reserve judgement until I see how they are implemented.

 

If this forum begins to look like the scene in The Wall where the school kids are falling into the meat grinder, well, I will probably be complaining, but nobody would know that because my posts would be getting deleted. ;)

 

chad

"2.Questions about non-Leica brands are generally not allowed. For other camera brands,

please look to other forums on Photo.net that are more appropriate."

 

I can't help wondering whether this bit is in here to help out the rest of photonet rather than to clean up the Leica forum. I still find the Leica forum the most interesting and fun of all of them I must say - I suspect the other forums covet some of our action. I'm not sure this will help them though.

Mitchell, Josh, <br>

<br>

FYI; Sending a cheque in the mail to photo.net is <b>not</b> a good idea. (See <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0066HG">this</a> thread, and <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=006QtI">this</a> thread, and <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=006UcM">this</a> thread.) It is also incomprehensible why the page with payment instructions has not been changed. <br>

<br>

I thank Tony and Bob for their efforts, but Brian seems determined not to do anything about the administrative problems concerning mailed in cheques. <br>

Agreed. You're missing out on contributions from non-US residents because we can't do it by credit card.

Hmmmmmm, that is a problem.

 

But again, sadly, Tony and I (and all of the other moderators and volunteers around here) currently can do nothing about it. Well nothing except what Tony graciously has done for a Leica forum member in one of the above threads.

 

Brian and Rajeev Surati are the only ones who can deal with this sort of thing. And I really think it's more on Brian's overworked head then Rajeev's.

And they ain't talkin.

what is "rangefinder style"?? how can/why should R users shoot

in a RF style?? and as far as making things more

leica-exclusive, didin't josh say that he had sold all of his leica

gear?? finally, i don't understand why discussions of digital

should be off limits. this seems very odd. digital is the most

important thing that has happened to photography since the

art/science was invented. there is no place that photographers

gather where this is not the #1 subject. it is causing everybody to

rethink the way they do things. to have a photography forum and

ban discussion of digital seems impossible. my goodness,

leica MAKES digital products!!

 

i'll admit that the forum has become less cordial/more diffuse

since the migration to phot.net. but are these kinds of rules

really the way to make things better?? the main value of the

forum is the range of experience of the people who happen to

contribute. they have interesting things to say about lots of stuff.

it is a community. to say we have to go to the darkroom forum to

ask about the best soup for pan F cuts represents a sad loss for

me.

 

i totally respect your right to make the rules, and i'm not dashing

off to the closet in a huff. i just hope you will think about what the

real value of this forum and, if you must create new rules, aim

them at fostering what's most important about this place.

 

thanks for your hard work!!

# 11 is folly, and if enforced will greatly detract from some of the

fine W/NW posts we have here ( A key feature-witness the large

amount of talented regulars). Of course you could just lie and

say you used an M, but I certainly wouldn't be prepared to do that.

And does this mean that I can't share with the guys here how

much my wifes new canon elph works like a miniature O-

series? While I fully understand the need to streamline your

process ( I have noticed a "raggedness" in the topics of late) the

important thing to remember about this particular forum is what

it's not- It's not a bunch of Leica users discussing Leicas online.

What it is, is a bunch of Leica users discussing (just about)

everything online. With enough photographic ability and

experience between them to have opinions actually worth paying

attention to.Through the (tenuous) common thread of a camera

system,and without even trying, it ended up a unique place. Even

though there are days you have to glean to find it. I'd hate to see

the parts fixed that aren't broke.

 

Tom

I should also add my thanksfor all the hard work you guys do on

our behalf, it is appreciated.

 

tom

Roger,

 

As I replied to Tom above, I think Tony was trying to make an allusion to a "documentary" style of photography. I have a feeling that in a subsequent update of the guidelines, he will clarify his feelings on posting photos here. But be assured that Leica-R threads, comments, and photos are all welcome and encouraged.

 

If it were up to me, there would be no photos at all on the photo.net forums except for the "photo critique" forum. And barring that, there would only be Leica photos posted here on this forum. But I am very much in the minority. And when the issue of posting photos came up (first when we made the move from LUSENET to Photo.net which made posting easier, and again when the N/NW threads started appearing), the overwhelming opinion was that people liked those threads and the chance to post photos to this group of people no matter what camera they were made with. So Tony is trying to make the guidelines relect that. Without turning the forum into a slightly different version of the "photo crit" forum.

The rules seem fine to me, for what that's worth. It's a great forum, Tony and Josh are doing a terrific job, and there's no way they'll ever satisfy all the quirky people here (myself included).<P>

I think there's a bit too much animosity towards repetitive themes- eg. the new digital Leica, ratings, M3 batteries (they don't need them, you know). My recent flamed "Competitive Art" post was researched prior to posting, however I still posted because the point I was making had not been discussed in depth before. People see a topic title and say "it's been done, you moron", without reading the fine points. G-d is in the details. OK Jeff?<P>

Anyway- kudos to Josh and Tony. I'm hanging around, if you'll have me.

"If it were up to me, there would be no photos at all on the

photo.net forums except for the "photo critique" forum. And

barring that, there would only be Leica photos posted here on

this forum. But I am very much in the minority. "

 

I'm glad about that, Josh.

 

Tom

Excellent. Thanks, Tony and Josh.

 

Now, it's time to pay attention to straight porn on the forum, guys. There is a later

post (NW:«I swear«) started by Frank Petronio with a reply that might interest you.

Not even a good photo.

Well done Tony and Josh. We forum members owe both of you a

tremendous debt.