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POW: What's an elf to do?


philip_coggan

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Why do the elves write their POW intros in the form of questions?

Are they trying to make me feel I'm reading a highschool edition of a

Great Work that I should prepare for the end of term test? Do you

think that this approach is perhaps a little patronizing? Would you

like them to stop? If they do stop, what should they do instead?

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Before these introductory statements were introduced too many folks mistakenly believed the POW was some sort of award from a non-existent contest. The POW is just a vehicle for discussion. The nearest comparison is Time magazine's Man of the Year, which has never been an award of merit (otherwise they'd never have recognized Adolph Hitler as MOTY).

 

Forewords and introductory statements are common to every book about photography so the adoption of the device to the POW has a solid precedent.

 

If it bothers you why not simply ignore it and focus on the photograph itself?

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The elves can't win. If they write statements about the photo, they get taken to task by people who disagree with those statements; if they write questions, it sounds like a quiz. It doesn't strike me as patronizing, but it doesn't always come across exactly right, either.

 

Ah, well.

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As Marshall says... Except for this perhaps:

<p>

"It doesn't strike me as patronizing, but it doesn't always come across exactly right, either."

<p>

Well, it may indeed not always sound "right" to you or to me or to Mr. Z, but who said the Elves were supposed to be Gods and to be right all the time ? As far as I understand it, the Elves aren't robots or supra-natural creatures, so eventhough they may be wrong in Mr. Z's opinion, that's what the POW is meant for: to disagree with the expression of someone's taste. Both the Elves and the members are human, aren't they, so both have opinions, and both may be wrong. Is that really so difficult to understand ? When I feel the Elves are wrong, I say so and explain why. I see this as a non-issue.

<p>

What's the solution to a non-issue ? I dunno. It seems that the Elves used to select images without any introduction, and there was then a call for an introduction paragraph, well now we have an intro, and...? The intro can't praise the picture, apparently, because people get angry at the praise - but why ? If the Elves like the picture and explain why, is that really such a problem ? There are kilogramms of praise all over the top-rated pages and it doesn't seem to bother anyone. Then the Elves like something and say so, and they are apparently not entitled to like an image... Then, if the Elves ask questions, it's called "patronizing". Come on ! Questions are questions. Questions have to be about something, right ? So, what ever that may be, Elves will address some issues that the image seems to raise FOR THEM. Perhaps the question does not occur to me or to Mr. Z, and perhaps we'll even find the question plain silly... So what ? Again, it's just the way the Elves see the images they propose. Do we really have a problem if anyone sees things differently from us ? If not, what's the problem exactly ?

<p>

I think in general, people may want to keep in mind what Mary Ball repeated a thousand times: we all have different views on so many things, and we should once and for all accept and remember that disagreeing is what this site and life in general are all about...

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