Posting irrelevant rants on people's folders/photos

[keith_laban]

I have to agree with Bernhard. Even if we are able to disable ratings on images of our choice in the future I certainly wouldn't want to be able to delete others comments. What's the point of putting them up for critique if all we get is positive comments? Give me the rough with the smooth any day. Of course abusive comments such as Nikos is referring to are a different matter.

[maxz]

<BLOCKQUOTE><I>Brian wrote: "I think an easier solution [snip]"</I></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, if we are in the game of easy solution, the quickest one would be to give all users full administrator rights to the entire system. Then anyone could fix any problem... :-)<P>

 

Seriously, my suggestions was a sincere one. I am not out to try to remove "everything but praise", but the kind of comments that Nikos recieved have in my humble opinion no raison d'être here on Photo.Net. What meaningful purpose do they serve? Venting steam? Just as Nikos said, let them e-mail directly to him if they have any issues or report him for abuse if he fits the pattern of an abuser, not try to "hang him out" as a low rater publicly in his own folders/portfolio.<P>

 

On the site I mentioned earlier I have used the feature to report abusive posts. I am not sure how the PN abuse department are working today, but if it is as I would believe there might be some kind of system to help out and make the job easier. A while ago I saw a post in this forum that the abuse department had sometimes a lot to do and this is the reason for me suggesting this.<P>

 

I have created a web based system for handling my photography clubs administrative tasks, so I know what a good system can do to facilitate day-to-day routines. In the past we handled everything by email and paper lists. So when a new member wanted to join there was a lot of manual labor often with a lot of email correspondence. Nowadays the "moderators" of the club mostly just recieve an email saying that something new has happened in the system and then they go there and approve or reject what people has input into the system. This has made it so much easier to work with.<P>

 

There is no system that is perfect and as I said in my previous post a system that makes it easier to report abuse <I>might</I> increase the number of reports. But if the system is good enough you can sift through the reports and it may take even less work in the end.<P>

 

But also, as I said previously, I am sure that there are more pressing issues that need to be addressed. I was never in the game of "easy solutions" or adding workload on you just for the fun of it. Feel free to ignore my suggestion.

[._._z]

<i><blockquote> Even if pathetically insecure photogs have problems with comments

that contain something else than praises and won't learn from them, other people who

look at their pics can learn from the comments given. I have learned a lot from

comments, but not just those on my own pics, but also from those on other peoples

pics. </blockquote> </i><p>

 

Agreed.

[mottershead]

Max, I took you suggestion seriously. My comment that it would be easier to let photographers moderate their own photo threads was not mocking your proposal. I'm seriously considering doing it, in fact.

[nikos]

I personally think that would be a hideous thing to do. It's guaranteed to turn the site into a poular-photography-meets-friendster abomination. I think most of the serious issues regarding the gallery at the moment are stemming from precisely the friendster mentality. Giving users editorial control over comments will eradicate the fundamental principles on which the site has been running and push the community function to the wrong direction. I am at a complete loss to understand why you think that this would be a good idea. I'm sure there is some reasoning behind it, and I'd sure like to hear about it, even though I can hardly believe it would be strong enough to counter-balance the ill effects that such a change would have.

[._._z]

I agree. Part of the value of this site is the range of critical commentary, even when

diametrically opposed to others. And, as Mike Dixon pointed out, there are those thin-

skinned people who freak out even when you're giving positive comments and

constructive criticism. For example, I recently critiqued someone's triptych with a

quickie example of a change I thought might be considered. The photographer

responded with a cursing screed (later deleted by a moderator) whose vituperation was

confusing given that I'd rated this person's photos highly in the past and I was offer

help (or at least my perspective on improving the image) with this latest photo. Others

subsequently agreed with my take on the photo. Under the plan you have under

consideration, useful ideas, alternatives and critiques may be deleted, not for abusing

the system, but because "pathetically insecure" people can't deal with anything but

unadulterated praise. That, I think, can only be bad for the site.

[maxz]

Brian, thanks for the clarification and I am sorry for misinterpreting you. You might argue about the advantages and disadvantages of being able to administer your own photo threads. While I see some good in it I also see a great danger where people do not bother to give their honest opinion since most of the time that would just be deleted anyway by people that just want a "perfect portfolio". I think that would ruin it for those that came here to get meaningful critique.

 

In that case I'd rather have it as it is today where you cannot choose your own critique but can report those writing irrelevant "revenge"-postings. Just my 2 cents worth.

[beepy]

Since I'm baffled at the overall gain to the quality of this site in allowing people to delete

comments on their own photos, I can only believe that if this is a good idea it should be

extended to allow anyone to delete any comment on any photograph on the site.

<p>

Logic leads one to that conclusion.

<p>

And I'm further baffled.

<p>

Unfortunately I can understand that the overhead of policing attacks rather than critiques

may have become unmanageable ("How can you let those comments last for two days?") -

but wow, the solution is worse than the problem.

<p>

The entire world will be some saccharine Kodak moment.