Hi John,
Good morning everyone, I hope this day finds you well!
I’ve noticed what I believe is a change in what used to be considered “customary” with regard to posting, replying, etc. within the threads here on OPF. It seems we have altered some of the structure and discipline we once had........
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I’ve been left a bit unsettled by this and I’m looking to hear from the forum.
How do you feel about it?
Is it my imagination?
Or, has this improved OPF through increased contribution and interaction?
I'd very much like to hear your thoughts on this.
All very good questions and they deserve proper answers. I will try and provide my take on this. Mind you; I don't speak from any given or assumed authority from OPF as a moderator, solely as an OPF member like anybody else.
...Some threads, started as solicitation for comment and critique have quickly morphed into something larger or otherwise, from what I believe the originator intended. Is that fair to the originator?....
I have always had a dislike against threads being morphed into something else (off topic taking over as it were). It has happened to my own threads often in the past and a few years back it has made me angry enough even to stop posting for a while. But this is a common problem to all the fora. The topic of photography covers a lot of areas and it is quite easy to divert from a starting point into others. If this diversion takes place with the consent of the original poster, then there can be no problems. However, I know that some OPs are actually bothered but they do not dare say so out loud. If a diversion is obvious enough, the mods usually split the thread into two parts. But sometimes what may seem to be a diversion to the casual reader is not one as such. As someone who reads almost 99.9% of the posts made in OPF, I can identify well enough when a seemingly off-topic reaction is a continuation of a previous discussion which had been conducted with the OP elsewhere.
....Not all that long ago it would have been considered “poor form” (or at least done under the rarest of circumstances) to add images to a member’s thread. Lately this appears to have become commonplace.....
I don't post my pictures in somebody else's thread except when: it is a theme/challenge or the OP has invited others to share their pictures as well. Now if you'd look carefully, I think you'll see that this issue doesn't happen that often that we have the situation of somebody posting without the OP's consent. But I may be wrong, of course.
... Another observation is how some individual’s image threads have become Challenges, or otherwise made open (by others) to something seemingly not the originator’s intent....
To be fair and clear about it, so far the only person who creates challenges from the posts of members is Asher (in cases where an OPF member did not start their own challenge threads directly). But I am 100% certain that he always seeks the OP's permission before doing so. For example, he has asked me my permission before turning my Clay vs Steel into a challenge the other day. He would not do it otherwise.
Having answered your questions, I may as well voice a couple of other concerns I personally have.
One thing which bothers me a lot is the fact that the "Just Sharing" prefix is almost always ignored. There is a clear cut definition of prefixes in
this sticky. It says there that "the OP is not asking for C&C, but nice comments would be welcome. This is just sharing like showing what we are up to, casually!". Just take a look at the threads with this prefix and you'll see that it is widely ignored as we mostly provide full C&C to the images shown. Mind you, Asher will surely remind us that all images posted in OPF are by default open for C&C, which is true. But when one uses the "Just sharing" prefix, they are making a conscious choice which should be respected imo.
Another thing which bothers me is the way we sometimes provide C&C. We can say what we think would improve a picture within a given request from the OP for ideas -which is perfectly OK- but we cannot put our own intent and vision forward as being the absolute truth. If I am sounding a bit vague, let me try and give you a generic example. We often get into a discussion about the color of an image, whether B&W would be a better option or not. If the OP has asked this specific question, I think that the discussion is legit. But sometimes even when the OP states that he/she has done something specifically as presented with a certain intent (like indicating that the reason the picture was taken was also due to the colors of the subject), we still get carried away and try to convince him/her otherwise. You can substitute color vs B&W with other common issues such as cropping wide vs tight, frame or no frame, etc.
A corollary to the above paragraph is when the OP asks for advice, gets a lot of good/sound advice and then stubbornly ignores all of it saying that he/she knows better anyway. Or seemingly agreeing with the C&C given and then re-do the whole thing again and again. This is extremely frustrating for those who take their valuable times to provide good advice to the best of their abilities. These OPs should post their pictures using the "just sharing" prefix if they are not really looking for honest C&C they can learn from.
Cheers,
