• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Internet fair behavior

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
I did post, 1 or 2 days ago in a forum in the "Product promotion" topic, a text explaining the creation of OPF.
Today I received an email from the owner of this site inviting me to re post my text as one of his moderator did delete it.
I think this is a real exemple of fair and nice behavior.
Of course I did invite him for a visit on our forum and did even propose him to join and post, particularly in our "Portrait" forum. I did have a good reason for this, he's (new) forum is all about people photography.
If you see or cross your way with Erik Svendsson, please have your hat down, and pay a visit to his forum.

Below is the text of his mail:
Hi, Nicolas

Unfortunatly an over ambigious admin deleted your post about the new competing forum at http://Forum.i-shoot-people.com.
This should not have been done, as we do not have any sensorship on our forum.

I would appreciate it if you re-posted the message again, as the previous one is gone...

best wishes
ErikS
 

Dave Newton

New member
As a forum admin myself, it's nice to see other forums acting in a fair manner and not trying to compete with each. Forums exist for users, but only because of users. They're there to share information, the more cross pollination there is, the more the information spreads and the better the end result (in terms of knowledge gained) is for the people using the forums (fora?).

Dave
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Totally agree Dave
this is why I wanted to mention it here.
By all means we prefer fora... :)

PS Not the case everywhere, I've been banned from a (free) well known forum for having posted the same about OPF. I have mailed them with apologizes and didn't receive any feed back since. :-(
 

Sid Jervis

pro member
Nicolas Claris said:
Not the case everywhere, I've been banned from a (free) well known forum for having posted the same about OPF. I have mailed them with apologizes and didn't receive any feed back since. :-(

I never cease to be amazed that supposedly logical humans behave in such a stupid manner. I can only assume that the act of banning that sort of post must stem from a lot of personal insecurity.

Go figure!
 

Sid Jervis

pro member
Doug, do you think we should have a translation service button in the forum?

Color - Colour
Strobe - Flash
etc.........
Or will be sensible about an acceptable international variant of our languages.
:)
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Doug Kerr said:
"Forums" is fine, unless of course you are writing in Latin.
Well, well, that's why we talk also about "media", not "mediums"...
Latin is not only a mother language of French, Italian, Spanish etc. may be (or perhaps?) also a bit for English, US and UK as well...
cheers
 
D

Doug Kerr

Guest
Hi, Sid,

I once reported to a standards commitee, "The US working group has completed the analysis, but the British working group have not."

Best regards,

Doug
 

Alain Briot

pro member
I don't have a problem with various spellings such colour/color. What I do have a problem with is racism on the forum. I was the target of a racist predator on another forum this year, and my wife had to take legal action to put an end to it (I was told that the first thing to do is stop all contacts with the racist predator. They basically treat this kind of offense in a way very similar to child predators). To us, that is a serious issue and one that we will not tolerate. The racist predator IS a member of this forum so it is important to mention this issue.
 
Last edited:

Sid Jervis

pro member
What I do have a problem with is racism on the forum.

I would have a problem with that too, that's why I appreciate proper moderation.
That however does not mean I agree with the "politically correct brigade" who will jump at the most miniscule issues. We all have differing social and cultural influences, what may be an inoffensive term for me may not be for others. We should try to tread carefully, and attempt to be aware of the issues, but we should accept that errors will occur.
Proper moderation embodies all of these things.
$0.02
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Sid Jervis said:
I would have a problem with that too, that's why I appreciate proper moderation.
That however does not mean I agree with the "politically correct brigade" who will jump at the most miniscule issues. We all have differing social and cultural influences, what may be an inoffensive term for me may not be for others. We should try to tread carefully, and attempt to be aware of the issues, but we should accept that errors will occur.
Proper moderation embodies all of these things.
$0.02
It may come to be difficult to moderate sometimes, I have already read here some political opinions that I certainly do not share but the wording was correct, then nothing to say...
Would any racism come into any post, it would certainly be deleted by Asher K. and I guess that the author could eventually be banned depending of the wording and repetitiveness...
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Sid Jervis said:
I would have a problem with that too, that's why I appreciate proper moderation.
That however does not mean I agree with the "politically correct brigade" who will jump at the most miniscule issues. We all have differing social and cultural influences, what may be an inoffensive term for me may not be for others. We should try to tread carefully, and attempt to be aware of the issues, but we should accept that errors will occur.
Proper moderation embodies all of these things.
$0.02

I agree. Political Correctness can also be used to "muzzle" people or make their point moot. I recommend reading the "Politically Correct Bedtime Stories" as one of the best examples I know of. Try reading those to your children and you'll see what I mean! Racism on the other hand is inacceptable no matter what situation it takes place in. The good thing is that things are changing and it is now considered a crime. Good moderation, which I know is the case on this forum, is also very helpful and appreciated. What is important to keep in mind about racist predators is that their victims are usually unsuspectful, i.e. are not always aware of what is being done to them. That is why it is now approached in the same way as child predators. It is therefore important that moderators keep an eye out for it because the victim may not be aware of what is being done. Racist predators are very "smart" when it comes to comitting their crimes. As with any form of predatory behavior and harassment, the best solution is to expose the predator as soon as possible, then seek legal and law enforcement action. That's what we did and we would do it again in a flash, without any warning to the predator, if it happened again. I was told by experts that the one thing these people fear most is being exposed as racist predators to their community, their peers and their co-workers. They usually work very hard to hide who they really are, so being exposed is tremendously traumatic for them.
 
Last edited:

Sid Jervis

pro member
Racism on the other hand is inacceptable no matter what situation it takes place in.
You have my 100% agreement on that, it is not acceptable.
I do not envy anyone who moderates a forum, I do however appreciate what they do.
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Sid Jervis said:
You have my 100% agreement on that, it is not acceptable.
I do not envy anyone who moderates a forum, I do however appreciate what they do.

I forgot to mention the "creative" behavior that racist predators engage in to display racist behavior in an undercover manner. I don't want to go into details otherwise I'd be starting a novel rather than make a forum post, but let's say that they'll use every trick in the book using anger as an excuse, or pretending to be your "mentor," even justifying their racist behavior under the excuse that they are trying to help you. I had one a racist predator pass it under "literary criticism" once. It was so underhanded that it was the other students in my class that told me what was going on. I detail the incident in my Artist in Business essay if you are interested:

http://luminous-landscape.com/columns/Artist1.shtml
 

Sid Jervis

pro member
The problem is usually, what is perceived as Racism.
I do not need or want an explanation, because so many of the issues are very subjective. I also have no intention of asking for examples.

$0.02
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Sid Jervis said:
The problem is usually, what is perceived as Racism.
I do not need or want an explanation, because so many of the issues are very subjective. I also have no intention of asking for examples.

$0.02
In my case it wasn't perception, it was fact. Facts in fact ;-) The whole thing about "perception" is the exact game racist predators play. By buying into it you are doing them a favor. It would be like asking what about how we perceive a child predator. Seems pretty clear to me where the line is drawn... There is one example in my Being an Artist in Business essay on Luminous-landscape.com.
 

Stan Jirman

New member
I guess I am totally naive, but what is a "racist predator"? I know what a racist is, but the predator part is what I don't get. Someone who's making bad comments about [your race here]? What's the difference to a "plain" racist?
 

Alain Briot

pro member
In law enforcement and in the judicial system, a "predator" refers to someone who look for preys to commit crimes upon: racist predator, child predator, sexual predator, etc. In the instance of a racist predator the crime is racism, expressed in a variety of ways (comments are only form of racist predation). As I said I don't want to write a novel about this, but shortly racist predator crimes can be done via physical means, verbal means, or other including stalking, harassment, murder, etc. They are often hate crimes. Finally, the racist predator suffers from the same illnesses that child and sexual predators are affected by. While I am not a doctor, those usually are forms of mental illnesses. They can be mild or severe, as with any illness.
 
Last edited:

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Elitism, racism and human survival, another point of view!

Sid Jervis said:
The problem is usually, what is perceived as Racism.
I do not need or want an explanation, because so many of the issues are very subjective. I also have no intention of asking for examples.

$0.02
Sid,

To show how difficult things can be, Michael Tapes used the word "slapper" to back away from intent to "slap" someone down. From the U.K. we learned of a more denigrating but unintended meaning. Sometimes it can be a simple spelling error.

One such cultural tragedy occured at a N. Y. University, when some orthodox Jewish students, finally lost patience and translated the harmless Yiddish word "Behemos", to what they innocently though would have the same social weight of "inconsiderate to the Nth" to the closest word in English "cattle".

These hapless students had no inkling that "the-loss-of-patience" expletetive in their native tongue, could cause the explosion it did: actual
resurgance of antsemitism, now packaged as "protest" or "need for re-education" and so forth! The highest University officials were pressed to "condemn" these othodox Jews! Actually, their "insult" was totally unintended, like the use of the word "slapper"!

The students came from a totally isolated community with unbelievingly low immersion in the U.S. mainstream culture: probably never going to movies, dating, watching TV and so forth. To every one else, they were disgusting racists.

Even in the USA, a "melting pot" of cultures, such misunderstandings will always occur. However, as Alain points out, some true racist are expert "con" artists. They masquerade as reasonable helpful people and exploit trust.

Even Alain, who is trained and trains to look between what one sees and hears for subtext and true intention, was duped. Why, because there are "hunters" and "weavers". We are all a bit of both!

Alain, as an Artist, is more concened with open expression and creativity, the "weaver". The racist, a natural predator, is not. They have a need to conquer, destroy and eradicate cultures and others different from themselves.

This website and all its members will, I know, celebrate diversity, not because of political correctness, for which I have no truck, but because of decency and self interest.

As a sentient being, valuing life itself, we simply need all facets of everything that varies and exists. For even minute differences, allow survival as conditions evolve and as they always do. Human beings, themselves vary, each of us with their own unique potential. The same with all forms and the very landscapes of the earth. It is one fragile thin skin of unstable life, a miracle we must protect.

As one small example, 30% of all the coral reefs in the Indian Ocean are now dead, victims of global warming. A variant thermophilic algae, (capable of thriving at temperatures of just 1.5 degrees F above the possible growth temperature of the major algae that feed coral oxygen, now offers, a slim hope, that somehow, the great barrier reef defining Australia's coastal waters, tourism and fisheries, might survive.

I could give many more examples. However, one can get fired for even suggesting people with red hair might have some advantage in some discrete circumstance. Certainly, Africans with the partial sickle cell trait have a better chance of survival due to an increased resistance to malaria.

So without trying to prove anyone has any particular "lesser skill", I for one treasure every way we are different, because only such facets of life permit any hope for the future of what we treasure and take for granted, life itself.

IMHO, taxonomy is a conceit. Dead is dead. If the system fails because we have just one kind of human or one strain of corn, we will have signed our death warrants.

Too long a post, yes, but a good point of reference, at least to what I think and feel, if anyone has reached this point and is interested.

Asher
 
Last edited:
Top