Broken links!

John Angulat said:

Not surprising.
He did declare he wanted to quit the forum recently.
He probably deleted the files associated with his posts.

Click to expand...

Hi John,

Wherever someone changes their mind about a particular image, we try to do surgery and fulfill their wishes. We have done this before and will continue to do it. Threads with little comment are no loss to remove. However, extensive discussion has involved much time and even devotion to help out the original poster. Here we balance the good to the community. A newbie will have less weight than a person who we owe a lot. We have deleted a few excellent threads where safety was concerned and changed the name of a poster where she was being stalked. However, neither moderators nor anyone else should be able to freely remove keystones in discussion once a critical mass of contribution has taken place. So with each person we'd look at whether there is other discussion that is too valuable to lose.

With one case, we removed the original posts and placed another picture, (marking it as a reference image, not the real one) to keep the discussion intact without needing the original image. We shouldnt censor what's here, as far as possible and a poster shouldn't remove a dozen folks contributions by having an entire thread deleted because they purposely break ALL the links.

Still, we'll work with anyone to look at individual examples where a picture, on second thoughts, does more harm than good.

It's a hard subject to act on and I know not everything will be perfect and I hope I'll be forgiven.

Asher

Let me add that we frequently will help rebuild broken links. We have done this time-consuming work many times.This has been valuable when we discover that someone's migration to a new server breaks links but they wish to keep their threads intact. In one case, it required a lot of work to find and replace the URLs but this is worthwhile where pictures and discussion are of a high standard and/ give value to the community.

Just thought I'd let you know some background on how we treat broken links.

Asher

Asher,

I understand the concern regarding recently posted images.

Do guidelines exist for images posted one, two, or even four years ago? My OPF posts with linked photos reside at my Pbase galleries. The photos there are constantly being deleted or updated. Can you suggest a period of time where changes should not be made?

Thanks,

Tom

Tom Robbins said:

Asher,

I understand the concern regarding recently posted images.

Do guidelines exist for images posted one, two, or even four years ago? My OPF posts with linked photos reside at my Pbase galleries. The photos there are constantly being deleted or updated. Can you suggest a period of time where changes should not be made?

Thanks,

Tom

Click to expand...

Tom,

Down the road We are going to host images. In fact we intend to get it up and running as soon as we can. That will obviate need to constantly ask people to mend broken links where the thread was especially valuable and no image is present.

For now, we'd want the picture to remain at least 2 years. The best thing is that we get our galleries going.

Asher

Hi Asher,

I know you are exploring the hosting of images within OPF.
If implemented, would members be required to have their images reside here or will it be an option?

Hmm! I hate the word required! The only thing that I find bad of external links is that sometimes a host fails and then it takes us months to match all the links. We'd have everything backed up. It only really matters with the best discussions and images so that's I'd guess, 1/10 threads that are so valuable. However loss is sad when it happens to a line of thought and pictures that so many have contributed to.

My guess is then that we might be providing a backup for everything so in case of loss we'd have the link protected.

Asher

Understood.
I agree the effort to repair broken links is burdensome, to say the least.
However, if the posting of images may only be accomplished via an OPF hosted gallery I view the "requirement" as as loss of control/rights of access to my images.
Consider this:

For some unknown reason a member chooses to leave the forum.
And, if during that exit the member decides they no longer wish to have their images associated with OPF.
Access to those images and the deletion of same is controlled solely by OPF.
With a few clicks of a mouse one may be locked out of the forum.
In reality, they're assigning OPF rights of access.

I'm not at all comfortable with that scenario.

John,

You are alert to the issues! Thanks for thinking about this challenge. We'd love some help in formulating a fair policy for when we store images. I myself have not done that. One could post by linking to one's own website or uploading.

We have only removed one person, as far as I remember. So being locked out is never going to happen. Consider the following:

• You would never ever be locked out even if you left!
  
• OPF has no part of your copyright. OPF is only allowed to show images you post not assign such privilege to anyone else, sell the picture and the like. Same with the text. We assume, even without the © that everything you write and show is yours and OPF has no rights beyond given to the community by you sharing just that.
  
  
• We've had several special OPF members succumb to tragedy such as loss of jobs, divorce, illness or cancer and we'd like not to lose their wonderful contributions, especially where the pictures are a testament to their work.
  
  
• All content of OPF is copied 10 times a day by the crawlers from search engines and stored for ever. So the images are, anyway, always in multiple places. Furthermore, in some services, you can request a specific date of OPF and see everything as it was then!
  
  
• The only thing of concern is what to do about is the work of repairing "rich threads". Where a picture generates a lot of discussion, as requested, then without the images, all the group effort is lost. It doesn't seem fair! We could of course simply get the mage form one of the search engines for cached pages of OPF, but that's tedious and undesirable path. We've never done it and wouldn't want to invest that energy! (Still, if someone insulted a politician or posted pornography, it's stored forever, somewhere, for sure! That's the nature of the internet!
  
  
• Themes have no such severe problem losing one poster's picture as there are so many and there's little discussion. Still, personally, I'd miss Rachel's Rose or Janet's lillies. and more. Still, the themes threads are robust in themselves to work and stand the loss of individual images and still be wonderful.

Thus, the biggest problem for us is not wholesale devastation of threads if some individual leaves and pulls their images. Rather it's the unintentioned broken links when someone's own catalog fails for any reason or is ill or deceased. Rebuilding threads is tough. We are given the new URLs and we repair them, one by one, a tedious job. However, for some folks it's very worthwhile and we gladly do it.

So think about this and send me a PM. The need for a solution will come up but not immediately. I'm at a very busy point in my work with The Colburn School at the end of the year and want. We'd prefer to work out this important issue behind the scenes to develop a policy. So ideas are sought and a PM is preferred. These perspectives will be invaluable in getting something formulated. Besides, the moderators will also be asked for their own opinions and guidance. I merely wanted to let folk know that broken links can be a loss for us.

I turns out that a lot of what we value is not necessary nor valid to fight for, but there are a few treasures in our lives and these we'd like not to lose! That's where we stand.

Asher