All,
I would be the first to admit that I am not a photographer. I point a little box at something I want to capture for posterity, I press a button, and I sometimes end up with a digital image which can, with sufficient help from NSA supercomputers, be identified as a child, building, or animal of some sort.
At the same time, I love seeing the work of good photographers (and, compared to me, anyone who has ever posted a picture on these forums is a "good photographer"). I have very much enjoyed seeing the submissions to the assignments as well as the photographs posted in the other threads here, themed or not. This has been one of my favorite places to lurk... until recently.
I would very much like to see an end to the disputes over the assignment threads. I say this both personally and 'professionally'. Personally, I am bothered that there has been such friction over what seems to me to be a non-issue - the forums are essentially infinite in size and so I can't for the life of me understand bickering over one small space - the assignments. As far as I can tell, those who like the assignments as-is can stick with them (and there seem to be a lot of members with that opinion) and those who don't can feel free to start their own threads. There is plenty of room for all.
Professionally, as it were, I have the sinking suspicion that, as a mod newbie, I will be tasked with resolving the disputes in some moderator-like fashion, mainly because no one likes to have to do that and so it'll end up being my task. I certainly do not want to have to start entering a cycle of Private Messages and posts and cajoling and whatever. I've seen too much bad happen in similar situations over the years.
Maybe I'm just reading way too much into posts I've seen here lately, but I fear that this could grow out of hand, that things will get said and feelings will get hurt. No one wants that.
Am I missing something - is there a reason why there should be all this hassle over assignments and all of that? I'm not dismissing feelings from either side, and I've read through a lot of threads and posts before writing this. I don't want to add fuel to the fire by taking sides, because I can see things from many different points of view.
It would be very nice if we would just allow all groups to 'sponsor' whatever threads they like and decide how they want threads they've started to be 'run'. No need for bickering - if you like something, participate. If not, participate in or create a new thread. MR has room for all, and I'd like to see people back spending time showing how much better they are than me at photography than getting upset over whose photographs go where.
They're all nice images. There's room to display all of them. Can we all just get along? I've had pleasant exchanges with nearly everyone involved, I'd like to think we're on good terms, and I hate to see friends bicker.
Thanks for reading and for any comments.
jsw
I would be the first to admit that I am not a photographer. I point a little box at something I want to capture for posterity, I press a button, and I sometimes end up with a digital image which can, with sufficient help from NSA supercomputers, be identified as a child, building, or animal of some sort.
At the same time, I love seeing the work of good photographers (and, compared to me, anyone who has ever posted a picture on these forums is a "good photographer"). I have very much enjoyed seeing the submissions to the assignments as well as the photographs posted in the other threads here, themed or not. This has been one of my favorite places to lurk... until recently.
I would very much like to see an end to the disputes over the assignment threads. I say this both personally and 'professionally'. Personally, I am bothered that there has been such friction over what seems to me to be a non-issue - the forums are essentially infinite in size and so I can't for the life of me understand bickering over one small space - the assignments. As far as I can tell, those who like the assignments as-is can stick with them (and there seem to be a lot of members with that opinion) and those who don't can feel free to start their own threads. There is plenty of room for all.
Professionally, as it were, I have the sinking suspicion that, as a mod newbie, I will be tasked with resolving the disputes in some moderator-like fashion, mainly because no one likes to have to do that and so it'll end up being my task. I certainly do not want to have to start entering a cycle of Private Messages and posts and cajoling and whatever. I've seen too much bad happen in similar situations over the years.
Maybe I'm just reading way too much into posts I've seen here lately, but I fear that this could grow out of hand, that things will get said and feelings will get hurt. No one wants that.
Am I missing something - is there a reason why there should be all this hassle over assignments and all of that? I'm not dismissing feelings from either side, and I've read through a lot of threads and posts before writing this. I don't want to add fuel to the fire by taking sides, because I can see things from many different points of view.
It would be very nice if we would just allow all groups to 'sponsor' whatever threads they like and decide how they want threads they've started to be 'run'. No need for bickering - if you like something, participate. If not, participate in or create a new thread. MR has room for all, and I'd like to see people back spending time showing how much better they are than me at photography than getting upset over whose photographs go where.
They're all nice images. There's room to display all of them. Can we all just get along? I've had pleasant exchanges with nearly everyone involved, I'd like to think we're on good terms, and I hate to see friends bicker.
Thanks for reading and for any comments.
jsw