Poster solidarity! PICTURES NOW!

[_Tarski]

I too would like Joseph to state what he intends to do if we (or Shades) don't take his unwanted advice.

Also, why isn't he policing the MAD board? Isn't it suspicious--especially considering the cartoonically poor quality of his posts in general?

Joseph, are you an invention of Will S. or some other danite?

[_Buffalo]

Why did you quote "Space Battleship Yamato" when your avatar is from "Princess Mononoke?"

Shades,

Can you let us know why you won't restore images even after Everybody Wang Chung demonstrated that Joseph is impotent?

Seriously. Shades, you're a cool guy and everything, but I behooves you to comment on this issue.

[_asbestosman]

Changing your avatar, protesting, ban polls, etc. all prove that Joseph in fact has power. Furthermore it actually encourages him to fight the board.

I would rather have a board where I interact with Stak, Blixa, et al than to appease Joseph. It is the community that I value. I'd love it if Joseph got bored with this place and didn't come back. However, he has as much a right to be here as anyone here no matter how irritating. I fully support reinstating images. However, I do not support protesting, complaining about Joseph, etc.

[_Blixa]

Also, why isn't he policing the MAD board? Isn't it suspicious--especially considering the cartoonically poor quality of his posts in general?

Or all the thousands of boards which reproduce the photo of Ward Cleaver that DCP uses in his avatar; a photo, which by the way, a quick Google search turns up as one of the most popular images for avatars. Although that image is a publicity still, I should probably note here that the television program it's from has been in the public domain since 2007.

Or tumblr, a blogging platform primarily dedicated to the free circulation and admiring reposting of images from every kind of website?

[_Blixa]

Changing your avatar, protesting, ban polls, etc. all prove that Joseph in fact has power. Furthermore it actually encourages him to fight the board.

I would rather have a board where I interact with Stak, Blixa, et al than to appease Joseph. It is the community that I value. I'd love it if Joseph got bored with this place and didn't come back. However, he has as much a right to be here as anyone here no matter how irritating. I fully support reinstating images. However, I do not support protesting, complaining about Joseph, etc.

I couldn't give a fig about Joseph. He's never added anything of value to the board.

I do, however, care about Shades and his policies.

As well as the principle of the public commons.

[_Blixa]

I like my avatar. I don't like the blue/black haired comic character. Sorry.

While I agree that Joseph is a bit of a run-away train trying to bring the board along with him, I have to admit - I'm indifferent about images. If Shades can make it work out and we get them back, cool. If not, they aren't why I post here, so meh.

It may be hard to believe, but I actually post here because I like to talk about issues related to Mormonism. I know, crazy.

Well, the lack of images has foreclosed half of the just-started Writing and Art forum. That's a bit depressing.

And images are needed for discussion about many issues related to Mormonism. An example? How about the shifts and fluctuations in the iconography to which Mormon semiotic identity is tethered (one of my on-going projects, but of possible interest to others as well)? I could also mention the seemingly endless discussion of the KEP as another topic which needs recourse to visuals.

I've got two long pm's I've needed to send ludwig and Rockslider for over a month. They need images as well, and I held off figuring surely Shades would not let things drag on this long.

And anyway, there's always the principle of the thing. As an educator who covers digital media literacy in every course she teaches, thuggish copy trolling needs to be resisted.

[_beastie]

Changing your avatar, protesting, ban polls, etc. all prove that Joseph in fact has power. Furthermore it actually encourages him to fight the board.

I would rather have a board where I interact with Stak, Blixa, et al than to appease Joseph. It is the community that I value. I'd love it if Joseph got bored with this place and didn't come back. However, he has as much a right to be here as anyone here no matter how irritating. I fully support reinstating images. However, I do not support protesting, complaining about Joseph, etc.

My change in avatar has nothing to do with Joseph. I view him as completely impotent and irrelevant. My change in avatar is directed to Shades.

[_just me]

Wait. Pictures can't even be sent in PM form?

WTFH? Srsly?

[_Dr. Shades]

Here are my thoughts about images:

Joseph or no Joseph, the fact of the matter is that we WERE shut down for a spell thanks to the SeattleGhostWriter incident. If images had been disabled from the beginning, it wouldn't've happened.

Another undeniable fact is that pictures have often been used as a bludgeon or a Sword of Damocles in order to intimidate other posters. I'll probably never forget the constant, obsessive posting and re-posting of an image that people claimed to be of Simon Belmont. I'd've rather just avoided all that extra time and headache from the beginning.

Yet a third undeniable fact is that images are quite often posted to the wrong Forum. Specifically, people seem to love posting sexualized photos or pictures containing swear words in the Terrestrial Forum instead of the Telestial Forum, where they belong. I'm pretty sure that the rationale is that a moderator will just move it later, which doesn't fly.

A fourth fact is that often people post ENORMOUS photos that cause a horizontal scroll bar to appear. That's a pain, too.

So, from a moderator's standpoint pictures have quite often been more trouble than they're worth.

Now on to the copyright issue.

Even if Everybody Wang Chung is 100% correct and we'd win any lawsuit that came our way, that offers me precious little comfort. The idea is to not go to court at all. Even if one is 100% sure that one is in the right and will win any and all court cases, who wants to bother with all that time, hassle, and headache? I certainly don't.

When it comes to DMCA takedown notices, even if there are countermeasures available to us and even if we can sue anyone who issues one in less than good faith, that too offers me precious little comfort, since it will involve having the board shut down for X number of days in the interim. As before, the idea is to not get shut down at all.

People have called for banning Joseph, but he's acted as the voice of warning, telling us what could happen (regardless of his tenor). He hasn't broken any rules that I can see. My feeling is that if he starts criticizing you over whether you own the copyright of an image you posted, the correct response would be to just take the image down rather than argue with him. Likelihood of litigation doesn't alter legality.

The last time I reinstated images, Polygamy-Porter almost immediately posted two photos taken directly from the Deseret News. Clearly the copyright belongs to them, opening us up to legal unpleasantries (regarless of the likelihood thereof). So before I can even THINK of reinstating them, Polygamy-Porter will have to swear in blood that he'll never post a photo published in the Deseret News again.

Also, Simon Belmont has stated, point-blank, that he will post Joseph's brother's photos here just as soon as he can. Well, Joseph's brother obviously owns the copyright to those photos, so odds are that we'll get another DMCA takedown notice, and thus get shut down, just as soon as Simon does so. Ergo, in this case as well, I can't even THINK of reinstating images until Simon Belmont swears on his life that he will not post any photos that are the legal property of Joseph's brother (or Joseph himself, for that matter).

Wait. Pictures can't even be sent in PM form?

I've got things set up so that they can be. If it isn't working, I don't know why.

[_Runtu]

Changing your avatar, protesting, ban polls, etc. all prove that Joseph in fact has power. Furthermore it actually encourages him to fight the board.

I would rather have a board where I interact with Stak, Blixa, et al than to appease Joseph. It is the community that I value. I'd love it if Joseph got bored with this place and didn't come back. However, he has as much a right to be here as anyone here no matter how irritating. I fully support reinstating images. However, I do not support protesting, complaining about Joseph, etc.

I don't pay any attention to Joseph. Couldn't care less what he thinks. But I agree with my friends here that we ought to be allowed to post references to publicly available pictures. That's all. If this place were all about Joseph, I'd be gone in a second.