Poster solidarity! PICTURES NOW!

[_MrStakhanovite]

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.

It has ceased to be about the majority and people building monuments to their own stupidity, and has become an issue about moderator expediency.

[_EAllusion]

It has ceased to be about the majority and people building monuments to their own stupidity, and has become an issue about moderator expediency.

People use written words to commit board violations all the time, which creates moderator work, yet no one is suggesting that the board be reduced to audio recordings of morse code. The issue is the message, not the medium.

[_moksha]

I think it was Sir Walter Scott who asked this question:

BREATHES there the man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
Bring back the damn graphics!
- Oxford Book of English Verse

[_moksha]

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.

Yet hope springs eternal that these appropriately sized images will be of cherry blossoms and beautiful kimono clad maidens. Must we do away with all beauty, great art and wholesome entertainment, because someone posted naughty words and pictures.

[_Dr. Shades]

Is it possible to "ban" certain posters from using images?

Yes. I have created a specific group that I can move people into; the group doesn't have image posting privileges.

If so, then that is a fine solution.

We'll give it a shot.

If a poster consistently violates rules with his/her pix, then prevent them from posting pix again. Don't punish the many for the sins of a few.

I'm going to go with ONE violation of the rules will put him or her into the "no images" group.

Folks, DO NOT copy-and-paste images that you get from the Deseret News or any LDS-owned website.

Also, DO NOT copy-and-paste images from a commercial or proprietary website.

If you do hotlink an image, be ABSOLUTELY SURE that it's relevant to the point you're making or that you otherwise use it for purposes of analysis, parody, or commentary. You know, standard Fair Use stuff.

Please don't go hog-wild, either. Don't just post images for the sake of posting. Have a good reason for each and every one of them.

That said, images are tentatively back on. Nevertheless, please don't "test the limits." Please stay as far away from "the line" as humanly possible.

[_Blixa]

It has ceased to be about the majority and people building monuments to their own stupidity, and has become an issue about moderator expediency.

People use written words to commit board violations all the time, which creates moderator work, yet no one is suggesting that the board be reduced to audio recordings of morse code. The issue is the message, not the medium.

I don't think message/medium are as easily separated in this scenario, EA. And Shade's ruminations are not at all encouraging to me. If it truly is only a matter of consistent problem posters causing work for the moderators, then that is the issue that needs to be addressed, not the suspension of images.

[_honorentheos]

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.

SCAB!

Yes, if I had been part of the union I suppose.

I guess the whole thing seems juvenile to me. As I recall, the hinge-point of the problem lies in Shade's wish to avoid getting the board shut down. In a previous post by Liz in another thread, the reason this was an issue was tied to the site host being inclined to shut down the board due to copyright complaints without question, not because they were on a hair trigger by nature, but because there had been a valid issue at one time and a subsequent complaint. A sort of three-strike rule I guess.

Being a military man, Stak, I would suspect you know a feint when you see it, and Joseph isn't the real issue. He isn't anything. Nor is posting images the mission. The mission is keeping the board up. I can see how not being able to post images could also impair the mission. So the question is how to accomplish the broader goal.

Rather than stage a love-in to protest Shade's actions, wouldn't it seem more productive to tackle the issue as it really sits? Shade's enabling images without any other change, even with verbal agreements by posters who may be at the heart of the problem, isn't accomplishing the mission.

I did a little looking around because I know next to nothing about phpbb and was interested to see that copyright issues is a common topic on the boards relating to board management. Shades isn't alone in his concern it seems.

I don't have a solution, but I also am not that concerned about this particular mission. Now, if there were some motivated NCO out there who was all sorts of concerned about being a hero and making the world a better place I'd say more power to him/her. But I wouldn't consider a protest by a group of people without real skin in the game as being a positive step in that direction.

[_Dr. Shades]

As I recall, the hinge-point of the problem lies in Shades's wish to avoid getting the board shut down. . . The mission is keeping the board up.

You nailed it.

[_Simon Belmont]

You nailed it.

But thousands of other boards are up, and they allow images (see www.big-boards.com).

How long are you going to let Joseph run your board, Shades?

[_MrStakhanovite]

It has ceased to be about the majority and people building monuments to their own stupidity, and has become an issue about moderator expediency.

People use written words to commit board violations all the time, which creates moderator work, yet no one is suggesting that the board be reduced to audio recordings of morse code. The issue is the message, not the medium.

No one questioned the medium of font color when Bot was doing his fake mod quotes, we didn't disable PMs when people complained about Joseph sending them. It's like Blixa says, it's more about what kind of place this is, not that it goes down for a week due to some hick.