Guess Someone Decided to Be Offended

[neovolatile]

I posted some of the pictures I took on my shoot with the OMP Model Arie. Yesterday the gallery had received over 8000 hits and had gone to #33 most popular for the week.

This morning the gallery no longer appears on the popular list at all. I got a snide "Guest" comment about how it seemed ridiculous that any girl a photographer could talk into taking off her clothes was termed 'a natural beauty.' Gutless comment, no email or name. But even more gutless is the uneven application of nebulous standards to what can be voted upon and ranked.

I would understand it if I got an email or posting saying "Picture 667 is beyond the standards. Remove it or the gallery will be pulled." But nothing is said. And nude galleries are up there on the popular list. No, I am not going to point that out to Pbase admin. Why should they pull them, too? I am certainly not offended. But if a gallery is clearly marked "Nude" or "Artistic Nude" what is the big deal?

I post things at Pbase to be seen. The voting allows others to recommend galleries for viewing. Pulling the popular vote from a gallery drops the views.

A couple years ago we were promised that this would be solved. I do not see the solution, just silent pulling of the rug out.

Anybody recommend a site where this is not the case?

Kind of PO'd about this,
Ellsworth Weaver

PS Warning: the Arie Gallery has nudes. So does the Sundae gallery. *shudder* Do not look if you are offended.

[lord_of_the_badgers]

well it's clear this person has a chip on their shoulder, but I'm not entirely sure they're offended by the nudity as such.. perhaps they don't find your model attractive, and have some kind of problem with that fact - a shame, but unfortunately, there are people out there like that!

whilst I do find that pbase comment-ers can sometimes be a bit afraid of critique - perhaps even a bit too quick to hyperbole over quite ordinary shots (not yours btw!), you're right that this wasn't "on" as such. That said, you can delete the comment if you wish, as you know.

far worse has been seen before by the way - I remember one guy, who took sports photos of gymnasts, getting loads of paedophilia-style comments on his site - I'd say that was far worse...

[radamshome]

You can disable guest comments and limit comments to registered user only in your advanced gallery settings.

I had to do this after one guest kept returning to make extremely lewd and specific comments about my wife.

Good luck.

BTW, your gallery is really good.

[leggings]

http://photocritiq.com

http://www.humblevoice.com

There is also photonet but I wouldn't recommend it.

Flickr isn't too bad with nudity but they have a policy on full frontal.

[bcplaces]

There have to be plenty of Internet sites for those who believe that nakedness shall be photographed and displayed to the public.

Why post nudity on PBase, where many people do not want to see it?

[365digital]

Maybe the difference is the model you are using, take alook a real nudity with art and talent here click on nudity and compare the difference
http://www.pbase.com/manfred_b

[gummyb]

How do you know that it was pulled?

[tuckeruk]

There have to be plenty of Internet sites for those who believe that nakedness shall be photographed and displayed to the public.

Why post nudity on PBase, where many people do not want to see it?

Are these people in some way disabled so that not looking, turning away, or clicking away are not possible for them?

What on earth has happended to society? It's a naked body, we all have one. Photography is an art form (well, mine might not be ), and the naked form, both male and female, has always been a very large part of art, as indeed it should be. Perhaps we shouldn't be posting ANY naked animals, not just humans?

EDIT: You know, occasionally things offend me, but guess what, I am not so full of my own self importance that I dictate that all must bow to my views. I practice a certain level of tolerance towards others. What a shame so many don't.

[pierresphotography]

Are these people in some way disabled so that not looking, turning away, or clicking away are not possible for them?

Unfortunately they can't. It is compulsive to look.

The thing is that our certitudes are based on an illusion of consciousness. Humans operate largely on the unconscious level, with a consciousness of at most 16 bits per second in a personal bit-flow of hundreds of MILLIONS per second. That places reality hopelessly beyond our reach, and opens us to all kinds of unreal beliefs with reflexive behaviors. People can believe and do ANYTHING.

The system has absolute leverage on us. We cannot get away from it, so if have to slow it down, scale it down and shut it down. (selectively) We are unable to make sane decisions while it takes whatever course it takes, utterly outside human control.

Civilization and the massive evolution of technology are exactly like the flow of war. Humans are absolute caught up in it. They have virtually no control over what they think or do.

[rickl52]

....ah....hmmm......yeah, what pierre said.

[neovolatile]

OK, I was looking for somewhere where I could post photos, in my mind, tastefully done of nudes and get in depth critiques.

I tried Community Zoe and it was very arbitrarily a one woman show who thought the pic of Denise called "Leg Pose" (write me for a password) was "beyond what even Playboy would do." And she certainly did not want any Photoshopped images. I left there.

Where I am posting material for critique is Photosig. They are ruthless there. I am learning lots, including humility. They point out things that if I were not so blind, I would have seen long ago. I am very cautious of what I put up there now. There are no critiques that say "gud foto dude;" these are all in depth ones including the crop and the graininess and the color balance and...whatever. Now these critics are not all right nor are they all wrong. Just expressing their modes of seeing. I get bonus points (allowing me to post more photos) for doing critiques.

It is far from a perfect site. I am keeping Pbase for my mass storage and an occasional person who will comment, but I am really putting effort into Photosig. BTW, Deviant Art is not too bad for Photoshop but not much on critiques. It is part of MySpace so it is dominated by anime' drawing teens. Some of it is pretty good, however.

For comparison, I gave about 20 people passwords to get into my models and Faery Fae galleries. I have had maybe two notes of feedback. How am I going to grow that way?

Yours for a more beautiful world,
Ells

[heinsite]

I'll state right up front that I have nothing against nudity, or nude photography tastefully done. But the problem on pbase is that one does not have the option of "not viewing the images". By the time one has that option they've already seen the images. It's not like the Playboy Channel on cable where you can choose not to tune in. Here, if you view the current Galleries or PaD thumbnails you're presented with whatever is there. And if what is there is an excessive amount of nudity it creates an atmosphere that a great many will find offensive no matter their predisposition toward art or the human form.

I would submit, that in light of the amount of nudity, pornography, and sexual content on the internet today, and it's overwhelming popularity as determined by hit count and commerce, that there are better places for this type of photography than pbase.

[bobt54]

For every gallery when you edit it, there is an advanced option. At the top is the following:

enable voting

It is checked by default. Uncheck it.

Then no one can vote on your work, and it won't make it to the Popular galleries where it won't be "hidden" by Pbase if there is Nude content.

But we can't bring ourselves to do that. We want our moment in the sun. We want the acclaim of our peers. We look at our position in the popular galleries as a validation of our skill as a photographer.

The popular galleries are a direct contributor to most of the problems currently being discussed in these forums today. In order to get there, some people have flooded the forums or over posted in the PAD galleries. Or they took the express route to popularity by posting glamour shots or political content.

Currently the most popular gallery is about a little girl who is missing. It is sad and tragic and it is a perfect example of something that made it, not for its photographic excellence but because of it's content. It is also a prime example of how easy the system can be manipulated, even if it is for a noble purpose.

I would like to see the popular galleries disappear in favor of other vehicles for people to promote their work. While I hated Flikr's cumbersome interface, I really liked the idea of being able to create topical groups.

There are no defined criteria, but photos with good technical or artistic quality will float to the top.

If only that were true.

So many political galleries "float(ed) to the top", that a separate space had to be created for them. I think the same would be true for the glamour galleries if left unchecked. I think it is sad that Pbase's solution to this was to "hide" them. I would like to see them have their own section at Pbase where people can choose to see them if they want.