To Heck With American Politics

[cjmorgan]

I was just looking at Popular Galleries -- four of the top eight are
related to American politics.... and many of the images in those
galleries just suck... so they aren't there because of good photography.

There's a time and a place for American politics; for talking about it;
for discussing and debating it; for demonstrating it; and perhaps even
for being involved with it.

But that time and place is not with the Popular Galleries.

Wake up, this globe is bigger than just American, and this
PBase place is about photography, not an ethnocentric
political forum.

If folks will not remove these galleries, and if other folks will not
keep from voting for them, then I'll put in a request to Slug to
intervene.

Hopefully it won't get to that, but let's remember folks, we're
not all just Americans here, and even if we were, the popular
galleries are about good photography, not American politics.

CJ

[gschmickle]

Hey CJ,

I may be from the U.S., but I couldn't agree more with your statements. I think its sad that some people need to use this site to express their political views. You would think there are many other places in which to do so. Whenever I see these galleries show up in the popular lists I just shake my head and move on. Its a shame that people find the need to vote for them.

-Guy

[framewerkz]

People are entitled to their opinion, however sadly misplaced it might be. I for one will be greatly relieved when November's done with.

[ibill]

I'm an American and I couldn't agree more.

Sad situation.

Bill

[jcboyd]

These political photos are about photography. This is a site about photography. People have the right to post these photos on their pages. Don't shoot me yet! Please read on.

But, my own feeling is this site is about the ART of photography. While some can argue that this type of photography is art I feel it more falls into the class of photojournalism. Wait, all you PJers out there do not jump all over me. There absolutely is an art to shooting PJ successfully day after day. I have photographed my share of sports games and activities and know the rigors of this type of photography.

Until someone further defines what is allowed on this site (do we really want to get into this) these people have a right to put these images on their pages. I agree voting should be on the artistic nature of the photo. I agree, political photos, at least for me are not photographic ART.

While an overwhelming number of photos on pbase are fantastic and deserve to be seen in publications around the globe I sometimes place no merit in the number of votes photos may get. When viewing the populars it seems sometimes only to prove how many friends and family members one has.

I may be wrong and have been wrong on many occasions but I think you may only vote one time for your own work and people who are not logged on at least with a temporary account can not vote. If artist with temp accounts can vote maybe they should not be allowed to.

I prefer not to eliminate the ability of voting. When I come across a gallery/photo that is exceptional I do enjoy voting for it. Perhaps instead of voting we should spend a short time (10 seconds) to tell the artist how much you enjoyed their images. I realize that getting an image into the popular will increase traffic but I have enjoyed comments more than the counter advancing.

john

[hipolito]

PBase is made by the users and those getting more votes, as a principle, should get into the popular Gallery.

Therefore this kind of event makes me think that:

1. PBase population is maybe changing (which makes me think if in a year or two I will still fit in this portal). We, the users, must fix this by voting on high quality photos.

2. Maybe voting is not 100% bullet proof – I have noticed several times popular galleries that are clearly commercial messages (some of poor quality in which no one would vote). Therefore there is a way to artificially generate votes. PBase should technically fix this.

Conclusion: to solve this both PBase and its users have serious responsibility.

[cjmorgan]

These political photos are about photography. This is a site about photography. People have the right to post these photos on their pages. Don't shoot me yet! Please read on.
But, my own feeling is this site is about the ART of photography. While some can argue that this type of photography is art I feel it more falls into the class of photojournalism. Wait, all you PJers out there do not jump all over me. There absolutely is an art to shooting PJ successfully day after day. I have photographed my share of sports games and activities and know the rigors of this type of photography.
Until someone further defines what is allowed on this site (do we really want to get into this) these people have a right to put these images on their pages.
john

First, these political photos aren't about photography, but rather
they're photographs (and sometimes not even that) about politics.
And in some cases, the images being used weren't even made by
the photographer (i.e. basically a copyright violation, no less).

But let's not kid ourselves.... any quick review will show that these images
and these galleries are just there to be a springboard for someone
to pontificate and debate about their own political views -- it is a
high jacking of sorts, and nothing more profound than just an
abuse of the PBase system.

I grant your that on a person's own PBase galleries, they should
have the freedom to construct whatever collection of images they
choose. But within reason... meaning in this case, not just for
the sole purpose of insighting political debate and encouraging
others to vote for such galleries so as to clog up the Popular Galleries.

Once again, that is abuse; the difference between supposed
"freedom of expression" and "distrubing the peace".

Believe me, I have nothing against freedom of expression. But I find
what's going on there on the Popular Galleries with this political crap
about as reasonable in terms of "freedom of expression" as I would
to hear some moron drunk shouting at the top of his lungs outside
my bedroom window at 2AM.

As I said earlier, there is a time and a place for such things, but
the PBase Popular Galleries are not it.

And if the folks who are constructing these particular American political
galleries are not inclined of their own accord to remove them (because
hey, it's gone beyond "just my gallery in just my space"), then just like
calling the cops for a disturbance of the piece of the 2AM loud mouth
drunk, it will perhaps be time to get the PBase management involved
to apply a heavy hand to folks who seemingly just don't appreciate
that they are abusing the system.

Again, hopefully it won't come to that (that the folks in question
will kindly remove their galleries about this stuff which is now
causing yjod disturbance). But if they can't see their way clear to
doing so, --just like a drunk at 2AM isn't always always the
most sound thinking in their reasoning -- then perhaps there will
be little alternative but to ask that the maintainers of PBase to
intervene.

I don't mean to be a stick in the mud about all this. But I go to
see the Popular Galleries to see some good image making, not a
bunch of clutter about politics (American or otherwise), and I'm
guessing I'm not the only one who views what's going on here
as an abuse of our PBase system and just as happy to see the
offending parties somewhat stripped of their privileges.

It's unfortunate. But PBase is a society. And just like in almost
any society, if you cause too much of a distrubance, you really
shouldn't be surprised if after being told to tune it down, somebody
finally decides to call the cops, as it were.

God forbit that we should actually have to write so many formal
rules that it gets to the point we actually have to legislate
common sense.

Hopefully those who now have political galleries on the Popular
Galleries will just kindly remove those galleries of their own accord.

Unless someone is willing to speak up with some good reason to
defend the actions of these version of 2AM obnoxious drunks.

And I'll be quite happy to shut up if it turns out the majority
actually favors what's going on now with the Popular Galleries.

CJ

[pinemikey]

I totally agree with this line of thought. I was hoping that PBase could be the one place I might be able to escape all the political garbage. This bloody country, when it comes to politics, is the most self centered on the planet. A meteor could explode into the south pole and 80% of the political junkies will be filling up blogs accusing one or the other political party of causing the offending disaster.

However, the only way to defeat this political swill from flooding PBase is to get out and view the truly wonderful and artful galleries and images that flourish on this website. Vote with your heart or with a technical eye and take back PBase from political neanderthals who think free speech only applies to people who agree with them.

To JCBoyd, the general disgust towards political pandering doesn't extend to some of the excellent photojournalistic galleries on PBase. You'll notice the difference between photos recording an event and mean spirited parodies whose only purpose is to show the immature nature of these crappy cut and paste galleries.

So, everybody knows what they have to do. Browse PBase and vote for real talent and innovation and let these stupid galleries just sink back into the mud where they came from.

[clickaway]

You mean we may have to wait until November until this is sorted? I hope not.

If all these people want to do is to promote their 'man', they should go elsewhere. If you look at the terms of PBase usage, you will see that photos lifted from other websites are not acceptable, as the copyright is held by others. This must apply to images in other forms, such as prints to which you do not hold the copyright to.

So why do we have such a popular gallery consisting of such images??

There is not much point in having rules if they are just flouted and flouted so openly in a showcase gallery!

Please, slug and Emily, could you please introduce some moderation into PBase. I really think such political stuff is really getting out of order.

I appreciate you may not have time yourself, and its not easy implementing guidelines, but could you please give some active thought on this and if need be, appoint somebody who could do this task.

Firstly, do not allow people to post photos that are clearly not theirs (obviously those of relatives, and those authorised by friends would be acceptable). Secondly, restrict 'non-photo' images to those that do not have any political or commercial message. Of course, I am sure the determined few will manage to suddenly find a load of protest rally photos, or those from the elction of four years ago.

Remember, we are not all American. I appreciate that slug and Emily, you are both good Americans, but a good many of us pay our money from overseas too. Yes, that's right, from other countries.

I totally support CJ in his stand. This is the wrong place to make your stand.

Ray
United Kingdom (not America)

[bobt54]

I don't like looking at these photos either, but to suggest that Slug ban them because we don't think they are ART, or because we don't like their politics or we don't like Americans starts us all down the slippery slope of censorship that has no bottom.

You might not think they are art but obviously that is not a requirement here. You might not find these pictures relevant because you aren't an American but someone viewing pictures of your country or pictures of your family might not find your pictures relevant to them. You might find the pictures offensive but there are plenty of pictures here on a variety of topics that are offensive to someone.

If you don't like what you see, then look elsewhere. It is not like there is a shortage of photography on this site. In a few months this will all go away and then the rest of the world will have their turn to get up on the soapbox spew out boring photos and meaningless rhetoric.

The primary mission of PBase.com is to be the best photo sharing and photo hosting web site.

[framewerkz]

Thing is, I don't really see the rest of the world resorting to this sort of stuff.

Do you?

[britishbeef]

Gosh! I haven't posted in the PBase forums for some time now but feel I should let CJ know that I agree wholeheartedly with his comments.

The other thing is that the messages on these so called 'popular galleries' have degenerated into a childish slanging match. One of the galleries is run by someone who needs no encouragement to flame war.

Let's get back to posting OUR OWN photographs and enjoying the fulfilment they bring.

Regards from the United Kingdom (also not USA),

[yippee2000]

While this site may be about photography, I think it is more about "image hosting". As such, we will see lots of images that we may not consider "art". We see very basic wedding photoes, parties, scantily clad women, political images, etc. I'm not saying these types of photoes can never be artistic, but often times, they are not, or in the case of the scantily clad women, the votes are often more for the amount of skin shown, and not necessarily artistic merit. I find the whole voting system/popular gallery thing here nauseating as well, but what can you do? Again, this site is not dedicated to the art of photography. There are many "regular" folks here with no artistic sense who only use pbase to upload their photoes. Then they happen to see somebody else's gallery here with 100 photoes of fuzzy kittens, and they vote for it. I'm sure it happens alot.

So until such time as pbase decides to become a site about ART (with some type of a team that decides which images to accept/not accept), and not just image-hosting, I don't see how they can deem certain images unacceptable. It's called freedom of speech. I certainly don't like the mindset behind some of the galleries I've seen here either.

[alexeig]

otherwise it is a high time for moderators to intervene and remove unwanted political crap

Cheers

alexeig

[alexeig]

otherwise it is a high time for moderators to intervene and remove unwanted political crap

Cheers

alexeig