Why is this website hijacked for political reasons?????

[pipo1968]

I am getting increasingly frustrated by the amount of US political propaganda that is posted on this website! It is constantly in your face on the home page under Example Galleries or under the most popular galleries section. The pbase voting system seems to have lost it focus on photographic and artistic skills and has shifted towards a political platform.
I don't mind if people have a passion for politics and have the desire to express their preferences. However, I feel that this international forum is getting increasingly hijacked for such reasons, something I am sure it was never intended for.

Am I the only person that feels this way?????

Regards,
Phil

[ukexpat]

I am getting increasingly frustrated by the amount of US political propaganda that is posted on this website! It is constantly in your face on the home page under Example Galleries or under the most popular galleries section. The pbase voting system seems to have lost it focus on photographic and artistic skills and has shifted towards a political platform.
I don't mind if people have a passion for politics and have the desire to express their preferences. However, I feel that this international forum is getting increasingly hijacked for such reasons, something I am sure it was never intended for.

Am I the only person that feels this way?????

Regards,
Phil

No Phil, you are not alone and action is being taken. Slug is removing such galleries from the Populars.

[pinemikey]

Some people keep cutting and pasting hundreds of pictures into their own websites and as long as some pbase members keep voting for those galleries they will be front and center. I don't count photo galleries of rallies and protest marches because the poster actually photographed the event.

The only true way to combat this ( a truly apt term, as these posters and their supporters have an truly obsessive combative attitude) is to just vote for the actual artistic and talented galleries and photos that you like. Eventually the cream will rise to the top and the sludge will go to the bottom.

This is a democratic website, if people want to vote for this stuff, that's the way it goes. November is getting nearer and nearer and hopefully this political garbage can work it's way out of the system as soon as possible.

For the people who live out of the United States be glad you don't have to be inundated 24 hours a day with political coverage. If a candidate ties his shoelace it makes top headlines on all the major networks and newspapers. I feel truly sorry for the poor people in the battleground states who are getting hammered night and day by both political parties. I'm lucky here in Texas, because Dubya will win uncontested here, so we aren't getting the same intensity of political advertising. Thank God for that!

[ukexpat]

Some people keep cutting and pasting hundreds of pictures into their own websites and as long as some pbase members keep voting for those galleries they will be front and center.

Only until Slug weeds them out of the Populars lists.

[gillettecraig]

I was surprised at one point to find one of my galleries in the popular galleries. Since my talents don't rise to anything close to stellar I was not all that displeased. What it does show is that throwing some votes to a good, photographic site will have it's results.

While I may be a bit prejuduced, I don't recall seeing much complaining when we were presented with all the emotionally intense political galleries highlighting protests against such things as the G8 summits, etc.

[bobt54]

Does anyone have a picture of someone beating a dead horse???

Am I the only person that feels this way?????

No and you would know that if you had read the other threads on this subject -- Censorship and To Heck with American Politics.

Don't you think you are getting a little melodramatic here when you say the website has been hijackked? Yes, there are some in the 7 day popular gallery. So what? Look in the all time list. Won't see too many there. That is where the real art is anyway. And even if you do see one. Don't go there. Go to another gallery. It's not like there is a shortage of them here.

I personally think the sites are crap, but if people want to waste their money posting that junk, so be it. Noone forces me to look at them. Noone forces me to vote for them. If Pbase resources were being stretched to the breaking point by this stuff then maybe I would be upset, but they are not. You can navigate around Pbase just fine without ever going into any of those galleries.

I think it is not that you guys don't like American Politics on PBase, but more you just don't like American Politics or even Americans. Get over it. It is here for a few more months and then it will go away for another 4 years. Kind of like locust.

[danpolley]

I am an American and as such have a valid stake in our upcoming election. I do not believe that this web site is where we should be expressing our political opinions. I understand the exstreme difficulty of the webmaster in this area and they have my support. My goal as well as many from this site is to take images and share them.
*Dan*

[lord_of_the_badgers]

yes, I'm adding my voice to this. I don't really care what thread we do it on either.

I'm VERY glad Slug is doing something.

[455rocket]

It would probably only take half a dozen or so people to go through the popular (7, 90 day and all time) galleries and vote for their 10 or so favorite non-political galleries to depose them. After all it takes only a very few votes to get quite high in the listings because 99% of members don't bother to vote most of the time. It is obvious that some pbase members must like these galleries because someone must be voting for them up, since the popular galleries are democratic.

[burgor57]

WHY do some people want to hijack this PHOTOGRAPHIC gallery website for political propoganda. There must be better platforms for that. It's just spoiling this site which up till now I had considered to be pretty good.

I suppose it's a difficult thing to manage and no one wants to have their 'freedom of speech' imposed upon - but this is NOT a political platform. Well at least I didn't think it was. I thought it was an artistic platform.

[ukexpat]

WHY do some people want to hijack this PHOTOGRAPHIC gallery website for political propoganda. There must be better platforms for that. It's just spoiling this site which up till now I had considered to be pretty good.

I suppose it's a difficult thing to manage and no one wants to have their 'freedom of speech' imposed upon - but this is NOT a political platform. Well at least I didn't think it was. I thought it was an artistic platform.

And let's not forget (though people often do) that there is no right to freedom of speech in a private community like PBase. The First Amendment deals with restrictions by government on free speech. Individual private organisations can create their own rules as to what kind of speech is and is not permitted.

[weisteen]

[yippee2000]

While I had said before that I don't think Don's galleries should be removed because of the emotional discussions they cause, etc., I DO think it's wrong that some of his more recent "popular" galleries contain nothing but images that he himself did not take. People's PHOTOGRAPHS are supposed to be voted on. OTHER photographer's photoes that you choose to put into your galleries should NOT be eligible for votes.

[matiasasun]

OTHER photographer's photoes that you choose to put into your galleries should NOT be eligible for votes.

Agree. I mean we can upload any image we want (cos that´s waht the ToS says) but votes are a different matter. At least that´s my view. That´s why I think Votes should be disabled by Pbase suscribers if adecuate.

[ukexpat]

While I had said before that I don't think Don's galleries should be removed because of the emotional discussions they cause, etc., I DO think it's wrong that some of his more recent "popular" galleries contain nothing but images that he himself did not take. People's PHOTOGRAPHS are supposed to be voted on. OTHER photographer's photoes {sic} that you choose to put into your galleries should NOT be eligible for votes.

Don is also disingenuous in his actions here -- he creates galleries that he calls "tributes" but it is pretty obvious that they have political purpose. He is also more than happy to belittle others in some of his PMs, but then deletes comments that he disagrees with from his galleries.