RFF - Let’s Not Lose Focus!

[Dogman]

NY Tiimes had an article this morning about photography and other hobby forums beginning to have more political topic discussions due to the tariffs. Can't get away from it. This is touching everyone in one way or another. If you live in the USA, having an interest in anything electrical/mechanical or you buy items off ebay from overseas our lives will become more expensive. We can't hide our heads in the sand and pretend it's not real and we are not affected. We don't have to get into a hissy fit over it all and jump into each other's faces but we should be able to discuss it. And I can't see how that discussion can proceed without mentioning the political issues behind it all. Otherwise, I'm all in to the no politics.


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[splitimageview]

Just a question for clarification -- so, are we not allowed to talk about the substantial effect of the tariffs on the photography hobby because that discussion would be "political" in nature and/or would foreseeably lead to "political" discussions? But if Kodak or Sony decided to raise its prices 200% overnight, that would be fair game, right? I do not see how the cost of photography, regardless of its cause, would not be an appropriate conversation topic, one that people who are not affected by it are free to ignore.

Discussions of tariffs could in theory be entirely apolitical. In practice, well, one can see the result.

If a thread starts to stray into uncomfortable territory, then the mods can lock it. I don't see the problem.

Good. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.

The territory has been defined. If things look like they will be heading into the weeds, mods may decide to attempt redirection but that doesn't always work for various reasons. Since it's impossible for mods to read every single thread, things may get out of hand before someone uses the report button to summon a mod, so in that case there is no chance for redirect.

In any case, whatever action occurs, from gentle reminders, all the way up to deletion, is up to the discretion of the mods.

 

[Rayt]

Politics have infected our daily lives so people need to act their age and behave accordingly. There are of course people who look for arguments in everything just because they are what they are. I just move on and so can you.

 

[ellisson]

Politics - anything government-related as originally defined, would be hard to separate from photography. Not just tariffs and trade policy, but war and poverty which have been a valuable part of photojournalism for over a century. And photojournalism continues to provide much of what we know about life in the present and the past.

What RFF and other social media can do is eliminate hateful, nasty or snide, highly opinionated remarks from one member to others, and this has been done. But to eliminate whole topics of discussion relevant to photography is not in the spirit of RFF.

 

[splitimageview]

Politics - anything government-related as originally defined, would be hard to separate from photography. Not just tariffs and trade policy, but war and poverty which have been a valuable part of photojournalism for over a century. And photojournalism continues to provide much of what we know about life in the present and the past.

What RFF and other social media can do is eliminate hateful, nasty or snide, highly opinionated remarks from one member to others, and this has been done. But to eliminate whole topics of discussion relevant to photography is not in the spirit of RFF.

We have no intention of eliminating topics relevant to photography, the site would have no reason to exist if that were the case. However we are simply going to moderate anything with a political slant. At our discretion.

Choose your words carefully, follow the guidelines, and you'll be fine!

 

[NIKON KIU]

….but because we all come here for something different — to talk Leica, Sonnar, Zeiss, lighting, street, composition, among many other topics, and to catch a nice break from the noise elsewhere.

Leica , Sonnar….

Excuse me!

Nikon, Nikkor…

LOL

Kiu

 

[ellisson]

We have no intention of eliminating topics relevant to photography, the site would have no reason to exist if that were the case. However we are simply going to moderate anything with a political slant. At our discretion.

Choose your words carefully, follow the guidelines, and you'll be fine!

And the guidelines and careful choice of words should apply equally to the moderators.

 

[splitimageview]

Of course. We could use more mods. Anyone? 😊

 

[mapgraphs]

I grew up immersed in some of the most horrific photography from WWII ever published. Photography is political. Congeniality in a gated community is still a gated community. I think I'm out.

 

[Formerly presspass]

Would that it were as simple as the moderators would like to make it. Unfortunately for all of us, changes in international trade [How's this for a euphemism for tariffs?] affect much of what we enjoy, from buying and selling equipment to acquiring the materials - photo printing paper, for instance - to enjoy our hobbies. The 'at the discretion of the moderators' does not clarify the issue.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

I’m curious why WE (the RFF community) don’t simply start a thread titled “Politics and Photography”. It could be a place where a subset of US could discuss our concerns about the current state of things. I’d love to hear what WE think about my concern that street photography in the U.S. might get banned by politicians that believe the original framers of the constitution wouldn’t consider street photography as falling under the privileges of free speech. Such a thread possible?

 

[boojum]

I’m curious why WE (the RFF community) don’t simply start a thread titled “Politics and Photography”. It could be a place where a subset of US could discuss our concerns about the current state of things. I’d love to hear what WE think about my concern that street photography in the U.S. might get banned by politicians that believe the original framers of the constitution wouldn’t consider street photography as falling under the privileges of free speech. Such a thread possible?

Hey, that's a great idea. Now, can you guarantee there will be no spillage into other forums and threads? Yeah, that's where it gets to be a problem. We all have been assessed sales tax under the guise of tariff. I do not like it, you do not like it, many do not like it. Recognition of this is one thing, discussion another. Politics are as appropriate here as camera and camera gear on a political board. As always, YMMV.

As for the "WE" and "US" please keep in mind that we are here at the goodness of others who provide this board for our use. It's kind of like a large field where we can play sports. We can make rules about the games and so on but it is the property owner who has the final say. Likewise on RFF. So let's keep that in mind, we are given this playing field at no charge on the condition that we act according to the rules.

It does seem that the supposed old MS personality type characterization of either "Plays well with others" or "Runs with scissors" is appropriate.

 

[ellisson]

Hey, that's a great idea. Now, can you guarantee there will be no spillage into other forums and threads? Yeah, that's where it gets to be a problem. We all have been assessed sales tax under the guise of tariff. I do not like it, you do not like it, many do not like it. Recognition of this is one thing, discussion another. Politics are as appropriate here as camera and camera gear on a political board. As always, YMMV.

As for the "WE" and "US" please keep in mind that we are here at the goodness of others who provide this board for our use. It's kind of like a large field where we can play sports. We can make rules about the games and so on but it is the property owner who has the final say. Likewise on RFF. So let's keep that in mind, we are given this playing field at no charge on the condition that we act according to the rules.

It does seem that the supposed old MS personality type characterization of either "Plays well with others" or "Runs with scissors" is appropriate.

Your last sentence doesn't belong here. It’s inappropriate, oversimplified corporate gobledegook and if that’s the kind of comment that RFF invites, so long.

 

[boojum]

Your last sentence doesn't belong here. It’s inappropriate, oversimplified corporate gobledegook and if that’s the kind of comment that RFF invites, so long.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[ellisson]

Thanks for sharing.

Just keep your scissors to yourself and point them down. You'll fare better.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

I'm not clear what "spillage" would look like, but supposing it does happen occasionally (as it does now, from time to time), isn't that something that our kindly moderators could 'moderate'? I'm not trying to push anyone's 'buttons' here, I just thought it would be cool to have a little space here to talk about these issues that sure look like they're going to dominate our photographic lives in one way or another.

It'd be nice if I had a place here to report to the membership that (sometime in the future?) I was stopped on the streets of San Francisco by police who then confiscated my camera and fined me for taking pictures of tourists on the cable cars.

 

[splitimageview]

I grew up immersed in some of the most horrific photography from WWII ever published. Photography is political.

Discussing photography is one thing, discussing politics is another.

This isn't difficult.

 

[splitimageview]

Would that it were as simple as the moderators would like to make it. Unfortunately for all of us, changes in international trade [How's this for a euphemism for tariffs?] affect much of what we enjoy, from buying and selling equipment to acquiring the materials - photo printing paper, for instance - to enjoy our hobbies. The 'at the discretion of the moderators' does not clarify the issue.

We are now picking nits.

Simply do not inject politics into your posts. If you want to talk about tariffs affecting prices, fine. Just leave it at that. Simply leave out the political commentary, we don't need political pundits, we only want photographic pundits.

 

[splitimageview]

I’m curious why WE (the RFF community) don’t simply start a thread titled “Politics and Photography”. It could be a place where a subset of US could discuss our concerns about the current state of things. I’d love to hear what WE think about my concern that street photography in the U.S. might get banned by politicians that believe the original framers of the constitution wouldn’t consider street photography as falling under the privileges of free speech. Such a thread possible?

If you want to discuss what-ifs of what politician might do what, that's a political discussion.

If you want to talk generalities, constitutionality, what the framers believed, the Federalist papers, or what have you, as long as personal political opinion/commentary is not injected, it's all good!

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Got it. Thanks.. for moderating.