Gallery - deletion for lack of interest or response

[brusby]

And yes, all my post had one intention: to help you.

What did I do to deserve such kindness . , , and from someone who doesn't even like my style of photography?

I can only conclude you harbor some feeling of superiority in order to offer help to those you perceive as less fortunate.

But in the future, please don't go out of your way. I'm really not interested in your kind of "help".

 

[farlymac]

i just tried firefox on windows with the add blocker extension added. It hosed the gallery. I had to remove it from filtered sites.

I think that extension is misbehaving especially since there are no ads on the gallery / classifieds other than internally hosted banners.

The problem is in the url for the Gallery and Classifieds which identifies the sites as ads. And since the site itself is the ad, the blockers will not allow it even if it is whitelisted. Thus I have to disable my adblocker while on RFF if I care to see the Gallery or Classifieds.

PF

 

[wlewisiii]

I just turned off my ad block for only the RFF website and it works fine now.

 

[splitimageview]

RFF can be white listed using Ad Block extension in Firefox using the custom filter option, enter:

@@https://rangefinderforum.com/$document
@@https://www.rangefinderforum.com/$document

This should work for the entire site including gallery and classifieds.

 

[Richard G]

Brusby, your post, contrary to your thread title, contains evidence confirming interest. But presumably you are correct in your statement on a lack of comments. I remember a previous stoush over one of your photographs, a fine looking woman, clothed, atop a piano. Maybe I commented in mild support. Can't remember. There is a reason people don't comment on pictures of beautiful women. And esepecially unclothed beautiful women. The nude is a classic genre and should be allowed and people's taste in these things varies. It is not the middle of the raod fare on RFF but as you've found in this thread there is no lack of sophistication or openess. If you post with your own name and your wife looks at RFF - must happen surely - then you might not want to signal your interest with a comment. And then in these times what comment to make without the thought police emerging? Very few such minders here on RFF though. The woman atop the piano was enough to be called out on peddling an outdated trope. You can't do this sort of thing you do with thin skin.

I think you are getting unexpected support in this thread, so there's no point in picking a fight straight away with Ko.Fe. He is very knowledgeable. We are all welcome here so far. What do they say, look and learn the rules and then ignore them and go your own way. That's the path to satisfaction if not also success, which it may be.

The Gallery has suffered from the previous iteration of it and the new version is much better. Some of the greats have gone and the quality has dropped. And the comments section has not revived. Robert Blu revived the Gallery Picks of the Week thread which is a great lesson in editing, but too few good photographs for it to blossom.

The Gallery is not a venue that has typically evoked criticism of the serious kind. You'd be better starting a thread and asking for criticism in that. You will likely get it. I'd be happy to look and be honest about what I think. I'm sure I liked your lady on the piano shot, but then I do like pianos.

 

[Richard G]

Just noticed your exchange with Shab. Count me out of that criticism thread I proposed.

 

[brusby]

There is a reason people don't comment on pictures of beautiful women. And esepecially unclothed beautiful women. The nude is a classic genre and should be allowed and people's taste in these things varies. It is not the middle of the raod fare on RFF but as you've found in this thread there is no lack of sophistication or openess.

I agree posting nudes shouldn't cause a scandal. Nudes are part of the permanent collection of every museum I'm aware of. And the images I make are not substantially different. Sure poses are different, and I'm sure people will argue about "artistic content" but anatomy is still anatomy. I don't go out of my way to post shocking material. It's just the kind of photos I am often asked to make and enjoy making. I also don't post anything very risqué or pornographic. Nevertheless it seems I always get some numb nuts comment when I post here.

If you post with your own name and your wife looks at RFF - must happen surely - then you might not want to signal your interest with a comment.

I often bring her with me on shoots, including nude model shoots. I brought her on the very first one I did many years ago so she could see first hand it was all about the images and not about trying to make time with attractive young women.

And then in these times what comment to make without the thought police emerging? Very few such minders here on RFF though.

I disagree. This place seems to have more than it's share of thought police and no shortage of people who think their style of making photos is superior to all others, with no hesitation to say or imply it in public comments. For very clear examples, just read this thread or any of the other recent ones I've had the misfortune to be a party to .

The woman atop the piano was enough to be called out on peddling an outdated trope. You can't do this sort of thing you do with thin skin.

I get this a lot. That I need to have thick skin. I have a better suggestion -- it very easy for people to treat others with respect and consideration. But that seems to be too much to ask these days.

there's no point in picking a fight straight away with Ko.Fe.

I've never picked a fight with anyone in my life. But I've never backed away from one or failed to speak my mind when people say offensive things. I think that is the main problem here. Most people just keep quiet. That's not my style. I suggest you re-read KoFe's original post here to see who started it.

The Gallery has suffered from the previous iteration of it and the new version is much better. Some of the greats have gone and the quality has dropped. And the comments section has not revived. Robert Blu revived the Gallery Picks of the Week thread which is a great lesson in editing, but too few good photographs for it to blossom.

You can blame it on technical glitches, but I feel it goes much deeper than that. Very few good photographers are gonna stay where they don't feel welcome. And frankly this place has developed a very cliquish feel where a few people like and comment on each other's photos. I want to be clear that there are some super nice and supportive people here. But the cliques are very palpable. I've heard from quite a few forum members via PM that have expressed the same sentiment. Unfortunately they don't speak up, so I feel like the lone voice in the wilderness.

The Gallery is not a venue that has typically evoked criticism of the serious kind. You'd be better starting a thread and asking for criticism in that. You will likely get it. I'd be happy to look and be honest about what I think. I'm sure I liked your lady on the piano shot, but then I do like pianos.

I'm not looking for serious criticism. I just found it odd that I had very recently posted several photos to the Gallery trying to reinvigorate the place. Each had gotten literally hundreds of views but what was odd was there was not a single comment, like or criticism, while there were 4 selfies and several other images with almost no views on the current gallery front page, but each with likes and/or comments. It seemed clear to me, a perfect example of the cliquishness I find so prevalent here.

 

[brusby]

Just noticed your exchange with Shab. Count me out of that criticism thread I proposed.

My pleasure.

 

[Richard G]

“Your wife” : maybe I should have weitten one’s wife, any RFF member’s wife…or girl friend. Or mother.

 

[Yokosuka Mike]

The party’s over and the love boat set sail without us. Time to push back from the keyboard, take a breather, think about the photographs we’ll be making tomorrow not yesterday.

Shirley Bassey - The Party's Over (A Jule Styne song) (1976 Show #2)

All the best,
Mike

 

[Erik van Straten]

Frankly, this is the kind of close minded thinking that drives me crazy and makes me reluctant to post here. So self righteous in your approach to art.

I did not say anything about art. I've only said that the pictures you publish here are conducive to the increase in the number of female members. Women will think that this is Men Only.

Erik.

 

[splitimageview]

@brusby you've had many compliments on your photos here, including mine. You've also had some that are a little reluctant, due to nudes. This is understandable and shouldn't be taken as an affront.

You're not going to please everyone, we all have different tastes. Some will comment, some will like, most will not do either.

As stated earlier, this site is rebuilding its audience, many people left due to poor performance of the old software, it was like a festering pothole for many months. The software has been rectified but it will take a while to get the traffic back where it was, so I wouldn't expect much engagement yet.

Each had gotten literally hundreds of views but what was odd was there was not a single comment, like or criticism, while there were 4 selfies and several other images with almost no views on the current gallery front page, but each with likes and/or comments. It seemed clear to me, a perfect example of the cliquishness I find so prevalent here.

Speaking frankly, you're not going to get much sympathy with that sort of statement. "My photos don't get many likes or comments, and it's all your fault!" 😄

Just keep posting! Don't worry about likes or comments.

 

[rhl-oregon]

Catching up on this conversation this morning.

At this point, ‘conversation’ is a polite term. OP has rattled his rapier in its scabbard at a number of longtime RFF citizens who responded to his sincere complaint with questions, observations, testimony based on years or decades of intellectual and artistic participation.

I note that a number—if not most, if not indeed all!—are photographers whose RFF work I esteem. They are not however part of my clique, nor do I imagine myself part of theirs. Some are fortunate to have met one another, but I have met none in person; mostly we are separated by states, provinces, countries, continents. I find much of what they took trouble put into words—in some cases, into RFF’s standard english, which is not their native tongue—regarding the OP’s solicitous complaint to be good hearted, level headed, empathetic.

At this point it appears the OP (now using the polite generic functional and utterly distasteful euphemism) prefers to have his original complaint intact and unsullied by community feedback—though this begs the question why he sought community thought on the matter. He has the option to delete this thread he started; perhaps what he wants a spotlit stage for an antagonistic monologue where he portrays himself, among other things, the liberator of the RFF gallery.

This might be monstrous if it weren’t laughable for the obvious reason that has zero relevance to any photographer’s technical skill or artistic merit: attracting hundreds of uncritical views of nudes on a male-dominated photo forum where anyone in the world can be a guest, a ghost, a lurker, is symptomatic of wankers, mostly male. This in itself is not a distinction; it’s a virus. And most wankers don’t expose themselves during wankery anyway.

On the other hand, it is never a good idea to make enemies among those whose mindful help one sought for the sake of self-justification. One reduces oneself to the mosquito whine of mere ego then.

And anyone who pointedly slaps at the hands of greeting and courtesy and kindness extended by the likes of Erik, Xabier, Richard, Mike, Don—to name a few—is someone due for a karmic correction, visitation by a wolf more savagely indifferent to his self-regard than the pretend wolf he cried about here.

 

[Coldkennels]

It's my personal opinion that there would be much more engagement if this site emphasized photos on the home page, rather than a simple text list of recent replies to existing threads. This has been the standard site design here since I've been around (16 years) and perhaps it works for a gear-centric site...but...a lot has changed in the internet/photo world during that time...

This is much better demonstrated than described...so visit this page to get an idea of what I'm talking about:

Front Page test

To try to (hopefully) bring this back away from the brink of conflict and arguments... personally, this proposed redesign would be the antithesis of why I come to RFF.

In a world full of image-dumping, I really appreciate the in-depth discussion on RFF, whether it's about gear, technique, history, repairs, or a new book or exhibition. That's what web forums have always done well, and something that's been largely left behind by the shift to the Instagrams and Facebooks of Web 3.0. As such, it actively bothers me when people come into discussion posts, drop a completely unrelated image, and walk away. It smacks of a unique sort of arrogance, and one that's sadly becoming prevalent on the modern internet. I fear a more image-centric front end, with more space being given to each listed post, would only encourage this sort of behaviour on RFF - and at that point, why bother coming here? If all I wanted was to see photos, I'd clear off back to Instagram, or bounce over to Grainery, or scroll through the dying hellscape that is Twitter.

Now, as to the gallery: I always liked the selection of images shown on the front page, but as a lot of people have pointed out, that widget isn't working well on the new software. I use Vivaldi (a chromium-based browser) on Mac; it has both a built-in content blocker and the practically mandatory Adblock Plus extension installed. I've set up an exception for ABP for RFF so it's never active on this site, but it's always a 50/50 whether the built-in content blocker will hide the gallery widget on the front page or not, and I have no idea why.

That said, the gallery itself is so detached from the main site that I barely ever remember it's there, and actually go over to it even less than that. The various W/NW threads are far easier to browse and far easier to look through when I want to look at other people's work or share my own, so I've never really paid too much heed to the "performance" of my photos in the gallery - even before the recent site redesigns.

 

[splitimageview]

It's easy to have multiple entry points to the forum, as members can bookmark whatever page they prefer.

Some come to the home page to see the latest replies, some go to the list of forums (which also has a list of the latest replies in the sidebar.)

A graphic-centric home page also has a full list of the latest replies in the sidebar. And there is nothing to prevent having the legacy home page as well as an alternative...this leaves the choice up to the individual.

However it must be said that to grab attention of guests so they become new members, something splashier than a bunch of text can be a good thing.

Once members join, they can take part in any in-depth or out-depth discussion, as they prefer. 😄

 

[farlymac]

RFF can be white listed using Ad Block View attachment 4816696 extension in Firefox using the custom filter option, enter:

@@https://rangefinderforum.com/$document
@@https://www.rangefinderforum.com/$document

This should work for the entire site including gallery and classifieds.

That doesn't work in MS Edge. I have to disable the extension to clear RFF to run in total.

PF

 

[MP Guy]

whats the latest @Dogman ? Still waiting to hear back to see if we are making any progress.

 

[splitimageview]

That doesn't work in MS Edge. I have to disable the extension to clear RFF to run in total.

PF

I don't use Edge, but just downloaded it and the Adblock extension, seems to allow rff/gallery/classified access without completely disabling on all sites. Hovering over the green 'thumbs up' indicates 'has access to this site'

 

[farlymac]

I don't use Edge, but just downloaded it and the Adblock extension, seems to allow rff/gallery/classified access without completely disabling on all sites. Hovering over the green 'thumbs up' indicates 'has access to this site'

View attachment 4816732

I'll keep looking for the reason, but everything I've tried just will not allow it.

PF

 

[dude163]

if you are looking for likes go to instagram , I only take pics for myself , if others like them I view that as a bonus , not the driving force to taking them .