Did you ever wonder . . . . .

[SWPhotoImaging]

What compels folks to list every piece of expensive gear they own in a signature line they use on a worldwide forum? One that has no membership requirements other than an e-mail address?

If someone was to monitor forums such as these that we frequent, gradually collecting information about where people are from, hometowns, family and friends and their pet's names, etc. They could easily build a database of information about you, your vacation schedules, regular events that you attend (and photograph), your friends and family, AND what kind of camera equipment you have.

One could then pull off a pretty good "social engineering" job on your neighbors and townsfolk, duping them into revealing where you live, based on freindly banter about "last time we saw billy-bob, his dog, "bosco" was only a puppy, and did you see that awful color they painted the living room, I almost sent the Christmas pictures back when I saw that!, etc . . .

Then they just need to visit your homes, and use your signature line as an inventory of what goodies they need to pick up on this stop . . . .

I actually read about such a thing happening to a group of coin collectors who participated in a regular forum online.

DOH!!

Happy Holidays Everyone
May all your locations remain secret, and your sig be a lie.

[pradeep1]

Yeah, I thought listing everything one owns in one's signature line was pretty silly too. I especially think it is funny when they caption each and every photo they post with all the equipment they used to capture that shot. Like we care that they were using a certain brand of tripod or a hoodman attachement to their LCD screen.

Gearheads, you gotta love them.

[CyberDyneSystems]

There is a clever member of this forum,. who's signature says qite simply .....


________________________

"Gear lists are kinda' lame..."


:D

[Belmondo]

I did it for a while.
Two things happened:
1) the list kept changing as I bought, sold, and traded hardware, and
2) I finally realized I wasn't impressing anyone but myself.

In retrospect, I think I was just trying a little too hard to be 'one of the guys.' Turns out it wasn't necessary at all.

[pradeep1]

belmondo wrote:
I did it for a while.
Two things happened:
1) the list kept changing as I bought, sold, and traded hardware, and
2) I finally realized I wasn't impressing anyone but myself.

In retrospect, I think I was just trying a little too hard to be 'one of the guys.' Turns out it wasn't necessary at all.


All you need to be "one of the guys" is a penchant for sharing and a good, helping nature. Photography skills are secondary, sometimes.

[twl845]

When you list your gear, make the last entry:
Smith & Wesson 44 Magnum.
trigger 2 pound pull

[defordphoto]

Actually on the forums that find that practice acceptable it's actually quite useful information when you're reading those threads. It's not necessarily an ego thing though I'm sure it is for some people, but it's also a way to share with other whatchyagot rather than them having to ask all the time when you do post a pic.

[pradeep1]

RFMSports wrote:
Actually on the forums that find that practice acceptable it's actually quite useful information when you're reading those threads. It's not necessarily an ego thing though I'm sure it is for some people, but it's also a way to share with other whatchyagot rather than them having to ask all the time when you do post a pic.


I understand the logic of that, but it still looks a bit goofy when you go into too much detail...especially on captions for picture more than signature lines.

[defordphoto]

pradeep1 wrote:
RFMSports wrote:
Actually on the forums that find that practice acceptable it's actually quite useful information when you're reading those threads. It's not necessarily an ego thing though I'm sure it is for some people, but it's also a way to share with other whatchyagot rather than them having to ask all the time when you do post a pic.

I understand the logic of that, but it still looks a bit goofy when you go into too much detail...especially on captions for picture more than signature lines.

Yes true. When people go into listing their software, what types of bags, CF cards, lens cleaning cloths and stuff, it does get to be a bit much.

Most people don't list here. Most people list at Miranda's site.

[timmyquest]

It's callled "flexing your nuts"

I quote a rap song by the "getto boys"

"...real gangsta-ass ****as don't flex nuts
Cuz real gangsta-ass ****as know they got em"

I'll let my pictures do the talking ;)

[jim monroe]

pradeep1 wrote:
Yeah, I thought listing everything one owns in one's signature line was pretty silly too. I especially think it is funny when they caption each and every photo they post with all the equipment they used to capture that shot. Like we care that they were using a certain brand of tripod or a hoodman attachement to their LCD screen.

Gearheads, you gotta love them.




Signatures are perhaps interesting reflections of ones priorities, concerns, interests, etc. I've seen a number of interesting ones on here, mine is not one of them. They are no big deal one way or the other.
But for me captions on a picture are another matter. I basically come to this forum to learn about digital photography and I can learn something from being told as much about what was done to take the picture as possible. Maybe others know when I tripod was used, what the lens settings were, etc. (though I doubt it) but I would like to know these things along with all sorts of other information.
When thinking about the above comment I thought: okay I want to know if a tripod was used but who cares what brand? But then there might be someone out there thinking of purchasing a tripod and therefore they might get a small bit of guidance from even knowing the brand of tripod used.

The bottom line, at least for me is, if I don't want to read abour what lense, what setting was used, etc. I can easily skip over it, however, if I do want to see this info so I can perhaps learn a little and it is NOT there I can not fill it in on my own. Therefore I would encourage most posters of pictures on this forum to give more not less info.
As they say IMHO