Obey the Rules? Change the Rules? or Ignore the Rules?

Last night, I had a few moments to sit down and catch up on some forum reading. I don't get here nearly as much as I would like, so I was a little behind in my viewing.

I subscribe to the threads that support the gear I own: Camera bodies, lenses, lighting gear. I really enjoy the "post your best" threads associated with this equipment. More often then not, you see amazing stuff.

So I open up the first thread -- a lighting thread. I scroll through 2 pages of posts, and see some great stuff, and some good stuff. Two photographers have posted multiple images using the same lights I own. All are good, not great, but they seem to be getting out and shooting a lot. I think to myself "I envy the time they make for their passion."

On to another lighting thread, about what you can do with one light. First images I see -- the first images I saw in the OTHER thread. Repeats? Hmm...... in three pages I get to see all their images again, plus some discussion about "how they did it". Nothing new though -- unfortunate.

So off to the lenses. Pop open my favorite lens thread, and -- WHAT? -- there are two of the pictures I was just looking at before. This thread explains how the lens was used to compress the background..... and some idol chatter follows after about how awesome a picture it was.....

Now I am a little irritated. I surf some of the other threads I subscribe to, and then pop over to a camera body thread.

Where I find an image from the first set repeated by the same photographer.

So the body count is two photographers with three images -- repeated nine times.

An average of three posts per image in three different threads.


Now, I rarely if ever take an image that I am really excited about. And I have, in fact, posted the same image in multiple forums on two occasions. But some photographers do it on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

Is there anything wrong with that?

Well, according to the rules.....

IMPORTANT READING
Be sure your post title includes a short description of image content.
Give detailed info. In the message body, include something about the images: story, what camera, what settings, circumstances, lighting... something.
Be aware that many people view this forum at work or at home with young children. Always post a warning such as (violent) in the thread title if your images may contain subject matter that could be deemed objectionable.
Glamour & Nude forum should always be used for glamour, nude and erotic photos which are not family safe (i.e. do not post them to People). Nude/erotic photos posted to People will be removed.
Do not post the same image in multiple forums or in multiple posts. The end result will most likely be one of the threads being deleted by a moderator.

I know we frequent some of the same threads and I have the same sentiment. One member is doing a 365 project, and he mostly does ocf, with a 5D, and often a single strobe. So he posts in all 3 forums, every day.. Nice guy, nice work, but overkill. Perhaps giving these multi-posters a gentle reminder is a good way to go about this.

If you see them, report them. We don't encourage this, but we can't be everywhere and we don't all frequent the same combination of forums, so wouldn't necessarily see this happening. OTOH, if someone's using the same photo to illustrate specific points about different pieces of equipment (subject isolation via DoF, single light source work) we're more inclined to be tolerant.

mattograph wrote in post #9699807
Last night, I had a few moments to sit down and catch up on some forum reading. I don't get here nearly as much as I would like, so I was a little behind in my viewing.

I subscribe to the threads that support the gear I own: Camera bodies, lenses, lighting gear. I really enjoy the "post your best" threads associated with this equipment. More often then not, you see amazing stuff.

So I open up the first thread -- a lighting thread. I scroll through 2 pages of posts, and see some great stuff, and some good stuff. Two photographers have posted multiple images using the same lights I own. All are good, not great, but they seem to be getting out and shooting a lot. I think to myself "I envy the time they make for their passion."

On to another lighting thread, about what you can do with one light. First images I see -- the first images I saw in the OTHER thread. Repeats? Hmm...... in three pages I get to see all their images again, plus some discussion about "how they did it". Nothing new though -- unfortunate.

So off to the lenses. Pop open my favorite lens thread, and -- WHAT? -- there are two of the pictures I was just looking at before. This thread explains how the lens was used to compress the background..... and some idol chatter follows after about how awesome a picture it was.....

Now I am a little irritated. I surf some of the other threads I subscribe to, and then pop over to a camera body thread.

Where I find an image from the first set repeated by the same photographer.

So the body count is two photographers with three images -- repeated nine times.

An average of three posts per image in three different threads.


Now, I rarely if ever take an image that I am really excited about. And I have, in fact, posted the same image in multiple forums on two occasions. But some photographers do it on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

Is there anything wrong with that?

Well, according to the rules.....

IMPORTANT READING
Be sure your post title includes a short description of image content.
Give detailed info. In the message body, include something about the images: story, what camera, what settings, circumstances, lighting... something.
Be aware that many people view this forum at work or at home with young children. Always post a warning such as (violent) in the thread title if your images may contain subject matter that could be deemed objectionable.
Glamour & Nude forum should always be used for glamour, nude and erotic photos which are not family safe (i.e. do not post them to People). Nude/erotic photos posted to People will be removed.
Do not post the same image in multiple forums or in multiple posts. The end result will most likely be one of the threads being deleted by a moderator.

Do not post another photographer's photos without permission from that photographer. Any photos violating copyright laws will be removed.
If you do not have written permission to edit that photo, or the member has not set the Image Editing Okay flag (in User CP), you may not edit that photo and post the edited photo back. This applies to ALL FORUMS.
When quoting posts that have photos, please take a minute to remove the [IMG] tags, or just remove the reference to the photo altogether. There's no reason to have the same photo quoted time and again in a thread.

So, am I just irritable? Does this "one photo, multiple post" trend bug anyone else? Should the rule be amended? Should it be rigorously enforced by a newly deputized group of uber-mods (I volunteer!) Or does a "don't ask, don't tell" strategy serve us best?

To answer your question - yes, it seems so.

I think that rule is primarily for the photo sharing forums. In other words don't post it in macro and B&W if it happens to be a BW macro shot.

Like Jon said, illustrating different technical points is not the same. And is, in my opinion, acceptable.

As they say, "don't sweat the small stuff...." Have a good day!

Jon wrote in post #9699917
If you see them, report them. We don't encourage this, but we can't be everywhere and we don't all frequent the same combination of forums, so wouldn't necessarily see this happening. OTOH, if someone's using the same photo to illustrate specific points about different pieces of equipment (subject isolation via DoF, single light source work) we're more inclined to be tolerant.

Let me clarify -- the type of posts I am speaking of DO NOT offer additional insight. In fact, one of the examples simply cut and pasted the text from the post three times.

If someone took a shot with ocf that was also an amazing example of the bokeh of that particular lens, then I think that is more than great -- provided they take the time to write two unique posts highlighting WHY they are posting same.

Here is what I am after -- If I take a picture with a 5D2 mounting a 50 1.4 with an extension tube lit by an 580 EX II off camera, should I post that in:

The Off Camera Lighting thread
The One Light Thread
The 5D2 thread
The 50 1.4 thread
The extension tube thread
And a macro thread

Thats what you seem to see more of. And I was sorta hoping people could police themselves, and cut it out.

But I also know that you can't be everywhere at once -- that technology is at least two years off, right?

I think this is the relevant data that is missing here (as of a moment ago):

Threads: 801,791, Posts: 9,559,289, Members: 235,015

mattograph wrote in post #9699993
Here is what I am after -- If I take a picture with a 5D2 mounting a 50 1.4 with an extension tube lit by an 580 EX II off camera, should I post that in:

The Off Camera Lighting thread
The One Light Thread
The 5D2 thread
The 50 1.4 thread
The extension tube thread
And a macro thread

Thats what you seem to see more of. And I was sorta hoping people could police themselves, and cut it out.

If you see that multi-crossposting the same content is daily habit of certain user(s), please report it. I have not noticed it to be a trend here yet.

I just gave the report button a workout. Check out the Self Portrait thread in the "People" forum. There's 1 image there that has been quoted at least 5 times. Driving me nuts.

speedy_2 wrote in post #10416774
I just gave the report button a workout. Check out the Self Portrait thread in the "People" forum. There's 1 image there that has been quoted at least 5 times. Driving me nuts.

Quoted photos is a different matter entirely. We cannot hold that against the original poster.

Man, I was a grumpy SOB in February.

God bless the new meds.... I find I don't care anymore!

mattograph wrote in post #10422085
Man, I was a grumpy SOB in February.

God bless the new meds.... I find I don't care anymore!

Welcome back!

mattograph wrote in post #10422085
God bless the new meds.... I find I don't care anymore!

The miracle of modern medicine.



P.S. To make sure this is not an empty post, I agree that the same photo can serve very different "educational" purpose in different forums -- if the accompanying writeup is tailored to the purpose of each forum.

mattograph wrote in post #10422085
Man, I was a grumpy SOB in February.

God bless the new meds.... I find I don't care anymore!

I too am glad you saw the light.

As one of the learned mods above said, Don't sweat the small stuff.

I'll add: And it's all small stuff.

me