Stricter Guildelines Enforcement Now In Effect

[BrianShaw]

Perhaps that was in his pre-ZS days... when he was a "regular" photographer.

[Sal Santamaura]

...it would balance things out to put a "wild eyed maverick" on the force. Someone with a few years ahead to invest and a vision for the future of LF. This kind of addition to the team could sway the content of conversations...

Again, moderators' official duties here have no effect on the content of conversations. They simply enforce the rules which, except for banning discussion of politics and religion as well as mandating that everything outside the lounge be large format related, have nothing to do with content.

Moderators' personal participation in threads is no different from posts by any other members. It has nothing to do with their moderation duties. Surely they deserve as much right to post opinions as the rest of us. Anything less would be punishing them for volunteering!

[benrains]

But I see a valid point in what he says; that it would balance things out to put a "wild eyed maverick" on the force. Someone with a few years ahead to invest and a vision for the future of LF. This kind of addition to the team could sway the content of conversations. The shift might be from (to make an inaccurate, trivial characterization for example only) preservation of traditional methods towards yet-unknown but interesting ways to incorporate LF in a future way of creating images.

Nothing is preventing anyone from doing this, or something like it, now though. The moderators don't dictate the aesthetics of the content of the site or control how people discuss the artform of large format photography (as long as they're doing it politely). If photographers are creating novel work, or using novel processes, and are doing it with large format cameras, I've never seen any indication they would be prevented from sharing that here by the moderators.

It's amusing and strange to me to find that some people here have this misguided view of the role of moderator being an enviable or powerful position. No offense intended to the moderators of LFPF, but being a moderator (and if any are also the system administrator) is about as glamorous as being a high-school hall monitor or a janitor. Basically, you keep the place running, you clean up the messes, and you keep the problem kids from screwing around--and sometimes you drag them off to detention when they're doing things they shouldn't be.

[E. von Hoegh]

Granted, Weston II... But how can this possibly be? There's no Zone System sticker on the meter.

The zone system stickers are a modification of the calculator dial used on Weston meters, have you ever looked at one of the old meters? I use a Weston III, one of the large reasons is the calculator dial.

[Darin Boville]

I have a hunch Darin was poking fun when he implied that adding another west-coast-esthetic moderator would throw the site into turmoil and bring on the decline of civilization.

But I see a valid point in what he says; that it would balance things out to put a "wild eyed maverick" on the force. Someone with a few years ahead to invest and a vision for the future of LF. This kind of addition to the team could sway the content of conversations. The shift might be from (to make an inaccurate, trivial characterization for example only) preservation of traditional methods towards yet-unknown but interesting ways to incorporate LF in a future way of creating images.

Bingo. Except that I would that some of those ways are "yet-unknown" but here right now.

I don't know how to respond to many people who suggest that mods and have no role in setting the tone, culture, and kinds of discussions that occur on a board. Whether overtly or not the rules, and the interpretation of those rules, shapes the culture. Maybe people missed the whole postmodernism thing?

--Darin

[Kirk Gittings]

It might be helpful if you gave some specific examples of how moderator action (that is action beyond just our own simple contributions to discussions like everyone else) has dictated, steered, influenced, manipulated (whatever word you want to use) discussions toward favoring the West Coast Large Format Landscape Photography aesthetic. Its not good enough to just throw out vague generalizations like this:

I don't know how to respond to many people who suggest that mods and have no role in setting the tone, culture, and kinds of discussions that occur on a board. Whether overtly or not the rules, and the interpretation of those rules, shapes the culture. Maybe people missed the whole postmodernism thing?

[RichardSperry]

Darin,

What is it that you want posted that is not being posted?

[Kirk Gittings]

I think (I think....) he is asking how you attract a more forward looking, contemporary, (probably younger), membership to this forum to broaden out the discussions and aesthetic ideologies. IMO This is not a moderator issue but an attitudinal issue (I say issue-not a problem) with the present membership. I know for myself, in my own little way, that I have received allot of push back when defending artists like Robert Adams, Cindy Sherman and Sugimoto. I actually expect that here. In other parts of my artistic life (like when I teach at SAIC) these artists are not even slightly controversial-they are even looked at as yesterday's news-but here sometimes you would think they are current and subversive.

Anyone who wants to challenge the pervasive aesthetic ideologies here (that are largely stuck in pre 1960's ideas about photographic aesthetics) is going to have to have a thick skin and actually have some interest in this site to stick it out through allot of contentious discussions. For many I suspect the return is not worth the effort. Really why would anyone bother arguing over this when all you need is a little technical info?

I frankly can't see what a moderator would do about this except give preferential treatment to forward thinking people? Not let people argue with them and drive them away? What? If we did anything like that we would not be doing our jobs.

You guys (you guys and us-the moderators as members) determine the nature and direction of discussions here by what threads you start and what comments you make. Even Darin own threads are like 99% about LF technical stuff.

[r.e.]

I think (I think....) he is asking how you attract a more forward looking, contemporary, (probably younger), membership to this forum to broaden out the discussions and aesthetic ideologies. IMO This is not a moderator issue but an attitudinal issue (I say issue-not a problem) with the present membership. I know for myself, in my own little way, that I have received allot of push back when defending artists like Robert Adams, Cindy Sherman and Sugimoto. I actually expect that here. In other parts of my artistic life (like when I teach at SAIC) these artists are not even slightly controversial-they are even looked at as yesterday's news-but here sometimes you would think they are current and subversive.

Anyone who wants to challenge the pervasive aesthetic ideologies here (that are largely stuck in pre 1960's ideas about photographic aesthetics) is going to have to have a thick skin and actually have some interest in this site to stick it out through allot of contentious discussions. For many I suspect the return is not worth the effort. Really why would anyone bother arguing over this when all you need is a little technical info?

I frankly can't see what a moderator would do about this except give preferential treatment to forward thinking people? Not let people argue with them and drive them away? What? If we did anything like that we would not be doing our jobs.

You guys (you guys and us-the moderators as members) determine the nature and direction of discussions here by what threads you start and what comments you make. Even Darin own threads are like 99% about LF technical stuff.

Most of the participants in this forum have a conservative view about photography and I don't believe that the moderators can do anything to change that. This has been a characteristic of the forum for most of its history, and I don't see it changing anytime soon. There was a time when there were spirited discussions about aesthetics, but the result was that many of the people who were interested in less conservative views left.

[eddie]

ha,

it seems that somehow the mods jobs got bigger in this thread alone....i have never seem so many posting by three of the mods as i have in just this thread.

i am surprised it has not been locked already....matter of fact i am surprised that right after the 1st post by ken the thread was not locked immediately. seemed to me nothing else was needed to be said.

the mods are too nice (most of the time)

but anyway, the mods work for free....so we can not fire them......but maybe we could sell them? too bad there are no auctions allowed on this site....i bet the only way we could get them sold would be at auction! bwha ha ha ha!

now lets see if this thread can get locked down already......109 posts too late!