Malingering’s World

People are responding to the LAist article on Digg.com. And they’re all pissy.

When “flicker” is making people click thumbnails to see your stupid pictures… find yourself a new host if you don’t like it, STFU and GBTW you whiney, spoiled, attention whore.
-frostcrow

I checked out those pictures and they’re a bit … creepy. They really don’t have any socially-redeeming value and exist solely in mean-spirited manner. If this woman insists on discourteously making fun of people and posting their pictures on the internet without their permission, then at the very least she should anonymize the photos by photoshopping small black rectangles over their eyes.
This woman is a photojournalist hack.
-bovox

What a collossal bunch of whiners we have become. Censorship? THIS is what happened to Malingering, in her own words:
“This means that without a Flickr account you cannot see the photos, and even if you have a Flickr account, the thumbnail is all snowy until you decide that you will break the “safe” barrier and click into “unsafe” territory to see what is behind the black pixels.”
So you can still see the photos, just that you need to be a registered user, and explicitly click thru the thumblnail… but THAT is censorship?
My problem here is that we toss around the word censorship with such wanton abandon, it starts to lose its real meaning. Consider Malingering’s “struggle” against pre-civil war America when people were actually killed for printing anti-slavery literature, or the Nazi book burnings. And this still goes on in other parts of the world… yet we spend our energy on this?… where the pictures remained totally 100% accessible!
-eating pie

censor this: this guy is fucking lame, he walks around taking pictures of girls’ t&a
please don’t let this beautiful artistic expression be censored pffft
-c1nn46

If this is one of Flickr’s “best” photographers, I’m afraid to see who their worst are.
-coachzed

Flickr is doing the right thing. Imagine any one of us ending on that ladies flickr page who takes pics of badly dressed people. Who is she to judge us anyway! Ban her atleast flickr!
-newstart

And on the other hand, sites like Flickr have a reputation to hold on to. Whether photographs of people in poor clothing is insulting or not is a matter of taste, of course. But one should ask: what kind of paper / art exhibit would display such photos. It’s weighting on the value of displaying them versus the harm they are causing the people in the pictures.

Thank you pie and mwosh, for having some sense.
If you don’t like this, then USE SOMETHING ELSE. It’s a damn website, if they do something that really bothers you to that extent, put your photos somewhere else. You are NOT tied to it.
-tizz66

Best photographers? Some woman with an expensive camera who takes pictures of her cats and badly dressed people and comes up with ever so mature titles is now one of the best?
-gonadhunter

Call the Wambulance.
-monergism

First off, this photographer is a jerk to begin with….so the hell with him/her.
-sion2119

the pictures on that page are total shit, besides the cat picture and that is alright
-pic0

I think that image of the pier was censored because its incredibly overexposed.
-ddn3d
Note to Dugg-folk:

I didn’t call myself a photographer. Ever. So enough already.

Censorship was the most appropriate word I could find. Please recommend a better one.

I do have my own host. But I like Flickr as a community. That’s why I’m there. Not out of necessity. In fact I stated quite clearly that people should look at the other photo sites out there. Do you think I don’t heed my own advice?

I never claimed to be a photojournalist.

I also never claimed to be a guy.

I think the important thing was that my photos were restricted NOT BECAUSE OF THE CONTENT, but because people were flagging them because they don’t like ME. If it were the content, and I were offered an explanation then fine, but this was a reaction to people’s petty attempts at revenge, and that’s what concerns me.

I do have my own site and my own domain name, but I like the idea of the Flickr community and I’ve learned a great deal about photography as well as perspective from being a part of it. I have no problem sticking to my own blog, but I would miss the community aspect of things and that’s why I’m not taking my photos and running away.

After I brought this up, several people found their photos were restricted, photos of trees and children and flowers. There’s clearly something wrong with the system and it needs to be evaluated.

If Flickr decided that the street photo type images I post are inappropriate, then I would live with that. But they did this because of people who were trying to get to me. And that’s the difference.

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