Recently I joined a group called 24 Hours of Flickr. The purpose of this group was to take photos all day on 05/05/07, then submit your best shot to the group for possible publication in a book with Flickr donating a very small portion of the proceeds to charity. What a cool idea! What a fun project!
What a big joke!
Now the group thing centered around a single day is nothing new to Flickr. In fact, just before they started their clever 05/05/07 campaign, a friend of mine started 07/07/07 with the intent of publishing the best photos submitted in a book in which all profits would be donated to UNICEF. Coincedence? Probably, but hey, Flickr's a big place and there's always room in the world for a little charity. However, this is not the big issue here. The issue is censorship.
A member of the group, licht_faenger, posted a topic about censorship and why he was leaving the group. He had some nudes on his page that were marked as moderate content and they were unceremoniously deleted. He had a problem with the fact that there were much more explicit photos on Flickr marked as safe content which were still up for all to see. (I've since visited his site and the remaining nudes were well done and not offensive at all.) People started discussing the fact that since Flickr is now owned by Yahoo, who caters to foreign powers and censors their content. Yahoo's position is that they're at least bringing a little bit of the internet to the poor oppressed people of those nations, (Germany, South America, China and others.) Popular opinion is that Yahoo is simply doing whatever they can to make a quick buck from those nations while not providing full access to the web. (BTW, licht_faenger is German and seems to speak Google-Translated English. His ire was further spurred by the fact that the first book release party for 05/05/07 was held in Germany.)
Well it started to snowball as more members joined the discussions. Two more similar topics appeared and were going strong until last night when Heather, a Flickr staffer, (and as far as I can tell, the only Flickr staffer,) deleted the topics with no explanation. (Can you see the irony?) Someone else started a topic asking what happened to the original censorship topics and it was quickly locked, directing the poster to search elsewhere for censorship discussions. I myself posted a topic explaining that yes, the threads had been deleted by Heather. This too was deleted less than five minutes after I posted it!
Forgive me if I'm out of line here, but if group members want to discuss censorship, why not let them? About the same time the deletions occurred, the folowing appeared on the group page: Please note that issues off topic from the 24 hours of Flickr may be removed from the group discussions as there are more appropriate and official topics where you can share your feedback with the team. Really? here's a small sampling of topics which Flickr deems "group related:" Do You Believe In God, Have You Ever Been To Kerala, Help On Buying A Camera, Mac or PC, Join "Group X", plus an incredible amount of people posting photos which have nothing whatsoever to do with the group. You know, cats and strawberries, your favorite shot, etcetera. There are even two new groups started by group members: Photos In The Book and Photos Not In The Book. Hello? Just look at the original group photos!
At the risk of infuriating Flickr further, I posted a goodbye message: You Win. In light of recent events, I also shall be leaving the group. I'm sure you'll survive without me. I enjoyed many of the photos seen here and had a pretty good time up until yesterday. Good luck. Amazingly it still stands, (40 minutes and counting) but I'm sure it will disappear soon enough. No big deal, I'll continue to post photos to my site until they grow weary of me but I'll definitely think twice before joining another "Official" Flickr group.
I really wish I had saved those initial threads. Some good stuff in there. One member thought it was ridiculous to compare Flickr to Nazi Germany. Indeed it was. Flickr is much more like Vichy, France, except that flickr is not currently threatened with immediate death if it does not follow orders. The real Nazis are the countries which demand censorship by Yahoo. Sadly, Yahoo complies in order to keep that cash flowing in. Being stuck in the middle, I guess that makes Yahoo the Gestapo or the SS. I dunno, the whole thing just sickens me.
Well, the positive side is that I remembered licht_faengers name and was able to track down a few more of the individuals involved in the original discussion. As soon as this is posted, they will be invited to continue on and so are you. At least until Yahoo buys Google.
For more on the German censorship issue, check out this Wired article.
Showing posts with label Censorship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Censorship. Show all posts
Friday, June 15, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Imus & the Nappy-Heads
One of the founding principles of The United States of America is the right to Free Speech. That said, there certainly seems to be a lot of people out there using their Free Speech to call for the censorship of others. I wasn't even going to write about this because it was simply too easy. Don Imus is a "shock-jock" and it's his job to rile up the masses. He'll get yelled at, pay a fine and crawl back into his crypt until his ratings sag enough for another "accidental comment" to force open his coffin again. But the Rutgers women: that's another story...
Did Imus cross a line when he referred to the Rutgers Women's Basketball Squad as "nappy-headed hos?" Apparently he crossed someones line. Personally, I was unaware the ashen-skinned hairball was still on the air, but when I heard the comment on the news I wasn't offended, perhaps because I'm a white male. On the other hand, I didn't think it was funny either, perhaps because I'm an intelligent white male.
Now, I can certainly see how his comment can be taken as offensive, but to watch the RWBS press conference you'd think Big Don personally pissed in each of the womens mouths and set their dogs on fire. As the press conference dragged on, the players took the podium and described in detail how hurt and violated they felt, all as blandly as if they were reciting a thesis on an unfamiliar subject. There was no fire in their eyes, no emotion in their voices save that of a forced sadness, and it made me wonder if the women were all asked to do this for publicity or solidarity.
Get a grip ladies! It was an off-color, stream of (un)conciousness comment spoken with no malice aforethought. So he called you a name, big deal. Has this never happened to you before? Throughout my school days, I was the target of more than one name-calling incident almost every single day. Guess how many dumb Polock jokes I"ve heard. All of them! And yes, sometimes my feelings were hurt but only when I was the victim of someone who I looked up to or respected. Does Don Imus really have that much power over you? I'm reminded of a popular sports term all coaches use when a team is depressed beacause of a bad play or big loss... walk it off!
Is this the result of the way schools now teach our children? You know, the removal of competitive sports and grades so no child feels bad when they come in last? Have we actually turned our nations schools into cream-puff factories? Stop right there, I already know the answer. It explains why many students enter college as children and graduate as really whiny children.
Then there are the leeches, quick to attach themselves to a cause and bolster their image as caring individuals. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and others have come out of the woodwork screaming for an apology and for Imus' head on a platter. Imus appeared on Sharptons radio show and apologized rather sincerely but Sharpton, after calling for the apology, refused to accept it as enough. He still wants Imus fired. It cuts both ways Al. What if a bunch of people called for your termination for your rejection of Imus' apology? If I remember correctly, you have never apologized for your divisive leading role in the Tawana Brawley fiasco, yet there you are holding court in your own comfy studio. Can you say hypocrite?
Now I understand that I'm guilty of the same crimes here at the Nation of Morons, but keep in mind that these are my opinions. Mostly I try to shine the light on the morons of the world to show that, like the emperor in that famous story, they have no clothes. If you've read any of my other rants, you'll notice that even though I rake the rubes over the coals, I usually never ask for resignations. True, I tell people to STFU, but that's usually reserved for when they blather on about things that have no bearing on the true issues at hand such as Kathy Blanco creating faux sports holidays when she should be governing the state.
Not only that, but at the end of each article there's a comment box. Feel free to use it, that's why I put it there. Agree or disagree, I give you the option of adding your voice to the mix. That's how dialogues begin and how solutions are found. If you cry out for the censorship of one, you cry out for the censorship of all, and sooner or later you won't be allowed to cry out at all.
Did Imus cross a line when he referred to the Rutgers Women's Basketball Squad as "nappy-headed hos?" Apparently he crossed someones line. Personally, I was unaware the ashen-skinned hairball was still on the air, but when I heard the comment on the news I wasn't offended, perhaps because I'm a white male. On the other hand, I didn't think it was funny either, perhaps because I'm an intelligent white male.
Now, I can certainly see how his comment can be taken as offensive, but to watch the RWBS press conference you'd think Big Don personally pissed in each of the womens mouths and set their dogs on fire. As the press conference dragged on, the players took the podium and described in detail how hurt and violated they felt, all as blandly as if they were reciting a thesis on an unfamiliar subject. There was no fire in their eyes, no emotion in their voices save that of a forced sadness, and it made me wonder if the women were all asked to do this for publicity or solidarity.
Get a grip ladies! It was an off-color, stream of (un)conciousness comment spoken with no malice aforethought. So he called you a name, big deal. Has this never happened to you before? Throughout my school days, I was the target of more than one name-calling incident almost every single day. Guess how many dumb Polock jokes I"ve heard. All of them! And yes, sometimes my feelings were hurt but only when I was the victim of someone who I looked up to or respected. Does Don Imus really have that much power over you? I'm reminded of a popular sports term all coaches use when a team is depressed beacause of a bad play or big loss... walk it off!
Is this the result of the way schools now teach our children? You know, the removal of competitive sports and grades so no child feels bad when they come in last? Have we actually turned our nations schools into cream-puff factories? Stop right there, I already know the answer. It explains why many students enter college as children and graduate as really whiny children.
Then there are the leeches, quick to attach themselves to a cause and bolster their image as caring individuals. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and others have come out of the woodwork screaming for an apology and for Imus' head on a platter. Imus appeared on Sharptons radio show and apologized rather sincerely but Sharpton, after calling for the apology, refused to accept it as enough. He still wants Imus fired. It cuts both ways Al. What if a bunch of people called for your termination for your rejection of Imus' apology? If I remember correctly, you have never apologized for your divisive leading role in the Tawana Brawley fiasco, yet there you are holding court in your own comfy studio. Can you say hypocrite?
Now I understand that I'm guilty of the same crimes here at the Nation of Morons, but keep in mind that these are my opinions. Mostly I try to shine the light on the morons of the world to show that, like the emperor in that famous story, they have no clothes. If you've read any of my other rants, you'll notice that even though I rake the rubes over the coals, I usually never ask for resignations. True, I tell people to STFU, but that's usually reserved for when they blather on about things that have no bearing on the true issues at hand such as Kathy Blanco creating faux sports holidays when she should be governing the state.
Not only that, but at the end of each article there's a comment box. Feel free to use it, that's why I put it there. Agree or disagree, I give you the option of adding your voice to the mix. That's how dialogues begin and how solutions are found. If you cry out for the censorship of one, you cry out for the censorship of all, and sooner or later you won't be allowed to cry out at all.
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