Quote from: JPSDK on May 29, 2013, 15:33

But I ask you to convince me:
What are the advantages for the forum (not for the individual) to have anonymous participants.

You wouldn't get to hear me anymore if anonymous participants weren't allowed.     If that doesn't convince you I don't know what will.

Priceless. 

@ click click, please edit your comment with Apple image, I never said that, please quote the correct person. See, one more reason to be anonymous, that quote is now addressed to me when I never said that. Could cause problems down the line if it had been my real name.

Quote from: falstafff on May 29, 2013, 09:01

Somebody I knew in London went bankrupt, massive studio debts this and that. Bailiffs came. He had nothing to declare, no income, nothing.
What he had was an extensive portfolio in a well known stock-agency, at least earning him enough to tick over, wife and a kid.

The IRS investigating ofcourse finally found him and his portfolio through the Internet. Several net friends in forums had started to call him by his name, so the pseudo did not help.

Just sharing. It might mean nothing though. Although if they can find, so can the Tax man.

I know the point about identity that you are getting across....   But seriously, is it not the law in London to claim all income?  It is here.  Are you saying it's a crime that he got caught committing tax fraud?  That people with jobs should pay taxes but not people who sell photos?

The point about identity obviously did not get across to you at all or you would have replied differently. Anyway you scored 3 hearts so I dont want to take anything away from you. Youre right people that sell photos should NEVER pay any taxes in fact they should get PAID for not having to pay tax.

Quote from: tickstock on May 29, 2013, 13:09

Quote from: lisafx on May 29, 2013, 13:01

My first reaction is "no".  My second reaction is "Oh He11 no!". 

I use my name by choice, and out of laziness.  I've tried being anonymous a few times, although I have never been anonymous from Tyler.  Mostly though, I am just me, because it's such a PITA to have to shift back and forth between accounts. 

Also, because I have a certain sales level, I didn't (until Sean-mageddon) worry that I would be penalized by the sites because of my opinions.  In fact, I figured my opinions would carry more weight with any agencies who might be reading.  I assumed my sales level insulated me a bit.  Well of course now we all know that no amount of sales completely insulates anyone.

I hope it's obvious from this thread that we will lose quite a few valuable contributors if anonymity is forbidden.  It is also very obvious that it will sanitize the conversation to the point of rendering the site both boring and useless.  Yes, it might get rid of the occasional troll, but it seems to me to be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

Surely most of us have the intellect to spot a troll and ignore him or her without draconian measures punishing every other anonymous poster.  By the same token, most of us should be able to identify a valuable or intelligent post by its content, without having to check a portfolio to see if the person is "worthy" of being listened to.  We aren't children and should not need our precious and delicate sensibilities protected to such a degree.

JMO.

Don't forget about Bobby Deal (that's his name right?), he was kicked out of Fotolia I think for what he said on this site. If I wanted to contribute to Fotolia there is no way I would say a bad thing on here with a link to my real name, username, or portfolio.

Yes I remember and Laurin Rinder also had his account terminated at Istock for something he posted at MSG about the review process at IStock.  They deleted his entire port in direct response to his post here.

Laurin Rinder didn't get kicked off for something he said it was for something he did.  (although talking about it on the forum is what got him caught)

Quote from: gbalex on May 29, 2013, 16:06

Quote from: tickstock on May 29, 2013, 13:09

Quote from: lisafx on May 29, 2013, 13:01

My first reaction is "no".  My second reaction is "Oh He11 no!". 

I use my name by choice, and out of laziness.  I've tried being anonymous a few times, although I have never been anonymous from Tyler.  Mostly though, I am just me, because it's such a PITA to have to shift back and forth between accounts. 

Also, because I have a certain sales level, I didn't (until Sean-mageddon) worry that I would be penalized by the sites because of my opinions.  In fact, I figured my opinions would carry more weight with any agencies who might be reading.  I assumed my sales level insulated me a bit.  Well of course now we all know that no amount of sales completely insulates anyone.

I hope it's obvious from this thread that we will lose quite a few valuable contributors if anonymity is forbidden.  It is also very obvious that it will sanitize the conversation to the point of rendering the site both boring and useless.  Yes, it might get rid of the occasional troll, but it seems to me to be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

Surely most of us have the intellect to spot a troll and ignore him or her without draconian measures punishing every other anonymous poster.  By the same token, most of us should be able to identify a valuable or intelligent post by its content, without having to check a portfolio to see if the person is "worthy" of being listened to.  We aren't children and should not need our precious and delicate sensibilities protected to such a degree.

JMO.

Don't forget about Bobby Deal (that's his name right?), he was kicked out of Fotolia I think for what he said on this site. If I wanted to contribute to Fotolia there is no way I would say a bad thing on here with a link to my real name, username, or portfolio.

Yes I remember and Laurin Rinder also had his account terminated at Istock for something he posted at MSG about the review process at IStock.  They deleted his entire port in direct response to his post here.

Laurin Rinder didn't get kicked off for something he said it was for something he did.  (although talking about it on the forum is what got him caught)

Yes I agree, I can not remember the exact turn of events. But it does show that the sites watch and are fully capable of being vindictive if they do not like what you are posting.

Quote from: tickstock on May 29, 2013, 16:08

Quote from: gbalex on May 29, 2013, 16:06

Quote from: tickstock on May 29, 2013, 13:09

Quote from: lisafx on May 29, 2013, 13:01

My first reaction is "no".  My second reaction is "Oh He11 no!". 

I use my name by choice, and out of laziness.  I've tried being anonymous a few times, although I have never been anonymous from Tyler.  Mostly though, I am just me, because it's such a PITA to have to shift back and forth between accounts. 

Also, because I have a certain sales level, I didn't (until Sean-mageddon) worry that I would be penalized by the sites because of my opinions.  In fact, I figured my opinions would carry more weight with any agencies who might be reading.  I assumed my sales level insulated me a bit.  Well of course now we all know that no amount of sales completely insulates anyone.

I hope it's obvious from this thread that we will lose quite a few valuable contributors if anonymity is forbidden.  It is also very obvious that it will sanitize the conversation to the point of rendering the site both boring and useless.  Yes, it might get rid of the occasional troll, but it seems to me to be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

Surely most of us have the intellect to spot a troll and ignore him or her without draconian measures punishing every other anonymous poster.  By the same token, most of us should be able to identify a valuable or intelligent post by its content, without having to check a portfolio to see if the person is "worthy" of being listened to.  We aren't children and should not need our precious and delicate sensibilities protected to such a degree.

JMO.

Don't forget about Bobby Deal (that's his name right?), he was kicked out of Fotolia I think for what he said on this site. If I wanted to contribute to Fotolia there is no way I would say a bad thing on here with a link to my real name, username, or portfolio.

Yes I remember and Laurin Rinder also had his account terminated at Istock for something he posted at MSG about the review process at IStock.  They deleted his entire port in direct response to his post here.

Laurin Rinder didn't get kicked off for something he said it was for something he did.  (although talking about it on the forum is what got him caught)

Yes I agree, I can not remember the exact turn of events. But it does show that the sites watch and are fully capable of being vindictive if they do not like what you are posting.

I believe the story was that he had someone else submit his photos to prove the reviews at IS where skewed and that his images were unfairly rejected. He posted the results on the forum here and got copped out by IS. Later he asked Tyler to close his account but that was for different reasons if I recall correctly. I know he is still reading the forum.

I was also given a taste of what a 'real identities' forum is like, and I like it and wondered that that would be here.

It may not be the same here, people have different interests that aren't compatible.  Bruce and Stocksy want to bash all the microstock sites and photographers to gain some part of the market, I don't think that will be reconciled by getting rid of anonymity.

But I ask you to convince me:
What are the advantages for the forum (not for the individual) to have anonymous participants.

I would say that a reading of this forum thread should make the advantages of allowing anonymity obvious already.  We have, so far, examples of Sean Locke, JoAnn Snover, Bobby Deal, and Laurin Rinder all having been directly penalized by various agencies as a result of things they've said or admitted to in these forums. 

We also have a growing list of valuable "anonymous" contributors who will cease to participate at all if they are forced to go public.

Even though I won't be directly affected, as I am already public, I expect we will all be affected by the chill this is going to put over the open exchange of ideas and information.  If I wanted sanitized pablum I would still be frequenting the agency forums. 

Well, the poll says 50/50, so not really helping Leaf making a decision. Best thing to do is test the waters and see what happens. Just do it and see how many gray names will pop up and how many new names will pop up. There is your answer

Nope. No one has been banned from iStock based on anything they have said here. I can attest to this fact as I have been responsable for the majority of the bans since well before I was a member here. I first opened my account here in 2008 and since then I have been actively lurking, with an occasional post here and there.

Account bans and Forum bans are entirely different things, however, the contributors in these boards are entirely free to say whatever they like. And as you might have noticed there are plenty of choice comments directed at iS, Getty, and myself which haven't translated into any repercussions with peoples accounts.

Leaf, good luck. It's not easy keeping a community rolling without upsetting a few people along the way. Whatever you I hope it continues to push the discussions towards civility and conversation rather than trolling and flamethrowers.

I don't think first name last initial and a portfolio link is at all unreasonable. 

Personally I don't see a huge problem with trolls here, I do sometimes see a problem with lack of respect. Some seem to think a "troll" is someone who disagrees with the majority opinion...loudly.  Just because they annoy you and you disagree does not mean they are "trolling."   I think many get confused by someone that has an unpopular opinion versus some bored 13 year old that comes on a board just to rile people up for fun.  There is an ignore button if you don't feel like wasting your own time refusing to agree to disagree.

The second thing is it makes me really sad to see so many people thinking that the solution to the behavior of companies like Fotolia is to hide and censor themselves rather than deciding to work with better partners or pushing for a change in policy.  There seems to be a ton of complaining about bad policies but when people refuse to fight back what change can be expected?

I also see a people that feel comfortable behind anonymous user names sometimes making personal attacks that they wouldn't consider if they were being held responsible by being identified.  I've often taken breaks from reading MSG after being turned off by overly passionate mob mentality that can up with certain subjects.  Maybe the conversations would be kept more civil if there was more accountability.

Some of the more civilized forums and communities I frequent are the ones where people use names or at least links to their work and have open discussions that tend to remain more civil.  Then I look at things like Youtube comments and see anonymity at work.   I lean toward humanizing things as much as possible.  I like the idea of a name and initial, maybe just that is enough to remind us that there is a person behind that opinion and you can express yours without insults.

I don't think first name last initial and a portfolio link is at all unreasonable. 

Personally I don't see a huge problem with trolls here, I do sometimes see a problem with lack of respect. Some seem to think a "troll" is someone who disagrees with the majority opinion...loudly.  Just because they annoy you and you disagree does not mean they are "trolling."   I think many get confused by someone that has an unpopular opinion versus some bored 13 year old that comes on a board just to rile people up for fun.  There is an ignore button if you don't feel like wasting your own time refusing to agree to disagree.

The second thing is it makes me really sad to see so many people thinking that the solution to the behavior of companies like Fotolia is to hide and censor themselves rather than deciding to work with better partners or pushing for a change in policy.  There seems to be a ton of complaining about bad policies but when people refuse to fight back what change can be expected?

I also see a people that feel comfortable behind anonymous user names sometimes making personal attacks that they wouldn't consider if they were being held responsible by being identified.  I've often taken breaks from reading MSG after being turned off by overly passionate mob mentality that can up with certain subjects.  Maybe the conversations would be kept more civil if there was more accountability.

Some of the more civilized forums and communities I frequent are the ones where people use names or at least links to their work and have open discussions that tend to remain more civil.  Then I look at things like Youtube comments and see anonymity at work.   I lean toward humanizing things as much as possible.  I like the idea of a name and initial, maybe just that is enough to remind us that there is a person behind that opinion and you can express yours without insults.

Very nicely summarized.
I am surprised at how close the voting is.  Interesting to say the least....
Lots of great comments btw. 

Quote from: Poncke v2 on May 29, 2013, 16:49

Quote from: pieman on May 29, 2013, 16:45

Nope. No one has been banned from iStock based on anything they have said here. I can attest to this fact as I have been responsable for the majority of the bans since well before I was a member here. I first opened my account here in 2008 and since then I have been actively lurking, with an occasional post here and there.

Account bans and Forum bans are entirely different things, however, the contributors in these boards are entirely free to say whatever they like. And as you might have noticed there are plenty of choice comments directed at iS, Getty, and myself which haven't translated into any repercussions with peoples accounts.

Leaf, good luck. It's not easy keeping a community rolling without upsetting a few people along the way. Whatever you I hope it continues to push the discussions towards civility and conversation rather than trolling and flamethrowers.

You are missing the point completely.

I am? Oh gosh, maybe you can provide me with the point you think I'm missing. Do go on.

If you are such a forum guru you would have noticed I deleted my comment.