| General Guidelines for the Professional Photo Talk photography group
Message boards:
The message boards are there so that we can ask questions and get answers from each other, to learn and grow and develop our skills as photographers, the level of knowledge that each member of the group is at will vary greatly, but even those new to photography can grow by sharing what they know, and getting responses from the rest of the group. Get involved!
Far too often a new or inexperienced person will just lurk and never post, believe me, you are the one missing out. And who learns the most the student or the teacher? If you don't know this, it's the teacher. So try to share your knowledge, in doing so you will be extending yourself and making the effort to grow.
Listen and judge for yourself.
No one person is the total authority on the subject of photography here, not even myself. so be open to the opinions of others and read the entire post to be sure what is being said. Far too often a reader will speed read or see something that makes a thought pop into their head and they often fail to read the rest of the post to see what the true message might be. This is especially true when something has hit you wrong and you take offense by someone's post, the entire rest of the post just gets lost because your mind is focused on the word or phrase that offended you. Read on seek true understanding, learn to disagree without being disagreeable. No personal attacks are generally intended by another poster. most of us really don't know each other so how can we really make it personal.
Creative spellers welcome.
There are ways to spell check, but it is not as easy as with some other communities or message boards, do your best in spelling, so that others can understand your post, but don't get so hung up with spelling that you don't make a post. And I don't think the good spellers need to be acting as the word police with every post that another makes.
Proof read before sending a message.
One of the biggest problems is that many people send the message prior to proof reading any of their post. Proof reading the post can help you catch a big mistake in something you might be trying to convey to the rest of the group. And will also help you spot something that you might want to rephrase so to not make a personal attack on another member of the group.
Posting of Photos and Photo Albums:
A few Changes to Albums.. MSN gives us a certain amount of space to display our images. We have a large number of members and to enable everyone the opportunity to share their works, we have to limit the albums just a bit. - If you could keep only one album per member that would be of great assistance.
- Delete empty albums. They can always be added when new images are ready for loading. If you clean out your album completely please delete it from the area.
You have 3MB of storage that can be used anywhere on any MSN group. If you chose to use more than that you can purchase more memory at you own desire. Try to keep the file size of your images to 55KB or smaller for your own sake of not using your allotment of 3MB in only a few photos, as well as helping others with dial up who have troubles loading large images.
The posting of x rated xx or xxx rated material is strictly prohibited, this group is open to people of all ages.
Only small GIF or animation files in general, In general you don't want people to be waiting all day for things to load.
Advertising:
Direct ads are prohibited by MSN, they have the right to place ads on our message board, but we do not. We have a page set up for us to share with other members of the group our skills and if other members of the group feel that another members skills are useful to their operation, they should contact that person personally and not through the board. Only one listing per member on this board, and no actual prices for a certain size of photo, only the general price range or hourly rate you charge for your services, quotes on service and questions about someone service, should be done directly via E-mail or phone call if they have posted a phone number. If you want to add to your listing than you would want to rewrite the entire message and post the new message you wish to have showing and request for me to delete the old one. If I see two, I will automatically delete the oldest of the two, thinking that you intended to replace the old with the new.
Code of conduct:
We should seek to be civil with each other, avoid making personal attacks, critique another's work on the board if someone ask for a critique. Remember a critique can be your best friend, if you take the information and try to improve your skills, other people will see the same photo differently, in asking for a critique you are seeking that information, far too often people get offended when others make the critique comments.
No use of profanity is allowed here! We just don't need that at all and I reserve the right to remove a post that I feel is profane, without seeking anyone's opinion. This can also bring about being banned as a member of the group.
No posts that encourage illegal conduct, I consider the theft of software by doing unauthorized downloads of each others software, or encouraging any such illegal act is not allowed. No such activity should be encouraged here on the message board. Making copies of another members photos without their permission is a violation of copyright, and should not be taking place, if you want a copy ask the owner for it and get permission
If I have missed anything that any of you feel might be a good part of this page please send me a private E-mail with your suggestion and it will be considered. Thanks to everyone, make this a place you enjoy and learn from. Craig / Photo Talk Manager |
