Using judgement and value of commentating on media (pictures, videos, articles)

Bltizo said:

My take on it is that there are some pictures that people post (not just @xyqq exclusively) which are of dubious reasoning as well.

Each thread only has space for ten posts. People's time is limited in a day.


This is a question as I see it, about "do we want content to be posted here even if it is not newsworthy/interesting/visually appealing/particularly high quality" -- which in turn is a reflection of what do we wish this forum to be more like.

Frankly I do not get overly annoyed by things like "unnecessary captions" because I just glance over them, but at the same time I very much understand the desire to want to improve the forum and not make this a place where "anything goes" as far as content is concerned, particularly in the flagship military threads, where they are not "general military picture" threads.

In either case, I think if this can be discussed civilly to a conclusion that would be beneficial, so at least one side can come to a compromise with the other.

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Criteria such as interesting/newsworthy/visually appealing are more or less arbitrary. Members here have very different experience of PLA watching as well as different access to primary sources from Chinese internet and print media. Certain images/magazine scans might be newsworthy to some but entirely redundant and useless to others.

IMO, low image quality and repeats are the only ones we should keep off flagship military threads. Otherwise, it could make SDF less accessible to newer members.

With the recent crackdown by Chinese government on domestic military forums and defense-related posts on weibo, we are bound to get much less images. In this more restricting environment, can we really afford to become more picky about what we can get?

by78 said:

For native English speakers, this is easier said than done. The mind focuses on texts and takes in the information automatically, very much like the instinct to hold your breath underwater. But that's a minor point.

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I'm not sure this statement holds water. The majority of us here are either native English speakers or bilingual. Or at least with English provisions at least as good as anyone. And we somehow managed to ignore the text?

by78 said:

As such, higher standards for information sharing and dissemination prevail here. This is not a pretentiously elitist aspiration, because SDF has always been a higher quality place.

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Yes. Agree with high standards. Etc. But I can't see where having captions lower that standards? Especially if it was the images that draw our attention the first place.

by78 said:

It's apparent that many of them lack even a rudimentary grasp of the subjects they wish to discuss. As a result, very often what they share simply isn't good or deserves to be shared.

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omg! I think this is quite disparaging statement about our fellow members. And if I may say so. Quite arrogantly so.

This forum, is a business, and like any business requires new blood. It also require new blood to evolve. Any organisation that's not prepare to modernise will come to an immature end. Besides, I think webby and others are quite pleased that these new members are constantly returning thus improving hit rates and therefore revenue. And if you disagree with what they post. This brings it back to the beginning. And that's to ignore their contribution.

As a not an expert, I approciate when some text is added with the pictures when something significant is being shown

Now if some pictures are the usual training exercises then I dont care too much if text is not added, however when there are images about new developments, such as new engine, new production batch, new weaponry, systems, interviews etc, then I appreciate some text for explaining some things that inexperienced members may not know about or recognize.

For example, there were some instances where new developments where posted in a pure image form without any text and it was very difficult for me to understand their significance

To sum up, personally for extremely common images there is no need for text, for images showing new developments some text would be appreciated. Of course thats not a demand, as the people who are posting these pictures are doing lots of hard work for free and we are not in a position to demand them to change their ways.

@xyqq

You are tagged here for a reason, acknowledge the issue please so a settlement can be reached.

Gatekeeper said:

I'm not sure this statement holds water. The majority of us here are either native English speakers or bilingual. Or at least with English provisions at least as good as anyone. And we somehow managed to ignore the text?



Yes. Agree with high standards. Etc. But I can't see where having captions lower that standards? Especially if it was the images that draw our attention the first place.



omg! I think this is quite disparaging statement about our fellow members. And if I may say so. Quite arrogantly so.

This forum, is a business, and like any business requires new blood. It also require new blood to evolve. Any organisation that's not prepare to modernise will come to an immature end. Besides, I think webby and others are quite pleased that these new members are constantly returning thus improving hit rates and therefore revenue. And if you disagree with what they post. This brings it back to the beginning. And that's to ignore their contribution.

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I agree. I've been here nigh on 12 years now, and I've seen the times where it was the same dozen forumites posting all the time.

We've always had far more lurkers than posters, and I think it's a good thing that more people are posting now. Obviously this brings its own problems, as we can see in the Ladakh thread, but as Deng Xiaoping once said, when you open the window, it's inevitable that a few flies will come in.

Longtime lurker here. I remember there was a dedicated webpage here with photos of various Chinese military equipment. It was very outdated. I can't seem to find it here any more (or I might be thinking of another site).

In any case, perhaps there should be Media Moderators (and no I'm not volunteering) where only they can post in that related thread / page just to keep it clean. It would certainly cut down on the time for those only interested in looking for photos / videos. This thread would only contain unique high quality photos / videos, NO FAN / Concept art; throw in a caption to highlight something important. Regular flagship threads can have the analysis-type photos (i.e. MS Paint) and OFFICIAL concept illustrations.

Naturally you'd only post something new; not a gazillion photos from every conceivable angle. I remember on a Pakistani forum, there was one guy that posted in such a way for the Y-20. It really got tiresome.

Anyway, I've always enjoyed seeing by78's posts and maybe he and Deino can be those moderators. Just throwing out an idea.

Bltizo said:

@xyqq

You are tagged here for a reason, acknowledge the issue please so a settlement can be reached.

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I always post images with meaningful captions, Bltizo. On average, each post receives 5 or more "likes".
For example, I annotated one of the images in this post, and explained them clearly with my own words. The post alone received 17 likes. This is in contrast with someone just posting pictures with little explanation and leaving the viewers to wonder what they are all about.
So my track record speaks for itself.
Please let me know if there are any further questions.

xyqq said:

I always post images with meaningful captions, Bltizo.

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Meaningful to you, but not objectively so, much less so to the membership at large.

xyqq said:

On average, each post receives 5 or more "likes".

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Actually, on average, each of your post receives just 4.29 likes.

xyqq said:

For example, I annotated one of the images in this post, and explained them clearly with my own words. The post alone received 17 likes.
So my track record speaks for itself.

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That's one example, a single data point that's not representative. A single data point does not a track record make.

If you want to play that game, this post of yours received only three likes. This one has only two likes. This one has three. Again, three likes. Three again for this. One like for this. One like for an open door. Two found this impressive. Nobody has found this interesting so far. Two gave this likes. Again, only four likes.

So far, I have posted 383 messages in total, many of which are textual only (including this one).
Together, they received 1,590 Likes, 34 Loves, and 17 Wows.
So my posts with images clearly received over 5 Likes per post.
The explanations of the images are well received, as many trigger good discussions among members. For example, this post not only received 9 Likes by itself but also had more than 20 follow-up posts related to the note "#04 Su30MK2 carrying indigenous PL12 and imported R73 training missiles underwings."

I don't like the way this thread is going.

@xyqq should not need to justify his posts. If he's not violating forum rules, he should be able to post whatever he wants.

I don't see this as a good direction to take. The forum rules are there for a reason. Posters who do not violate forum rules should not be subjected to this kind of inquisition.