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"WHY ARE YOU CLOSING?" --or-- "DUDE, WHERE'S MY GROUP?"
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The End of a Fairly Short Era, As Eras Go.
Okay, so here's the deal... Global Village 2 is closing its doors. Or its windows. Its lights will remain on, but (eventually) there will be nobody home. There will be snow on the roof, but no fire in the fireplace. The horses will have left the barn, the bloom will have gone off the rose, and Elvis will have left the building.
What will happen, exactly?
Sorry, wasn't that clear? I suppose not... Okay, here's the specifics:
(1) The group is now closed to new members. Nobody can JOIN the group, though nobody will be asked to LEAVE. But leave they will. Oh yes, leave they will...
(2) The group pool is closed to new photos. Nobody can post a new photo to the main pool. (No photos will be removed. Although we are sometimes tempted.)
(3) The Launch Ticket Queue is closed. Any photos in the Queue WILL still be given their Launch Ticket, BUT...
(4) Lunar Village is also closed to new members, and the Lunar Village main pool is closed as well.
(5) The NEVER-ENDING threads will remain open for at least a while, as long as interest continues...
But WHY? How could you DO this to us Villagers?
Yeah, well, sorry about that. I'll try to explain: in this challenging economic climate, there just wasn't a business model that allowed us to sufficiently monetize our virtual presence in a way that adequately leveraged our pecuniary assets without depleting them.
Well okay, technically that was just rubbish. Here's the real (long) answer:
I formed this group almost three years ago (yikes!) Award groups were something sort of new then, there were only a handful. One of them was the original Global Village, which later became Global City. Global Village was run by a rather colourful character, to be charitable, and the bizarre way that he ran his group (he was the only admin) inspired a merry band of pranksters, some of us co-admins elsewhere, to speak out against the tyranny of GV.
We were just having a bit of fun, playing at being revolutionaries, freedom fighters for truth, justice, and apple pie. Personally, I'm all about the pie. At one point I quipped (I do a lot of quipping) that somebody should start a "Global Village 2" just to show evil dicatator admin guy how it SHOULD be done... and maybe rattle his cage a little in the bargain. When nobody took me up on it, I did it myself. And so GV2 was born.
Ok, take a bathroom break now if you need to. I'll wait.
Okay, you're back. Did you wash your hands? I didn't hear the water running...
Anyway...
So the newly-formed GV2, with its motley crew of original admins, most of whom have remained active here to this day, and to whom you should all be VERY grateful, for all the tickets and so forth... where was I going with this... oh yeah, so the newly formed group was gonna do it RIGHT, by gosh, 'cause we were just that sure of ourselves.
But I'm not sure I was really thinking ahead more than a few days... no big surprise there... I was mostly interested, at first, in the geurilla warfare, rabble rousing, and other shenanigans that went along with sticking it to "Idi Admin" over there in "GV-nil"... Check out some of this group's earliest threads for some insight into our origins in Revolutionary Communism...
Soon enough, that all settled down, and we found we had a group to run... actual people joining it and everything... For me, this was the phase where the TECHNIQUES of administration, and the DESIGN of everything, were the reason to do it... not just the graphic design (that Launch Ticket is a brilliant piece of work, graphically!) but also the design of the group itself, the rules, the structure, the notion of a "step-up" group (which became Lunar Village), the idea of a Ticket Queue, the tricky HTML of the copy-paste award codes, the language surrounding all of it, the branding, this all had to be designed, and it had to be executed... and THAT is what held my attention, and that of the team, for this phase.
At some point, it was all pretty much working, the design of the group was accomplished, the execution was ongoing. Efficiencies in process were achieved, even as fun was being had... That sounds so cold... what I mean is, while we were getting so good at running the group, we admins were now also becoming real friends... we'd fought a revolution together, and WON... we were giddy with our success, and virtual group hugs and high-fives were staples of our friendship... pictures of food and beverages also made frequent appearances... we hung out in the Admin Tent just to be with friends, to share our tragedies and comedies and daily trivia... maybe even talk about Group stuff... or not.
Meanwhile, the whole "award group" thing was really taking off, Flickr-wide. Lots more groups out there. Some better than others, many still around today. I won't compare us with any group in particular, but I remain extremely proud of the consistent level of quality this admin team have shown throughout our run, and I believe that GV2 holds its own against any other group you care to name, and in fact leaves many of them behind to choke on the dust of our awesomeness. I've said it before and I'll say it again. "We Rock".
The most interesting member of the admin team is also its most brilliantly "designed". He's a robot called "The Donald", and he was programmed by Drew Myers to identify the post-and-run villagers. His character was designed to personify the process of telling the offenders they were "fired". It was meant to soften the blow, to inject a little humour into an awkward situation. Didn't always work out that way.
I was, for a long period, the principal "puppeteer" of The Donald. I was the real person behind the process of trying to keep the group relatively free of those who would abuse it for their own gain (though what they gained is still puzzling to me). I was the person who got told by people, night after night, how unfair it was to expect them to always follow the rules. How I must be a heavy-handed control freak to be persecuting them like this.
Whoa. Full stop... Didn't we just fight a revolution AGAINST a heavy-handed control freak? Had I BECOME Idi Admin? Was this a case of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"? (My beard DID "grow longer overnight" after all).
Well, honestly, no, I didn't REALLY think I had become my own enemy.
But bit by bit, as the vultures picked away at me, it stopped being fun.
So eventually (I'm a bit slow to act in my own best interests, sometimes) I turned over the reins, or the controls, or whatever, of The Donald to the other admins.
Well guess what. It wasn't much fun for them either.
One final factor: none of us still even believe in the value of awards groups. I should speak for myself, but I think the team is mostly on the same page: awards groups have become a joke, an annoyance even. People hoarding page after page of comments on their photos, comments consisting of nothing more than some copy-and-paste bauble, some of which were incredibly unattractive. It's a madness, one which drives people to CHEAT to get even more of the shiny little tokens. And to have to wait while hundreds of these silly things slow down the page load, just for the pleasure of slapping a Launch Ticket on there so they can go off and collect still more trinkets, well... I think Dante has a little-known level of hell reserved for award whores (some of you) and their enablers (us).
So yeah, it just wasn't fun any more. So we're gonna stop doing it.
Jeez, I should've just gone with that answer...
Need to go get a beer? I'll wait.
Okay, let's land this thing.
The final catalyst was a few days ago when, for some reason, I decided to take up the puppet-reins or controls or whatever, one more time, to investigate just where we were at... My reaction, and you'll notice I'm using the whole words and not just the acronym, was "Oh. My. God."
Even if I wanted to, there's no way I could spend the time it would take to get things back to where they were at the height of The Donald's daily regimen. At that time, you'd get maybe 1 or 2 "offenders" per pool page, so at least 28 out of 30 people were doing the right thing. Last week, scanning for just the last 2-3 weeks, that number had climbed to about 10 to 15 "offenders" per pool page. As many as HALF the people who posted a photo in the last couple of weeks probably had no intention of EVER giving you a globe on YOUR photo.
So now I'm faced with an impossibly huge amount of work to try to improve some numbers in a game I no longer participate in or even approve of.
Yup. That's healthy...
I could just walk away, let someone else deal with it. But I'm pretty sure nobody else is going to want to BAN HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE, maybe thousands, no matter how well-intended or necessary it is. And if you don't do that, the group just continues to decline in any important way you care to measure. Except the number of villagers, which to my amazement has continued to grow the whole time.
So we're folding our tents, we're picking up our marbles, we're reelin' in the years, stowin' away the time. We're gonna make like a baby and head out. We're hittin' the road. We're hoppin' a train. We're leavin' on a jet plane. We're blowin' this popsicle stand. We're outa here.
I hope you had the time of your lives.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy0OHI6HD2M
Love,
Bob.
Oct. 14, 2009
4.00 am
PS. Fuck. I'm actually weepy, just a little....
PPS. Okay, better now.
Originally posted at 3:57PM, 13 October 2009 PDT
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rgdaniel edited this topic 32 months ago.
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(201 to 286 of 286 replies in "WHY ARE YOU CLOSING?" --or-- "DUDE, WHERE'S MY GROUP?")
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thanks for the tissue... I realy need it!
Posted 32 months ago.
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Miss_M wrote flickr takes a lot of time out of your day and work takes priority nowadays I know what you mean... although being retired, the word "work" has become a bit more broadly defined... B-)
Roser UF <overwhelmed> wrote thanks for the tissue. no problem... have two, they're small... B-)
Posted 32 months ago.
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I totally share the feeling that awards groups are a real nuisance, but Global Village 2 (and Lunar Village) was one of the last i could respect. Through this group, i've discovered lots of very interesting photostreams.
But i was often disgusted by the amount of people who obviously just left a picture and did not take the time to award any other pictures, or, lamely, only the few pictures of the first page, giving awards saying "this is a world-class image" to craps - because, yes, sorry, even if Global Village 2 pool level was far above most of the other awards groups, well, this was pretty often a long, sometimes very long, browse among the pool's page to find, at last, 5 pics more or less worth of this "world-class" label. And, oddly(?), these photographers posting some totally or almost "world-class images" were among those respecting the rules, since their awards (and comments, and faves) were spread among a considerable amount of pictures.
I felt that there were 2 worlds in Global Village 2 : the world of those who were respecting the rules and/or trying their best to respect the rules and posting images worth of some awards, and, on the other hand, a world of tasteless, greedy and lame people, only here for grabbing complacent "world-class" awards, often for pathetic poor pictures posted... This made more in the process of tarnishing the GV2 label of "world-class" quality, probably.
I can understand the decision of stopping the activities of this group and i respect it. I'll still check the discussions in the forum, but i hope you will understand if i remove my pictures from the pool
Originally posted 32 months ago.
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e-chan edited this topic 32 months ago.
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e-chan wrote this was pretty often a long, sometimes very long, browse among the pool's page to find, at last, 5 pics more or less worth of this "world-class" label. Yes, the irony was not lost on us either... we often discussed wanting to "veto" the decision in some cases... but cooler heads prevailed, as they say...
Posted 32 months ago.
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.... just came back to see.... if may be.... it reopened..... :-)) but :-((
Posted 32 months ago.
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"Hope springs eternal"... B-)
Originally posted 32 months ago.
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rgdaniel edited this topic 32 months ago.
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I will throw my oar in with the others who miss this but understand your reasons.
I mod a few groups and the daily tirade of people who dont feel the rules should apply to them is getting me down - fortunately for me they are not as popular as GV2, so I only get about 1 a day...
Why people join groups, which have obvious rules, and then decide the rules shouldn't apply to them is beyond me. Sadly it seems to be the norm now and pretty much every award group I am a member of suffers from it. I did think that members of GV2 were the ones who were most compliant with the rules, but that is from an outsider largely insulated against the work being carried out by admins.
Anyway, its a real shame this group has closed. I will miss it. But when it stops being fun, you dont have any other options so I support you 100%.
Onwards and upwards.
Posted 32 months ago.
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etrusia_uk (Away for a while) wrote Why people join groups, which have obvious rules, and then decide the rules shouldn't apply to them is beyond me. I've often complained that there is a rampant pandemic of ENTITLEMENT these days, like "the ME generation" on steroids... it's very discouraging... Thanks for your thoughts!
Posted 32 months ago.
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I came back again. It's a sickness. I just hoped that somehow magically the group was open again... I'm wondering if all the bad guys jumped ship already? Then, my next thought was the group would work again... Then, I realized that the bad guys would come back:(
Isn't there a way to make the bad guys stay away?
Like maybe they get hit with four wet rotted noodles each time they post and don't award? Or their name gets left in the pages of the group but the photos get replaced with a pic of a rat? Although that's not fair to rats, and I like rats...
After finding GV2 was shutting down, I went through my groups and deleted every group that had no awards on the second page of photos... I have about 30 groups left and most of them aren't award groups... I then joined a very small group that specializes in community and a photo a day - although I haven't posted yet. If GV2 is going and it's the best of the award groups, then it's time, for me, to move past award groups...
Many thanks and best wishes to you and all the GV2 admins...
At least you know that the group you envisioned was real for a lot of us as attested by all the comments in this thread... I'm sorry that so many people were messing up the group by being jerks... Maybe Frost was right: Nothing gold can stay...
Originally posted 32 months ago.
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Marshmallow Sheep edited this topic 32 months ago.
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I am going to miss this group so much. It was where I discovered the wonderful world of award groups, and has always been where I post first to find out if my photo is good or not. I always followed the rules.
I was an Award Whore myself for a few months, but I never posted the same photo in more than one or two groups at a time. It was so exciting having so many people look at my photos! I've grown out of that for the most part, but this was the group I came back to when I wanted to get some feedback on a photo.
These days, I'm pursuing my photography much more seriously in the real world, and it was the experience of being awarding in this group and a few other stellar ones (like People's Choice) that gave me the confidence to do it.
Thanks so much!
Originally posted 32 months ago.
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Ideaholic edited this topic 32 months ago.
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Yes I enjoyed this group and I think we're onto a new phase of flickr. Many of us, like me, joined in 2006 and we've been doing the same thing for all those years: groups, comments, the like. I'm tired of it all now, and I'm desperately seeking a new way to flickr that doesn't force me to comment on pictures that I don't care for, that doesn't force me to have someone who doesn't know me call me a "dear friend"....yes I have a lot of wishes for a brand new way of flickering.
Meanwhile, thank you for running an excellent group while it lasted.
Posted 32 months ago.
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Sad to see the group closing....We are going to miss this group so much.
Peace and love to everyone.
Posted 32 months ago.
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Duck Defender Bonnie wrote I enjoyed this group and I think we're onto a new phase of flickr. Many of us, like me, joined in 2006 and we've been doing the same thing for all those years: groups, comments, the like. I'm tired of it all now, and I'm desperately seeking a new way to flickr that doesn't force me to comment on pictures that I don't care for, that doesn't force me to have someone who doesn't know me call me a "dear friend"....yes I have a lot of wishes for a brand new way of flickering.
That's a very good way of saying what a lot of people seem to be feeling.
As someone who went looking for 'a brand new way to flickr' about a year ago I can only tell you it's definitely out there.
I chose to bring it all back to basics again and make flickr about photos and friends. And I mean Real Friends- the kind where you both take the time to find out about each other, you know where they live who they are, what they do in their spare time, and the fact that their kid broke his leg last Tuesday but is recovering just fine.
And if they disappeared from flickr you would notice.
And no more copy and pasting.
You are NOT a robot.
Posted 32 months ago.
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Very very sad to be the group closed!! It was the best group!
Posted 32 months ago.
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Thanks for all your comments and stories... there are OPEN groups that aren't this active... B-)
Posted 32 months ago.
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Marshmallow Sheep wrote At least you know that the group you envisioned was real for a lot of us as attested by all the comments in this thread.
I still can't believe the response.
Posted 32 months ago.
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Posted 32 months ago.
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Sorry this happened! You ran this group in the perfect way. But there will always be indivuduals who won't play by the rules. It doesn't matter what kind of rules, so what if the rule is to award others, we are all here for each other, so if you wanna get, you gotta give. Simple as that, I don't see that as a life changing rule, so why not follow it! It's all a game, but a real fun game!
Thank you for letting us play it!
PS: Hey, I guess it's a good thing I didn't know that The Donald exists, until reading all of this!
Posted 32 months ago.
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This group was one of the first groups I joined almost 2 years ago and I've enjoyed all of my trips to the moon but I understand. I can imagine that your job was challenging. Thanks for running the group so well. We'll miss it!
Posted 32 months ago.
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sorry to hear this, but totally understandable. i haven't posted in a while, b/c of many of the reasons you state, but i did like this group and the nifty little rocket...
Posted 32 months ago.
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Phil Marion wrote  so what are you saying... B-)
Martinca wrote You ran this group in the perfect way. oh boy, you're very kind, and thanks, but that sure doesn't feel true... best we could with the tools we had, maybe...
pavonne - catching up wrote Thanks for running the group so well. We'll miss it! Thanks a lot, so will we!
tulla_girl wrote i did like this group and the nifty little rocket... Thanks, and yeah the rocketship was awesome!!
Posted 32 months ago.
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I loved the group. Even if 100 folks were left I would have banned the offenders and got on with it. Rules after all, are rules.
All the best
Posted 32 months ago.
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I am sorry to see the group close - it always had very high standard - I am certainly goingto keep my photos in the Group - I have met some great photographers here - thanks.
Posted 32 months ago.
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Sorry to see you go but understand your reasons...and I must agree I sometimes get tired of all the awards everywhere. Personally I would prefer someones honest views on one of my pics, or a bit of constructive ctiticism rather than a cut and pasted tawdry bauble... Hope you enjoy yourself as a "normal" user of Tagged from now on...
Posted 32 months ago.
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pictureinfocus wrote Rules after all, are rules. ...and, apparently, made to be broken, by some... thanks for you comment!
Joebelle wrote I am certainly goingto keep my photos in the Group We hope most people will... we have no plans to delete any... cheers!
Stuart's Gallery wrote Personally I would prefer someones honest views on one of my pics, or a bit of constructive ctiticism rather than a cut and pasted tawdry bauble Exactly!! Thanks for your comment!
Posted 32 months ago.
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This is going to shock...but, here it comes...I am one of the rats, jerks, lame people....an offender! Why? Certainly nothing personal! The answer has been cited here again and again. I too would prefer genuine comments to a baubly award, but the chase to get to ie. over 100 comments per upload was tempting. For a while...!!! In the meantime, G knows how it happens, I am in over 60 groups, mostly offering awards. The amount of new invites rises daily!!! Ridiculous invites from groups I have NO connection to and definatley NO photos to offer: Pakistan (I live in Germany) Cuba ( I LIVE IN GERMANY!!! ) etc.
I respected all the rules for many months until my entire day was taken up in a daze in front of my computer. Finally I saw red, and said "oh, what the hell!" I started to skip the commenting-others bit, HOPING to be banned (put me out of my misery...) but you know what happened? NOTHING! Not even from groups which claim in their title..OFFENDERS WILL BE BANNED!!! RULE BREAKERS = BAN!!! I actually am admin of a group, but we simply never follow up on rule breakers (live and let live!) only to find ourselves, as you so rightly said, playing a very unwelcome role of Idi Admin! Even if "rules are rules" this here is ONLY for fun, isn't it?
So now I come to the regret bit. I'm sorry if I contributed to the decamping of this group. I DO understand your reasons.
BUT I also thank you sooooo much for your lengthy explanation, which comes as a breath of fresh air, and a very couragious stand against what flickr has, or can become. It has caused me to start looking into my contact's photos, and leaving genuine comments, which in turn gives me the CHOICE of commenting or not! It's amazing then how many of my contacts immediately reciprocate...with real words. You have awoken me from my complacency, and shamed me into rethinking the whole d.... thing through again. THANKYOU!
PS. I have come back, having just finished my say, with a PS:
I think flickr itself is partly to blame for the situation with it's "send to group" button above each photo. It makes it possible to send photos off to all the groups very quickly in succession, without having to follow them in or to even VISIT the group, let alone pick up the comment code and scout out some worthy images. If one HAD to visit the group in ORDER to add photos, then maybe things would look different....
Originally posted 32 months ago.
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masf edited this topic 32 months ago.
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I really liked this group and it was the only one I added pictures to now and then in recent times - so I do regret that it's closed, now. But I do understand the reasons. I myself am no longer keen on this 'gain-an-award game'; for me it is more important to be friends with those people I have contact with - and it already takes a lot of time to maintain these friendships. But still - I will miss this group; you did a very good job! :-)
Posted 32 months ago.
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masf wrote and shamed me into rethinking the whole d.... thing through again
That wasn't really the point (ok, maybe it was a bit).
But I hear you. It seems I've come full circle. I started off on flickr giving and getting real comments, then started in award groups and didn't have time to make real comments any more, then stopped posting to award groups which gave me the time I needed to look at people's pictures again and leave comments. I like it better this way.
Originally posted 32 months ago.
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!Katie! (a group admin) edited this topic 32 months ago.
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Thanks for the great group Bob. I always enjoyed posting here, and felt the quality of photos posted was generally very good. I understand your frustration with people posing and running. That's one of the reasons that I have never got involved with being an admin for any group. I think it would be a rather thankless job.
Again.........loved the group, sad to see it go. All the best!
Posted 31 months ago.
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masf wrote I'm sorry if I contributed to the decamping of this group. That was a wonderful contribution to this thread, I can't thank you enough. But I'm afraid I'll have to ban you now. (haha)
Bee Nee wrote I do understand the reasons THAT'S been my favourite thing to hear in this thread, thanks.
LadyExpat wrote I think it would be a rather thankless job. Until you close the group, then EVERYBODY thanks you! B-)
Posted 31 months ago.
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Nothing last for ever, but some endings makes wounds and scars (a bit over the top dramatic from my part), but I mean it when I say that I find it a pity.
But you have got a wonderful collection of pictures, to stroll through.
I feel also a bit of gilt because i love posting into reward groups, so i must keep looking for pictures to comment to and so i keep feeling with what's going on for a little.
Thx for all the fun, trouble and endless patience
Thx for making possible to travel by
Posted 31 months ago.
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Bugger, and I've just had a photo invited in lol !
Sorry to hear of your closure, but totally understandable and I wish you luck and fortune for the future.
Cheers,
Tim
Posted 31 months ago.
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They were great groups and I'll miss them...quite understand your pov...the post-and-runners are becoming more and more obvious...so terribly sad.
All the best with the future.
Posted 31 months ago.
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Thanks for your comments!!
Posted 31 months ago.
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Very interesting history - thanks for your elucidation!
Have fun doing something else now!
Posted 31 months ago.
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Thanks for all the energy you put into this wonderful group. I had fun while it lasted...
Posted 31 months ago.
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It certainly is an end to an era! It's like an integral part of flickr is leaving! However, I do completely understand your reasons! I also appreciate the respect and the hard work that you folks have put into this place! I didn't post too regularly but just knowing that this group existed was... comforting! No doubt, I am sad to see you go! ='(
Warm wishes!
Posted 31 months ago.
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AGrinberg wrote Have fun doing something else now! That's the plan!!
Daniel Schwabe wrote Thanks for all the energy you put into this wonderful group. I had fun while it lasted... Thank you - us too, mostly.
Sabby3000 ::be back soon:: wrote just knowing that this group existed was... comforting! Wow, that's major... that's how I feel about, I dunno, the ocean, or Antarctica...
Posted 31 months ago.
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Its funny to me to here you refer to the people who post and run as "Award Whores". Nothing against the group but if you are requiring people leave a required # of awards per photo posted, I see you as the "Award Whore". I see this as your way of saying, I dont want to post my photo if I am not going to get awards. Maybe I see this differently than others, Jus my opinion!
Posted 31 months ago.
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mkgrillo wrote Nothing against the group but if you are requiring people leave a required # of awards per photo posted, I see you as the "Award Whore". Sorry, that makes no sense... If we as admins require that you as a poster leave an award on other posters' photos, how does that make admins the award whores? We're not getting the awards... Anyway, "post and run" is a different behaviour than "award whore"... only "post and run" was against the rules.
Posted 31 months ago.
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I guess i just dont understand the point of mandating comments. I personally would rather have people leave comments because they saw my photo and liked it, not because if they didn't leave somebody a comment they would get banned from a group. I guess my comment was aimed more to people that support mandating comments. I just feel like most of the time people leave comments on photos to keep from getting banned, not because they really like the photo. It seems to me that people support requiring comments because they know that after they post their photo, the following people "must" leave a comment, and maybe because they are required to leave comments, they will be lucky enough to get one. Dont get me wrong, there are a lot of great photographers in this group and in the flickrverse, but if I like a photo, I would rather leave a comment on my own, not your group icon because I was required to.
Posted 31 months ago.
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Mmmmyeah, well, therein lies the rub. It's this kind of thing that we (well, speaking for myself, I) came to get pretty tired of as an admin. The way I see it, if you don't want to join a group like this, where commenting on 5 photos of your choice is required, it seems to me that it's not the group for you. For a lot of people, the required participation in fact isn't for them, so they either never joined, they left when they stopped enjoying it, or they were banned because they didn't play by the rules.
There are a lot of groups out there where people "post and run." They have zero intention of ever looking at any other photos in the groups they post to, yet they somehow expect that others will of course look at, appreciate, comment and fave theirs. We chose not to be one of those groups. The people who had a problem with that, but yet chose to remain here and play by their own rules, led us to where we are today.
Posted 31 months ago.
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mkgrillo wrote I guess i just dont understand the point of mandating comments. I also grew to dislike the idea of mandatory commenting with shiny group baubles... as I went to some trouble to explain in the original post... but we had an obligation as admins to enforce it anyway, because that was the whole point of the group... and the enforcing became a pain... so we packed it in...
Posted 31 months ago.
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This group will be greatly missed. I adored it, it was probably the best group on FlickR, with the best pictures. Take care, hold on, enjoy.
Posted 31 months ago.
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I really liked this group and am sad to see it go. You did an excellent job. I can see how running it would eventually become like a job, and who needs another job. Peace out.
Posted 31 months ago.
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Well written, well played -Goodbye!
Posted 31 months ago.
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well it is sad... but I totally understand respect the decision. I wouldn't beat yourself up. It was a good group but typically the mob wants what they want which rarely fits into a sensible well structured package that this group was.
Thanks at least for letting us know (you didn't have to though).
Posted 31 months ago.
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I was away from flickr almost 8 months. My faith in flicker community declined, nevertheless I met some very interesting and creative people around here and one way or another we're still in touch. This group was my second home, I loved it so much. Honestly, we all do need attention, we all do need some encouraging words out there... at least we were all very happy if we get the Lunar ticket etc. But, Daniel, you're absolutely right, when there's no fun anymore, or any point what so ever, its not worth it for all those sacrifices and hours and hours of group's administration (I know that from my experience). I'll miss this group very much, but I hope some day our paths shall cross again.
Stay well!
P.S. I enjoined reading your long version 'up-there' :) ... and I poured myself a big glass of beer..., so cheers (from Skoje, MACEDONIA) for the NEW BEGINNINGS... :)
Posted 31 months ago.
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So .... just thank you for all your hard work and all the pleasure I had from it! Good luck to you!
Posted 31 months ago.
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I understand what you're saying just wanna thank you and all the admins for all the work. This was actually one of the best groups were awards were given only if the icture was good enough. And I liked that a lot. I am sorry to see you have packed your tents and quit, perhaps this is a general trend at flickr: a decline in quality. I wish you all the best and thank you once again for evrything!
Posted 31 months ago.
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Thank you all very much! We really appreciate your understanding, and we share your hurt.
Sometimes the time for an idea has passed, and we, the admins of this group, noticed the proliferation of award groups and the increasing numbers of post-and-runners (yes, the award whores) and decided that enough was enough.
I'm not expecting you to feel sorry for us, but it became so dispiriting to click on a photo to check the globes and award it a Lunar Ticket, only to find hundreds of...well, meaningless comments: page after page after page of award group icons, or invitations to post in award groups, and nothing else (oh yes, they were the award whores too).
Hell, we'd all been there. Most of the group admins knew each other because we'd been complaining about not getting our fair share of notice in a post-one-comment-the-last-ten group. We were outraged! And rightly so!
It's a traveller's cliche that somewhere was always better five or ten years ago, or last year, whenever it was before the package tourists got there. And, holy shit, those people are dull to listen to if you weren't with them at the time.
We weren't the first, no. We were pretty quick off the mark, I think. But looking at the landscape now, it became evident to us that award groups - however well (we hope) or badly (we hope not) run they are - had become the all-inclusive package holiday of the Flickr world: the triumph of quantity over quality.
It would be too much to ask to expect you all to leave award groups, or to close the award groups you already run. But why not aim for better than the meaningless award? Make good contacts, check out their photos regularly and say in your own words what you think about them, and not just when you're looking for validation for your own work. Be nice. Fave stuff. Say something more than "great capture!" or "nice DoF!"
In the words of the great philosophers: be excellent to each other.
And one last thing...if you could just leave a comment and a fave on this photo of mine...
Originally posted 31 months ago.
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dachalan (a group admin) edited this topic 31 months ago.
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I have been off Flickr for a while and returned to find this sad news.
A huge THANK YOU to Bob and everyone who has made this group enjoyable!
Posted 31 months ago.
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Thanks to all the great commenters on this thread, I'm stunned at how there is still feedback coming in.... you guys are awesome...
Dave, great post, "the triumph of quantity over quality"... I love it... well, I mean I hate it, but you were very eloquent in describing it...
Posted 31 months ago.
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This was my favorite group, I dont longer post photos in awards groups since i dont have the time to give the awards, but here, even if it was compulsory, i always wanted to post it and found the time :)
Take care and tnx mate.
Posted 31 months ago.
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I haven't uploaded anything in a couple of months (boring reasons which I wont elaborate on) so I'm a little late to this party. Sorry to see a great, long-standing group (institution?!) go, but I'm certainly sympathetic to the explanation provided. I've been a (silent-ish) contributor for a while.
At some point this whole "award group" phenomenon seems to have shifted subtly from "I can discover some great new pictures on flickr and at the same time increase the exposure of my own work" to "I WANT THE SHINY INTERNETS TRINKETS AND I'LL HAND OUT AWARDS LIKE CANDY TO GET THEM." In some cases even the candy is withheld, as you rightly observe.
The software engineer in me (usually he's locked up securely outside of day-job hours) wants to design the perfect bot, with a nuanced intuition capable of administration a group entirely on it's own. I'm guessing from your initial post however, that the flickr API limits the sorts of things the bot can do on it's own, and thus a steadying human hand at the tiller will always be required. Plus, people already tried to write such a bot. It was called skynet, and it destroyed the future!
As an aside, I think the competition thread model is a really cool way to interactively participate in a community whilst at the same time exposing your own work/finding great flickr-art. I would guess such threads are an even bigger admin headache however, and require a degree of cooperation from the community which the post-and-run crowd will be all to happy not to fulfil.
Anyway, good luck in the future all, and thanks for all the hard work. I did love my little globe trinkets the best of all ;)
Originally posted 31 months ago.
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Flightlessfoofaraw edited this topic 31 months ago.
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Don César wrote
Take care and tnx mate.
Thank YOU...
Flightlessfoofaraw wrote to design the perfect bot
Great post, thanks for your thoughts!! Yes, the Donald was a clever fellow, but as you say, he did require a human to provide context, interpretation, analysis, and if necessary to take further action. SOME of that stuff could have been built in to a more full-featured bot, I suppose... anyway, thanks for your comments!!
Posted 31 months ago.
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I like this wonderful group and sad I can not join..though I get some comments as my photo is seen in global village too. I am not happy to hear that a good group like this is closed or getting ahead closure. I request you to have a second thought... for growing is life and closing is like..... making life vanished..which none likes. Why not some one take up the problems or the harsh reasons behind, solve and continue...
okay..with Heavy Heart
brsun
Posted 29 months ago.
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Hi Bob,
I was never prolific in submitting photos to your group (in fairness, never been prolific in taking the photos off the camera in the first place).
I can sympathise with the position that you and your co-admins gound yourself and it was a brave step to bow out.
But what a way to bow out, with true feeling and obvious emotion.
Take care and have fun.
Steff
Posted 29 months ago.
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brsun wrote I request you to have a second thought Trust me, we gave it second and third thoughts, and yes, we were sad too...
TooMuchTyne wrote But what a way to bow out, with true feeling and obvious emotion. Thanks! I wanted to do more than just abandon it to chaos... though that was also tempting... B-)
Posted 29 months ago.
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Onward and upward, Bob.
I couldn't agree with you more.
Definitely time to close the Village and repair to more rewarding environs.
Excellent that you're standing up for your principles in this manner.
While this group's novelty was fun at the start, I've now found the award-giving process has become hollow and stupid not just here, but everywhere on flickr.
Grinding, ungratifying toil.
Why?
Because virtually no award givers take the time/effort anymore to comment on the photos they award (if they ever did).
Sorry to say, I'm not immune to this disease myself.
I've found that I've become guilty of giving awards sans comments simply to fill my requisite awards allotment as fast as possible.
It's a greedy, selfish addiction, don't you know.
And where's the joy in that?
To be frank, there's no joy in it whatsoever.
Ergo, I think it's definitely time to encourage groups where supportive, thoughtful criticism comes first.
Ban the awards, I say! Or at least establish some sort of flickrwide policy for their size, appearance and implementation.
If the awards are special rather than mere dumpster fodder, people might actually take the necessary effort to use 'em properly (he says, dreaming in technicolour).
Savour your removal from Village imbecility, Bob.
You've earned it (and considering how the group has devolved, you're really missing nothing, as I suspect you know yourself).
Originally posted 29 months ago.
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over_here edited this topic 29 months ago.
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i don't know - I take a little while off from flickring and my favourite group closes. I've discovered many great photographers from this group and the lunar ticket really felt worth winning with the bar set so high.
Always been hot and cold about award groups (with a few exceptions) but it was a great way to get some feedback and I for one always took the time (even being very choosy) on who got the globes!
The flickrverse does seem to be inundated with loads of these groups now with ever more gaudy flashing icons but I will remember GV2 fondly.
Thanks for making it fun.
Posted 29 months ago.
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i am sorry to see this group close. The sole reason I joined was to get feedback (ie meaningful comments) on my posted pictures and to reciprocate.
Unfortunately in this world of instant gratification awards seem to be more important.
Thanks for trying to redress the balance.
Posted 29 months ago.
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Thanks so much for your comments!!
over_here wrote Ban the awards, I say! Or at least establish some sort of flickrwide policy for their size, appearance and implementation. Sadly I don't think the mechanisms exist in Flickr to make that possible, currently...
Boich wrote I will remember GV2 fondly. As will we !!
col.hou wrote Thanks for trying to redress the balance. Not sure we've started a trend or anything, but it seemed like the right thing to do...
Posted 28 months ago.
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Always some assholes ruin it for others! Thanx for the group. take care
Posted 28 months ago.
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Well , that I can say that one should not have said, only thanks, thank you very much and so long..
Posted 28 months ago.
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Where's my award?...;o)
Posted 26 months ago.
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Thanks GLYNDWR2 - , avielpa, and Jerry Tremaine for your comments!
Posted 24 months ago.
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I wasn't a 'regular', but oh boy how I understand you! What IS this thing people have with having loads of trophies etc, without actually looking at images and just pasting the code (if bothering at all)?
Are they not here for the photography?
Stupid people!!!
May whatever you do bring you lots of joy! You sound like a 'fun' person and I am sure you will always have, well, fun! ;))
Posted 24 months ago.
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Thanks ubichan!!! We all had our fun moments here!
Posted 24 months ago.
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What Bob said. There will always be a soft spot in my heart for this group!
Posted 24 months ago.
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I've read through most of the posts. And yes, I understand why you felt you had to leave and perhaps the other admins too. It actually makes me sick to read how many people are "so sad" and how they "understand" the reasons/
What seems really sad is the "I'm going to take my ball and go home" attitude. The "I don't want to do this anymore" so no one else should be able to either.
You had options. You could have turned it over to other admins. You could have changed the group rules. You could have included group members in you decision. (Oh that's right, it's not a democracy it's a flickrocracy.)
I'm glad your happy, or at peace or whatever. Just remember your decision was a selfish one. The next time you think you can "do it better or do it right" I hope you will remember where you ended up with this group. It is not their actions that caused this but yours.
Originally posted 24 months ago.
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zabrina mystery edited this topic 24 months ago.
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Wow. Thanks for sharing. Feel better? Sorry about your sickness.
Posted 24 months ago.
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zabrina... you aren't an admin at any group are you??? if you were you would understand the time and the hassle it takes to run a group, and keep it running well..
The good times stopped out weighting the bad times...
It was people like you that made us say.. enough is enough... Flickr is just a fun game.. it isn't life.. and we wanted ours back (life that is)
and we wanted to stop dealing with selfish, self centered people like you, who think the world revolves around them.. and we should bow and keep the group perfect and open just for them...
go start a new group and you will soon know the reasons
Posted 24 months ago.
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Here here!
Posted 24 months ago.
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Bob rocks. Period.
Bob: you rock!
Posted 23 months ago.
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Thanks for everything. I met a lot of great flickr people and viewed some incredible images in this group. Your good works continue to flow outward. Take care, Lisa
Posted 23 months ago.
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Maria, wow, thanks... that was incredibly nice...
Lisa, thank you for your comment... I'm amazed we still get comments in here, I keep expecting a ghost town, and eventually... but wow, it's been closed for how long?
Posted 23 months ago.
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rgdaniel how long does something have to be closed... before it becomes a ghost town... I guess when the last person gets out of dodge, right :)
Posted 23 months ago.
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Think of it not as a ghost town, but a monument... B-)
Posted 22 months ago.
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A monument it is ....
Posted 22 months ago.
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Hey Bob, nice closing story..but really hard to go through :)
Am not a great active flickr guy but loved to be part of this wonderful group.
When I started do some clicking this was the group where i learnt many things and it was a constant motivator for me to go hunting for the good pictures. Hope we can see it OPEN again :)
Posted 22 months ago.
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L0h!t Hope we can see it OPEN again :)
sorry... we have moved on and the group will not re open..
Posted 22 months ago.
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Awww, sad times but I understand! I'm two months late posting this for pretty much the reasons you state above! Flickr has changed and I too got totally demoralised with the 'posting just to receive comments' people! Have hardly posted or browsed Flickr myself for the past year. Sadly though that has affected my photography which has become slightly neglected. Now trying hard to reignite some enthusiasm and get back into Flickr, hence my trip back here to then find you all gone!!
Oh well, thanks for the happy times guys and best wishes for the future...wherever you all go! :-)
Posted 20 months ago.
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Welcome back Anna, sorry we couldn't "be here" for you... my own photography has also been neglected in recent years, but I can't blame it entirely on Flickr -- in my case, it's been more about shifting priorities and interests...
Posted 20 months ago.
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why dont all of the admins just step down and pass the group on to one person who wants to run it? Bit strange - you have all of those members and all people who are enthusiastic.
award Comment groups - hey someone opened your photo took a good look at it...... and hopefully left a comment , sometimes fave it and pass on more invites. The whole point is that you can put your images in a photo album leave it in a draw somewhere where maybe no one ever looks at it again or post it on flickr and have some fun!!!
Nice rush and a nice feeling to see that someone took the time and maybe pasted an award and really looked at your picture - where else would you get that?
Come on cheer up - step down all of you and pass this group on to someone who wants to run it!!!!
Originally posted 16 months ago.
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Spangles44 each day a little better edited this topic 16 months ago.
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Asked and answered, "Spangles44 blink again for interesting images", if indeed that's even your real name...
Posted 15 months ago.
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(201 to 286 of 286 replies in "WHY ARE YOU CLOSING?" --or-- "DUDE, WHERE'S MY GROUP?")
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Global Village 2 - CLOSED - NO NEW PHOTOS OR NEW MEMBERS! /
Discuss
rgdaniel how long does something have to be closed... before it becomes a ghost town... I guess when the last person gets out of dodge, right :)
L0h!t Hope we can see it OPEN again :) 
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