hector_mildew's photostream  

I have recently suffered a prolonged period of abuse and bullying on a Yahoo! Group. This highlighted a problem with Yahoo! and Flickr Groups in that anyone can start a Group with "official" sounding name but then Moderate that Group to promote a very one sided view of the subject. If anyone tries to put a case that does not accord with the Moderators view he can simply delete the message or comment. Regretfully I had no option but to report the abuse to Yahoo! and the Group was closed but that was an unsatisfactory outcome really, as the Heritage Group the Yahoo! Group purported to support has lost contact with all the genuine, well intentioned supporters who were members of the Group.

I relate the tale so that readers can be on their guard against similar instances elsewhere - being particularly careful where aGroup claims to support a cause where some contentious matters are under discussion. A faction can gain sontrol of a Discussion Group but manipulate its moderation to make it appear that it is giving a balanced view - or even an "official" view when it is doing anything but.

I have a large collection of photographic prints and slides of buses which I have built up over the years. These are mostly my own work but I have bought prints at bus rallies etc. and they do not always have the origin noted on them. Also, in scanning and cataloguing these I have not recorded that information as I had not envisaged making any public use of them. However, having discovered "photo sharing" it seems selfish not to make my photos available to a wider audience. Should I inadvertently include a photo that was not my own - I honestly cannot always remember which are which now - and the copyright owner is not happy at seeing the photo here please let me know and I will remove it immediately.

As most of you will have realised by now Hector is merely an extension of John8abalone because I have hit the Flickr limit on the latter, whilst as you can see Hector is a real pro!