I just joined here today, and this is my first post...but I have what I feel is an important question. About a week ago I joined another railroad forum (RRF) I made a couple posts, and posted a few photos, some of which included my wife. In one case she was sitting on some rails, in another was standing close to the tracks. She was wearing a long sleeved shirt and shorts, the kind of clothing she wears to go shopping, for a walk or wherever....now, a few people at RRF were calling the photos pornographic, made a heck of a fuss about it and as a result I was banned there..!! My photographic background is glamor...I used to shoot a lot of models with custom cars and motorcycles and did many posters of those shoots. I have kind of carried that type of shooting over to the Railroad stuff...an attractive woman and a train, etc. No nudity just an attractive woman with an old steam engine (2713) and some modern trains...and not even glamor type stuff yet, no sexy clothing even, just everyday stuff.... So....My question. What is permitted here. I know there are probably kids here, and it is a railroad site, not a glamor site, but I find it too boring to just shoot trains or cars or motorcycles...and I don't want to post a few pictures and upset one or two prudes and end up with problems again so I want to test the waters first and hopefully not have any misunderstandings.
Gary, I'm not a moderator here so I can only hope for the best for you and your wife. What scale are you in? I know at Z Central Station we have many photos of women on site. Of course, nothing the least bit provacative and trains not women are first and foremost. Bon chance, Jim CCRR/Socalz44
Welcome aboard, Gary! Wow. Sounds like the folks at that other site were a bit... sensitive... Of course, not having seen the actual picture, the usual disclaimers apply to that judgement. I'm fairly new here, too, but IMHO, as long as the person in the photo is (as you say) dressed "normally" for a public, family setting, and posing in a "normal" fashion, there shouldn't be a problem. I personally apply the "kids" test. If I wouldn't want my kids to see it, it probably doesn't belong here. Of course, this is (as you say) a family-friendly railroad site, so the people in the pictures should be either railroad-relevant (crew, etc.), family, or incidental. That is, it should be a picture of a train with a person in the shot, not a picture of a person with a train in the shot. Does that make sense? I'd be more concerned about her proximity to and standing (or sitting on) the rails. Depending on the situation, that can be quite dangerous - and even illegal. Rails can be quite slick and present a falling hazard. Even off of "active" tracks - for example, at a museum, they may have equipment with journal bearings that leak oil onto the rails. Can be very hazardous. Plus, RR tracks are private property, so standing or walking on or near them is technically trespassing, unless you have the RR's permission. And of course there's always the possibility of being struck by moving equipment. The stuff is big, but it can be sneaky! That's all just my opinion, though, and I'm a newcomer too. I'd like to hear what the moderators' thoughts are... and the more "senior" members...
That is pretty much how the staff here looks at it. We have to abide by the rules set forth by the COPPA regulations. As long as they are somehow railroad related and are compliant with COPPA, there should be no problem.
Thanks for the reply...the problem is what one person "thinks" their kid should or should not see varies considerable....and how old of a kid. Any kid who wants to see real porn and can use a computer can see all they want anytime they want. Ya...Even though the train crew was friendly, they smiled and one guy waved...AND they were backing away from us (In the photo it looked like she was Hitch Hiking the train) that is what a couple of people on the other forum were upset about...we were going to be a "bad influence" on the kids and "teach" them to trespass. I don't do any model railroading at all...just doing the photography because I like photography and have always had an interest in trains....and the photos WILL BE provocative, what's the point of shooting a lady if it's not, although the shots posted on RRF were not in the least provocative. I was hoping for a response from some of the Mods as well...guess they'll get to it when they get to it...
That is a very true statement, this site is about RR Modeling/Railfanning so that is what images posted here should be about. Please note that [FONT=Trebuchet MS, Georgia, Verdana]r_i_straw[/FONT] (TrainBoard Staff Member) as well as myself are members of the TrainBoard Staff. Your question is under review. If you could send me a PM (Private Message) with a link to some of these images you have online that would help us understand what you are describing. :boy: :boy: :boy: :boy:
A photo of your wife merely sitting on a rail really does not fit. The focus is your wife and not actually any part of the railroading hobbies. That's more on the order of family portrait- Not specific to the purposes of this site. A photo of your wife posing in front of SP 4449, on the day you both rode it from A to B, is more along the lines of what we're doing. That locomotive is then a major player in the memory being captured. Seems as though it's a fine line. But it really is not. Boxcab E50 TrainBoard Administrator
Really? Hmm... I guess I never really understood the genre of "glamour" photography, is it artistic? There rarely seems to be a context or point to it. I mean, I like looking at pictures of trains (and cars, and motorcycles, and planes, and boats), and I like women, I just don't think a photograph of the one neccesarily benefits from including a photograph of the other! I love hot-dogs, and I love ice-cream. Hot-dog flavour ice-cream? Nah...:tb-biggrin: Cheers Phil
Gary, Thank you for querying first: that is much appreciated. I realize it's been about eight hours since you queried. Please realize this is an all-volunteer site and most of the admins and senior mods work real jobs with varying schedules, and all around the world. I got to my home computer for the first time today just a few minutes ago. So we're not the speediest bunch when it comes to deciding questions like these. As others have pointed out, we have a good number of young folks on this forum, whose parents have had to authorize their participation. We take our responsibilities to those parents seriously, as well as to more general COPPA regulations. All staff here know of the availability of porn of all sorts to anyone who wants to see it, but that is not the question, nor certainly is the age of the children here. The question is: what does our community want to happen when this kind of question comes up? The community here is not especially prudish, but it has, over ten years, expressed its preferences pretty clearly about the types of posts and images it considers acceptable. There is no way for staff to judge whether your work is welcome here or not welcome without seeing an example or two. Yes, it is a judgment call by the staff that has nothing to do with the quality or artistic merits of your images; it has everything to do with what the staff feels is the community's sensitivities. I believe someone has suggested you send an image or two to one of the staff, so that we can see better, and discuss this.
Owen, will you remove the "Home Page" entry from his profile, it's still accessible by the membership even with the topic moved into the Crummy. It shows up under "Contact Info" if anyone starts poking around his profile. :tb-nerd: :tb-nerd: :tb-nerd: :tb-nerd:
How were you able to do this, I was not able to find a "Save" option? Different access? :tb-nerd: :tb-nerd: :tb-nerd: :tb-nerd:
I don't know. I just click on the [Edit Signature] and go to the next screen. Maybe HAL is out to get you again. http://www.palantir.net/2001/tma1/wav/puzzlin.wav
The "Home Page" URL of concern was not in his SIG, its in a seperate field two up from the SIG field. Maybe Owen was the one that got rid of that value as that was the one that would take folks over to his Porn/Soft-Porn page that I was extremely concerned about yesterday. Home Page Birthday Signature :tb-nerd: :tb-nerd: :tb-nerd: :tb-nerd:
