IotD changes
 

Over the last few weeks I've been considering dropping IotD altogether. It's become a bit too much to handle, and I've gotten pretty tired after over six years of doing it.

Last week Neatorama was hit with a copyright violation, and they are changing how they link, using more thumbnails and avoiding copyrighted images as much as possible. Alex at Neato looked into it and it's something like $2000 for a site like the Cellar/IotD to license an entire AP feed.

This bugs me because I do realize that IotD is often a terrible copyright violator. I have tried to ask permission from obvious copyright holders, even paid for a few shots here and there.

I think I could still do IotD with non-copyrighted images, but it just makes it that much harder to do.

Instead, what I've done is to open IotD for anyone to post to, except Cellar newbs.

Anybody can post an image at any time, as long as:

A) the title format is respected, with the Monthname Day, Year: title.

B) no copyrighted images -- unless you get permission. I urge people who find interesting shots to ask the photographers for permission. Often they are happy to grant permission as long as the copyright is noted on the post, and they get a link to their site.

C) of course, no spam; anything resembling promotion will be deleted right away.

D) in a strange twist, threat rating is ON in this section (it's off everywhere else), and if a thread is poorly rated it will be removed. What's poorly rated? I don't know. We probably should discuss it. Anyway, look for the new "rate thread" tab, and if you like, go and rate the old IotDs. and be sure to rate any new ones as well.

Images should be presented as attachments or as hosted elsewhere; I will make an effort to move this to be hosted on Cellar in order to prevent the images from going away, abuse, etc.

This is the easiest way to handle this; a better way would be to set up some complicated moderation system. I just don't have time!

I dunno... I give that threat a score of 2. Maybe if it were a leisurely discussion while the poster's balls are in a vice, that would be a little more formidable.

Okay, knee-jerk joke out of the way, I have a question: Are photos from major news sites generally considered usable if a link to the story is provided?

In theory, wouldn't this mean all the pics around here are illegal (except the photos taken by Dwellers). Most people don't bother to get permission anyway.

I agree with this one; and it should apply to all picture threads since sometimes a site where a picture is hosted might be down, meaning we won't see the picture. Also, we need a limit set on horizontal pixel size (width) so as not to break thread layout (and besides, not everyone uses 1204 x 768 or higher resolution). If a picture is to big, we can simply use our image editors to re-size it.

All major news sites are not permitted.

I don't post on here very often, but I look at the Cellar IOTD every morning before work as I check my e-mail. It has become an integral part of my day! I often send links to particularly interesting pictures to my family and friends.

I just wanted to say I love this site and would be very sad if you had to shutdown, Undertoad. I hope that you and the IOTD community can come up with a feasible management system!

I don't think that'll happen. He's just leaving it up to us now.

The question is what kind of pix are IOTD-worthy?

Read the archives...that's a good start :).

My thought is we don't grab or even image link to the cool picture but actually toss in a link to whatever picture, news report, or article that has the cool picture.

Then the copyright issue is someone else's problem. We are just discussing a picture on some other site. And really, that is how most bloggers do it.

I looked...but i didn't see a rate this thread tab? where abouts is it?

Near "thread tools" at the top of the thread.

Maybe I'm not yet permitted to rate? Either that or I'm blind, cause I don't see it, either. :o

yeah,...it ain't there.

fuuhhhhhhh -- there it is.

oh, sure.....NOW it's there.

It wasn't until I logged out and changed the scheme. now i see it.....did you just fix it?