11-16-11 – You Can’t Fight City Hall

Take this post for what you will. After this, I’ll let mods and voters sort it out.

Thing is, though: most farktography participants don’t visit these forums much if at all. So the final word on what goes or not has to be the actual theme description, not a post in this forum. And as worded that’s a lot broader than what you’re suggesting here.

I know. If we delete the phrase “as long as it’s owned by government” and take out the Sewer Department example, the rest should sort itself out, I think. Leave “has some government purpose” and the other examples.

Sound about right?

Right but you could argue the point of a purpose on just about anything. There’s a house in the woods at James Madison’s Montpelier, which is now owned by the national trust. The house is used as a glorified storage shed and is absolutely beautiful, so technically, it has the purpose of storing unused government property. But since it has no administrative or legislative function, I apparently can’t use that. Anything else on the property, including the main house itsself would fall under the same axe. I’m probably borderline with my plans to use a photo of the Peal Harbor Naval Shipyard maintenence building, but I don’t care at this point.

Maybe I’m just butt-hurt because both attempts to go shoot for this theme got thwarted by one thing or another, and my archives are lacking under the tighter rules.

Here’s a proposal, that’s obviously too late for this week and next, but in the future might stop some headaches. Themes can be pounded out up to and including the mainpage posting of the previous week’s theme. Once “LGT Next Week’s Theme” goes live, the next week’s theme description, as written, is locked in. If this includes loopholes, so be it. If it’s airtight, so be it.

Personally, I prefer tight themes with an out-of-the-box approach possible. This could have been one of those themes. Everyone who thinks of government buildings immediately thinks of marble and granite and columns, so when joe-bob posts a shot of the ranger station at Yellowstone or DC’s Metro Central on halloween, people will either see those and say “holy shit, that’s awesome, why didn’t I think of that?” or “I’m not so sure that qualifies, I’m not gonna vote for that.” When I joined farktography, that seemed to be the norm, rather than the exception (and this was still far from the “early days”). I had nothing going into the butterflies theme, asked a question in the forum about some ideas I was considering, and posted shots of a friends butterfly tramp-stamp, a pile of butterfly postage stamps, and the ugliest brown butterfly you’d ever seen. I think I walked out of that contest with less than 15 votes total, but I felt good about the couple of kudos I got for taking a different approach. I used to quiver with anticipation at seeing what staplermofo would do to interpret the theme and make it work with a stapler (seriously ‘mofo, you can come back any time). I dunno. Maybe I’m getting old and stodgy. I’ve been pissing vinegar for the last few weeks and I probably popped a little more here than was necessary, but come on. I know I’m guilty too, but let’s get away from splitting hairs and make farktography fun again. That’s what separates it from all the other contests on the web – the fact that it’s fark – a well-placed, topical, witty photo will stand up just as well as a textbook composed and exposed shot of something utterly beautiful (well, that, and I actually feel like I can pull a win here from time to time…. less so now that Aspidites has brought a whole new level of awesomesauce).

*breathe in*

Yugoboy already conceded to let the voters sort it out but I agree with both people who say it is too late to change the theme description as written. Once we LGT Next Week’s Theme we’ve made that next week’s theme and it’s not fair to change it on people last minute. I want to caution all theme suggesters about narrowing their themes once it’s scheduled. This isn’t an isolated incident. We voted for the theme description you originally provided; that’s what voters expected to shoot for.

However, that also means people with questions about a theme need to be proactive and ask them when themes get scheduled and not wait until the last minute. When it’s your suggested theme, you need to check in the thread often to resolve those issues or the moderators will come to a consensus without you. For his part, Yugoboy was very attentive to questions in this theme, and we did derail it a bit with our “photography is not terrorism” discussion. My apologies on that.

Then, if you’re stuck deciding between photos, please keep the spirit Yugoboy intended with the theme in mind and lean towards the three branches of government rather than their subsidiaries.

I just read my comment again and I’d like to say that I would be OK if I was MILFED, but not MIFFED.

(nothing to see here, Mopsy. just move along. and don’t google search milf. and don’t worry, i’m talking about my wife)

😯 😆 😀

Then, if you’re stuck deciding between photos, please keep the spirit Yugoboy intended with the theme in mind and lean towards the three branches of government rather than their subsidiaries.

This…

I think most people will be close enough to the intent of Yugoboy’s idea.

Looking back at the original thread this was hashed out pretty well.

http://farktography.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=2854

I can’t think of any situations where we’ve had to delete entries because we made late changes or had anyone complain that we’ve made last minute changes that stopped them from entering photos.

There’s been at least 2 themes where I planned to use a photo that we altered the theme enough to where I wasn’t feeling comfortable using it anymore. Purely Film is one where we decided SOOC was the intent, so I dropped a photo I had done some color cast and curves work on. It wasn’t worth complaining about, but it has happened.

I have what I have and I’ll use it. If they don’t fit the theme, so be it. I’ve been in a slump, photography wise anyway. Hoping to get back in on things.

Will I get banhammered if I caption a photo “Cock and Balls?”