Quote:
Originally Posted by Gen34
Why am I in over my head? I am taking this from a different perspective and from the comments I have received from riders, photographers and stewards. I am also commenting from the perspective of being a female who felt unsafe going on the ride. Why does that put me over my head. Because there is one of me and about 500 of you?
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I wouldn't take offense to that remark. Perhaps I didn't mean quite what i said. I think I was referring to what by your own admission was naiveté on your part (which you did state on your blog).
but I'll just say one more thing - it seems that OCC and "pushy, pervy snappers with iPhones, etc" are being connected in your mind. I don't agree that there is a one to one connection here. We are not the home of the pushy, pervy snappers, with the "respectful" snappers posting their pics somewhere else, like on "respectable" websites. This just isn't so. Just a few years ago, for example, very few WNBR pics posted by OCC members were originals taken by members. Most of the pics came from sites like Flickr, an ordinary photo hosting site. And today, i doubt very seriously if most of the pervy, pushy snappers even know that OCC exists. I can understand how a rider might draw obvious conclusions about what types of people contribute to this site, but the facts speak otherwise. In any WNBR thread, original pics make up a minority of the total posted. This year was an exception, as there was much original material, especially from the UK. But overall, the VAST majority of pics posted here from WNBR over the years has either been taken from responsible websites, or were originals taken by RESPONSIBLE photographers who also happen to be members here.
And so, what I would like to submit to you is this: You were at the ride, and you encountered a lot of disrespectful photographers which is unfortunate and shouldn't happen. I personally don't like these guys, and everyone here knows that I am a CONSTANT advocate for photographers being respectful. Anyway, then somehow a connection was made in your mind between these guys and OCC, as though they were there specifically to take pics for this site or sites like this. And so OCC gets dragged into the debate, and we sort of get to feel like we are all being lumped with the pushy pervy snappers. But where specifically was this connection made, and can you say for certain that this was not more of an implied connection rather than a real one? Because it makes a difference to us naturally, as we have been implicated as co-conspirators if you will in your unfortunate experience. Personally, I don't want ANY woman to have a bad experience at ANY WNBR, and I would work with you all to help make sure that this doesn't happen again. In other words, I will work ON YOUR SIDE and against all of the pervy snappers who supposedly you seem to think we all are.
And hopefully, as one of the earliest contributors of original material to OCC (bike rides anyway), I can say that I speak for the other snappers here. I know I do for many of them.
Klondike