Ok so I really hesitated on this one because the first rule of HIVE club is never stir the pot at HIVE club. I also don;t want this to be a whine about being muted, I was muted, it followed their (hidden) rules, it's their community , fair enough. However in the end I felt like it was a good learning opportunity and a interesting way to explore the importance and value of clear rules and expectations in communitys.
Ok so first the cavets:
- Each community can of course choose to run their community how they wish, this is not about that and is not in dispute
- This is not a dig at the community I will mention below, it just happens to be a personal experience I can draw on. I repeat I am not slandering this community, just discussing what I have found.
- I tried my hardest to get clarification from the community on these points, I am not conjecturing what they believe this is from the mods themselves from my discussions before publishing this blog
Ok so what did you do failingforwards! did you post about bunny rabbits in the Leofinance community or talk about how to remove troublesome plants in the Weed community?
No, actually I post a photo to the black and white community. Wait you say it must have been color photo, nope it was just this one shown here.
You see I have been in lockdown which tends to limit your options for taking photos so I thought if I would try to see if I could make the mundane interesting plus I love sharing photos and seeing what resonates with people.
Now up to now, I thought I had enjoyed a good relationship with the black and white community, I even spruiked them in a blog about how they are a great welcoming community for all levels of photographers and you can get some great feedback . Heck I have even made it into the monomad finalists a few times, great stuff…. Until I got muted.
Ok lets step back see what the community says before I explore why I and others have been muted and why I choose this community as an example of hidden rules and unclear expectations so you can see how I, someone who is 4 months into HIVE, saw the community.
The rules
Black And White
Photography
Description
A community for all the black and white photography lovers out there, and home for the #monomad contest.
Rules
- Single image posts will not be curated.
- Full color images stay at the door.
- Original content only.
- Plagiarism will be immediately reported.
- No cross posting.
- Any user publishing colored photographs will be muted.
Ok a community for all black and white photography lovers – tick and sounds pretty open
Not a single photo post – Tick
Not full color – Tick
ok no rules broken here
Ok maybe I stuffed up the monomad comp rules
Don't be a stranger and join the Black And White Community!
ANY ENTRY MISSING ONE OF THE FOLLOWING ELIMINATORY FACTORS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.
Contest Rules:
• Post your entries in the Black And White Community (ELIMINATORY FACTOR).
• Clearly mention the #monomad challenge in your post title or post body. For example: "This is my entry for the #monomad challenge" (ELIMINATORY FACTOR).
• At least 50% of the submitted post, including the first image, needs to be black and white (ELIMINATORY FACTOR).
• Use the #monomad tag (ELIMINATORY FACTOR).
• Every photograph must be yours. Plagiarism will be immediately reported (ELIMINATORY FACTOR).
• Reusing previously posted images will be treated as content recycling and it will be reported as well (ELIMINATORY FACTOR).
• We reserve the right to change the contest rules at any given time without further notice.
Again no rules broken here.
Ok so why the mute? Well I went ahead and asked and lets see what the response was
The black and white community is a moderated one. Always has been and always will be. If we don't moderate it, instead of having a feed with good photography we will have a feed full of mediocre images that will drive good photographers and potential new members away. When filtering all these images we have 3 very simple and basic things in mind. Things that everyone should keep in mind too before pressing the publish button and call themselves a photographer.
- Focus
- Exposure
- Composition
Any publication missing one of the first two photography basics (focus/exposure) will be muted. The third one (composition) might be considered a bit subjective by some, so we tent to be more flexible about it, having it in mind only when judging the #monomad entries.
All photographs failing to be on focus and acceptably well exposed will be muted in the black and white community. Hopefully this was clear enough.
Well hot damn, never knew any of this! Personally I would have put this somewhere everyone could see, like the about section maybe? So I asked hey what about newbies who don’t who should not this information be somewhere clear and simple so others don’t makes the same mistakes and to their credit a response
It doesn't. The above is the ABC of photography. Everyone here should know that.
Well damn I didn’t I always thought art was in the eye of the beholder, subjective and maybe the community is best placed to decided what they like. But fair is fair its there community and their rules.
So my takeaway from this
I personally have gone from an advocate and user of a community to someone who is honestly not confident enough to post there again. I don’t know when I would be good enough and unless I turned pro wouldn’t. But here’s the rub, if they had been clear from the start on their expectations and their mute policy I might till be part of it , not posting but appreciating the art being created.
You cannot expect to have new people join HIVE if your communities rules and expectation are built on assumed knowledge, you cannot expect everyone to know the history of a community what it expects. By creating unclear communities that take punitive actions without any pre warning or clear understanding of expected behaviours we will alienate everyone who seeks to join and grow and further fragment the HIVE microcosm into defunct parts
If there is in learning for POB here it is to be clear in our expectation, have then front and centre for all new comers and any puntaitve actions by mods must first clearly articulated to all.