Posting Information From Other Sources

[IanB]

Afternoon All

There seems to be something that has started to occur and I am not a fan of it. I am not having a go at anyone and its not just something that occurs on this site, but others as well.

I want to start a discussion about what is acceptable about posting information from other sources and discussing here. From what I can see, some things I mention have been stopped by the Admin team, while others have been allowed to continue, and I just wish to have a open discussion about what the Admin team feel about this, and what we as a Community feel about this.

I have no problem with news articles that are published by other sites being referenced in a forum post, as long as the source is given the credit

Images are something I can't make my mind up on, If the image is part of a news article, I think is okay as long as the rest of the article is linked, but on their own, or taken from a section of a site, and used on it own worries me a little, even if it is linked to the source.

Posts from other forums, or quoting other people from other forums is something that I think is wrong.

Why do I think this is wrong, well, I try and look at it, as if my posts on here were copied to another forum, and then discussed by its membership, I would be upset. If a section of this site was copied in a forum post for discussion on another forum I think the person who created that would be upset.

I would much rather the person who wants to discuss what I posted, to post on the site where I had originally made my post, or where the content was originally created. I know this is the main forum for a lot of members, and you want to discuss things you read elsewhere here, but if there is something that you wish to discuss which requires you to quote or repeat a post from another forum, I think it is best to sign up to that forum, and post in there.

The reason I feel news articles are okay, is because that is something that is being published by the site, to attract attention, and get people to read it and not been published by an individual member of a forum, or as part of the site content.

I feel that we should be taking a morally correct stand on this, and we should not allow posts from other sites to be discussed over here. I accept that enforcing this might be difficult, as how do you stop someone from reading something on another forum, and then repeating it here, but I think we should refrain from directly quoting other forums.

If people in the community do not have a issue with quoting or copying posts from other forums and feel this is acceptable, and the admin team are happy for it to continue, I am not going to stop visiting the site as a result of it continuing, but as a community, I feel it is important to air issues, and if its just me that feels this way, so be it

I hope this post makes sense, and look forward to hearing what other members of the community feel about this issue.

Ian

 

[Dave]

The trouble with saying people cannot quote a post from another forum is it restricts the free discussion across the community which is obvious a detriment to everyone. There are also HUGE legal black-holes when it comes to the content of forum text. This is primarily due to the nature of the developing law in regards to social media and has mostly been explored through wranglings about Libel/ Slander.

Basically there is a lot of confusion as to whether forum posts class as written or spoken and how that then is interpreted as law (i know it sounds mad but the internet just confuses the definition of written word). The other complication comes from laws regarding a fair information exchange right where-by if you reference the source (which by default must have happened if we know its come from another forum) then you can use other peoples written content so long as it's not too much.

From our point of view we only delete a quote from another site if its not adding anything to the topic or we feel it was quoted just to cause friction between different sites. Images are different (as their copyright status is very clear) and certainly one site has requested non of their images are posted here and we respect their copyright. It is generally considered good manners on internet forums to actually link to the other forums post and maybe just para-phrase the content if needed so as not to be taking discussion from the alternative forum.

Finally people need to remember that the content of a post here is the legal responsibility of the author, if people think it breaches their right to copyright then flag it. We are not a moderated forum by legal definition and we take no responsibility for post content.

As for the morality of quoting other peoples posts on a different forum, i think if it genuinely adds something to what is being discussed here then its best to link to that forum and let people go read it there, but i can think of about 3 times it's ever come up in the 2 years i have worked on a forum.

 

[BarryZola]

To keep it short, I think it's just down to common sense really. Most people in this internet age know what is generally acceptable and what is not. If something is posted which could cause unnecessary friction between certain sites or people then the mods are usually on top of it before long.

 

[Craig]

For me personally, forum posts can be split up into two types. One which provides information and one which provides opinion on a subject.

Firstly, there's those that provide information. These are the sorts of posts we often see quoted on other forums. The content is often factual (announcing a new ride for instance) and can often be the seed to allow discussion on the other forum to grown and develop.

It's imperative that things like this are allowed, as although enthusiast forums are all interested in the same thing on the face of it, each forum can add it's own personality to the discussion. In the case of some of the discussion here, such as Europa for instance, it can even be our own language considering other EP forums are French or English based.

Opinion posts are a little different, as it is right that the original poster should be allowed to properly respond to discussion raised off the back of their comments. I don't see a great deal of these posts being copied to other forums though, it's mainly those with factual information which are posted. There are occasions when copying them over could be considered acceptable though, such as when you're posting a roundup of a general opinion on a forum for instance.

Without this sharing of information across forums, we wouldn't have such the hugely varying array of enthusiast sites that we do now. I would hate to see TowersStreet having little info on those European Parks, all because we prevent people from quoting other forums. It's ultimately a reciprocal relationship anyway, with an EP forum for example having information posted from it on TST, and them having info on Alton posted on theirs - everyone ultimately gains from it. For most sites and forums, it's a setup which has worked extremely well over the years, and one I wouldn't like to see change.

The way I see it, most of us aren't doing this for personal gain and we're all contributing for a love of the theme park industry, and it's great to have so much information freely and easily available across multiple sites. It's one of the main reasons why I'm personally so against having "member only" forums. Everyone, member or otherwise should be able to read what other enthusiasts are talking about across different sites, and have the ability, especially in the case of factual information to discuss it wherever they choose. For me, I'm proud to see information from TowersStreet shared around the internet. It's proof that we have some really great contributors and content around here.

Obviously, and without beating around the bush here there has been stuff discussed about TowersTimes on TS. Although we've discussed this at length in the past, we will refer criticism about other sites as much as possible back to them. There may be times when this crosses over into general discussion about their actions, in which case we will allow this to an extent (as has been seen in the Sw7 topic last night for example). I'm sure you'll appreciate, it's a difficult tightrope to walk between censoring discussion and allowing fair comment on a situation. On the whole, I feel we do get this right as much as we can, but encourage feedback on specific posts using the report button or by posting in guest services if you feel a decision is not correct.

 

[Sam]

I usually try and give credit for stuff, but I don't really care about re-hosting and then posting some images of some ride under construction.

It's not like someone's great artwork or something creative they've done. It's just photos of a ride being built. I try and give credit, but I don't really have any problem with posting stuff for the enjoyment of other people who are interested in new rides and parks.

 

[John]

I think ideally when posting news from elsewhere you should always aim to add something of your own to the topic too, otherwise the "all other parks" board just descends into a rehash of screamscape which seems a little pointless.

 

[Craig]

I usually try and give credit for stuff, but I don't really care about re-hosting and then posting some images of some ride under construction.

It's not like someone's great artwork or something creative they've done. It's just photos of a ride being built. I try and give credit, but I don't really have any problem with posting stuff for the enjoyment of other people who are interested in new rides and parks.

The picture side of things is something I disagree with massively. People should always be credited for images they have taken as far as I'm concerned. Sure they're not artistic, but it's just polite to link people back to the source photographer or site. It may not be art, but they've taken time, effort and sometimes cost of getting there to go and get those updates and shared them - it's the least you can do .

 

[Jonathan]

Personally, whenever I post stuff I've found anywhere else, I always link it back to the original source and expand on it a little bit, even if that expansion's nothing more than a couple of sentences. It's just common sense and politeness to do so, and you'd be expected to do the same in any academic writing. Maybe it's just me being pedantic, but it's only fair that people are credited for their work.

 

[Sam]

Well yeah, I always try to give credit for information or photos I post, but if I can't find who it was by then it wouldn't stop me posting it.

It's not really artistic if it's photos of a ride being built. The ride itself is the creative work, not the photo of it. Like someone taking a photograph of a painting in a gallery, it's not really worth much in and of itself.

 

[Tom]

The consumption of someone else's bandwidth by hotlinking is a questionable practice. I think linking to the image's actual page is preferable.

 

[Sam]

The consumption of someone else's bandwidth by hotlinking is a questionable practice. I think linking to the image's actual page is preferable.

Which is why I nearly always right click and select 'Upload to Imgur', using the wonderful extension I have.