The point you were making was that it was the 'Mona Lisa' of test images, that is that it had some special quality as a test image. It did not. It was popular, but it wasn't unique in its testing ability, many, many images have the same utility and serve as more than adequate replacements. So, the point is that imaging science has not been harmed in any way by some journals deprecation of this image. In fact some even said that it would be used if the authors demonstrated a scientific need for it to be used. The only point here really is that you disagree with the editors' decision and think that they should be coerced in some way to chnage it. There are planty of editors' decisions that I disagree with, but as editors they have a right to edit as they see fit.
So now you're demanding that they cave to the pressure of culture warriors of the opposite persuasion. Sure, it's what all culture warriors demand. I guess most people, including myself, are heartily fed up of the whole set of culture warriors, from whichever side they come. As I said earlier, all it is, is performative outrage. I expect that you're going to deny being a culture warrior - but that's exactly what you are. The only real question is which view of culture are you going into battle for.
Another accusation of dishonesty. Strange though you might find it, other people do have different opinions to you. To convince them you have to make your case, which you've been failing to do. It's like the boxer, getting up on the count of eleven, and saying to his opponent 'I beat you, you just don't want to admit it.'
I am grateful to this site for allowing this discussion without (as far as I'm aware, considering I stopped reading the posts before the end of the first page) partisan censorship being imposed by the moderator(s). This is especially relevant to me because I got sucked into a "discussion" about why there are so many men and so few women photographers (at least at DPR) and the prevailing opinion of that thread came to be that men are hunters/warriors and photography is like that (never mind any analogies to gathering or nurturing), whereas women are not hunters/warriors (which is BS). I took exception to that misogynist POV and wrote a lengthy reply, that was deleted by the moderator who replaced it with his own post reaffirming that men have always been the warriors/hunters and my post was "off-topic." After that, I was permanently banned from DPR for getting upset with the way the site was being moderated (criticizing the moderation is also against the rules there). Talk about "cancel culture."
There was a thing some people called 'Twittergate' when Musk released a load of internal Twitter documents. I have not read them. Have you? If so, I'd be grateful if you could be precise about what these documents show. I've seen differing assessments from different commentators, and it seems that the conclusions drawn are wildly different, according to the political leaning of the commentator. As I said in another post, my general modus operandi is to make up my own mind, based on the evidence, rather than listening to an echo chamber the simply confirms any biases I might already have. So, if you can put forward a case, based directly on the evidence then you might be able to convince me. Otherwise I'll just go ahead with the evidence that I've seen and my own assessment of it.
I'm LMAO at your conspiratorial mindset that vilifies people who don't agree with you. Lazy in the context above is about you avoiding trying to rationalize irrational BS because it would take too much time (as in, forever), and that's also funny since you have clearly wasted a lot of time consuming that BS.
I'm a Marxist, does that make me "loony?" I'm wondering because I know people on the right who are certifiably loony, mostly Trump supporters, though not necessarily most of Trump's supporters (probably more than half, but I'm not going to bother quantifying it here); indeed, I would say those people are both loony and rabid, and that those two things tend to go together.
Yeah, I don't think most opinions are amenable to facts because they are founded on emotions with argument/discussion coming after the fact and in spite of facts.
Again, thanks for the forum Alan. By all means get back to discussing photography. I think it goes without saying that every post here just adds fuel to the fire, yours included, and my reply is evidence of that.
I see where you are going to go with this because you have 'drank the cool aid' and it will be the lie, deny, deflect and accuse scenario the Dems love to do. I'll avoid that rabbit hole, but I know you know better, but you will never say it.
You know I know better? Firstly, I'm not a 'Dem'. Secondly, as I say, I make my own decisions on available evidence. If you have any evidence to present to support your case, please do so. If you don't, then it's you that looks like the one consuming Kool-aid. People with something useful to say will generally support what they say with something more than insults.
Practically every trial on these issues has ended with a verdict that you're wrong, and there have been many actual trials so I'm not speaking figuratively here.
I'd be sorry to see this thread go into the dumpster. The issues in the thread, though undoubtedly political, are of some importance to photographers - i.e. to what extent should political considerations dictate what images are or are not published. Of course, being a discussion about politics, people with political axes to grind will grind them away. But in my view, that isn't a bad thing. People who dislike this kind of discussion simply have to ignore it. People who are interested can come to their own judgment on the merits of the different proponents' arguments, and what they feel about these issues.
In addition, I'd really hate to see this site go the way of DPReview, where the staffers and moderators dictate to members which topics are or are not acceptable. So long as posts stay within the terms and conditions they should stay. This is currently the most active thread here. Do you really want to suppress it?
Whoa, whoa,whoa! No one's said anything about Boeing! Oh, wait... 😁
I have an idea -- what if you can make it so replies to this thread stop putting it as the leader for News and Discussions? That way, people who don't like it can more easily avoid it (and participate in other threads and/or start their own!) whereas the combatants (not me, of course -- no way -- never!) can still change the world with their opinions. That way, the people who don't like this thread will be less likely to accidentally click on it, read the posts, and find that they don't like the discussion.
As you say, photography can often be political -- in fact, that's the entire point of a non-trivial portion of photography -- so I don't think this thread is dumpster material. Sure, there is a bunch of off topic political stuff in this thread, but there's a lot of on topic political stuff, too. I mean, I didn't know anything about the Lena photo and surrounding controversy until this thread, and, methinks, if a discussion about photography is limited to the technical details or how "pretty" the photo is (or isn't), then we're dismissing the whole reason a lot of photos are taken -- they are meant to inspire political discussion, and ignoring that aspect of the photo is actually doing it a disservice. I mean, imagine if a discussion of the photo of Kim Phuc running from the naped Vietnamese village was confined to why the photo was BW instead of color, the various crops of the photo that are used, the DOF of the photo, etc., etc., etc., and no discussion about the purpose and impact of the photo.
IMO problem is not in disliking, problem is that more interesting/important parts of this discussion (politics vs images vs history) tend to be shadowed by other subtopics. This means also that users, not watching this thread closely, can't follow it anymore. I can so far :)
This won't happen - no one will dictate anything. Alan and I just noted that thread is getting out of hand (ie too convoluted and messy) and dumpster may be better place for it, no actions done :) Sometimes such little reminders help bring posts back to topic (and/or create another subthread about site administration :)).