this bathysphere is perplexing!

[sab]

Hey, LOTRips people? There's this thread over on the seekrit_pics community talking about smackin' down some troll or mole or whatnot, and I'm perplexed. Is it me? Looks around...

I'm so confused. I totally friended the community; I'm not a part of LOTRips fandom or even LOTR fandom (while being a fangirl in my own right -- and proud of it! -- off in my own other fandoms), but I was certainly enjoying watching the discussion and the fallout over there. I had no idea that my friending the community would create such draaaaamaa.

I didn't, um, I didn't friend the community to see Jason's pictures -- dude, I am IN the pictures, hell, I *took* some of the pictures; I just friended y'all on a lark when y'all started friending *me.*

Essentially, what happened was this: Jason, who is in no way internet-naive, but who does tend to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and has general faith in the goodness of humanity, uploaded the pictures to his gallery (which was alive and kicking long before y'all found it) and left it unlocked, figuring he'd give the URL out to his friends and family and let us enjoy his photography.

A good question might be, how did fandom discover his gallery in the first place? A reasonable answer might be: well, it's the internet, things are bound to get out eventually.

So, badda-bing. Some fan found the pictures, and the horse was out of the barn. Jason, still having general faith in the goodness of humanity, opted to password-protect some of the albums, while keeping others open, fully aware that fans were visiting and enjoying them, and figuring, well, as long as the fans didn't overload his bandwidth or steal and repost his pictures elsewhere, what was the harm? So about half the galleries were open for the past few months as we tested the waters, but folks kept nabbing and reposting the pictures and Jason's bandwidth usage skyrocketed.

Then last week we had the gingerbread party and the pix went up, and didn't get locked down quick enough, but there had always been plans in the works to lock down and password-protect the whole site, and so, a couple days ago, Jason did just that.

If you have any questions about this, I will answer them as honestly as I can, but there's no hypocrisy or eeeevil at work there, just the matter of trying to save Jason's site from being overrun by fans bent on conspiracy-theorizing about the content of these (really rather innocent, rather personal, and rather human) photos. Plus -- as far as I can tell, half the fandom was bucking for Jason to lock down the site all along, saying he was naive about the ways of the internet and shouldn't have put them up for public viewing in the first place. So what's the deal?

Comments

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Okay, look. Don't stress about it. I'll tell you -- if I came across a cache of cool pictures I'd want to share them too. And I honestly have no problem with the fact that they were shared in the first place, because such is the nature of the internet. If it hadn't been you, it'd be someone else, no question.

We're just a little stressed about the second place, and the third place, and the heaps of times when, on Jason's behest, we asked the community nicely to please stop poaching the pictures, and this whole wossname erupted. Anyway, it's over (maybe). So, y'know, happy holidays! *g*

[bunniewabbit.livejournal.com]

You are incredibly gracious, and I'm glad that you seem able to ride this out with such style!

I am trying to let it go, and just telling you about it has made me feel at least a little better (though, frankly, I think I must thrive on guilt, or at least, I've had a lot of practice at it). It's always been my rule as a LOTR fangirl to never do anything that would touch the personal lives of the actors, and I've failed that rather spectacularly. I obviously can't apologize to Elijah, Dom or Shox, and I reeeeeeally doubt that Jason would want to hear from me, but at least I can apologize to you and any of your friends who happen to read this: I am sorry, and if I could take any of it back or fix it (and oh, my GOD, I really did try to fix it!), I would.

Thank you for your understanding, and I do hope that this, like all things, shall pass, and soon. :)