View Full Version : The internet as a force for GOOD?
Papa_Complex
03-30-2010, 09:39 PM
It's weird when you think about how connected the world has become.
Two days ago, on a photography forum based in the UK, I saw a picture of a racebike taken by a New Zealand motorsports guy. It was a great shot, by an amateur who has been doing great work down there. Seeing his stuff through the winter helps keep me sane.
I mentioned it to a Kiwi racer who now lives in Canada, on the off chance that they had met before. He didn't know the racer, but thought that I was asking for him to find the guy. Yesterday he posted about the picture on a NZ motorcycle site, very much like this one.
Today the racer saw the message, looked at the picture, and signed up on the photography forum to comment on it. A Canadian, on a British website, with the help of an ex-pat Kiwi, put together the guy who took the picture and the one who it was of, who live not far from each other but had never met. If he's lucky, the guy who took the picture might get his name around.
When it isn't being used for kiddie-porn and whacko left/right rants, the internet can actually do some good.
CrazyKell
03-30-2010, 09:47 PM
It's very cool how connected the world has become. :D
EpyonXero
03-31-2010, 09:37 AM
dpreview?
Papa_Complex
03-31-2010, 10:12 AM
dpreview?
Yup. I probably spend as much time there, as I do here.
EpyonXero
03-31-2010, 10:55 AM
Yup. I probably spend as much time there, as I do here.
Same here, although I dont post much.
Papa_Complex
03-31-2010, 10:58 AM
Same here, although I dont post much.
I post heavily every 2 weeks or so, over 5-6 months, and then crawl into a cave for the winter. I've tried to find something to shoot over the winter, but have failed miserably.
sherri_chickie
03-31-2010, 11:16 AM
I post heavily every 2 weeks or so, over 5-6 months, and then crawl into a cave for the winter. I've tried to find something to shoot over the winter, but have failed miserably.
SNOW? or how about the SNOW? or maybe the SNOW? since that is all we see all darned winter.
Papa_Complex
03-31-2010, 11:35 AM
SNOW? or how about the SNOW? or maybe the SNOW? since that is all we see all darned winter.
I actually wanted to shoot snow this winter. I have plenty of good locations in which to do it. We barely got any.
This was from a couple of years back.
http://www.morallyambiguous.net/multimedia/gallery2/d/31122-5/P2085470.JPG
Flexin
03-31-2010, 11:47 AM
That's pretty cool. I'm on a music forum and at one point there was a female on there that couldn't afford a good guitar, one reason was cost in her country. People on the forum starting putting spare parts together, gave them to one guy that painted, built the guitar and mailed it to her. Cool stuff.
James
Avatard
03-31-2010, 12:02 PM
I am on a bass forum, and a metal guy had his bass stolen (a very unusual all carbon graphite "Buzzard" bass) when touring a European country. Some time later, this very unusual bass was spotted by a forum reader at a local luthier, who posted a picture of it, whereupon others identified it as the missing bass, and the instrument was returned to its rightful owner.
Papa_Complex
03-31-2010, 12:11 PM
Every now an then someone posts on DPReview about a lost or stolen camera, but I don;t know if it has ever paid off. There was one situation in which a photographer had fallen on hard times and sold off her gear to survive, then mysteriously had a box show up at her doorstep with a couple of year old DSLR in it. Don't know if she ever found out who sent it. In another case someone got ripped off in an eBay deal for a flash and someone sent him his spare.
I like those stories. Makes you think that "human nature" might not be a mythical thing, after all.
Avatard
03-31-2010, 12:20 PM
I don't watch much network news anymore, since it only seems to highlight the darkest parts of human behavior. I far prefer when humans help each other. You actually get to see some of that from time to time on the Internet.
The flipside to all this warm and fuzzy fucking Internet Kumbaya, is the YouTube comments, and the Facebook bully kids, that drive young girls to commit suicide.
It's just the Yin and Yang of the web's circle of life, Simba.
That's pretty cool. I'm on a music forum and at one point there was a female on there that couldn't afford a good guitar, one reason was cost in her country. People on the forum starting putting spare parts together, gave them to one guy that painted, built the guitar and mailed it to her. Cool stuff.
James
Yall should do that for me only with an old R series BMW.
Krabill
03-31-2010, 12:46 PM
I've seen the guys over on ADVrider pool together to buy a motorcycle for a rider with financial issues on more than one occasion.
Papa_Complex
03-31-2010, 12:48 PM
Yall should do that for me only with an old R series BMW.
You'll take a Ural, and LIKE it mister!
You'll take a Ural, and LIKE it mister!
I'd be fine with a ural.
Papa_Complex
03-31-2010, 01:59 PM
I'd be fine with a ural.
No sidecar! Sidecar cost extra!
EpyonXero
03-31-2010, 02:05 PM
I don't watch much network news anymore, since it only seems to highlight the darkest parts of human behavior. I far prefer when humans help each other. You actually get to see some of that from time to time on the Internet.
The flipside to all this warm and fuzzy fucking Internet Kumbaya, is the YouTube comments, and the Facebook bully kids, that drive young girls to commit suicide.
It's just the Yin and Yang of the web's circle of life, Simba.
Yeah. It seems that the more anonymous the forum is (YouTube comments) the worse the behavior is but places where you have regular interaction with the same people and get to know them things become the total opposite. Ive been on a/The CBR email list for like 10 years and most of the other regulars have been there longer it seems like a lot of the guys on there are very willing to do whatever they can to help another lister.
No sidecar! Sidecar cost extra!
I'd rather not have a stupid sidecar. Now go get my ural together.
Every now an then someone posts on DPReview about a lost or stolen camera, but I don;t know if it has ever paid off. There was one situation in which a photographer had fallen on hard times and sold off her gear to survive, then mysteriously had a box show up at her doorstep with a couple of year old DSLR in it. Don't know if she ever found out who sent it. In another case someone got ripped off in an eBay deal for a flash and someone sent him his spare.
I like those stories. Makes you think that "human nature" might not be a mythical thing, after all.
Several of the folks on a VFR site I'm on went in together and sent me $$ to get my son an extra Christmas present this past Christmas. :)
Papa_Complex
03-31-2010, 03:22 PM
I'd rather not have a stupid sidecar. Now go get my ural together.
Ohhhhhh, you know you want sidecar.
Tsunami
03-31-2010, 06:49 PM
A few years back on the pug forum, a friend posted for a family, whose pug ran out and got hit by a car. Pug had 3 broken legs and they couldn't afford to fix him and was going to put him down. The friend went out on a limb for donations (without the family knowing) and a bunch of us called the Vet's office in the morning with credit card donations. I think the donations came out to about $4k? It was enough for the surgery and 4 month of after care. They posted pics later of the pug post surgery with his casts- he was a cutie!
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