It's deja vu all over again -- a mini-me verson of 'ezz9.'
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 12:00 am
I will try my best to make this post as painless as possible *AND* cut to the quick without going off on one too many tangential issues. The latter is at times necessary in order to buttress a point or two being made. Ready ... steady ... GO!
I should probably engage in a little more detective work so that I have a rock-solid case to go on and beyond a shadow of a doubt. But it's time I opened up my mouth and let the chips fall where they may. I also want to state that I'm not exactly losing any sleep over this or my conscience nagging the daylights out of me over taking to task yet another person (i.e., moderator) here on Fanart. I can easily look the other way but I decided not to because even though I don't have too much of a stake in matters, I care enough about this site to call out bullshit when I see it. The most egregious being a few years ago with 'ezz9' and a number of us sharing our stories about how he was screwing the pooch, so to speak, right from the outset when he became a moderator. We all know how that state of affairs ended.
I have started to see a few strange things as of late with one of the moderators here (he goes by the name of "luch33to"). His crime? Mind you he has not exactly committed a felony let alone fleecing loads of images from Album Art Exchange and putting them up here (not that I'm aware of despite that being a very small possibility). He basically reports images almost ad nauseum and putting up his own images. Rinse; lather; repeat. Quite a number of them are nothing to write home about, and I even wonder how some were accepted to begin with. A number of those images would get denied by him if they were put up by someone else. I would stake my very existence on that any day of the week! I reckon examples are legion, but two images that come to mind are his recent submissions of the "The Number Of The Beast" CD-single and "Killers" album by IRON MAIDEN. I don't know how the hell that individual even thought of putting up the latter image in the first place since it was so-so to godawful and nowhere near the high standards for image quality on this site. That is the sort of thing a newbie would do if they were trying out their hand for the first time in putting up images. I will assume he took it down after hitting him up with a private message pointing out to him what was wrong with it. In the event that it was denied by a moderator, I gather one way to find out is to go to the 'DENIED' sub-section underneath the 'MUSIC FANART' section within the PENDING area. If it's there one can take a look at it and see for themselves. I would do so myself and put up the link here, but on my end it takes almost forever for things to load. I have enough trouble as it is with the 'Wi-Fi' cutting out at irregular intervals.
On the heels of the above is him putting up images that are not "Replacement Images" but merely to go alongside others presently here on the Fanart database OR to actually replace the other image upon the discretion of a moderator. I don't want to assume too much but I gather he does the latter quite a bit. One example will suffice. He tried doing it with the "Sonic Highways" album by FOO FIGHTERS. It wasn't a "Replacement Image" per se and merely to go either alongside the present one or perhaps to replace the one already here. I'm banking on the latter option seeing the few comments that he left alongside the image in the PENDING section last week. Was his submission of that image better and/or dazzling to the point of having one's eyeballs come out of their sockets? Not in the slightest! They were virtually identical but with a TEENY-WEENY difference in the lower left-hand side where the water is and perhaps, too, in color balance. All in all there was no difference and no improvement. My guess is that FOO FIGHTERS (and IRON MAIDEN, PINK FLOYD, et al.) are one of his favorite bands and he just has to be the kid on the block (figuratively speaking) in having up the most images from that band and others.
I readily understand that inner urge or drive to have images up from one's favorite bands. Without having to cite any but I can recall several images that I wanted to put up and someone beat me to the punch. If not at that moment in time one or several months prior to it. (It's not a good example because the situation and context was different but I'm thinking right now of the "Hardwired...To Self-Destruct" album by METALLICA. I had that image and several others roughly 2-4 months prior to the album's official release. My version of the one that is currently up by 'Growler' was denied by 'ezz9' over some inane horse crap regarding image quality. Luckily the others were accepted by one or two other moderators who I presume saw that they were the actual ones from the record labels. As I write this one can still verify things by downloading the image from iTunes via Ben Dodson's app. Then and now the image measures 4000px and 8.48 megabytes. I don't know about 'ezz9' or anyone else for that matter but it hardly gets any better than that.) When it happens one has to simply suck it up and move on. If one can't hold their tongue and needs to rant a bit, do what I did recently even though I wouldn't suggest doing so a bunch of times. I took to the "REPORT IMAGE" function and voiced my complaint about the "Joanne" front cover from Lady Gaga. With all due respect to McVicar who I have nothing but good things to say about (re: we have corresponded privately on occasion and God bless him for helping me out with a 1920x1080 image of The Mission U.K. that is here on Fanart) but he denied the image that is currently up by 'Splke6535.' The images are indeed different -- one is the CD and the other is the Digital Media version -- despite at first glance looking exactly the same. All in all, I didn't complain bitterly to McVicar despite telling him I would get back to him privately and merely sucked it up and moved on.
Lastly, and I readily admit the following is apples and oranges, until this matter gets rectified I'm holding off once again in putting up any further images. With the exception of one or two periods of activity I took a long break in 2017 and 2018, and sort of hoping to resume activity once again. Let's just say I have a TON of images waiting in the wings (e.g., JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, etc.) and just recently got back into the swing of things. Not for nothing but as I write this I have these gorgeous-looking images of the original vinyl LP's to "Killers" and "The Number Of The Beast" by IRON MAIDEN that need to be given the once-over before eventually making their way here to the Fanart database. That's assuming, of course, they get accepted and wholeheartedly believe they will since they are quite different from the one's already up here. Once again, until the powers that be rectify matters those images and yours truly are not budging an inch. Do I want to see this particular moderator get the boot? Hardly -- unless it's necessary. As I see it he just needs a friendly pep-talk to cease and desist, and maybe a little rap or two on the knuckles with a wooden ruler.
ADDENDUM: My apologies to anyone who felt my "novel" was unnecessary and I could have gone instead with a "Too Long; Didn't Read" version. Without reiterating what I said way at the outset, I will state nonetheless that I wanted to put all my eggs in one basket. I'm not exactly in a court room setting but I needed to settle the matter in as detailed a manner as possible.
Cheers,
-Silverfox
I should probably engage in a little more detective work so that I have a rock-solid case to go on and beyond a shadow of a doubt. But it's time I opened up my mouth and let the chips fall where they may. I also want to state that I'm not exactly losing any sleep over this or my conscience nagging the daylights out of me over taking to task yet another person (i.e., moderator) here on Fanart. I can easily look the other way but I decided not to because even though I don't have too much of a stake in matters, I care enough about this site to call out bullshit when I see it. The most egregious being a few years ago with 'ezz9' and a number of us sharing our stories about how he was screwing the pooch, so to speak, right from the outset when he became a moderator. We all know how that state of affairs ended.
I have started to see a few strange things as of late with one of the moderators here (he goes by the name of "luch33to"). His crime? Mind you he has not exactly committed a felony let alone fleecing loads of images from Album Art Exchange and putting them up here (not that I'm aware of despite that being a very small possibility). He basically reports images almost ad nauseum and putting up his own images. Rinse; lather; repeat. Quite a number of them are nothing to write home about, and I even wonder how some were accepted to begin with. A number of those images would get denied by him if they were put up by someone else. I would stake my very existence on that any day of the week! I reckon examples are legion, but two images that come to mind are his recent submissions of the "The Number Of The Beast" CD-single and "Killers" album by IRON MAIDEN. I don't know how the hell that individual even thought of putting up the latter image in the first place since it was so-so to godawful and nowhere near the high standards for image quality on this site. That is the sort of thing a newbie would do if they were trying out their hand for the first time in putting up images. I will assume he took it down after hitting him up with a private message pointing out to him what was wrong with it. In the event that it was denied by a moderator, I gather one way to find out is to go to the 'DENIED' sub-section underneath the 'MUSIC FANART' section within the PENDING area. If it's there one can take a look at it and see for themselves. I would do so myself and put up the link here, but on my end it takes almost forever for things to load. I have enough trouble as it is with the 'Wi-Fi' cutting out at irregular intervals.
On the heels of the above is him putting up images that are not "Replacement Images" but merely to go alongside others presently here on the Fanart database OR to actually replace the other image upon the discretion of a moderator. I don't want to assume too much but I gather he does the latter quite a bit. One example will suffice. He tried doing it with the "Sonic Highways" album by FOO FIGHTERS. It wasn't a "Replacement Image" per se and merely to go either alongside the present one or perhaps to replace the one already here. I'm banking on the latter option seeing the few comments that he left alongside the image in the PENDING section last week. Was his submission of that image better and/or dazzling to the point of having one's eyeballs come out of their sockets? Not in the slightest! They were virtually identical but with a TEENY-WEENY difference in the lower left-hand side where the water is and perhaps, too, in color balance. All in all there was no difference and no improvement. My guess is that FOO FIGHTERS (and IRON MAIDEN, PINK FLOYD, et al.) are one of his favorite bands and he just has to be the kid on the block (figuratively speaking) in having up the most images from that band and others.
I readily understand that inner urge or drive to have images up from one's favorite bands. Without having to cite any but I can recall several images that I wanted to put up and someone beat me to the punch. If not at that moment in time one or several months prior to it. (It's not a good example because the situation and context was different but I'm thinking right now of the "Hardwired...To Self-Destruct" album by METALLICA. I had that image and several others roughly 2-4 months prior to the album's official release. My version of the one that is currently up by 'Growler' was denied by 'ezz9' over some inane horse crap regarding image quality. Luckily the others were accepted by one or two other moderators who I presume saw that they were the actual ones from the record labels. As I write this one can still verify things by downloading the image from iTunes via Ben Dodson's app. Then and now the image measures 4000px and 8.48 megabytes. I don't know about 'ezz9' or anyone else for that matter but it hardly gets any better than that.) When it happens one has to simply suck it up and move on. If one can't hold their tongue and needs to rant a bit, do what I did recently even though I wouldn't suggest doing so a bunch of times. I took to the "REPORT IMAGE" function and voiced my complaint about the "Joanne" front cover from Lady Gaga. With all due respect to McVicar who I have nothing but good things to say about (re: we have corresponded privately on occasion and God bless him for helping me out with a 1920x1080 image of The Mission U.K. that is here on Fanart) but he denied the image that is currently up by 'Splke6535.' The images are indeed different -- one is the CD and the other is the Digital Media version -- despite at first glance looking exactly the same. All in all, I didn't complain bitterly to McVicar despite telling him I would get back to him privately and merely sucked it up and moved on.
Lastly, and I readily admit the following is apples and oranges, until this matter gets rectified I'm holding off once again in putting up any further images. With the exception of one or two periods of activity I took a long break in 2017 and 2018, and sort of hoping to resume activity once again. Let's just say I have a TON of images waiting in the wings (e.g., JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, etc.) and just recently got back into the swing of things. Not for nothing but as I write this I have these gorgeous-looking images of the original vinyl LP's to "Killers" and "The Number Of The Beast" by IRON MAIDEN that need to be given the once-over before eventually making their way here to the Fanart database. That's assuming, of course, they get accepted and wholeheartedly believe they will since they are quite different from the one's already up here. Once again, until the powers that be rectify matters those images and yours truly are not budging an inch. Do I want to see this particular moderator get the boot? Hardly -- unless it's necessary. As I see it he just needs a friendly pep-talk to cease and desist, and maybe a little rap or two on the knuckles with a wooden ruler.
ADDENDUM: My apologies to anyone who felt my "novel" was unnecessary and I could have gone instead with a "Too Long; Didn't Read" version. Without reiterating what I said way at the outset, I will state nonetheless that I wanted to put all my eggs in one basket. I'm not exactly in a court room setting but I needed to settle the matter in as detailed a manner as possible.
Cheers,
-Silverfox