Arma 3 Photography : Questions and Comments

[BLACKOUT... 41]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1795825073

 

USPs DMCA has been overruled and put back on the workshop.

 

Please unhide my and others screenshots, thanks 

[Siege-A 4054]

Furthermore, it would be helpful if a moderator here could explain this new shift in rules regarding mods having a DMCA claim filed against them. Since apparently we were the first to expose this new rule, which had never been mentioned before (or clearly indicated in any of the forum guidelines). This would help future authors/mods to know what can be expected if/when a DMCA report is made against them, whether it be true or false. I feel its better for us all to understand how things work here rather than being surprised when we have suddenly violated some rule we never knew about, even when we have read over the guidelines. Because as it stands, there seems to be some miscommunication between the moderation staff here and the community in which they manage. From what I understand now, if your mod thread here is locked (regardless the reasoning behind it) then you aren't allowed to advertise, post pictures, or discuss your mod on these forums. Same goes for if you have a DMCA report filed against your workshop item, which I'm guessing should also result in your thread being locked here if a DMCA is pending (what sense does it make to keep a thread open for something if it isn't allowed to be discussed or shown anywhere else on the forums?)

 

This isn't an attempt to create friction, this is a reasonable concern that I feel is very poorly explained or documented. Had we known about this ahead of time, we could have avoided any of the drama that was caused by our team asking about the reason why our pictures were removed here (since we weren't aware of this, as it was never mentioned or indicated). Some clarification on this would be highly appreciated and useful for those of us not within the inner circle. And maybe reflecting this on the OP for the photography thread so that it is always known and never in question. 

[Yoshi_E 178]

@Siege-A You should be aware that your mod was under a lock down due to various reports and that until the situation is resolved, it will remain locked and hidden in the Forum.

A situation which you, USP already accepted and agreed on internally with us.

 

You can find this general rule in our guidelines:

Quote

Posting addon/mod other content without permission:
"However, on these forums you must follow this rule, if a person/team post a thread to share an addon/mod using content from someone else without permission, and we receive a complaint, the mod thread will be closed until the issue is resolved."

Related content, which can include screenshots and advertisement, can also be hidden until the issue is resolved.

This is again, a guideline and not a definite rule or law. However it should clearly advise, that it is better for one to abstain from making new posts about the suspect at hand.

 

Other moderators have informed you so as well, in private & public:

Quote

Images containing USP have been removed. USP images will not be allowed until the DMCA claim is resolved. 

The issue was not considered resolved,when directly after your publication, a DMCA was filed against your mod. So we extended the period to wait until the DMCA is resolved.

Considering the history with your mod and your previous rule violations, I hope it is understandable that we extended the observation period, until all of us can be certain that there is no further rule violation.
We can understand that you want to share your mod as fast as possible with the community. However prematurely unlocking everything, before we both can be certain that no further issue will occur, would only lead to possible confusion on all sides.

 

To answer your individual questions:

Quote

From what I understand now, if your mod thread here is locked (regardless the reasoning behind it) then you aren't allowed to advertise, post pictures, or discuss your mod on these forums

This is false, as the reason you are not allowed to post is not that "your mod thread here is locked", but rather due to the in already in private discussed rule violations and the current investigation as described above.  

 

Quote

since we weren't aware of this, as it was never mentioned or indicated

As stated in the Arma 3 Photos Thread,  "Private addons" should not be used in screenshots, only public addons.". Your mod at the time was not published (private), thus the images were taken down without notice.

They will remain hidden until the issue is resolved, as stated above.

 

If the communication about the rule violations has been unclear, we will try to improve on it in the future.

I hope I have answered your questions, if anything is left unclear, do not hesitate to ask us again.

 

Regards 

Yoshi_E

 

Bohemia Forum Moderation 

[LJH_1 53]

17 hours ago, Yoshi_E said:

Your mod at the time was not published (private), thus the images were taken down without notice.

I don't really have a dog in this fight but this statement is just blatantly wrong. Like that's not even trying to be factually correct. They had a very public release on their subreddit several days before the false DMCA and even with the DMCA there was still a public download link on the USP subreddit that was very highly advertised on their reddit at the time the pictures were taken down. I don't mean to start shit but if you truly want people to not be confused about these rules it may be beneficial to do your research and fact check everything before enforcing these policies you have and also making public posts as to why you enforced a certain rule because when you give your reason as to why you enforced X rule and that reason turns out to be incorrect then it furthers the confusion and breaks the trust between the moderation on these forums and the community.

[EO 11228]

I'd imagine these decisions are taken based on what goes on within these forum walls, not what's happening on Reddit, what I mean is, regardless of whether there is a public release elsewhere the mod is still under lock down here, hence why the screenshots are hidden.

 

[LJH_1 53]

4 minutes ago, EO said:

I'd imagine these decisions are taken based on what goes on within these forum walls, not what's happening on Reddit.

If that is true then what he said right here is a blatant contradiction to that theory. No matter what way you slice it the mod was public and his statement saying it was a private mod when those pictures were posted is just factually wrong.

 

18 hours ago, Yoshi_E said:

Quote

From what I understand now, if your mod thread here is locked (regardless the reasoning behind it) then you aren't allowed to advertise, post pictures, or discuss your mod on these forums

This is false, as the reason you are not allowed to post is not that "your mod thread here is locked", but rather due to the in already in private discussed rule violations and the current investigation as described above.  

[EO 11228]

12 minutes ago, LJH_1 said:

If that is true then what he said right here is a blatant contradiction to that theory. No matter what way you slice it the mod was public and his statement saying it was a private mod when those pictures were posted is just factually wrong.

 

The mod wasn't and still isn't available to download on these forum boards, hence why the screenshots are hidden. I don't see the additional drama to the drama here.

[Dedmen 2588]

13 minutes ago, LJH_1 said:

If that is true then what he said right here is a blatant contradiction to that theory.

Yes. Correct. Yoshi made a mistake. It's friggin 38°C outside man.

We told USP that discussion and screenshot posting will not be permitted till thread is unlocked.

To be fair, Siege-A knows fully well why he isn't allowed to post. Stop beating a dead horse. Thanks.

 

And I meant that literally, stop beating the horse. Now. Don't make me pull out the hammer. I'm not gonna repeat myself. I've said it clearly and perfectly understandable multiple times today.
We have had more than enough discussions about it. USP team knows perfectly well where they are standing. We don't need a daily "but we didn't know dude" to keep us moderators busy.

[FallujahMedic -FM- 866]

@cosmic10r Your most recent post in the Photography channel has been removed 

Reason: "Edited for personal use" but then showcased on the Forum (which is public). 

Warning to follow. 

[cosmic10r 2324]

6 hours ago, FallujahMedic -FM- said:

@cosmic10r Your most recent post in the Photography channel has been removed 

Reason: "Edited for personal use" but then showcased on the Forum (which is public). 

Warning to follow. 

 

A warning was  unnecessary as the stuff displayed was open source and I simply meant it wasnt publically available as it was just little things I like to work on using things the community has been kind enough to provide...

 

Stuff like Zeealex's mask were released to the wider community including all the unbinarized p3d files which I have retextured...

 

 

[Glow 181]

A simple solution to by pass this forum rule: drop your re-textured files on Steam Workshop and name it in screenshot thread.

[Greenfist 1863]

Or simply don't make it into a mod at all, but just put a jpg in the mission folder and use setobjecttexture. Hence, it's not a private addon.

[cosmic10r 2324]

5 hours ago, Greenfist said:

Or simply don't make it into a mod at all, but just put a jpg in the mission folder and use setobjecttexture. Hence, it's not a private addon.

 

 By the look of it that will be verboten in due time.... 

 

I took about 14 months away from the game come back and get a warning and an infraction for something that was commonplace when I left... obviously if it is that frowned upon I wouldnt have wasted the time posting it.... when I tool the break every second pic had that attached. 

 

I guess I should have spent 2 weeks catching up on all the forum drama before emerging from my hole in the ground....

[Tankbuster 1733]

6 minutes ago, cosmic10r said:

 

 By the look of it that will be verboten in due time.... 

 

I took about 14 months away from the game come back and get a warning and an infraction for something that was commonplace when I left... obviously if it is that frowned upon I wouldnt have wasted the time posting it.... when I tool the break every second pic had that attached. 

 

I guess I should have spent 2 weeks catching up on all the forum drama before emerging from my hole in the ground....

If I were you, I'd have a quiet word with @Homesick and explain the circumstances.

[Dedmen 2588]

13 hours ago, cosmic10r said:

I took about 14 months away from the game come back and get a warning and an infraction for something that was commonplace when I left...

Yes lots of things concerning copyright have happened, and the moderation team finally decided to do something against it.
To quote the first post of the "screenshots" thread:

On 3/1/2013 at 10:25 AM, Placebo said:

 "Private addons" should not be used in screenshots, only public addons.

Main purpose is to prevent people from posting ripped content from "private" addons, as that has happened just too many times in the past and can't be tolerated any longer seeing how many mods are popping up solely made up of stolen content.

[cosmic10r 2324]

10 hours ago, Dedmen said:

Yes lots of things concerning copyright have happened, and the moderation team finally decided to do something against it.
To quote the first post of the "screenshots" thread:

Main purpose is to prevent people from posting ripped content from "private" addons, as that has happened just too many times in the past and can't be tolerated any longer seeing how many mods are popping up solely made up of stolen content.

 

Yeah... I can certainly appreciate that things have progressed and its not an easy decision either way as either way has its drawbacks... sadly if I had simply read up about 1 page in this thread I would have understood that and I just assumed things were the same and went on my merry way. Typically when someone comes back they don't reread all the rules of the board whether they should or not much like the fine print on a contract. Obviously people should when first joining.

 

From a personal experience side it is a tad jarring and shocking because it just comes out of nowhere. I think intention does matter but I can appreciate that as a moderation team it becomes an endless cycle of determining intent on the internet which is a somewhat pointless endeavour in a lot of cases.

 

I can't say what the right decision for the moderation team is and I appreciate that it becomes frustrating to constantly be cleaning up the mess, all I would ask is that if that opportunity arises and time permits, if a long standing member does that... see if they have been absent awhile in the logs and pull them aside before slapping them.... I can see in situations of multiple violations but an infraction whose points never end for little intentional reason seems a tad over the top. I can appreciate that as a moderation team it wells up to a boiling point and I hope you can appreciate that as a member of the community for a little while it certainly wasnt an intentional violation or an attempt to display ripped content.

 

Unfortunately it tells a sad story when this is where we have gotten to because this is really is a great community that historically has been so helpful to each other as part of the greater whole and I just hope that the negative experiences that a lot of the modders have had that create these situations dont forever color Arma because I still think that the crappy people who do crappy stuff are the minority.

 

And on that note I will drop the topic.

 

 

 

[Dedmen 2588]

13 hours ago, cosmic10r said:

I can't say what the right decision for the moderation team is and I appreciate that it becomes frustrating to constantly be cleaning up the mess

I also don't like the current situation of "no private mods", but there is really no better solution really. Private mods are something that we cannot check.
And due to the incredible uprise in stolen/illegal content in the last years we can't just let it go on right under our eyes. Especially cuz most of the stolen stuff now moves to "private" addons, because our checking and punishment on illegal public content improved a lot.

 

13 hours ago, cosmic10r said:

see if they have been absent awhile in the logs and pull them aside before slapping them

I think that was done in this case, but you've been very active in the last 2 months, so unless going back 3-4 pages in your last posts a moderator won't see that you've been absent, and looking at the amount of issues we deal with daily that's simply too much to ask, as sad as it is. Thanks for bringing that up tho. I've forwarded it and I'll see if we can re-evaluate that. No guarantees tho.

 

To cite our rules:

Quote

2) Follow the instructions of the moderators

[...] If you have questions/complaints/comments about the board or moderators please PM them to a moderator, we will do our utmost to reply to any that we receive. If you have an issue that you feel cannot be solved by another moderator then please PM the head moderator ( @Homesick ), he will be happy to look into the matter.

 

It's your right to complain if you feel like you're being handled unfairly. Mistakes happen, and we'll gladly take a second look if an issue is brought up.

Though to anyone else reading this, this doesn't give you the ability to complain about a infraction that was correctly handled.

Can already see banned spammers now coming up "but dedmen said we can complain!" 😄

 

13 hours ago, cosmic10r said:

Unfortunately it tells a sad story when this is where we have gotten to because this is really is a great community that historically has been so helpful to each other as part of the greater whole and I just hope that the negative experiences that a lot of the modders have had that create these situations dont forever color Arma because I still think that the crappy people who do crappy stuff are the minority.

It also saddens me, I have seen how many modders left Arma or canceled their awesome projects because of all the theft and other crap going on recently.

Honestly I don't currently see a good future, we'll of course keep trying to do our best.

I might be biased though, as a moderator I mainly hear/handle the crappy people who do crappy stuff, so they don't seem a minority for me.

[cosmic10r 2324]

All that makes sense... I wouldnt say it was unfair so much as unfortunate. The rule is the rule and I missed it.

 

You guys cant be expected to spend hours digging through everything. Thanks for letting me know that history was reviewed.

 

I appreciate the response. 

I can appreciate that it gets frustrating herding the cats and that's why I tried to take it all with a grain of salt rather then getting my  snout of joint.

 

Anyways. Let's move on shall we.... 🙂

 

 

[EO 11228]

@Wiki 

Quote

MV-22 Osprey of the USMC landing near the shore.

Chernarus, 2009

One of the best screenies I've seen in a while. 

[Wiki 1558]

Thanks mate 🙂

[R0adki11 3945]

@Fros7biteplease make sure to list all addons used, as your latest item in the photography thread is missing the terrain used.

[Jack Ost 124]

Hey, why my screenshot was removed ?

[R0adki11 3945]

3 hours ago, Jack Ost said:

Hey, why my screenshot was removed ?

 

Your screenshot was removed, as it broke the thread rules. Your content in included:

 

Quote

 Some gears mods with custom textures

 

Which i have to assume are not publicly available?

[Jack Ost 124]

No, it's public, just the list is long and i'm not sure what real mods used. I think, it's cos mod, sps, milgp. All of these are available on the steam workshop. Only Multicam texture is not publicly available. It's against the rules ?

[R0adki11 3945]

28 minutes ago, Jack Ost said:

No, it's public, just the list is long and i'm not sure what real mods used. I think, it's cos mod, sps, milgp. All of these are available on the steam workshop. Only Multicam texture is not publicly available. It's against the rules ?

 

Well the rules of the thread are, that you must list all your addons. All content should be public, as we don't allow 'private' addons. Please see the first page of the thread for rules: