What's the point of gallery?

[JustARando]

Okay, might be a dumb question, but what's the point of gallery? Just noticed that I now have gallery access, but, honestly I don't get the point except for the homepage thing.

I've always been able to attach images and view images in attachments. The gallery posts don't seem to be part of unread/replies-so there's barely any engagement. And most of the photos don't have context. So, overall find it an odd unengaging part of the forum. Am I missing something?

[DrgHybrid]

There is a thread that talks about this topic. And the important of nude photos to naturism.

https://internationalyn.org/forum/index.php/topic,17855.0.html

Nude photos for us can mean multiple things for many different people. I highly suggest reading that post there (all 6 pages!) so that you can get a feel what it means coming from your fellow members.

But for others too, it's a place that they can see the different people of the world in different settings. A safe place, if you will. On top of that, as you noticed from just getting access there, is that's a protected area too. So, whereas you might be comfortable posting nudes anywhere on the forum, others might not so they could strictly post them there if they wished and have a feeling of comfort that "JustaRando" (lol, sorry) might not see them.

It means different things for different people. And, as long as people follow by the naturist rules of posting nudes and not as erotic images, then they are always welcomed to post them.

[NudisBoo]

I suppose its so people who want to participate in this monthly best photos event to have somewhere where to upload the photos and so we can rate them.

Also if you have done anything interesting and you want to share it

Can be a lot of things and I personally can't upload anything in normal parts of the forum I and I think it's cuz I'm on mobile or the photo resolution is too big?

I don't know how it works in the gallery but I guess it's made specially to upload photos

[alwaysveryconflicted]

I suppose its so people who want to participate in this monthly best photos event to have somewhere where to upload the photos and so we can rate them.

Also if you have done anything interesting and you want to share it

Can be a lot of things and I personally can't upload anything in normal parts of the forum I and I think it's cuz I'm on mobile or the photo resolution is too big?

I don't know how it works in the gallery but I guess it's made specially to upload photos

Attachments only work on desktop I think.

[timnudist]

I quite like the gallery myself.

[spongeman]

I suppose its so people who want to participate in this monthly best photos event to have somewhere where to upload the photos and so we can rate them.

They work fine on mobile, you just have to expand the "attachments and other options" section
Also if you have done anything interesting and you want to share it

Can be a lot of things and I personally can't upload anything in normal parts of the forum I and I think it's cuz I'm on mobile or the photo resolution is too big?

I don't know how it works in the gallery but I guess it's made specially to upload photos

Attachments only work on desktop I think.

[Delta]

Attachments should work on mobile web just fine, but they are hidden behind the Attachments and other options line under the message box. You need to upload files, copy/paste like on Discord does not work there.

[TheNudeBot]

And most of the photos don't have context. So, overall find it an odd unengaging part of the forum. Am I missing something?

The lack of context is kind of the point as far as I’m aware. It’s a place for pictures that don’t necessarily bring forth enough discussion for a dedicated thread. This allows us to have more nudist/naturist pictures on the site without worrying about finding or making a topic they belong to

[Octavia]

The "lack of context" is actually kind of a good point. I do think it's a bit odd that people can upload just any old photo from the web with no attributions. A lot of the pictures in the gallery are just random pictures seemingly pulled from the web, not pictures of anyone on the forum. We have no way of knowing where some of these photos came from, what the context is, and whether the person pictured is okay with the photo being used in that context. This is especially an ethical problem in the case of pictures with children, but I think it applies to all photos. I vaguely recall a brief debate a few years ago over whether one photo in the gallery depicted a well-known pornstar and whether that made it okay to host in the gallery, and another debate over whether a photo of some kids at a resort had been photoshopped. These are issues that would be way easier to sort out if we simply knew where all the photos originated from. I recognize that that's a ton of work, but if there is an issue with the gallery as it exists, I think it's a lack of attribution.

The gallery is still an important part of the site, particularly the "personal photos" section, and the issue is mitigated somewhat by the fact that access to the gallery is restricted. But I do think a bit more effort to show where images come from would go a long way.