I think the contest of FStoppers made a huge bounce on the BTS, people were doing some because there was a prize… and it’s a challenge. no pain, no gain… but no gain, why bother with pain… 

Even if you take a few hours to surf the net to find new BTS, it’s rare, it’s hard, and many are model focused and not BTS with the info and details focused. If FS would post that… the team would be taken down in fire for showing boobs or so… IMHO. 

As told Richard few comments ago, I didn’t even try to enter in the debate when I saw the comments. The experience I had in the past shows that trying to debate on internet is a waste of time. Nobody change his mind. Most of the time it even reinforce their points of view… so I just let them speak without a care…

Anyway keep doing FStoppers team! I love your job!

Questions: 
- Would you write to a newspaper to tell them you don’t like their articles as a reader ? 
- Would you complain in a superstore because some of their products are not to your liking ? (I.e : a vegetarian or vegan complaining that the store sells meat, or fish etc.)
- Would you enter a sex shop if you are not a consumer, to tell them your thoughts and be rude to them ? 
- Would you criticize a restaurant for their menu ? 

So… why would you criticize Fstoppers for their content ? If you don’t like it, just pass your way, or take what is good for you and leave the rest no ? Please, to all you moaners and ranters, pay the team their due respect for everything they do for us. 

Close your eyes 1 minute, review all you have read and seen on Fstoppers, value it in terms of what it would have cost you to learn that knowledge if you had to take classes, or use your precious time to find it all and then… 

…Go for the paradigm shift and be grateful, it’s all here, it’s a given, for free, a community based not on financial terms, paying for it, but on knowledge and appreciation of what we all like, arts, photography, technique, discovery, culture… a bit of it all. 

Thank you FSTOPPERS, and thank you to all of you contributors, for your time, hard work, education, will to share… you are all working really hard for us here, on top of your jobs and family lives, taking some of your precious time away from your loved ones for the sake of a bunch of unappreciative, selfish, never content moaners… and the others :)

Things that inspire me, drive me, and make me think  – those are the things I DO feel compelled to comment on, regardless of the context.  Why?  Because THAT’S THE CONTENT I WANT MORE OF.  I want to let the creator know I enjoyed it, and that their hard work did not go unnoticed.

I’m all for civil discourse (when it is civil), but get a grip people.

Keep up the good work guys…

Regardless of whether you agree with her opinion or not, respect the writer and argue your point like an educated adult — which the majority of these people are. Being on the internet doesn’t mean you get free reign to be a complete moron. Lauren (I assume) spent a great deal of time writing that article and I think she did a good job.

In short: People need to grow up. She wrote an article. You disagree. Life sucks. FS is not a news organization, they don’t claim or need to report straight facts all the time. You wouldn’t visit here if they did.

Starting with the title “… absurd”, other select
gems just within the first paragraph “needs to die” , “and to me it is narcissistic, unnecessary, and absurd.”

I
suspect this was done for effect, not deliberate malice.  But really, while not directed at a specific
individual by name, how is this type of attack language any different than what
folks put in the comments? If I were a provider or aficionado of this
type of photography, how do I not interpret the start of the article as a
personal attack on my beliefs? 

Lee – The key question here is not ‘should we do OpEd’ – the
polling is clear, go for it.  The
question to you is, “what is your OpEd standards?”.   Do you want a free-for-all, use any language
you want, no-logic-required type of ‘rant’ or do you want to keep the standards
more similar to a newpaper, where the OpEd expresses an opinion, but still
maintains some standards of decorum and purpose and, dare we say, logic.

Suppose Lauren had written the article as:

Title: “Does ‘day after’ boudoir photography make
sense?  For me, no.”

First paragraph:

There is a growing trend…it is this… -Think of all the
things that can go wrong here (it goes on Facebook, do we want the kids to see
it… do our customers realize that at least some folks are going to find this
offensive?)

Have we as photographers thought through all the
implications here?

-What does it mean to have this work mixed into your portfolio?

-Do we have a duty to protect our customers from themselves
or is anything goes, ring that register, the rule?

I bet you that such an article would have started a
healthier discussion.  And is more
fitting with the community you have created at Fstoppers.