On Gather Groups and Posting, and Some Advice for Group Owners

*DISCLAIMER:
First, group names used in this article are off-the-top-of-my-head. If there are actual Gather Groups with those names, I am not talking specifically about them. I used Cat groups as an example specifically because I have never had any of the problems mentioned in the article with any cat-themed group. Also, none of this is written in response to any one single group... it is a response to a pattern I've seen over the last two years as a Gather member. There is no reason or excuse for any single group owner/moderator to take this article personally. I fully expect some to do so anyway.
Second, this is a rant AND an advice piece... specifically advice to group owners. It's long. Please don't respond to the beginning without reading all the way to the end, and please don't skip to the end and respond without reading the beginning. I hate when people do that to my stuff.
Third, before anyone accuses me of being mean and grouchy, know that what I deleted was much more harsh. What you get to see is the Very Edited Down Nice version.
Finally, I flagged this because in at least one draft of it it had a swear word or two and I don't want shock anyone.
Seriously, it's not that bad :P*

Between my old account and my current account, I've been a member of Gather for about two years. During that time, I've joined a huge number of groups, most by invitation, some because of interest in subject matter.

Anyone who has posted anything on Gather knows how the system works, and is familiar with the window which shows the defining part of the group's description as written by the group's owner. That first paragraph should sum up the criteria (when there is criteria) for posting in the group, as it is the only thing any member is going to see when selecting the groups in which to post any given material. This is especially true of members who have been here a long time or have developed a lot of connections. Many group owners invite all of their connections, so members with a lot of connections get a lot of invitations. I've joined a lot of groups because the groups' owners were connected to me. Groups I've joined range from those with specific or narrow criteria, accepting material related only to a single subject or material only of a single format/media/etc.  to the plethora of "Post Anything" groups which keep cropping up here.

Looking at my articles, you will see that some of them are posted only to a few groups, keeping mainly to groups on a subject and not sent to the "post anything" groups. I've decided to share other posts with many groups. Sometimes the "To Groups" list is really short... sometimes it is much longer than the post itself. 
Subjects of my posts can range from that which is personal enough for me to be more selective (though still willing to share) to things which I feel that anyone can see or read, to things I feel are important enough to put out there because I really, really want as many people to see them as possible.

Posting, of course, involves scrolling through that window full of every Gather group I've joined and selecting the ones in which I wish to show my work. This part of the procedure presents more than one challenge, and can be daunting when the subject matter is appropriate for widespread sharing and there are a lot of groups to select.

First, there is the issue of Gather Glitches. You see, I can't just write my piece or upload my picture, add tags, select groups, and post. That would be nice, but it isn't what happens. Firefox does not work with Gather in the posting department. If I try to post an article in Firefox, I get an error page at the very end of the last little bit of my work, and everything I've done up to that point is lost. This happens every single time.
Explorer does not have that problem, but it has another; group selection takes forever. I don't know why, but in Firefox, when I click on a group, it is immediately selected and moves from the My Groups window to the Share With These Groups window with less than a 2 second delay. If I know I am selecting the next 5 groups I can see on the list, I can click 5 times, rapidly, and all 5 groups will move over. This is extremely useful, as I have a list of about 20 "Post Anything" groups which show all in a row in that window.
In Explorer, after I click on the group I have to wait about 30 seconds for it to move. If I click on another group while waiting, that click has no effect, and only the first one moves.
However, if I start an article in Explorer, add my tags, and select one group, then click "save as a draft" I can now close Explorer, open Firefox, open Gather in Firefox, then open the draft in firefox and finish selecting the groups, and the system, which would only give me an error page before, will now actually post it when I click post. So... my method is exactly that. It is convoluted and time consuming, especially when I am posting to a lot of groups, but it is the only way I can get any articles posted here.

Second, there is the issue of group descriptions. This is a much, much bigger issue.
When I get to that window and look through the groups to select those to which I am posting, there is not a link from those groups in that window to the groups' home pages. I cannot right-click and go check the longer description group owners have written. If I want to read the long version, I have to go back to my home page, click on the "groups" link, and sort through my 22 pages of groups to find the one particular group I am seeking, then click on that to get to the home page, where I can then click on the "more" link to read the long description of your group. Sorry, but I'm not going to do that for every single group every time I want to post an article or picture. I do have a life outside Gather.
So... I have to depend on two things to tell me whether or not I want to post in a given group. That means that as a group owner, you have two opportunities to tell me what kind of content you accept in your group.
One is the group's name. I think this should be the easy one. Obviously, if the name of the group has the word cat in it, I am going to expect that group to be dedicated to cats, so I won't select it as a group in which to post my Winter Blues Haiku, which is not about cats. Further, if the title specifies cat pictures, I expect the owner to be looking only for images of cats, or articles dedicated to images of cats, so even if my post is cat-related, if it is not an image or an article about (and preferably containing) cat images, I'll still skip that group.
The tough groups to decide upon are the many, many groups which have "Post anything" or variations therof in the name. When I see "Post Anything" my first expectation is that the group is a format for all types of posts. "Anything Cats" would indicate, therefore, that the group is for all cat-related posts. Otherwise, the use of the term "anything" would be inappropriate.
If I am not sure, this is where the second thing comes in. The Group Description is the rest of what helps me to decide whether or not my post belongs in a particular group. Generally, when a group name is pretty specific (such as "Cat pictures" or "Anything Cats") so that I know there is a specific subject involved, the only reason I would check the group description is to see whether or not adult material is permitted in the group. With more vague group names, I look for a more specific description, such as what kind of work the group owner is seeking. Often, groups with vague titles about Photography are really looking for just one area of that particular media. Some want any and all of photographs, which would include family snapshots, while others are dedicated to composition-based artwork, or photojournalism, or portraiture, etc. It is the short description which sets these groups apart from each other in the My Groups window of the post composition page.

This, unfortunately, is where the system breaks down. Many groups are incorrectly titled and insufficiently described. It is inappropriate to use terms like "anything," "everything," and "all" in the title of your group if you do not mean "anything," "everything," or "all." For instance, it isn't good to title your group "Everything Cats" or "Anything Cats" if you want articles and no pictures, or if you only want material related to domestic pets only, and not wild cats. The same goes for any other subject matter; Titling your group "Everything That Is Funny" is an invitation to all members to post anything they find humorous. A group owner wishing to receive only posts of actual jokes and not cartoon images, limericks, humorous life anicdotes, etc. should not use that as the group's name.
The same thing happens with group descriptions. Many are vague, sometimes using words which have more than one definition (such as original), mean different things to different people (such as art), or are part of a local (to the group owner) slang and might not mean anything to the rest of the world. Sometimes there is so little to the description that there are no criteria for posting laid out at all. All the reader gets is a vaguely worded name and an admonition to not post adult material. If that is all you've given to your members, you have a "post anything" group, whether you meant to or not.
The warnings regarding posting of adult material groups can be another problem. These admonitions are also often poorly defined. I see a lot of group descriptions which say not to post anything that is "XXX." I suspect that in most cases where I see this, the group owner's definition of "XXX" is not the same as the actual definition of "XXX." That particular rating is reserved for the most graphic and potentially offensive porn. It means such things as violent or other non-traditional sexual contact, as well as other non-mainstream behavior, and has nothing to do with simple nude images, "adult" language, "adult" situations, or even graphic  but non-sexual violence. This type of warning doesn't really apply to Gather material, as Gather TOS forbids the posting of anything that far out. When I see descriptions forbidding the posting of "XXX" material, I don't know what is or is not ok for the group. Does the owner really mean "XXX" or is that a request to not post any adult material regardless of how minor the adult nature is? I also have difficulty with the use of words such as "crude" or "obscene" in group descriptions. These are relative terms.  How am I supposed to know what you mean, and whether or not I should skip your group when posting a long article containing a single instance of the word "ass," or a photo which is not nude but shows a lot of skin? Some people consider only sexual humor crude but accept fart jokes, while others consider all bodily functions to be obscene.
I am especially confused when I see this in groups with "Post Anything" or the use of the terms "All" or "Everything" in the title followed up with descriptions which forbid the posting of some level of adult material which the group owner defines as "crude," "obscene," or "XXX." Frankly, if you are going to call your group a "Post Anything" group, you should not be making exceptions.
Such things complicate the selection process and have steered me (as well as others I know) wrong in the past, especially when the vague, hard to understand criteria are listed not in the visible-in-the-window description, but just in the longer home-page-only description.
More than once, I've left a group out of several postings, only to find out later, on visiting the home page for another purpose, that several of my pieces were actually appropriate for it. The name indicated a more narrow criteria than the long description laid out, and there were photos and articles similar to mine posted to the group. Other times, I've followed the guidlines laid out by the name and the short description, only to receive an indignantly worded comment on my work by an offended group owner who felt I had wrongfully posted inappropriate material to her group. (So far, I've never received such a comment from a guy... only women seem to do this.) Once, the group owner's stated criteria had been followed, but she had meant something other than what she had stated... Once, a group owner assumed work which was mine was someone else's copywrited material based on the fact that I'd had the nerve to publish it somewhere else before sharing it on Gather.

This brings me to another posting problem, my third issue with posting to Gather Groups... dealing with Gather Snobs and Snots.
When I replied to the nasty comment the group owner who had accused me of copyright violation had left under my work, she changed the stated reason for her objection, claiming that the work was not creative enough because its nature was humorous. Apparently, humor is not an act of creativity, and sites dedicated to humor are beneath all creative people.
All right... here goes:
Being an artist, a journalist, a doctor, lawyer, or Indian Chief, does not make you a God.
Get over yourself. Really.
Other people have opinions, thoughts, insights, and dreams which are different from yours. Having a narrow definition for that which constitutes art, or any aspect of art, does not make you superior to anyone else. It does not make you a great artist. Having a narrow definition for what constitutes writing does not make you an intellectual. These two things do not belong only to the educated, the well-bred, or even the experienced. They belong to the whole world, and no matter how much you scream and whine, other people are going to experience them differently than you do, view them differently than you do, and do them differently than you do. The fact that others' work is done differently than yours does not make that work any less great or any less valid than yours. This is even more true with art than with writing. Both areas have some aspects which posess rules, and both have many different facets which can be defined. Poetry is not prose... a haiku is not a limmerick... yet both poetry and prose are writing. A photograph is not a line drawing... a painted ceramic is not a found-art sculpture, yet all of these things are artwork. You don't get to decide everyone else's definition of what is art, what is writing, what is creative, what is original, or what is good enough to be seen by the rest of Gather. You don't get to assume that someone's post isn't his or her work just because it's been posted somewhere else. Gather is not the only forum for art in the internet world. It's just one of a million sites where work might be posted. Get off of your high horse, before the saddle chaps your ass.
*whew* 'been saving that up for a long while. Thanks for listening.

To group owners: if you have a specific definition for what you want to see posted to your group, put it in your title and short description, and don't use vague terms. Be specific, and don't be snotty if someone doesn't get what you meant. If your group says it is dedicated to poetry, but does not list a specific type of poetry, you don't have the right to get mad at someone for posting a free-form poem or a haiku in your sonnet-only group. If you intend for your group to have only unique, non-humorous material, don't use the word original to describe that, because it can also mean "post only your own work."

It may be rude to post inappropriate material in someone's group, but it is equally rude to leave an indignant, offended, or angry comment about it on the poster's page without first finding out if the infraction was intentional. It is particularly rude to leave such a comment when your group's title and/or description are either vague or misleading, so that the member didn't have any warning that you would be offended by his or her post.
Instead of rushing to jump down someone's throat for littering your sacred group with his or her inappropriate material, try looking at the incident from the member's perspective. If the criteria laid out in the title and description of your group could be interpret as possibly including any aspect of the post (for example, you ask for original work and the person's post is of their own work, it fits one meaning of the word original) then you have no right to be offended.
If you wish to avoid further posts of that type, then you need to edit the name/description to make clear your group's posting criteria so that future member posts will better match up with your desires for your group, and contact the person in question to let them know that your criteria has been changed.
If you feel the post was inappropriately submitted to your group, send the poster a private message that isn't an angry rant, but a simple "hey, did you mean to post this here?" A little communication goes a long way. You might find that the whole thing was an accident, and you might avoid some embarrassment at both ends.
If you end up with a habitual violator whom you have contacted regarding the matter, then by all means, block that person from your group, and report him or her to Gather.

Owning a Gather group holds at least as much responsibilty as posting articles and images. If everyone tries using a little common sense, I think group owners and the members who post to their groups could work together to achieve better results all around.

Finally, I will be terribly disappointed if my personal troll does not read this article and leave me a 1.