A lot of contributors to this thread seem to think this argument is about deletions.
They're wrong. The argument is about the way members are treated these days.
It includes deletions, but the problem does not stop there.
I've been a member of this site from the beginning. I've experienced good times and bad times, contributed financially to it's survival and in the process uploaded almost 5,000 pictures, in conjunction with my fellow shipspotter Piero Corona.
He was responsible for unique pictures like scrapping in Chittagong, Suez Canal pictures and pictures in Lagos as well as Vietnam. I limited myself to the Rotterdam area where agents and port authorities were willing to assist. Sometimes the administrators did not particularly like certain pictures, but usually this would be resolved after consulting with the webmasters.
Last year, and in spite of the political upheaval in Egypt, Piero Corona managed to take a vast number of pictures at Suez. He had every right to be proud of this achievement. But then we were told these pictures were not welcome on the site. It had nothing to do with their quality, but only with the fact they were made in a politically unstable area.
After quite an argument with the webmaster we were allowed to upload them, but since then we've seen more and more deletions, to the point they started using ridiculous arguments. As an example, a Suez picture was deleted because of an obstructing lanternpole in the foreground.
The whole situation went from bad to worse and climaxed when pictures taken on board of the "Berge Everest" were deleted. That happened 5 minutes after I had logged out and in spite of 150 hits in their first half hour on the site. I did not complain on the forum at first, but voiced my dissatisfaction privately, to no avail. Only then did I go out on the forum.
In that thread, which was meanwhile removed by the webmaster, Phil English accused me of "abuse" and Ken Smith hailed a remark by a relatively unexperienced shipspotter as a prime example for all. After consulting with Piero Corona we decided to withdraw all our pictures which until then had received millions of hits.
This is the story. No more, no less. I have every right to ask if this is a site for the webmaster and his pals or for the benefit of a large number of shipspotters. And when I ask such a question I expect a decent reply without accusations of " abuse" from the administrators, censorship by the webmaster or being cursed at by other members. I am neither the first, nor the only member who is greatly annoyed by this attitude.
Robert Smith.