The longer I am here and the better I understand the peculiarities of Ipernity the more I recognize specifics, I have not known in the world I came from (Panoramio). One of the most noticable to me after a year on and off at Ipernity is the silently raging war over spam. It comes along with it's own terminology and it took me a while to understand the basics although I am still struggeling with the precise definition of spam, as it is understood here. There seem to be spam free groups and spam free comment streams and if someone does not comply to the spam free rules, he will be punished severely? Removed from the group? His comments deleted? This is a minefield, especially for new folks like me! On the other hand I find this rather funny. What's the big deal? Why all the excitement?

In the world I came from it was for instance common and generally accepted practice to include links to other photos into the comment stream augmented by text such as "Look at this, I took this pic from the same location 20 years ago". Now, is this considered spam here? And if yes, why, because the intention ist not promotion of my or even somebody elses photo, but providing useful information to someone. And what the heck is wrong with "seen in". Is that an insult to anybody? Or obscene? I find it rather rude to be kicked out of a group, because someone else added a "Seen in" comment in my stream. Why not just keep cool and take it easy? Don't be so narrow-minded. If I don't like comments like "great shot" I simply don't answer, but ban the guy? That's silly!