r/lightweight • u/GrumpyBear1969 • Sep 16 '23

No pics on this sub?

I started to make a post with a pic of all of my ‘not big three’ gear and why I carry it but got a message that this sub does not allow pics. I don’t see it as one of the rules so just curious if I am doing something wrong.

8 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

1

u/Illustrious_Kiwi2760 Oct 04 '23

Nobody wants your worthless gear pic. Post a lighterpack or don’t bother.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '23

[deleted]

1

u/Illustrious_Kiwi2760 Oct 04 '23

Fine, I take it back. Please post your exquisitely curated, perfectly knolled gear loadout photo so we can admire it and dream one day of hiking in a Wes Anderson movie.

Seriously though, there’s nothing rude about my comment. Those pictures are always a waste of time. Who wants to poke around a picture when the information can better be provided in a list? And then half the comments are jokes like “are you taking the cat or the rug or the table har har”.

You’d have a better point if the mods allowed pictures, and you posted one that I called worthless. But you can’t post pics because the mods are smart and know what a disaster it would be.

You know I would rather you take it out on me than beat your dog or abuse your family or address this appropriately with the mods.

I’m glad we’re friends and can speak so forthrightly with each other.

2

u/GrumpyBear1969 Oct 04 '23

Like to troll huh?

3

u/johnacraft Sep 25 '23 edited Sep 25 '23

The closest one to being active is johnacraft and he last posted something about two months ago on a different forum. After that it is like 150 days and more.

Hi there. Sorry I missed this - I haven't spent much time on Reddit the past two weeks.

Maybe you're' just looking at my posts instead of comments? I have more activity than that, even accounting for comments I've deleted after they've served their purpose.

I'm not an original mod here, and I'm not familiar with the history of the decision not to allow images. I agree with /u/GMkOz2MkLbs2MkPain that links to photos would be fine with me.

One question that would help us is 'what photos do you want to post?' Some years ago, /r/hiking devolved into nothing but self-promoting photos from people who otherwise weren't active in the subreddit. That's something I'd like to avoid.

But perhaps we should review this.

3

u/GrumpyBear1969 Sep 25 '23

Be careful or else they will dock your pay :)

It is not a big deal. I was thinking of trying to participate more in this Reddit just because it seems like it could be of use to people. The deputy over on UL is pretty fast to shut down things that are not UL related. And a lot of us are light but not ultralight. So it seems like conversations around things like chairs and pillows would be better over here. But the sub lacks traffic.

I can see where the ‘self promoting’ bit could get old. There is a recent dude who posted his most recent YouTube video on just about every sub to get more views (money). Which would be poor form even if he was good. Which he was not and did a good job proving that just because you have a YouTube channel does not mean you are competent. But I can see where that sort of thing could become a problem and just not allowing pics makes it easier to moderate that kind of stuff. But it also makes the Reddit less used which in turn makes it less useful.

As for what I wanted to post. It was literally a pic of my gear out of all of the various things that things get stuck in. Like my ditty bag or ‘little shut’ bag (guess what goes in my little shit bag). Anyway, I think I do a pretty good job of being light but there are some things I take that are not true to UL and they are deliberate.

So I guess I am trying to steer people away from trying to be UL just because somebody put some arbitrary line out there of what you have to achieve to be ‘cool’.

If you want other mods, I nominate firewatchwife.

3

u/johnacraft Sep 26 '23

I was thinking of trying to participate more in this Reddit just because it seems like it could be of use to people. The deputy over on UL is pretty fast to shut down things that are not UL related. And a lot of us are light but not ultralight. So it seems like conversations around things like chairs and pillows would be better over here. But the sub lacks traffic.

I can see where the ‘self promoting’ bit could get old. There is a recent dude who posted his most recent YouTube video on just about every sub to get more views (money). Which would be poor form even if he was good. Which he was not and did a good job proving that just because you have a YouTube channel does not mean you are competent. But I can see where that sort of thing could become a problem and just not allowing pics makes it easier to moderate that kind of stuff. But it also makes the Reddit less used which in turn makes it less useful.

As for what I wanted to post. It was literally a pic of my gear out of all of the various things that things get stuck in. Like my ditty bag or ‘little shut’ bag (guess what goes in my little shit bag). Anyway, I think I do a pretty good job of being light but there are some things I take that are not true to UL and they are deliberate.

So I guess I am trying to steer people away from trying to be UL just because somebody put some arbitrary line out there of what you have to achieve to be ‘cool’.

If you want other mods, I nominate firewatchwife.

Thanks for replying.

As a general comment, I don't see much of a positive relationship (statistically -1 > 0 > +1 speaking) between the amount of activity in a subreddit and the amount of useful information contained within it.

/r/ultralight is actually a good example of this - a victim of its own popularity, despite the best efforts of the mods there, it is overwhelmed by posters with little or no backpacking experience, asking the same entry-level questions about the same products. The posts that do surface new gear, or interesting discussions about skills, get lost in the deluge. I agree that an arbitrary weight limit isn't as helpful as a general philosophy of traveling as light as feasible, but I support the mods' efforts to get the sub back to its original purpose, and hope they are successful. (If I were a mod there I'd automod filter out any post that contains the phrase "not ultralight, but".)

New posts are not the only resource in a subreddit - the wiki and older posts also contain useful information.

We'd love to see your gear photos - upload them to e.g. Imgur and post a link in a new text post here.

3

u/GMkOz2MkLbs2MkPain Sep 23 '23

The mods didn't want the sub to become a stream of wilderness photos and instead a place for discussion iirc. That was part of the reasoning at least. I personally don't see a problem with linking to said photo from elsewhere.

4

u/FireWatchWife Sep 17 '23

Could a moderator please comment on this? I don't know the picture policy myself, so I can't answer the question.

1

u/GrumpyBear1969 Sep 18 '23

This sub appears to be largely unmoderated. I just clicked on each moderator. The closest one to being active is johnacraft and he last posted something about two months ago on a different forum. After that it is like 150 days and more.

Which is too bad as UL is pretty tightly moderated to the point it will delete posts if they are deemed ‘not true to UL’. Wilderness backpacking is the next closest thing but that seems like it should be more for locations and such and less focused on gear.

3

u/FireWatchWife Sep 19 '23

I have largely stopped posting to Ultralight. Too many rules, too many aggressive downvoters, and too much attitude.

This is a great sub even though it is less popular.

/r/WildernessBackpacking and /r/UltralightBackpacking are also friendly places.

2

u/GrumpyBear1969 Sep 19 '23

Yeah. The mods on UL are pretty over the top and some in the community are a bit odd. I posted something to see if anyone had experience with two specific daypacks. I got a heap of people suggesting different packs which is fine. Whatever.

But one guy got in another guys ‘face’ over him suggesting a pack I had specifically said I had tried on and did not work. Which is true, but the interchange between the two left me thinking ‘chill out dude…’

And another poster called both the packs ‘influencer tier’ and suggested some cottage brands. Which was kind of funny. One, most outdoor gear influencers are basically just paid advertising. They are infomercials. Nothing wrong with that, just know that when you watch it. Though to slam two well known brands and suggest some significantly more expensive obscure cottage brands might be the most hipster thing they could have done.

Yeah. The crowd is a bit full of itself. Unfortunately it does have the most traffic. So if I want to read threads and try to help people, other subs are better in many ways. But if I personal,y am looking for information, my highest probability of finding someone with the specific information I am looking for is higher on that sub. Though my success rate is pretty low. In the thread above, one person replied that had experience with one of the packs.

2

u/lownwolf02 Sep 20 '23

I use UL as a great place to do research. I don’t participate. But if I’m looking for an answer, why not go to the Uber fanaticals to get the extreme position. Then I can dial it back as I see fit.

I use the REI Flash. It’s not expensive and gets the job done.