Appropriate or inappropriate?

A user has uploaded this image: http://www.librarything.com/pic/245806 to several company/corporate authors. I do not know German, so cannot tell if this is, in fact, their logo, but I suspect that it is not. Could someone weigh in on this?

The user is also uploading this (http://www.librarything.com/pic/245803) to author pages where the name is a pseudonym, about which I have mixed feelings, but am inclined to flag it.

He's also using this: http://www.librarything.com/pic/245687 when he can't find an image, and I am definitely flagging those.

Two new members/authors have added logos and photos of their limbs on their author pages

http://www.librarything.com/author/soprincess

http://www.librarything.com/author/pstalon

Ugh!
Do any of the pictures deserve to be flagged? It seems too blatant promotionalism if nothing else.

I'm inclined to say the pictures of arms are OK - nobody said author photos have to be of the author's faces, and those are no more self-promotional than some of the glitzy glamour headshots out there - but the logo for "soprincess" is not.

There was a long thread a few years ago about whether the use of some sort of avatar rather than a photo is acceptable. The policy ruling is at

http://www.librarything.com/topic/164093

How would anybody be able to claim those arms actually belong to the authors? I'd bet against it, and there's no way to verify that either way. If it's not clearly representing the author, it shouldn't be there.

Not germane to this group, but member TerryKaiser joined yesterday too, the same day as our author Talon_P.S. and gave 5 star reviews to many of the books by this team. How much do you want to bet that Terry Kaiser is Talon's real name?

The photos and logos of the authors at #2 are back up. Could someone please flag them again.

>6 2wonderY: et al. Based on experience, I predict he won't quit reuploading.

That's all right. We'll still be around longer than they will be. And with the new Spam process, we're under-employed.

Yep, photos are back, with commentary. I was able to flag them from this computer.

Sock puppetry again:

Kagan_Urleck commented on the photo, joined today, no books. Has a "friend" invite from Ava-Snow, who also joined today and has no books.

Cynic, moi?

Tiring. And he and his new sock puppet accounts won't stop. I hate it when I'm right.

Still making enough puppets to keep the images around. Also now accusing us of trolling, how cute. :|

They seem to be misinformed about the purpose of LT as well.

"We simply came here to list our books on this site like any other author. Its what the site is for." This site is not here for author advertising.

True, but a red herring regardless. No one is stopping them in the least from adding their books. Their dumb irrelevant images getting flagged off doesn't impact that in the slightest.

They could even just leave their _ _ _ images on their profiles. Then they wouldn't get flagged.

Yep, all the irrelevant images in the world can go on their regular page!

The thread Lorax provided (http://www.librarything.com/topic/164093#4464049) doesn't seem to have settled the use non-representational images. Let's face it, some authors of erotica use a logo or avatar in lieu of an actual image of themselves. Putting sock puppetry aside, as far as I can tell, the images for http://www.librarything.com/author/soprincess and http://www.librarything.com/author/pstalon are used consistently on other sites (authors' web site, Amazon, Goodreads).

This is likely to happen again. As much as I dislike rehashing old issues, would it be appropriate to message Lorannen for clarification?

I already dropped her a line about the situation, but mainly due to their sock puppetry.

Thanks to >17 MsMaryAnn: and >18 .Monkey.: for pinging me directly. The author contacted me yesterday evening, as well, and I've reached out to them to clear things up.

For the record, both the images in question qualify as logos, and are not valid author photos. There was evidence of sock puppetry, but not quite as much as it might seem. For the most part, it looks like a Facebook post on one of their profiles prompted some of their friends to come sign up to try to combat the flagging.

> 19

Talon P.S. has now posted an image of the Japanese musician Atsushi Sakurai, and claims it's his (her?) image.

>20 lilithcat: According to the profile it's a he, who writes erotica with his twin sister (the "Princess" author).

>21 .Monkey.:

Either way, as far as I can telll, neither of them is Atsushi Sakurai!

>19 lorannen: "For the record, both the images in question qualify as logos, and are not valid author photos."

Thank you for clarifying (again)!

>22 lilithcat: Haha, no, methinks not. Just clarifying on the he/she bit! :P

And what about the limbs photos? They don't understand that author pages do not belong to the authors.

>20 lilithcat: Delightful. I don't see it, but that might be a factor of terrible plane internet. Where did they post it?

Edit: Nevermind, I found it. Looks like it was posted right around when I contacted them.

>25 2wonderY: Yeah, I explained as much in my email to them earlier today.

So what is the official verdict about the limb photos? They are just as much logo as the other.

>28 2wonderY: Sorry I wasn't clear. They fall under what I said in >19 lorannen: . They're a logo, and thus not a valid author photo.

Okay. Going back to flag them again.

>19 lorannen: Have you checked TerryKaiser as a possible sock puppet?

>31 2wonderY: I'm assuming that's one of the aforementioned FB friends.

>31 2wonderY:

At least TerryKaiser catalogued some other authors' books!

>31 2wonderY: Yep, I checked every possible sock puppet account mentioned here (and a few more). Terry Kaiser looks legit from our end. All confirmed sock puppet accounts have been suspended accordingly.

>34 lorannen: Then his/her reviews shouldn't have been flagged. They were legitimate reviews.

TerryKaiser's reviews have been flagged for TOS abuse. If he/she is a legitimate member, that doesn't seem justified. Can they be counter-flagged?

Why were the reviews flagged? 0.o

>36 konallis: Yes, I counter flag often, usually blue flags.

Don't know why those reviews were flagged, unless it's because some people thought the user was a sock puppet. Or, on the other hand, maybe some of his friends thought "flag" meant "we liked this"! (I have seen that happen.) In any case, I counter-flagged. Others can do the same if they are so inclined.

Yeah I already did too. But even if the user was a sock, then I still don't see that being a correct thing. The user, reviews included, would be removed. The ToS doesn't say to flag suspected socks' reviews, so, yeah, please don't do that, people! Abuse of feature!

>40 .Monkey.:

I agree, but some people might do it, anyway.

I guess they want to take their advertising elsewhere? http://www.librarything.com/topic/205823

Having encouraged the FB friends, they are stuck with having LT author pages.

I welcomed this new member/author and specifically suggested she use a photo other than this one, which was on her profile, because it is promotional in nature.

http://www.librarything.com/pic/5090159

So she added a non-promotional picture to her profile and posted this one to her author page.

Scratching my head.

I guess some authors figure that bad publicity is better than no publicity, and that by doing things bound to upset people they will at least get noticed.

New question.

I'm adding a Dorling Kindersley publication titled A Mouse in the House by Henrietta. The conceit is that Henrietta is the mouse in question and her photo is on the cover. Would it be okay if I crop the cover and add the picture as the author picture?

>47 2wonderY:

Fine by me!

Haven't seen it done before, one member who is adding author pictures by the boatload is adding a few photos of graves and a street name sign.

http://www.librarything.com/pic/5462735
http://www.librarything.com/pic/5462822
http://www.librarything.com/pic/5462836
http://www.librarything.com/pic/5462910
http://www.librarything.com/pic/5462946

It's not that images of the author are not available. I found good ones with very little effort.
Should these be flagged?

Graves have generally been considered okay. Street signs, however, I would not consider okay.

I guess it's a street plaque in front of his home.

http://www.librarything.com/pic/5462836

Well, here's a little nook I hadn't discovered yet. :-)
I'm just raiding Wikimedia Commons images wholesale, since they're all properly licensed and just sitting there for the taking. What you were seeing previously was the regurgitated contents of Writers>Writers by Country>Writers by Name by Country>Writers from France by Name (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Writers_from_France_by_name)

Whatever was there got added; whatever wasn't didn't. I briefly started on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Writers_from_France (Writers from France not yet neatly organized by name), but decided to skip over to the US for a bit (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Writers_from_the_United_States) and work on the uncategorized portion in the root folder, since those are more likely to be newer images (in terms of upload date) and less likely to have been entered previously. They also tend to be authors with more member holdings, which has been reflected by a healthy boost in our "Books with an author picture" figure over the past few days: https://www.librarything.com/authorgallery/stats/stats

Haven't decided where I'll be off to next, but I would hope others might want to pitch in. Like shooting fish in a barrel. :-)

>52 davidgn: What energy bar do you inhabit? ;@)

Uploaded by the author:
http://www.librarything.com/pic/6388477

opinions?

>54 2wonderY: I'd be inclined to say the third picture is a valid picture of the author. The second can remain as a secondary, I guess.

The linked one ... Not a picture of the author. Fine in personal gallery, not in the author page.

>54 2wonderY:

I'm assuming the second one is the author as a child, so that's okay.

The first one, no (unless she's hiding elf ears under her hair).

Thanks LT staff!!!
for adding this material up front in the author picture pop-up:

Guidance on author pictures

What are author pages and pictures?

LibraryThing author pages, including author pictures, are public repositories of factual information about that author. They are not promotional resources for authors, but similiar to Wikipedia pages.

What makes an author picture?

An author picture should be a picture of the author.

Do not post:
•Cover art
•Pictures that do not represent the author
•Pictures that violate LibraryThing's Terms of Service

Pictures that don't meet this criteria may be flagged for removal by other members.

Whose picture is it?

All LibraryThing members can contribute to author pictures. Members who wish to post purely promotional images, cover art and so forth are free to do so on their member galleries.

More information on contributing images can be found here.

>57 2wonderY:

Yes, that worked: http://www.librarything.com/author/wilderliah

head~desk

Does anyone else have a problem with this author image?

https://www.librarything.com/pic/6496153

Added by the author.

>59 2wonderY:

Eewwww!

"Not a recognizable image of the author."

>59 2wonderY: Response from author:

"Well..no. I don't use an author photo."

I referred him to the Wiki page.
He may take it down himself.

And done.

Whew! That was unexpectedly reasonable.

He has also put in a long member's description on his book that reads like back cover text.

>61 2wonderY:, >62 MarthaJeanne:

This guy is actually pretty amenable to polite correction. He doesn't want to step on toes, as evidenced by this thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/294538

Here's an interesting one:
http://www.librarything.com/pic/6766522

New member is probably the author. She added the other photo as well. I want to say this is not the place for her cat photos.

>64 2wonderY:

I want to say this is not the place for her cat photos.

True! However, she's in it, so I guess technically it's a photo of the author as well.

I would be more accepting if she had labeled it as 'author and her cat' rather than "L'un des nombreux chats de Claytone Carpe."

>64 2wonderY: Well, if someone can translate our usual notice into French, maybe she can get some details of why there's an issue?

I rarely look at Venues anymore, but I question both the promotional photo and whether the venue itself belongs on LT:

https://www.librarything.com/venue/107393/Dante-Club

Conceivably, they might have a book angle, but it’s not apparent.

>1 lilithcat: This image is still in use. The words say things like Company, Organization, Club, Association, etc.

I just don't see where to flag it.

>68 2wonderY:

I deleted that venue. It’s a wedding/event space. The only book angle is the name.

I added the venue when LT had a events/venue linking system, although I did not add the picture. If an event showed up without a venue already added, we made a new venue. Now that events have been discontinued it may be superfluous.

Thanks that's useful to hear, I remember doing that myself for some author events eg. a book launch in a cafe. I've re-deleted that one now, since no usernames were showing in the Interactions section suggesting nobody has catalogued anything against it. But if you do need it for any book reasons feel free to unarchive.