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Photopoo is a satirical look at the on-line photographic forum communities. It is intended to be humorous but sometimes the truth is revealed. People who have fascist tendencies can't deal with the truth so they respond in ways that reveal their true nature. Jorge Torralba The Contest In 2006, Jorge Torralba used his rangefinderforum to sponsor a photo contest with a Zeiss Ikon rangefinder camera provided by Popflash Photo as the prize. Just days after the contest was launched, the rangefinder site experienced a number of performance issues. For weeks and months it ran like molasses, then it would go off-line. This cycle repeated itself daily as new people were joining left, right and centre, endeavouring to upload their contest photos During this plagued period numerous photographers disappeared. On April 1st the contest was extended for 2 whole days with the same issues and this time the site was completely butchered with more photos and posts deleted. Members couldn't even log in! Then the owner announced the contest was closed. Jorge Torralba wrote, "We received well over 500 fantastic entries for the contest.... We ended up with a set of 12 finalists.... The selections were made by 3 people. A process was followed and the judges had their say." 500 photos were passed over in just a few hours? Who were the judges and what were their qualifications? Considering that all entries could be used by Rangefinderforum and Popflash for advertising or whatever until 2011, I felt that something needed to be done. I suggested a way of dealing with this injustice by contacting Oregon's Attorney General with the following complaint: "An individual operating under the assumed business name of 'Range Finder Forum' 3495 Vista Ridge Dr, West Linn, OR 97068 sponsored a photography contest during the first three months of 2006. The prize was a Zeiss Ikon camera and lens valued at more than $2,000. After reading the information on the Oregon Attorney General's website, it appears that this contest may have violated several Oregon laws. The official contest rules posted on the owner's website did not disclose the 'identity of or description of the qualifications of the judges' nor the 'method used in judging.' The official rules stated: 'No more than 3 entries may be submitted by each photographer.' 'All entries must be posted in the RFF photo gallery dedicated to the contest no later than March 31, 2006. By submitting your photographs, you agree to allow PopFlash Photo or RFF to use the photographs for promotional events for period of up to (5) five years related to rangefinder photography.' 'After the deadline of March 31, 2006 PopFlash Photo and the RFF staff will judge and select a group of finalists from all the qualifying entries. The number of final photographs selected will be determined by PopFlash Photo and RFF.' 'As with the previous contest, the forum members will choose the winner from the group of finalists by casting their votes.' http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=199529 The contest wasn't closed until 4-4-06 although the deadline in the official rules was 3-31-06: On 4-5-06, the owner of Range Finder Forum announced that 12 finalists had been chosen and that members had 30 days to vote for their favorite photograph in a poll: On 4-24-06, the owner of Range Finder Forum encouraged new visitors to the website to register so they could cast their votes. These votes would have been made by people who registered AFTER the 12 finalists were announced. "A word to our members and visitors about the contest." The contest is almost over and we are really lacking votes. I would encourage you to please cast your vote for your favorite photograph. If you are a visitor to the forum, please take the time to register and cast your vote. The photographers are depending on your votes for deciding a winner. The more votes the better for all." http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=285282 Please look into to this matter as the owner and sponsor presently have free use of my photographs for the next 5 years." Did Jorge Torralba admit he made a mistake and give up his rights to use all photographs entered in the contest until 2011?
A few months later, Jorge Torralba posted the following on his Rangefinderforum:
Then he linked almost all Photo's rangefinderforum links with this modified Action Alert:
Still not satisfied, Jorge Torralba e-mailed me using a fake yahoo account stating that someone had registered frankgranovski.com. Two weeks later, Torralba revived a two year old thread on photo.net and forwarded frankgranovski.com to the thread. In that thread, he writes: "Interestingly enough, There is even an arrest warrant issued for him in Germany. Some details can be seen here: http://www.hett.org/archives/490." We've read the blog entry written by the German who travels to Cuba for cheap sex and it says nothing about an arrest warrant. Jorge needs a remedial English class as he has consistently proven that he cannot write or read.
Trolling Sometime in 2006, Jorge Torralba, made a decision to eliminate what he considered to be "trolls." Please note Jorge Torralba's command of the English language and keep in mind that he is employed as a software engineer.
What is a "troll?" Here are a few excellent examples of troll-like behaviour:
Bashing Apple Computer If your employer made chips for Apple Computer would you use your camera forum to make a statement like this?
Learn how to avoid Canadian Customs Duties on Rangefinderforum The chief moderator of Rangefinderforum loves to buy cameras from people outside of Canada. What he doesn't love are the taxes paid to customs. The fearless leader has a solution:
Bootleg Software offers on Rangefinderforum.com Did you know that you can sometimes find free bootleg software offers on Rangefinderforum? The thread's been deleted but here's a screen cap of Richard Silfverberg offering a bootleg version of Adobe Photoshop 7.0 with serial number and the response by one of the happy recipients.
The Leica M8 Lens Encoding Scheme Before the Leica M8 was released, Jorge Torralba was offering to encode Leica lenses for the Leica M8 for $50 less than what Leica was going to charge.
As soon as Jorge Torralba got his M8, he started posting photos of his wife and kids. Mango, a RFF member from the UK, wrote, "Hey, great shot Jorge. Is that your son in the foreground? If it is I wonder if he's thinking, so that's what a college fund looks like." Here is Jorge Torralba's response:
So why would a software engineer have a problem with the truth?
Recent Comments: April 13, '007. "'We prefer a more civil tone here.' Dumber than a bag of hammers or overflowing with horseshit, this is a remarkable pronouncement even for 'BA.' To summarize, we are all lower-case F*CKED in one way or another." ---FED April 13, '007. "That's funny as Hell." ---Bill April 14, '007. "Jorge Torralba's action alert, where he reveals your name and address, looks great right above his post where he states that under Canadian law, it's illegal to publish personal information. It's like he doesn't even realize that YOU'RE the Canadian. LOL. He's a big GOP supporter so I guess that allows him to break the law." ---FED April 14, '007. "Jorge Terrible has behaved like an arrogant idiot posting a lot of garbage on RFF and on other forums. He deserves this kind of attention." ---Jon C. April 15, '007. "Hey Frank, we all know that place is run by two-bit, marble playing clowns." ---208CzH@ April 15, '007. "The face of a TRANNY is always mild at first. I can’t wait to see the shocking truth revealed on photopoo.com." ---Lloyd April 15, '007. "we love www.photopoo frank" ---ML (Eric Milner) Older Comments: "I think your a crazy genius! You might want to check out this thread: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33686 See jaapv's OP and further M8 worship. Oh, and see Jorge's post - which seems to 'slam the door' on film gear at RFF." ---Anonymous. "Hi, Frank! Visited your poo site since I noticed the dumb JT getting seriously excited now. That hint that the FBI is now watching you (haha!!) made me curious. I found your description of the several persons hit the nail quite precisely on the head. JT and the bunch of ass lickers sourrounding him as his palace guard are an extraordinary selection of hypocrits, boasters, stuffed shirts, know-it-alls and incompetent wannabies. Not to forget the special dort of pretentious artsy-fartsy streetgang twats who cannot have a strap around the neck. A disgusting crowd of bedwetters and miserable wankers; and they defend their place by all means, guided by their King, whose profession is son-in-law." Danke für dein Leica CL E-Mail ... Ein herzliches Grüss Gott! Danke für dein Interesse. Ich übersende dir alles zu deiner Frage. Bitte beachte, dass bei zu speziellen Fragen ich noch Auskünfte einholen muss! Mit internetten Grüssen, Klaus Tomasini http://www.tomasini.at office@tomasini.at The Yashica Guy says, "the Yashica ELECTRO 35 GSN is the poor man's Leica!" And I agree 100%. |
