The Military Photos website was the brainchild of a man by the username "Hood". The website features mainly user-submitted military photo albums with several albums from contemporary sources. The two main albums are "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and "Operation Enduring Freedom", featuring photos from Iraq and Afghanistan, are the most popular. There are also several albums posted from members of the forum, displaying everything from psychological operations in Afghanistan, to Special Forces pictures from Iraq.
There is also a host of photos from international members all across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America.
1 External links
Militaryphotos.net Forum
Perhaps the most frequently visited section of the website is the forum, home to users across the world, whose daily lives are involved in the military, civilian duty, or government work. The forum is divided into 6 sections:
- General Discussion
- Strictly Photos and Videos
- Political Discussions and Rants
- Military History and Tactics
- Equipment and Gear
- Reenactment / Airsoft / Paintball
- Off Topic and Humor
- Invite Only
Because of the nature of the user-base, the forum is extremely lively and features an ever-increasing number of debate topics. The most divisive topics in the past have been concerned with the United Nations, Democrat versus Republican, the War on Terror, United States versus Europe, the Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Islam versus the Western World.
The diverse user-base also allows for an incredible amount of in-forum photo posting. These photo collections are perhaps the most-personal and thoughtful of the photos as they reveal the personalities and lives of the individual forum members. Other members post generic picture threads ("Today's Pics. - Monday, July 12") consisting of a collection of images hosted by Getty, Corbis, or any military site (Navy.mil, AF.mil, Army.mil, etc).
As the user-base expanded dramatically from August 2002 to October 2003, the site administrator "Hood" created a separate Off-Topic forum for members to discuss personal matters, humorous topics, and domestic politics. In August 2004, Hood created a new section called "Invite Only", dedicated for discussing the more delicate issues, which could potentially lead to flaming in "General Discussion". To post to this section, you need special rights, which are granted by the site administrator only if another member recommends you to "get in". Also in August, mainly due to the large number of topics regarding the US presidential campaigns, a new section was separated from the "General Discussion", and so the "Political Discussions and Rants" section was born.
Forum Controversies
There were a few controversies which plagued the Militaryphotos.net forums, one of which involved the use of extravagant and incredibly large signatures, sometimes featuring 2000x1400 sized photos. The flow of the forum was greatly hampered by this abuse that signatures were banned from use. Another controversy featured the use of large avatars which severely altered the layout of the topics. Similarly, the use of avatars has now been restricted and avatars must comply with size and dimension rules.
A larger problem arose on the forums when several forum members began trolling the forum, posting controversial articles from controversial sources. The nature of the articles being posted was so far beyond the status quo of the forum that the perpetrators were subsequently banned. These trolls were returning after being banned and continued their trolling. The site admin was then forced to prevent any new members from joining the forum and required personal authentication of the new member's identity.
Finnish Military Abuse
On March 7 2005, a topic in the MilitaryPhotos.net "Off Topic and Humor" forum, titled "WTF is wrong with Finnish army ?" displayed photographs of Finnish conscripts being sexually humiliated by other conscripts. Reminiscent of the Abu Ghraib scandal, the photos show near naked soldiers on leashes, in sexual positions, and other awkward poses. The Finnish tabloid "Ilta Sanomat" first picked up the story and had a two page exclusive. The next day, a Finnish newspaper picked up the story and had a one page article describing the photos. However, by the time the Finnish newspaper reported the story, the photos were taken down, and the newspaper used a photo of Belgian military abuse.
The incidents are being investigated by the Finnish military. The Finnish Newspaper "HBL" dismisses the photos as "soldier humor".
Militaryvideos.net
As the popularity of the militaryphotos.net website increased, the site admin decided to create another website: www.militaryvideos.net. The site has gained notoriety when the History Channel used footage submitted by a member of Militaryphotos.net and hosted on the Militaryvideos.net site.
External links
- http://www.militaryphotos.net - Military Photo Albums and forums
- http://www.militaryvideos.net - Military Videos in BitTorrent download
- http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/index.php - Militaryphotos.net Forums
Last updated: 05-07-2005 11:11:28
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
