I have three groups on Flickr: Superosity, The Superness of Superosity and Blur Will Save the World. The first one, Superosity, I set up a few years back because I was fed up of those groups on Flickr that force you to award a shiny graphic to 5 other photographs for the one you have posted to the group. I understand that “we all love comments” but a shiny GIF is not a comment. All people do is click on the photo hit C on the keyboard and then alt+V and the gif/graphic is pasted in the comment box and they move and repeat the sequence until they reach the quota. Some of these groups even have sweepers that police your activity in the group and threaten to ban you from the groups if you do not adhere to their rules. I feel this goes against the idea of sharing and supporting, which Flickr is all about.
Superosity
Superosity was set up to allow people to post photographs to a group without this awful threat hanging over them. To allow people to share their images, appreciate each other’s work and learn from each other. The group has grown to a stage where we now have almost 2500 members and over 67000 photographs. My good Flickr friend Randy and I are the group admins and from time to time we have a featured artist section showcasing some of the best contributors. The most recent was a fellow Irishman Dermot whose photographs of Ireland are spectacular. The one before that was another favourite of mine – Olga – who has the most wonderful, artistic images.
I intend to continue to showcase individual photographers there and using the blog to broaden the reach of the group I am going to select my 12 favourite images from the group and post them here each week.
A lot of people have asked me “what the hell is Superosity? Where did you get the name?” “It’s not a real word, you know?” Well, words fascinate me. Super is one of my favourites. I love the sound of it and I love its connotations. But there is no noun. It just has an adjective form. So, I added the suffix osity and formed superosity. Another example would be fabulosity. We need these words. And what better title for a group of the best images from Superosity than Superness! And as for it not being a real word…. of course it is a real word!
Superosity in all you do.
Thanks for reading.
so great to get the background of how the group started! I love the word and the idea and yes, the group!
Ya, the word is cool. I like making up new words. thanks for your comments all your support. I’ll get back to you about that idea for the blog. talk soon thanks
A while back, long enough that I can’t quite remember the context, Allison used the word superosity in a sentence. My son called her out for not using a real word. I took her side, he was a bit incredulous. I told him that one person makes up a word, two people use an actual word. I hope you put inventing it on your résumé.
That is great to hear. Words are living things. Words allow us to be creative. Tell Alison I am on her side too….Superosity!
Words are magical tools.. you get the magic i think.. I love your work, life is such a blur..and thank you Mimo for pointing me in your direction too.. c
I hear you on the forced to comment point Brendan. I work hard to get my images looking the way I want them to (at least to the best of my abilities). It’s an insult to think that people look at my images because they are forced to. I want to believe that the look at my work because something in it appeals to them. That’s what I love about your group “Superosity” – good quality, nice variety, no rules.
Really like the layout of the blog. Looks great.The images on the side show quite nicely on black. Good start.
Hi Stephen,
Those groups with their sweepers really annoy me. I used to post a lot to them in my early Flickr days when I had very few contacts. I remember one time being told I had to select one photo from each page to paste their dumb graphic on in comments. Crazy stuff.
Thanks for kind words about blog. It is a learning curve.