~§~ Events Facilitators ~§~

Unlike some of the smaller sites Purestorm does not offer portfolio hosting to Events Facilitators or Group Shoot Organisers. In response to a number of serious issues which arose in the early summer of 2009 our Administrators were forced to introduce certain restrictions on how Group Shoots (events where a number of photographers shoot a number of models) could be promoted through the Community Events and Group Shoots section of the forums. It was decided, as a means of preventing certain exploitative behaviour and/or undesirable actions, to restrict Group Shoot promotion to non-profit networking events open to ALL members of the community. This guideline, which had to be tweaked several times to try to prevent rule-bending or hair-splitting, explains further:-

Use Of This Section

Around the same time we also introduced the Studio Model Days/Evenings section to give our registered Hire Studio account holders a place to promote properly and safely run multi-photographer events being held on their studio premises. As one of the basic criteria for having a Studio account is that the holder should be trading from business-rated commercial premises it is presumed that the studio owner will be operating their business, and equipment, in a safe and responsible fashion.
 

In April 2011 we tried to relax the Model Days rules slightly by allowing Premium members (most, though by no means all, of whom are identifiable) to also post in Studio Model Days/Evenings although we regret that this has not been an unqualified success. Some members abused the privilege or misused the section and some Studio owners then decided to fight back to protect their businesses from what they saw as cowboys damaging their livelihood. As a result we [are now having] had  to seriously reconsider the relaxations as it is clear that putting the community on trust does not work. Indeed when asked to play fair some members have responded that they "don't do fair".

If members are trying to co-ordinate a non-profit and non-commercial Group Shoot where any member of the Purestorm community - Model, Photographer or Make-Up Artist - can participate and any (minor) associated costs are shared by everyone attending, they are at liberty to post in the Community Events section. If Premium (i.e. Silver, Gold or Platinum) members are organising a commercial Model Day/Evening (i.e. where the photographers pay and the models take a fee) involving one or more of our Model members on the premises of one of our Hire Studio members they are still at liberty to post in the Model Days section; but only if they comply with the section guidelines of course.

Please all note that members of the community are expected to comply with the spirit of site rules & guidelines and we consider trying to bend the rules or to argue the wording to be unacceptable. It would also help if members were to bear in mind that the rules exist to help the smooth running of the site and merely paying for an upgrade or believing oneself to be superior to the rest of the community does not give carte blanche to ignore the rules.

Updated February 2012

A small number of members intent on finding ways of organising / promoting Commercial Non-Studio Events
have been arguing the wording of rules & guidelines or demanding rule exemptions on the basis of being paying members.
As a result we [may be]  have been forced to [shortly] reverse some of the April 2011 'relaxations'.