Photos of ex-members on your website
 

Hi, I am the new moderator of my sorority's website and I decided to totally re-do it. I was wondering if it was ok to blur out the faces of former members instead of putting a photo over them.. since that's kind of ugly and distracting. Has anyone ever done this before?? Thanks!

Hi riczxd

I think putting photos up with all current members is less distracting than having photos with blurred faces.

I have seen websites with faces blurred or X'd out of photos. That makes some people curious about the story behind those people.

I would have to agree. Is there a way for you to crop out the non-members in order to still use the desired picture?

^^^ Co-sign. Or, if possible, you can simply crop the person out of the shot.

ETA: Whoops, looks like we posted at the same time there.

I'm going to fight you if you don't start using the quote feature. :p

I will from now on LOL

I am a tiny bit confused. If you are re-doing your website, why would you even use these photos?
(When you say former members, do you mean depledged? Deactivated? Graduated?)

I just feel if you are going to re-do it, you need to do it right. I give you lots of credit because it is a tough job and something I would have a very difficult time doing.

You can redesign a website and still include old photos. If, for example, there are pictures from a 50-year-anniversary dinner hosted by the chapter, you'd definitely want to include those.

I totally get that^^, but are the people you want to crop members that dropped out?

If they are still linked to your org in a positive way, why would you not want them to be shown? I love to see pics of old members from the past. I just say if the people in the photos are no longer a part of the org and you can't crop the pic and make it look great, then do not use the pic. You don't want your site to look cheap.

I'm sorry. I just re-read my post and it didn't convey the meaning I intended. If I was in a picture with an older alum and then I disaffiliated, the chapter can still use the picture with me cropped out.

But if there's a picture of me and my date from formal, I would expect that the picture would not be used.

I think most NPC chapters do that when someone from the chapter is on Panhellenic Exec or is a Recruitment Counselor. They have to be disaffiliated from the chapter for recruitment, and be removed from the website.

You made a good point, but I wonder what you mean by people who dropped out?

Are they alums who are not active, actives who dropped from school but still members in an alum situation?

If they are still members, then why crop them out?

You never know when they may become interested again in the future so why slight them?

Everyone has an ego and puttting names and pictures of them is always good unless they were kicked out. Then they should be covered. I take it there are not that many who were kicked out?

Yes, their faces have to be blocked out so no one knows their affiliation.

To the OP - if it's someone who has been terminated or resigned their membership, I would crop them or get rid of the photo entirely and put up a new one. If you blur them it's going to create a LOT of questions and having to answer "uh, they quit" isn't exactly the best thing.

I am glad we cleared all this up. lol

I completely understand blocking someone for recruitment reasons if they are a counselor etc. I just think anyone in a positive standing should be kept no matter how old the pic; and try to avoid cropping or blocking out faces that would make your site look poorly. If it comes to that, it may not be worth using the pictures to begin with.

Yes but I'm not talking about NPC chapter websites. :)

We (the founding sisters) did not quit.

^^^ Yikes. You're just gonna put all your business out there?

I wasn't going to, but a number of people have asked about the people who they want to have blocked out in the pics, so I figured I would clear up the situation.

Eh...I think people were asking a general question that the OP could've cleared up without having to know that this is your chapter's website and the story behind it all.

Now I'm curious:

Your status as an active in the undergraduate chapter will be terminated but you are still a Zeta Xi Delta/will remain financial and active at the alumnae level.
So was the OP asking about photos of active members only? Can the "founding sisters'" photos not be on the site in any capacity just because they were granted early alumnae status?

I ask this because it isn't uncommon for NPHC chapters to have names and photos of current chapter members, in the chapter members section, but to also include random photos (from events, etc.) of alum from the chapter (and members who aren't from the chapter and other Greeks).

You ask us if the edit is "better," just know that leaving out the detail is for you, not us. :p

I think the OP may be facing a situation where the only pictures that show the entire chapter (like on last year's bid day or something similar) also contain several people who depledged or had their membership stripped, etc. Since they are part of a large group picture, it's probably impossible to crop them out.

I've seen websites that paste an oval over the faces of ex-members, but I think that just draws attention to the people you want to hide. Instead, I think it's much classier to selectively blur those faces. That way, a casual glance at the photo just reveals a large happy smiling group. If you do the blurring in a subtle way, most people won't realize the intention but won't be able to identify the blurred people... which is the point, right?

People should have more fun with a photo editor, you could probably entirely replace those faces either with another girl's face, with background (if her body doesn't show), etc. Web pictures are at such low resolution that I don't see anyone noticing, and that ability comes with even free photo editing programs.

Also useful for removing plastic cups.

Haha yeah, I've seen some pictures with fraternity guys all holding Coke cans. I was like, hmmm why does this look funny?

that's kind of mean


do you mean alumnae or people that transfered or people that got all mad and left?

If it were me, I would just take down the photos and put up new ones with current sisters.

Uh, alumnae and founders aren't ex-members. They just have a different membership status! For such a young org, I don't see why you are in such a hurry to not picture these sisters. It's ONLY May! If they just graduated, it's probably okay to have them in a few pics. I would definitely want my founding sisters pictured on at least the "History" or "About Us" page. Now, if someone de-pledged or turned in their sister pin, that is a whole different story...

After I became an alum, pictures I was in remained on the website for at least a year before I was gone completely. It's okay to have recent alums there. I don't understand why anyone would be in such a rush to take them off completely.

(and I'm sure I'm not the only one curious as to what's going on with ZetaXiDelta and the OP)

Weren't they just founded in November? Why are you going to found a sorority and go alum status a semester later, unless you're graduating? If you're still in school, seems kinda lazy to me to go through all the effort to build something and "need" alumna status so soon.

Then again, I didnt see her post before it got edited, so I can only go off what the other posters have said....

that happens all the time

:) This thread shouldn't have been created but the sorority is going to handle the situation and hopefully won't come back to this thread.

Thank you for all of the suggestions! The photos I was referring to were of the whole sorority and so it is hard to crop people out so I'm just going to blur them out.

We founded the sorority in June of 2007.

We graduated this past Saturday. :)

Congratulations on your graduation!

I cant understand why you would be referred to as an "ex-member." You're not ex-members, you're alums, and for your actives to refer to you as "ex-members" is disrespectful. I graduated in May 2007, and there are still a whole bunch of pictures of me, and the other 3 founders on our chapter website. Granted, they are working on totally revamping it now, so I dont know how much longer that will be the case - but our chapter treats us like respected sisters - not "ex-members."

Thank you! :D Now it's time to find a job, LOL.

I worked for a year. I had no desire to go to grad school. Exactly a year to the day from my graduation, I started grad school because I missed school so much. Granted, I'm taking online classes, and I'm still working, but I'm actively looking for another job anyway because I took the first one I was able to get after graduation. If you have the time, and resources to be a little bit picky - then do it. Don't settle for something just to have something. Good luck!

Do you really have to remove them?

On our site there are no pictures including Recruitment Team because it is less distracting, but if we removed all of the pictures of girls who have quit over the years, we wouldn't have many left. Blurs are distracting. So unless it's a case of us not wanting to be associated with the particular girl, we include them in occasional pictures.

A few thoughts on this post:

1) I think it's good to have at least some pictures of your members. Your website is a PR tool, so potential members feel warm and fuzzy when they see pictures of girls having fun together/participating in sisterhood events/etc.

2) When a member quits, or gets terminated, I wouldn't want her strutting around wearing my letters because that associates her with our group... a group that she is no longer a part of. It's only fair to her to do the same and take her pictures (or crop her out) off a public website that would associate her with the group.

Well the situation came up with us. Basically a member de-pledged (for reasons we respected) so we removed all pictures with her in them from the website; with one exception -- the National Convention photo from 2007. Reason being is that the group shot was not huge, and there was no way we could crop or blur without it being very distracting. Once we get a replacement convention pic, we can blur her out of this current one.