Of course, I was never saying to use the Photography forum to post plant pictures. We have a database for that.
But, we already have plenty of threads such as what Web is speaking of in the Photography forum. Just to give a few examples:
https://garden.org/thread/go/1...
https://garden.org/thread/go/1...
https://garden.org/thread/go/1...
In each case, there isn't some big photography class going on. Mostly, it's enthusiastic photographers wanting to share their treasured photos.
The first thread was even created by a moderator (a contest
encouraging people to post their favorite pictures of a certain category!) so I think it's perfectly fine to do it if a moderator is doing it.
So, even if those people are acting against the original rules of the forum, you can understand if members are receiving mixed signals with what the moderators are doing as opposed to what the members are allowed to do.
I just checked, and many of the most recent forums and stickies aren't even that instructional. Mostly just people sharing photos with one another.
Perhaps we can have Dave clear this up.
ETA: Last bit of info. I went back to the thread where Alan shared his awesome wasp images, and both moderators were very happy to see the pictures. I don't see any reprimands for it, although I acknowledge that could've happened in DMs:
