To be honest I think many members here are way too fragile, easy to anger or optimistic for the threads to be as useful as they could be. Not that I think anything can or should be done about it. It just sadly happens to be so.
In the You look fabulous thread, people post according to how they think they look fabulous, no matter how it looks to them. Some post there knowing that they don't pass too well, just because they're feeling good about something. I'm not saying that's wrong, but that vastly broadens the content of the thread. Fabulous to me and fabulous to FictionalGirlX22 can very well be two different things. And honestly, would I post there to contradict her? No, that would make me an awful person, and it's not even in the purpose of the thread to give anything but positive criticism.
In the Could I pass one day? and Do I pass? threads, either because they themselves aren't in a very advantageous situation, either because they've experienced people being devastated by comments, people are often way too nice and way too optimistic regarding how feminine someone looks. You can't blame them. After someone became suicidal because I told her I didn't like how she did her make-up at all, I've learned to be less honest and/or not post.
We can't fool ourselves: all a transsexual person is likely to go through leaves marks, and that can include overreaction, defensiveness, delusion and extreme fragility, and the effects of that have been seen a lot on the forum. I don't intend to bash on anyone or blame people, and I won't go very far in this direction. All I want to say is that many of you might have noticed that Susans' members should generally be handled in a special way, to avoid anger, sadness, etc. And again, I don't mean to say that as an insult or anything remotely like that. It's just that many people who are going through a lot or did so in the past can't be interacted with like your common anyone, and by definition the coounity of this forum includes a lot of these.
As a result of that, it's sad to say, but completely honest opinions are hard to get on Susans, because commenters are biased. Sometimes they were like that to begin with, for various reasons I've hinted at before, and sometimes they became that way after seeing many trans people, or living bad reactions to their honest, constructive criticism. There are also differences in point of view. Some people think that no matter how many there are, masculine characteristics that can reasonably found in women pass completely. Others think that you don't truly pass until you're unable to remotely pass as male even if you try hard. Somewhere in the middle, there are people who think that to pass is simply to generally be seen as female by strangers. And an infinity of possibilities aside those. What it means to pass to the picture poster, to the commenter and to another commenter can be three different things, which can cause various problems. That's fine, but one has to understand that to fully understand the opinions they're given.
As for the title... Well, everyone knows a picture isn't everything, and the thread, even though it's very much centered onto that, isn't limited to pictures. If people want a more complete opinion, they can post videos or sound clips, can't they?
