[Rudeofus]

I do agree that out of 100 Lomo-shooters, there will be _maybe_ 10 who will grow out of that phase (and they will) and may look to move on to "controllable creativity", because they may want to know why some effect happened and how they can repeat that exact effect. That's new blood to a shrinking community.

I guess the main point where we disagree is that you portrait Lomo shooters as immature kids who may or may not grow into "real analog photographers". A significant part of them may really be youngsters coming from the digital generation who suddenly got immersed in the magic that analog photography appears to be (to them at least), but that can't possibly carry a movement of that size for so many years. Their careless attitude towards technical details and their endorsement of randomness unleashes a tremendous outpour of creativity.

I would say though, that 90% of the people here, did not start out by perfecting the zone system or with "one film, one dev, do not try anything else before you master that first", most folks here shot with what they had and the film they could get hold of in the beginning.

The question is, and I think this is the biggest thing that separates the APUG crowd from Lomography, whether one considers lack of technical proficiency as a deficit and something to work on, or an opportunity and even an asset. This is precisely where the "hair dye" thread became ugly, and your quote "this crazy lady picking on our PE" highlights that. In Pickle's world, she unlocked a secret door in some magical garden, and she hoped we would rejoice about this. APUG replied by telling her the door was rusty and the key couldn't have possibly worked. From a lock smith's perspective that's absolutely valid, yet in the magical Lomo world APUG completely missed the point.

APUG stands for Analog Photography User Group, I see nothing that would exclude anyone, based on the fact that they may be shooting with a crappy camera and expired film and really don't care much for the technical stuff.

Nobody excludes them, and AFAIK Sean doesn't provide photographic aptitude tests for new APUG members. But let's not forget that Lomo is heavily marketed, and the company behind Lomo fosters a strong community. Luring these people towards APUG will take a lot of effort, and telling them they are immature tinkerers "who need to be taught and who need to expand their minds" is probably not going to work as intended.