Kelly Kooper wrote:
I only recently had it pointed out to me by another photographer on this site that the word 'tog' was offensive to some. Before that, on an Australian forum I visit reguarly, people use the word in most posts and it's never come up as a problem before. I'm only new to this forum so I missed the previous posts about this but I'm glad I saw this one and got the chance to read people's thoughts on it. I didn't think twice about using it on the net but it's not something I'd say in verbal communication. I think I'll refrain from using the term now because it seems to annoy so many people

Kelly, I will admit that seeing you use it in your thread was the catalyst for this thread, but it wasn't directed AT you.  I also did see your explanation why.  I think it is a regional kind of thing wether to use it or not, but I think you cant go WRONG by completely typing out "photographer".  Even if most other people in that Australian forum (or British, as I've seen previously in this thread) use the word "tog", you can be the odd one out and type "photographer" and be considered odd, but not unprofessional, but if you go and use "tog" constantly, if whatever region you are in dislikes it, people would look down on you more.  Now I apologize for the, probably, bad wording, but I hope the point gets across.

You can never go wrong with "photographer", but you can with "tog", and its better to be safe than sorry.

S wrote:

Kelly, I will admit that seeing you use it in your thread was the catalyst for this thread, but it wasn't directed AT you.  I also did see your explanation why.  I think it is a regional kind of thing wether to use it or not, but I think you cant go WRONG by completely typing out "photographer".  Even if most other people in that Australian forum (or British, as I've seen previously in this thread) use the word "tog", you can be the odd one out and type "photographer" and be considered odd, but not unprofessional, but if you go and use "tog" constantly, if whatever region you are in dislikes it, people would look down on you more.  Now I apologize for the, probably, bad wording, but I hope the point gets across.

You can never go wrong with "photographer", but you can with "tog", and its better to be safe than sorry.

Lol I actually didn't make the connection between our posts so I didn't think it was inspired by me at all One of the other photographers mentioned in the one I started that there were a number of topics going around the forums about how much people hated that word so when I saw yours, I figured it was an old one that someone had commented on and brougt it back to the start.

I'm actually amazed that the word has travelled this far. I was naive enough to think it started with one of us Aussies but apparently not, it's done a rather large circle of countries so far. I didn't stop to think about using it in the past but I can appreciate everyone's POV and certainly wasn't attached to it

Also, nothing wring with your choice of wording and no offense taken. I'd rather know it was a problem than be ignorant about the effect it had on people. I was thinking before how horrible it would have been if no one had said anything and I kept using it without knowing how much I was annoying people. So believe me, I'm glad I know for future reference!