
Littergram: Cleaning Britain one picture at a time - specialdragon
http://www.littergram.co.uk/
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alexbilbie
I've just read about this service on the BBC News website[1] where it's
reported than Instagram have a problem with the name of this app.

There is also a well known and well established (with many local councils)
service called Fix My Street[2] the aims to solve the same problems.

[1] [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-
kent-36148093](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-36148093) [2]
[https://www.fixmystreet.com](https://www.fixmystreet.com)

~~~
specialdragon
I wasn't aware of Fix My Street, thank you for that.

The reason for bringing it to HN's attention was because I too read about the
service on the BBC News website and their plight with Instagram.

I was a little perplexed - it's a British company, operating entirely within
the UK - why is Instagram getting involved? The 'gram' prefix has been around
for quite a while [citation needed], is it an infringement of trademark? Then
again, the company is posting pictures with captions, which is very
Instagram-y, so I can see a certain level of cross over.

~~~
icebraining
_The 'gram' prefix has been around for quite a while_

So has "Apple", yet Apple was still sued by Apple and had to settle. A generic
term may be trademarked as long as it doesn't describe the particular goods or
services being sold.

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tamana
But "gram" does describe service of sending pictures.

~~~
icebraining
Not really. "gram" just means "written record". Mammogram, echocardiogram,
sonogram, monogram - none have anything to do with "sending" or "pictures".

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takno
Why would I go to the trouble of downloading an app and creating an account
for this? I can do the whole thing in a couple of clicks and report a range of
other problems on fixmystreet. Is there a way to check if my council is signed
up to this? Given the current budgetary constraints councils are under, is
signing up for a bunch of apps like this a good use of their time and
resources?

I'd also be pretty reluctant to report rubbish close to my house and have it
marked as a "grot spot"

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neurobuddha
I agree. It's better to just sit here and sulk. Hopefully the problem of
litter will just go away.

~~~
DanBC
> I can do the whole thing in a couple of clicks and report a range of other
> problems on fixmystreet.

This bit, where parent poster talks about using existing well known council
operated sites to report litter doesn't feel like sitting there and sulking.

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miseg
Not in the UK, but I've indeed considered taking photos of every piece of
litter I see on my walk.

But my next step is to think, if I'm taking a photo, I might as well pick it
up instead of complain.

My next step of logic is I can't conceivably help to change the behaviour of
people that live around me in the city to not throw litter, so don't occupy
myself with it.

~~~
tudorw
That said, humans love to copy, so if enough people see you picking up random
litter, as I often do too, then they may do the same, as you said, some won't
change, but if the 99% of us who don't litter just spend a tiny bit of time
picking up the 1%'s trash we all get to live in a clean world! Here's
hoping...

~~~
rodhan
Ever since I learned about the Broken Window Theory of urban decay in The
Pragmatic Programmer I try to pick up litter and tidy things up where I can.
Worst case, someone laughs at you for wasting your time, but even then you're
making the world a better place by making people laugh. It's all good :)

~~~
stuxnet79
Hey - can you expand on what was said about the broken window theory of urban
decay in the pragmatic programmer - I'd formulated a similar hypothesis just
based on my limited experience collaborating with others in programming
projects. I didn't know some academic had come up with a term for it..

~~~
rodhan
In the Pragmatic Programmer book [1], to help make the point that if you keep
your code clean, it is more likely to stay that way, the authors cite the
"broken windows" theory [2]. They mention a case where police observed an
abandoned car lying untouched on a dark street for days, but once a window was
smashed, vandals destroyed the car within hours [3]. I don't know much beyond
that, but the theory rings true to me and I try to do my bit to stop it, in
code and in real life.

[1]
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4099.The_Pragmatic_Progr...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4099.The_Pragmatic_Programmer)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory)

[3]
[http://www.artima.com/intv/fixit2.html](http://www.artima.com/intv/fixit2.html)

~~~
stuxnet79
Thanks for the links. The theory rings true to me as well. I've coerced sloppy
colleagues into writing cleaner code when working on my sections of the
project. Conversely I find that I relax my normally high standards when I work
on spaghetti code.

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awhitty
See also: [http://www.litterati.org](http://www.litterati.org)

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melling
I take pictures of trash in the river and put them on Instagram. It's pretty
obvious that people are going to soon trash the entire planet.

[https://instagram.com/p/4KXmvAAD7M/](https://instagram.com/p/4KXmvAAD7M/)

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Cypher
Rename it to TrashBook

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overcast
I wish this was realistic in India.

