“The Guarantee
can only be credibly made by the photographer.”

  • A. TTG is based on the power of reputation

    Photographers who make the Trust Test Guarantee are staking their reputation on that guarantee every time they publish the “TTG” label with their name in a trustworthy context.

    The potential of a permanent hit to their reputation gives photographers incentive to not abuse the TTG label in trustworthy contexts; see #111.

  • B. Three real-world effects of “A” (above)

    1. The TTG label can only be credibly applied to one’s own photographs — never to someone else’s. See also FAQs #1904 and #1905

    2. Viewers can ignore the TTG label if it is not accompanied by the name of the photographer making the guarantee, because any guarantee is meaningless when the entity standing behind it is unknown.

    3. Viewers are less likely to trust the TTG label on social media.

  • C. But what about the image provider’s credibility?

    • Since the image provider cannot attach the TTG label to a photograph — only the photographer can credibly do that — the image provider simply identifies by name the guaranteeing photographer.

    • But since an inappropriately-labeled photo can damage the provider’s credibility—

    — image providers have multiple options (including complete veto power) when they believe a submitted photograph has been inappropriately labeled TTG; see here.