See participants only, if camera is enabled?

[alanhlam]

Greetings all,

What do you guys think of the original post (see below)? I can see part of the appeal, but wondered what the arguments would be against having this feature.

Original post -> https://devforum.zoom.us/t/see-participants-only-if-camera-is-enabled/50147

-Alan

[bstrelko]

I think any feature that allows more flexibility for admins is a good one, as long as it can be opted-out of or turned off entirely.

The arguments against having this feature forced Zoom-wide are numerous, mainly lack of parity to all other VTC services/platforms, lack of parity for users who legitimately need to have their cameras off, inflexibility for operators/QC-ers with cameras off, etc.
However, I don't think anyone in that thread is suggesting that this feature should be the norm, just that it should be possible in cases where it's advantageous.

[alanhlam]

Your points are noted, but I'm not sure if the reasons still hold against NOT having this feature.

mainly lack of parity to all other VTC services/platforms
Zoom can't control what other VTC platforms do or don't do. For example, let's pretend for a moment that all social media platforms don't have direct messaging features. Let's suppose Meta is thinking of implementing a direct messaging feature for Facebook and Instagram, but they shouldn't do this because other social media platforms don't currently do it, so therefore, Meta shouldn't do this to uphold parity. I sense a circular fallacy here.

lack of parity for users who legitimately need to have their cameras off
Parity is about a state or condition of being equal. If someone turns their camera off, then people who have their cameras on are now unequal to those who have it off because they can't tell if they're paying attention, falling asleep, and numerous other things. So it's only equal treatment for those who turn their webcams off to not being able to see other people's webcams. There's a lack of parity in the current state of Zoom, which is why I thought OP's proposal was interesting.

inflexibility for operators/QC-ers with cameras off, etc.

You'll have to get into the specifics, but again, I'm not seeing the logical reasoning for why the operators/QC-ers with cameras off are, somehow, treated unequally or would "lack parity" if they can't see other people's webcams. But let's suppose, for the sake of argument, these operators/QC-ers are doing something that requires their webcam off but still need to see other people's webcam. OK, then an exception can be made for those people to this general rule. I can't think of many situation where this would be required, but we can live with that if out of 20 attendees, only 1-2 have their webcams off for reasons of exceptions. 

Something becomes the norm when a person or group does something novel that the status quo decides is worth adopting. Having a feature like this will promote parity, not demote it, and perhaps even drive more people to use Zoom, or whichever VTC, because it'll motivate people to be more interactive through webcams access.