Sun Photos and Images

Sir, Thanks for writing. We do have the right to remove comments on our own site, especially taunting comments that make us or, especially, our readers uncomfortable. However, this may be a good opportunity to address our  loyal Almanac readers . . .
Rest assured that this is not our intention at all. The contests are just meant to be fun as our Almanac community has long enjoyed this free photo-sharing feature. Given our "old" age, we have a massive photo archive of our own--plus, content going back hundreds of years, so we are quite content-rich and do not rely on third-party content such as these photos.
Further, these contests are meant for amateurs, not professionals. If we ever did see a photo that we thought might fit a publication, we would certainly ask our reader and provide equitable compensation. We have to create legal terms because the photos may be shared across the web and it's largely out of your control (and ours), but we will never use your photos for any professional purposes without request. To our knowledge, this has never happened. We just don't tend to work this way.
In terms of photos, you can use our photo gallery for free, not just to enter a contest. We used to offer email sharing but this has proven too cumbersome. However, you can share your photos via social media. We also share some of the great photos by our readers online and credit them.
We have an editorial staff of five and this is a smal business so it's not a huge prize; we give away the annual book that we publish ourselves.  We happen to value it. -We hope you do, too! -Your OFA editors