Photo questions

[MatsiRed]

I've briefly skimmed over the new forum and like many things about it, but when I read that I can now bypass image storage sites such as photobucket, my heart skipped a few beats. Will make life so much easier for photo updates now.

I skimmed and didn't see related questions, so hopefully I'm not duplicating questions:

*As I understand it, the forum can now serve to store photos as personalized albums and additionally we can post photos directly from our hardrives.

-Are these photos now 'stored' on the forum?

-Is there a time limit for storage, ie will they ever disappear from threads as long as threads are active?

-When uploading from hardrive, do I need to upload the correct size for forum or will they convert automatically?

*When posting/storing any photos to this forum, will I be giving up ANY rights to my photos?

Thanks!

[smyke]

I dont have the answers for most of them but the forum will automatically resize the photos for you (from what I read).

[MatsiRed]

Thanks, Mike.

*Also meant to ask above if there is any size limit in terms of photo storage (as with photobucket).

[shepherds]

My answers to your questions are in BOLDED RED.

Originally Posted by MatsiRed

-Are these photos now 'stored' on the forum?

They are stored on our webservers. It's essentially the same thing. All data on this site is stored on our webservers.

-Is there a time limit for storage, ie will they ever disappear from threads as long as threads are active?

There is no time limit. As long as we're in business and the world still exists, your images and posts will be fine.

-When uploading from hardrive, do I need to upload the correct size for forum or will they convert automatically?

They will be resized automatically.

*When posting/storing any photos to this forum, will I be giving up ANY rights to my photos?

The rule of thumb to follow is that anything that is posted on this site belongs to the site owner -- whether it's good stuff or bad stuff. That being said, please consider the following:

1. We do not sell anything to third parties. That is not how we operate. Never have, never will. It's shady at best and an easy way for a company like ourselves to kill ourselves.

2. Everything posted on this site is accessible to the public already. If anyone wants content from this site, all they really have to do is sign up for a free account.

3. If there is something you don't want the public to see, don't ever post it. Not just on this site but anywhere on the internet.

Hope this helps!

[MatsiRed]

Hi Shepherds,

Thank-you very much for your response. Very helpful. And I'm very excited about the convenience of photo posting.

I had not considered about third parties, and realize anyone can, and many have, 'borrowed' images from this forum for their own purposes, and there is little anyone can do about that. I accept that.

But with the new storage privileges, here is what I started to wonder:

Let's say I posted a photo of one of my dogs, and later decided to try to profit from that photo by selling it, using it on a photo gift, or using it in a book, etc.

In theory, since the photo that I posted/stored on your site 'belongs to the site owner' now, will your company have any rights to any profits from that photo? I realize in the form of good business, this is probably the furthest from your mind, but I not only ask for myself, but I also need to let the rescue I volunteer for know that any of their photos that I post here becomes your property (I think that's how I understand it) as they use them a lot for fundraising, so they can make an informed decision as to allowing me to post them (I'm one of their photographers).

This is also a legitimate question for myself since I have profited from some of my photos that were posted on the forum in the past (as a result of fundraising at an auction, and a few other ways).

This will make a huge difference to me as to how or if I post certain photos. Is there language somewhere on the site about all this?

Is this a change from former forum rules?

If photos are posted via sites like photobucket, does your company still consider 'posted on this site belongs to the site owner'? Or only if stored on your webserver?

Again, not trying to rock the boat. I just want to make some informed decisions about posting my images. Language would help.

Thanks!

[Syaoransbear]

I have a question about photos too, and I really apologize if this has already been answered.

Is the 25 picture limit the total limit per user, or per album? Will this ever change?

[Lauri & The Gang]

Originally Posted by Syaoransbear

I have a question about photos too, and I really apologize if this has already been answered.

Is the 25 picture limit the total limit per user, or per album? Will this ever change?

The 25 pictures is the limit in your Gallery - the TOTAL number of pictures.

You can post pictures hosted elsewhere or attach pictures directly from your computer with NO limits.

[LisaT]

Originally Posted by Lauri & The Gang

The 25 pictures is the limit in your Gallery - the TOTAL number of pictures.

You can post pictures hosted elsewhere or attach pictures directly from your computer with NO limits.

Is there a limit to attached photos?

[Lauri & The Gang]

Is there a limit to attached photos?

or attach pictures directly from your computer with NO limits.

Attached pictures do not count in your Gallery (nor do they appear there).

[shepherds]

Originally Posted by MatsiRed

Hi Shepherds,

Let's say I posted a photo of one of my dogs, and later decided to try to profit from that photo by selling it, using it on a photo gift, or using it in a book, etc.

In theory, since the photo that I posted/stored on your site 'belongs to the site owner' now, will your company have any rights to any profits from that photo? I realize in the form of good business, this is probably the furthest from your mind, but I not only ask for myself, but I also need to let the rescue I volunteer for know that any of their photos that I post here becomes your property (I think that's how I understand it) as they use them a lot for fundraising, so they can make an informed decision as to allowing me to post them (I'm one of their photographers).

This is also a legitimate question for myself since I have profited from some of my photos that were posted on the forum in the past (as a result of fundraising at an auction, and a few other ways).

This will make a huge difference to me as to how or if I post certain photos. Is there language somewhere on the site about all this?

Is this a change from former forum rules?

If photos are posted via sites like photobucket, does your company still consider 'posted on this site belongs to the site owner'? Or only if stored on your webserver?

Again, not trying to rock the boat. I just want to make some informed decisions about posting my images. Language would help.

Thanks!

Donna, thank you for your comments and being patient and open-minded about how things are done here.

We use a standard agreement notice when users register and if you registered prior to this current software platform, the user agreement would have been fairly similar (with different language I guess). It's pretty generic and standard across online communities.

That being said, we have never ever ever ever sold anyone's images or content to any third party on any of the websites we manage. This is probably why we don't have any written documentation of this.

If you're really concerned, just take a screen shot of this post and save it in case you need to use it against us.

Going back to what I previously wrote and what you provided as an example (which was excellent), let me say this:

If you want to post a picture that you took, technically, we can do what we want with it. You still own the original so you can profit off of it. HOWEVER...and everyone, please read this carefully. It is not in our business practice to take the content that belongs to our most precious supporters and use it for our profit. It's suicide as far as I'm concerned.

Think about the recent banner contest we had. If we were a business who didn't care about their community, we would have just taken images posted all over the old board and created the banner without telling anyone. But look at what we did instead? I think that speaks volume regarding what kind of owners are managing this community.

Finally, I can say this from my own experience because I do a lot of wedding photography on the side and post my images all the time to other boards I visit (shhhh...don't tell my bosses ). The resolution of the images I upload an most people upload would never meet the standards a magazine or media publication would use to PRINT. I won't even go into the subject of how good the photo is either.

Like I said before, if you're concerned about your content with regards to the internet in general, just don't post it up. With images, you can always watermark them. I know I do.