New Gallery Feature: Send a photo.net eCard

please re-read what my first comment said. My Beavis and Butthead scenario was intended to draw attention to a potential area of abuse that the e-card system could be subject to.<p>

And as far as your <i>ad hominem</i> attack, I do not need yet another despondent soul who sees his glass as perpetually half empty to recommend Carnegie to me (actually, I prefer Sun-tzu myself). Perhaps you should police your own shortcommings before looking at those of others. My friend, Bailey would give you so much more mileage than I ever could, why don't you go have an argument with him? Regards.

I just thought of another great use for ecards. I could send links of some ultra-graphic nudes to all those people I suspect are prudish and keep giving me 3/3's. Wonder if anyone else has thought of that. If not-they will soon. On the other hand, I might email nice photos of cats and tweety birds to all those pornographers masquerading as nude photographers-a sort of alternative critique. What do you think of the idea, Brian?

Darrell, if we eliminated all the features that could possibly be abused, we might as well shut down the site because there wouldn't be any features left. Yes the same ecards that can be used to send a Valentine's day greeting to your mother can be also be used for less pure purposes. It's a communication medium; it can be used for any purpose whatsoever, good or bad. You can write your bank hold-up note on a Care Bears greeting card if you want.

 

I suggest you stop exercising your imagination and stop thinking of all the bad things they might be used for. You've opted out of the ecards, so it isn't an issue for you any more. Moving from what-if to reality, I would dare say that the only nasty message that has actually been sent on an ecard so far is the one that you wrote and posted yesterday as an example of how ugly and vulgar some people can be. I'm not sure what you are proving, but it isn't anything about ecards.

Whoops-my apologies. i thought you wrote that you'd 'appreciate any feedback on it that you care to offer' I wrote the last post to make you aware of another possible avenue of abuse just so, if you were inclined, you could add safety mechanisms. Anyway, thanks for responding to my initial concerns. You got a little tetchy and occasionally a little mighty along the way, but you also proved you can listen. i think the thread has proved valuble to all concerned. Big thanks to you.

Walter, I have actually suggested to that very same lad that he read that very same book and I think he did because his postings have been much more civil and polite lately. It takes a village, you know, to improve things.

<i>"Pnina, your idea of being able to see the text that accompanies an image, even without knowing the addresses of the sender or receiver, would be better still."</i>

<p>This is a joke, right?

It will be good if we can choose to add this option or not. A simple click in our workspace (for example) saying ...

" Do you wish to install the e-card option on your portfolio?"

or only on the pictures we want when we download them. Same as : "request a critique", why not "allow for e-card"?

 

Some of us will feel more...secure. I think it's a great idea to share our work with others photographers, and that's why I gave my little fee to help. But I feel being manipulated that somebody decide to do this without asking me before!

 

I am not angry, just disappointed.

has the opt in/ opt out feature been enabled yet? just curious as I haven't been able to find it.

"Pnina, your idea of being able to see the text that accompanies an image, even without knowing the addresses of the sender or receiver, would be better still."

 

This is a joke, right?

 

Not at all. I think a lot of people are still on the fence about this and may give it a trial run. How else will you know how your images are being used except by reading text?

Carl, this feature facilitates and encourages people to email links to photos on photo.net to other people by putting that action into the "greeting card/eCard" frame. To frame it in that way, the ability to write a personal message has to be provided, because that is how people think of "cards".

 

This feature replaces what people can already do for themselves, channeling the behaviour into a legal form, and trying to capture more of the benefit of it for the site and the photogapher than either would gain from illegal forms of the behaviour. When someone simply copies an image on the site and emails it as an attachment to someone, or grabs the image for a blog, the site and the photographer gain no benefit at all.

 

Now, you are saying that in order to be comfortable with this as the photographer, you demand to know who is emailing whom about your image, and precisely what they are saying? No wonder Tony thought you were joking.

 

I'm afraid you are going to have to decide what you think of this feature and whether to opt-out without that information, because that is not going to be provided. I haven't even looked at the specific senders+recipients+messages on the ecards myself. They are personal messages and they will remain personal.

Brian, as a rough gauge of how successful this new feature has been, would you be willing to share with us the overall number of ecards sent so far?

850 ecards have been sent so far. 550 of those were photographers sending their own photos. 137 were photo.net members sending the photos of other photo.net members. 163 were unregistered visitors sending the cards, or they could have been photo.net members who weren't logged in at the time. 675 distinct photos from 505 distinct photographers were involved. The most any one photo was sent was eight times, and this was the horse photo on the front page from the current "Featured Portfolio".

The only photo from the Nude category that was sent was the one Darrell created as an "example".

Great stuff Brian, it's good to see that the worst fears of some have not been realised.

Guys,

<br><br>

I have been skimming through the discussion and saw that very strong and polar-different opinions were expressed. I just want to share my opinion. I tend to feel that <br>

(a) e-card is a really nice feature (and ideas about it already roamed my head months ago, but I never voiced them somehow), so - Thank you, Brian! <br>

(b) I already know several people who are "my friends" who told me that they have <b>downloaded my whole portfolio on their hard drives</b> thus thinking they have expressed their love to my work. Now, that was done without asking me whether they may or can. And I was not happy about it, but, after all, I can't stop them, so why not let them.<br><br>

Now, I know that sending out an e-card can easily increase the number of "friends like these", but what I am trying to say is that, being a public domain, photo.net does not give <i>more</i> room for abuse and copyright infringement with the new feature.<br><br>

If one is really concerned with copyright issues, then maybe its time to start using electronic signatures and other (already developed) ways of signing your work.<br>

Bottom line: I think the feature is damn cool :)

There's a little red 'NEW" icon after you click on the e-card link.

 

But doncha' think that icon ought ot be seen *before* the link is clocked on?

Are there any pros reading this who earn a significant part of their income shooting stock? I wonder what your views are on this feature?

I'd still like to know if the opt out feature has been enabled yet as I don't see it anywhere and my previous question has not been answered.

In the Folder Options, you can opt-out for that folder.

aha! thanks Brian. cb

I think this is one of those situations where you can please some people some of the time but not all the people all of the time.

 

I for one think the card is a nice feature and intend on using it from time to time. As far as others using my images in an e-card, well this is a public Web site where the public has access to all 90 gazillion images.

 

I read both sides of the argument and there are good points on both sides. In closing, I am sure if some wierd abusive situation comes out of this, Brian will react and take care of it as he has done in the past.

Hey <b>Carl</b>, this thread is relatively deceased, but your question deserves some feedback. How about starting a new thread? I would like to know the consensus of the Pros also. Regards.

I would like to have a possibility to block the ECARD function per photograph (or folder). Is there any plan fot that? Thanks jana

Sorry, I have read the complete thread . I found the solution there - about disabling the EMAIL feature on the folder level. Thanks jana

Read it all! Whew!

 

John (Crosley)

Dear Brian, I like very much this new opportunity. I used it some times. I have only a question. It is (now or in the future) previewed the possibility to have a list of the personal e-card sent? A list from my portfolio and eventually another list of the card sent using other's photos?

 

Sorry for my poor english, I hope You anderstand my question. THANKS!

Ghiga 2