New Gallery Feature: Send a photo.net eCard

Yesterday, I wanted to send an eCard to my daughter for Valentine's

Day. I discovered that most eCard sites are pretty cheesy. Then it

occurred to me that this would be a nice addition to photo.net. So I

implemented the ability to send eCards from photo.net last night. A

bit, ahem, late, for sending Valentine's cards, but I hope people will

enjoy the feature.

 

The button for sending a photo.net eCard is on each photo. It is free.

 

At the moment, consider it beta test software. I'd appreciate any

feedback on it that you care to offer.

Since one can send any photo, is the author of the photo notified that his photo has been used as an eCard? No need to know who send it, but just the fact that it was used.

What an excellent idea Brian; nice one!

Just tried and it works perfectly. Bit of a shame it doesn't attach a copy of the photo, but this way it is certain to draw loads of people to the site. top marks!

Ah - just tried to click on the name underneath the photo:

Not Found

The requested URL was not found on this server.

Brian, I just tried it and like the idea very much. As my daughter would say, "it's hecka tight." One question, though -- would you please confirm that the names and email addresses we provide will not be used for any purposes other than to send the ecard? I see your note that the information will be kept private, and hope I am understanding that this is what you mean. Thanks.

You know what-I really dislike this new feature and am thinking about withdrawing

a fair number of pictures in my portfolio which I wouldn't have put up if I'd

known they were going to be this easy to distribute. The E-card thing makes

a big change to photonet, as it alters the nature of how the photos are accessed

and, if successful, who will access the photos. Just two of problems I imagine

arising are<br>

1-An incredible increase in copyright infringment, for the most part undetected

(and undetectable) by the photographers concerned. <br>

2-An obvious spam opportunity for abusers out there.</p>

<p>Generally it seems the rate of change at photo net is slow. A new policy seems

to undergo a rigorous debate process before implementation. However, this change

seems to have been made on the spur of the moment, without any real thought

or discussion going into it. Sure, there are possible benefits, for both the

site owners and the photographers using the site. But there is an equal, if

not greater, potential for abuse which I think you simply haven't thought through

enough.</p>

<p>By all means press ahead with this idea-but maybe a period of discussion/consultation

would be useful. Perhaps it would be worth consulting a few dozen long term

members to get feedback on your idea before you continue with its extremely

sudden implementation.</p>

<p>Darrell M</p>

<p>ps-just how easy was its implementation. I've written a few scripts in the

past and don't think I could have knocked something off with quite the amount

of speed you say you have.

A great feature Brian. My sister always wants to know when I post new work. She also consistently forgets how to get to my member page. Now I can just send her an e-card and she can click on the link. Great Idea!

All other links on the page work fine.

It occurs to me that given how worried some people are about the net, (re: recent conversations about paying for PN by Credit Card..) maybe a bit more text in the email would reassure them; maybe a straight link to www.photo.net? It does look a little bit similar to alot of the spam i receive... just an idea. thanks, Duncan

Darrell - all photos on PN are as easy to send as this already: simply right click and select SEND or EMAIL PICTURE.. depending on your windows version...

For sure-but this is a far more open invitation. A photo will whizz around the web a lot faster like this

Duncan, I know your point that you can send the photo already by email easily was addressing a different issue, but I wanted to point out that by sending an ecard you are sending a link that, when opened, allows the viewer to see not only your card but also access your entire portfolio, which I like as well.

<p>I tested it and the eCard function seems to work well. All that is getting mailed out is a link. There is nothing going out that isn't openly available on the web.<p>

 

<p>You might want to add an <i>"If you received this message in error, please delete."</i> Some of the content on the website is controversial and eCard recipients may not be a willing party to the terms and conditions. A disclaimer might help protect website from mischief.</p>

Please note that we are not sending anybody's photos via email. In effect, the "ecard" is simply a link to a photo in the Gallery, accompanied by a message. There are many other places where people can find links to photo.net Gallery photos.

We are keeping track of the ecards being sent, and we could easily add that information to the details displayed about the photo. For that matter, if the feature is popular, we could use it to create a new "Top Photos" ranking: photos sent most frequently as ecards.

A very nice idea ....i tried it and like the format.

Thanks Brian, but I must admit I am growing increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of giving the names and email addresses of third parties to the site (or any other site for that matter) without an assurance that these names and addresses won't be used for any purposes other than sending the ecard link. Can you please confirm that they won't be used for any other purposes other than sending the ecard link? Thanks.

I tried it and got this error message!

 

Problem with Your Input

to www.photo.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We had a problem processing your entry:

extra characters after close-quote

Please back up using your browser, correct it, and resubmit your entry.

Thank you.

Any email addresses that are entered into the system for this feature are covered by our Privacy Policy, whcih already covers this case.

My first 2 tries never worked but my 3rd and 4th worked!

Hypothetical situation: I have a new image that I want all my friends to rate. I send them an e-card with the image and we get instant mate rate. Of course, you can see who would be using this feature in this way. But it does concern me.

Hypothetical-I have a photo, unique and humourous. X likes it and sends it

to his friend Y, an office worker in the City, who also likes it and sends the

link to everyone in his address book. Lots of traffic is generated (good) but

what kind of traffic? Photonet is a site for enthusiasts in the art of photography

but could quickly become a more general site where visitors do not accord the

same respect to issues such as copyright as the current users. Hey, if you have

an email address you can join, rate, comment on any picture very quickly. Of

course, this possibility currently exists-but photonet only seeks an audience

of photography enthusiasts. The ecard brings the possibility of a whole new

audience whose presence we may quickly regret.<br>

I could be wrong but, despite everything I've read above, my worries remain.

Thanks Brian, having just read through the Privacy provisions linked at the bottom right of the page, I can see why its not so easy to confirm what I asked. I support this idea, but I still have some questions, so let me try to hone in on my concern.

 

As far as I can tell, the Privacy provisions were not written with the kind of ecard recipient information we would be providing to you in mind. That is, without the third parties' consent or visit to the site, we are giving you their name and email addresses. I am reluctant to do that if there is the possibility that these names and addresses will be used to solicit or send other information to these third parties besides my ecard, or sold or distributed to other websites that might do that kind of thing.

 

Your Privacy statement does not really address this situation, as it is concerned really with "users," which are contemplated as people visiting the site, and registering or not registering. In fact, you advise in the document that if you do not want your name to be used, you should not register. But that kind of "opt-out" is not possible for people whose names and addresses are provided without their knowledge or consent (and who become "users" of the site as the result of a linked invitation, rather than by taking some initiative themselves to find it). In fact, the Privacy document could be read to suggest that you will use the ecard recipient information to contact them in the future, as it states:

 

"We use the information we collect from you as a registered user [such as me] to build features that we hope will make the Services more attractive and easier for you to use. This may include better customer support and timely notice of new services [open-ended, not necessarily limited to registered users, therefore possibly suggesting notice of new services would go to ecard recipients]."

 

I do not want to expose my family, friends and acquaintances to the possibility of unsolicited email in the future just because I sent them one of my pictures directly from the site. If you can provide an assurance that this won't occur, I think I would be okay. But without further clarification, I'm afraid I won't be using the ecard feature.

 

I hope you can appreciate my concern. My suggestion would be to revise the Privacy policy to make very clear how this specific ecard recipient data is going to be used and not used by the site, as the statement presently doesn't appear to contemplate this situation and could leave a confusing situation.

 

Appreciate any thoughts you might have, thanks for listening.

Hypothetical-I have a photo, unique and humourous. X likes it and sends it

to his friend Y, an office worker in the City, who also likes it and sends the

link to everyone in his address book. Lots of traffic is generated (good) but

what kind of traffic? Photonet is a site for enthusiasts in the art of photography

but could quickly become a more general site where visitors do not accord the

same respect to issues such as copyright as the current users. Hey, if you have

an email address you can join, rate, comment on any picture very quickly. Of

course, this possibility currently exists-but photonet only seeks an audience

of photography enthusiasts. The ecard brings the possibility of a whole new

audience whose presence we may quickly regret.<br>

I could be wrong but, despite everything I've read above, my worries remain.

A lot of photos here are going to start turning up in other places. This happens

already. Get ready for it to happen a hell of a lot more.

David, all this feature does is to "tart up" emailing someone a link to a photo page on photo.net as an "ecard", which is already something that someone can do if they want. People intent on mate-rating did not need a fancy ecard feature to send each other email about new photos being posted. In fact, since the "ecards" are being stored in our database (so we can deliver them to the recipients), I would think that mate-raters would avoid using it, since there would be record now in our database.

I suggest to add a new check box 'Allow eCard Feature' (default is checked) when the photographer uploads an image and use this flag to determine whether the 'Send eCard' tab will be available or not.

Darrell, sending links to a photo on photo.net is not a copyright infringement. A link just facilitates/motivates a person to look at the photo on photo.net, and maybe other photos in the portfolio. That is good, no? That is what we are aiming for with this feature. It is why it is "free" to send a eCard. It basically facilitates person A to tell person B to look at a photo in the Gallery. That is a new visitor to the site, potentially a new member/participant. Why should we depend on Google and Yahoo for all our new visitors?

 

Any copyright infringement comes from people making a copy of the photo and using it for some purpose other than "fair use", such as for an illustration on their own web site, and eCards don't have anything to do with that.