the best photo sharing and photo hosting website?

[andrys]

I just deleted all my images off Myphotoalbum.com. I should have read the Terms of Service first. They are particularly nasty, IMO.

First, thanks very much for taking so much time and so quickly!

I'd call that pretty darn thorough.

Here are some clips.
. . .
I really don't like the first item...I HAVE to purchase services once a year? I don't think so.

Ofoto, which was bought by Kodak? {?} had a similar clause -
but you only had to buy a few normal 4x6 prints once a year.
This I can live with. When they're offering free hosting that's
unlimited there is some kind of payment or exchange in mind.

Here's another

. . .
WTF? What the hell is number 6 all about? I'm not about to endorse any product which segregates whole countries.

Do they have a faq? I'd like to hear their reason why. With
music upload sites, they are usually among the last to get
included as they have extremely loose regulation (which is
why most of our spam mail is from that area -- and I am speaking
as a Chinese) and that has to be addressed carefully.

Also, as you said it's a relatively new company. Those
countries are photo-happy and the company probably doesn't
have the bandwidth to handle it between here and there yet -
it takes money and deals with providers who can guarantee
certain pathways and $-costs.

But I will ask if I don't find the answer in a faq.

Otherwise, the nasty language is pretty normal. They must
have the rights to display your pictures and sometimes
feature them in promos for the site. Am used to that on
music sites. You retain full copyright.

Right now anyone can print one of my 800x600s and I don't
care, but if they use it in a commercial publication then I do
want to know and have some compensation for it. Those
rules would still apply (and those who would cheat will cheat
us right here).

Best not to upload original size photos unless you want
people to be able to print max res pics.

It's obviously not a site for professional photogs and I'm
not one. I just want to put office pics there and then coworkers
can print what they like.

And lastly
. . .

Basic info. I could no where on the TOS about the original artist getting any renumeration for browsers wanting to buy prints. So as long as your images are being shared, anyone and print them and ONLY Myphotoalbum.com gets the money. I don't think there are too many people around here who would be happy with hundreds of their prints being sold and not getting anything for them.

So, I'm sorry Andrys, I know it was only a short look, but I'm really not comfortable with the way they do business. Besides I have some now new friends in Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea who are allowed to be members of the Pbase community and I am against segregation.

[ilanphoto]

I had an ofoto account once. got a mail from them to say buy or close, so I just ignored it. My account has been closed. I find it reasonable that they would like some kind of income for their effort.

I have only uploaded low res high compression ~60K images. if anybody wants t print that, be my gust, they can (and do) download these files from Pbase and print them.

I would love Pbase to have a printing service at a price set up by the user

[andrys]

I had an ofoto account once. got a mail from them to say buy or close, so I just ignored it. My account has been closed. I find it reasonable that they would like some kind of income for their effort.

I have only uploaded low res high compression ~60K images. if anybody wants t print that, be my gust, they can (and do) download these files from Pbase and print them.

I would love Pbase to have a printing service at a price set up by the user

Yes. With Ofoto I had to buy only one print, to show I was
still there and an active customer. But I was away and
didn't answer earlier when I could have and so my photos
are gone from there. My bad. But of course we can upload
them again.

I really have no problem with people printing a picture for
personal pleasure. In fact, I like that.
It's only commercialuse, w/o acknowledgements and
a small fee, that would bother me -- and the agreement
doesn't give that right away...

Michael, thanks very much again for the time you took
and what you pointed out. Allowed me to think more on it.

Am currently immersed in following the Cliburn
competition along with other music nuts so was not able
to get back to finish this note earlier.

[pollyfodder]

REMOVED

[pinemikey]

My comments here are with regards to the topic of the thread. I made a glib remark as to the immensity of tsunami photos on your website. If that offended anyone then I apologize. However, I will not apologize to some opportunist who uses a natural disaster to promote traffic to his website by denigrating Pbase...if the cause is good...just mention it. I'm sure there are plenty of people here who have contributed or would like to contribute to disaster relief.

I would like to see some write up on gathering all the necessary permissions from all the different photographers and maybe from the families of those photographers, who became victims themselves, whose pictures you're using. Also some proof with regards to your appoinment to United Nations efforts in this regard.

[defpbase]

Here ya go:

International Committee of the Red Cross
http://www.icrc.org/
CARE
http://www.care.org/
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

Did you know that you too, can be a "Member of the UN's ReliefWeb?" Just sign up for the emails!

United Nations Relief Web
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc100?OpenForm

And here's a pretty good list with many others:

Relief and Development Resources from NPCA
http://www.rpcv.org/pages/sitepage.cfm?id=89


I daresay that the world has accomplished the goal of "public awareness" of the tsunami tragedy. Filling up pbase galleries with public domain photos -on any topic- is an exploitation for the purpose of hits. When the topic is a tragedy, it is also tasteless.

Oh, and thanks for neat discussion and research of other sites, guys.

[pollyfodder]

REMOVED

[gillettecraig]

And take your NGOs with you. Have you ever considered how your behavior negatively afects our impression of the causes you so stridently claim to advocate for? I doubt it. Nor do I think trying to threaten people with NGOs is something they would appreciate, tolerate or advocate. BTW, I gave at the office.

[andrys]

I opened a free count at myphotoalbum http://ilanphoto.myphotoalbum.com/
I use it to back up some galleries and delete ,most of the backed up images from Pbase freeing up a lot of space for me.

Seems to work quite fine, no community (good? bad?) wonderful value for the price. And I have no plans to give up my Pbase account just away to move some of the older junk

Ilan

And I want to move office events photos over there. Also, I have
been recommending it to family members and friends who just won't
pay small $ for a quality service. I hate junk at the top but when it's
totally free and they allow unlimited, large photos and then allow your
friends/family to order commercial prints, I can't complain so easily.

Got an email from a cousin today that she set albums up of their trip
to St. Petersburg, Russia. Looks nice, with albums at
http://leeyuen.myphotoalbum.com
Sample of initial photo display at http://tinyurl.com/7q2z3
and when you click on photo, the original shows up.

In order to do this for free, they subject viewers to ads on top
and cause members loss of real-estate at the top so that even an
F11 press won't get you a full pic and forces a scroll to see the whole
thing.

But it's great for my family members, and I will use it as
supplemental to PBase so I can keep my megs down here!
Also, coworkers and family members can get prints without
using up my expensive Epson ink and paper

Also, Michael cautioned about people printing your pics.
I don't know how most people would even find them. I could not
search for her gallery successfully and so it is not linked even for
Google to find (unless it becomes wildly popular, which is not
likely for family or office pictures!)

[andrys]

In order to do this for free, they subject viewers to ads on top and cause members loss of real-estate at the top so that even an
F11 press won't get you a full pic and forces a scroll to see the whole
thing.

Okay, there is a workaround and nice feature, in that
you can choose Slideshow and the number of seconds
and the type of transition (I chose '3' and "blend")

Example: her "Norway in a nutshell" album at
http://tinyurl.com/7whww

This is a very nice feature. I can see why many have
been asking for it here. I'd like to be able to stop it and
am looking for that, but can go back to the wee thumbnails
and find what I want, I guess.

But it's great for my family members, and I will use it as
supplemental to PBase so I can keep my megs down here!
Also, coworkers and family members can get prints without
using up my expensive Epson ink and paper

That's repeated in case Emily is watching, now that I know
that while they don't reply to bugs and questions here, they
apparently watch if we do what might be an 'ad' for another
photo service.

I must say that Pollyfodder has hijacked this thread though.

[defpbase]

It was that bad in December that the Australian and New Zealand Governments are thinking of introducing Legislation to make it LAW that photographers that photograph people in times of disaster give a minimum of 30% of moneys gained from such photos to the actual people in the photo. Of course this will lead to Greedy companies wanting their share as well, hence, if someone photographs their product, or if a landowner wants his share for photographing his house, property etc etc.

How interesting. Neat idea. Hmm, why shouldn't a landowner get a share? As far as I know, here in the US we already have those kind of laws related to products. But what about someone's property, or image? I believe the proper thing to do is get permission, otherwise a lawsuit could follow. Anyone know?

An opportunist uses his name to gain notoriety, I do not. I simply do what has to be done for the sake of the poor souls that have suffered and are continuing to suffer in the regions, AT MY EXPENSE.

As for the other worthy Organisations mentioned, I am not with them.

As for your comment about "tasteless" well, a number of people including the MANY Asian people that use PBase would consider it "tasteless" to bash people that are trying their darndest to help the human beings that survived this calamity. Many people believe the crisis is over. This is not the case and in too many regions Aid has only just begun!

The public awareness campaign needs to continue for this reason.
Deflamatory remarks will not help the situation.

Oh, honey. I'm sorry this discussion has morphed into one fit for the politics area. Does anyone know how to move it?

There are a great many issues in our world that merit raised public awareness from people of all races. I listed the aid organizations because someone mentioned wanting to know good organizations to for donations. I was pretty sure you had no affiliation with them, nor did I mean to imply that you had. And I did forget to list AlertNet, here it is for everyone else: http://www.alertnet.org/index.htm As we can all see, we've got a long way to go everywhere in the world.

As for folks feeling that you're exploiting, think of it this way: your personal expense of $23 at pbase could go a long way in these places. What are your other sites costing you?

And I believe perhaps you meant either "inflammatory" or "defamatory." But the combination is kind of neat. Perhaps it can mean both?

[sheila]

It was that bad in December that the Australian and New Zealand Governments are thinking of introducing Legislation to make it LAW that photographers that photograph people in times of disaster give a minimum of 30% of moneys gained from such photos to the actual people in the photo. Of course this will lead to Greedy companies wanting their share as well, hence, if someone photographs their product, or if a landowner wants his share for photographing his house, property etc etc.

Well, that's news to me (from someone who works for a law firm in Sydney!). How does one identify these people - especially if there are many hundreds in the photograph.

[pandasteak]

i like photobucket.

also, for free video storage try http://www.youtube.com