Watermarking

[kevinrstruck]

We are currently testing a watermarking system to add to our site.

This sytem would add a small "strip" to the bottom of each image as it is uploaded to the gallery. This strip would contain the following wording:

"Image hosted by http://thephotostation.net - FREE Photo Sharing".

The strip itself would be directly below the actual image so as to not interfere with the photographers presentation. But, any image that is hotlinked to, for instance to auction sites, forums, personal pages, would contain the watermark.

We are thinking of implementing this feature to help bring users to our site, and to register new users. We feel that since we offer a generous amount of free space to host images, a small watermark that does not affect the actual image is a fair tradeoff.

Remember, everytime an image is viewed whether on our site or on an auction site, forum, or personal page, we are paying for that bandwidth.

We have found that most "FREE" photo sharing sites are now going to the pay model. They no longer offer a free account. Boomspeed recently decided to halt all new free accounts. PBase has also halted all new free accounts. These are two of the biggest photo sharing sites on the net.

We feel that with our very limited advertsing, users that have decided to donate (Thank you again), and user that have decided to upgrade their accounts to paid accounts, we can continue to offer these free accounts for the forseeable future.

We are posting this in the forum to get your take on the watermarking issue. Do you hate it, like it, don't care about it? Would you delete your account if it is implemented? Would you have signed up if it was in place before your joined?

Let us know what you think. Let us know. Do you have other suggestions that might work?

Feel free to speak your mind. We are trying to do what is best for our users.

Below is a test image with the watermark included.

http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/1anoles-siblings-after.jpg

[ericsmith]

I think if a photo is really important to a user they will have put their signature/watermark on it somewhere already before uploading to the net. Adding another watermark might ruin the beauty of the photo. Now if sharing photos is really important to a user than maybe a VIP account could be made available where their photos are not watermarked but the free accounts will get the watermark.

[kevinrstruck]

Eric - Good suggestion about the VIP account. We are looking into that type of system also, but we are not sure if and when we will be able to implement that.

Thank you for your feedback.

[HairyHaggis]

Wont allowing member to link to images on their own web space help with your bandwidth costs. I feel that money spent on bandwidth costs could be better implimented on other areas of your site.

Just a cost saving method that could help you to get better value from the money you already pay.

I dont think that the watermarking feature is necessary however as the images have to be uploaded to your space anyway or they are deleted if I read correctly, so we already know that you are hosting them, so what difference does it make ???

Anyhow .. I am new to this forum thus might be nieve to the workings of it.

HH