Forum as a photo repository for Members?

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#1

What do you think of using this forum as a Photo Repository for members to document WCC Rides and Events?

We could also allow them to upload personal riding photos they want to share of cool and interesting rides?

There would be some cost to this as we would need to store all of these photos, but it is not that expensive and we could do this.

If we do this the photos could reside in this forum only, but still be the property of the user who uploaded them ( see our Terms of Service ) or there could be an implied consent that the WCC club could use photos that are uploaded. Do you think that would be a fair and good idea?

If we do this should there be a separate category for the Photo Repository, so that the existing topics don’t get flooded with photo posts, or are you OK with just saying go ahead and put tons of photos everywhere?

Catagories -- Ride, Race, Lead -- Do we need more?
#2

It would be nice for the club to be able to use photos from the forum on social media, so the question of consent is of interest.

How many people would upload to the forum and how many photos? Would the volume make a big difference for our costs?
I like the ride/race write ups with a photo or two, not sure we need a dedicated photo forum.

Allowing photos on the forum would be good so we have more photos accessible for the end of year social event slides. Maybe if people regularly add photos to the forum we could pick from here :slight_smile: instead of doing multiple requests for people to share them at the end of the season.
Would we replace flikr or continue to use flikr for mass uploads?

#3

I think it would be great to allow the club to use photos. This would require we modify the terms of service for this website and we probably need a published policy telling the member what we would and would not use their photos for. I am strongly in favour for this.

I am really not sure how many people would use this to post photos. That is why we are asking this question. The volume and cost is not really a lot. Unless it is an insane amount we are talking around $20-50 a year for extra storage. What it really comes down to is by default the forum takes photos that people upload and squishes them so they work on a webpage, but are no longer great quality and useful for other things. If we are going to store photos we don’t want to do this and should keep the photos at a higher quality. So we certainly will allow small photos on the forum. They look nice.

The flikr issue is the question. I know we have a flikr account, but I don’t think it is used much. We could replace the flikr account with a custom repository on this forum, but the question is do we want to? I am not sure. Having the pictures here for members to share and browse through is a possibility.

#4

FYI, Discourse does in fact keep the original high res photos. We do have a max file size set, but storage is cheap. I wouldn’t worry too much about photo uploads being an issue.

#5

There is a lot of general concern around social media and many of the most passionate forumites wanted this forum to have no hooks to social media whatsoever. I think we should tread carefully on this one. Maybe have the consent on Flickr and leave the forum private.

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#6

I am not really worried about storage costs. It will be cheap.

It is more a question of do we want to promote this and do we want to setup a special section for photos or just let people upload anywhere. Not sure if there can be different limits on different categories, but i suspect there can.

#7

I don’t think we need a special section. I look at users like Alain, he’ll include photos in every post no matter where it is. I don’t want to say, “Alain, only post your photos in this category, not anywhere else.”

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#8

So, the reason I mention this, is I do know particular people, on another service, who if left to their own devices will do posts of 20+ photos and that gets to annoying in a regular thread.

This is not common and probably won’t happen here, but who knows. I think we can just ignore this unless people really want a dedicated photo repository ala flikr.

The question is do we modify the ToS so that the WCC had some limited rights to use photos? I think that is fair.

#9

Hey everyone. Not going to comment on the “technical aspects” of “photo storage” requirements or “digital rights”. That is not to diminish the issue…it IS VERY important! And I would expect you to “Flag It” and raise it as a concern.

However, as Tom point out…I am a trained photo journalist. And I will be providing 30-80% of your content as photos with a bit of text, if you let me tell the story with photos. ALOT OF PHOTOS. Like around 10,000-20,000 per year…is what I take with my phone and 80% of those are WCC.

I’ve run a $160M Quantum Physics and Nanotechnology Research Institute for the University of Waterloo for over a decade. Built half a dozen websites for organizations and run 12 Corporate Social Media Accounts from my phone. But, I can’t seem to even access my own Flickr account tonight ! So funny.

So, I DID just “drag and drop” photos from about six dozen different on-line sources and file folders to post the 10 posts I spent 5 hours writing and crafting this afternoon for your new Forum. Hopefully, I don’t get fired from my day job for doing this for the Club?

If I have to jump through hurdles and deal with 3rd party websites to post photos and then embed the url… and listen to details about IT and Platforms and Digital Rights…I am out.

As is 50% of our “future” content. People want to snap a picture with they phone during a WCC ride and share it on this forum with a message.

Sorry…when it comes to the Club I can be overly opinionated. But…don’t error on the side of “technology” and “policy”. Error on the Side the content generators and providers. Figure out a platform technology and IP/Digital Right Policy that let’s us Digital Dinosaurs (who are actually highly intellectual) express themselves without having to consider the behind the scenes digital policy.

Don’t get me wrong…if I was Prez…I’d insist that you raise the issue !..HARD !..but don’t make user interface decision’s based on it. Figure out a way to accommodate the digital and privacy necessity…while allowing dinosaurs who lead the pack…not go the way of the dodo out of frustration with the UI/UX. :wink:

Honestly. You guys make the world go around. Meaning, if it wasn’t for you…us Dinosaurs would be dead long ago. But, if you can stand the “Dilbertian” logic of us luddites…we will make a great team and deliver a platform and content that EVERYONE will LOVE.

Merici. Thankful for you creating this platform for the masses.

A.

7 Likes
#10

I agree Alain, we should enable the easiest means possible for people to share photos. (within the forum itself). Drag and drop, insert, copy and paste. Whatever allows content and images to be shared the easiest. I find your posts excellent and the pictures make a huge difference. As Tom said storage is cheap.

My concern is more around hooking anything in the forum to Twitter, FB etc. One of the main drivers for this forum is a lot of member feedback around not wanting to have that in place. That was one of our core requirements.

1 Like
#11

Is the concern of a connection to social media or using any of the pics posted in the forum?
I’m not looking for any technical connections to social media, just the permission to copy pics and create a post with them. If we think that should not be in ToS, then I could just ask people on a case by case situation if I can use a photo.

Moving off the social media topic, it would be good to be able to use photos from the forum for club events like the Socials without having to get extra permission or ask every individual.

Still not sure where the debate between flikr and setting up photo repository on the new forum lands. I feel like we start with allowing photos in posts and then see if there are requests for a photo repository for uploading larger quantities of photos.

#12

I think the social media comment is unrelated to photos.

We could ask for each individual photo we want to use, but that is a pain. I am thinking most people would be ok with us using photos for club purposes but we need to define how and put this wording in the ToS.

I agree on flikr vs forum - shelve that for now

#13

As someone who was heavily into photography, I would not consider posting a photo somewhere as implied consent to use it without my permission for other activities. I have a copyright on the photo, the act of posting does not remove that copyright. It is still legally enforceable.

You could always insert the language in the ToS, but it feels pretty scummy to me, and again, your ToS language doesn’t remove my complete ownership and copyright to my photo.

If I wanted to share a great photo with members here for their enjoyment, but then found my photo used as marketing material somewhere else without my consent, I’d be upset. Some people may be okay with it, others not. But legally, you don’t have the rights.

There’s no forum I’ve ever been a part of in my time on the internet that would assume photos posted on their platform are fair game to use in marketing materials without consent.

Just my 2 cents.

3 Likes
#14

I’m just looking at ways to share what is going on in the club, we don’t make money off this and I’m not looking to steal a copyright!

I wasn’t implying we put wording into the ToS so we can sneak and use people’s photos.

Glad to know that people feel the need to bring up legality instead of just saying “no” that is a bad idea.

#15

My post probably came off harsher than I meant it to be.

I think a simple solution is to grab the photos from the forum that you want to use. Note the users who posted them. Create a group message with all of those users and ask if they consent to their photos being used for whatever club event/material is being created.

I’m a firm opponent to using service agreement to strip people of their rights. And I’m not implying that’s what is intended here, but steering clear of that kind of language is wise in my personal opinion.

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#16

Let people upload all the photos they want, everywhere. Drag and drop to the editor (or pick from device album) and done, so nice. Helpful posts. Good buy and sell category. Great storytelling.

I hope the forum does resample to a smaller size, at least for viewing? This doesn’t perceptively affect quality. Anyway, storage is indeed cheap for the scale we’re talking.

If the club wants to use a photo they should ask the poster for permission. If there’s a chance things will be re-posted as part of the policy, less people will post.

#17

Dan, I’m thinking that you may find less need to share club happenings on different channels once this forum is active :slight_smile:

#18

I get your point of striping people of rights @tcauduro but tracking down a ton of people in a group photo could be a pain, and what happens if one person out of 20 does not reply.

I dunno. This is a club forum and I really don’t think club members would object to the club using posted photos, but if we don’t want to ask everyone each time, we need the language stating we are going to do this.

See what most people say about this over the next little while.

#19

To clarify, are we talking about talking photos already in forum posts and adding them into other posts on the forum still (like a race report, taking photos from multiple participants). So the photos never leave the forum?

Or are we talking about taking posts form the forum them potentially uploading to the WCC Facebook or Instagram feeds?

#20

Two things to clarify.

First, I am talking about the club using photos for other things then the forum. First instance would be club website, club emails, for events like the AGM, etc. I don’t think anyone would object to that. Second instance is for club social media. That one is a bit more grey and some members could object to that. Let us know your opinion.

Second thing I want to clarify. It was always the intend that people could and would post pictures along with their entries to posts on the forum. These would be pictures relevant to the post. I think that helps make the forum a more interesting and vibrant place. However, people posting photo journals of events with a huge number of photos without text is IMHO kinda different. We could suggest that if you want to do something like that it goes into a special place. That was my intention for the whole photo repository thing. So if there was a big WCC event, and we had someone take 100 photos they would go into the photo repository. Currently we have a club Flikr account for this, but it is not used much and I don’t think most members even know about it or access it. We could just create a more accessible repository for photos here.