Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => General Wargames and Hobby Discussion => Topic started by: WallyTWest on June 07, 2020, 01:02:51 PM
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Ill try to keep it short.
Last few years I have done a lot of work in wargaming and community- and the majority of my efforts have been on Facebook.
I switched to facebook because of the ease of uploading photography and the grouping system that seemed to allow access to community that was hyper focused- but I have come to realize there is no longevity to the platform. No long term community and an unbelievable number of jerks.
COVID forced me to buy a new labtop and now I have a return to photo editing capabilities and blogging entries. I want to kill my facebook account- and this is a step towards that.
I was a causality of the "photobucket apocalypse" - so i need a little help.
What does the community use for hosting images?
Has anyone created a good guide for getting into blogging hobby?
Any recommendations or thoughts?
Lastly I want to apologize - Im sorry for leaving guys.
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No problem its good to have you back. :D I currently use flicker and it seems to work well.
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The gallery here is perfectly useable :)
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I’m using Post Image ...... no problems so far and easy to use. 👍
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I just use a blog page.
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I found the gallery here great for hosting pics but often when I make a post on a forum like LAF I link to images in my Imgur albums as well as a link to my blog to which I upload photos directly.
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Glad to hear you have escaped the clutches of Facebook...
I think the answer to this depends heavily on what platform you are using for your various activities.
For a long time I used Google Photos - but I could only get a link for posting in a forum, if I viewed the image on my computer (not my phone).
I’ve recently switched to Imgur (and while at first it seems a bit odd as a platform, it works). So now I can take a photo on my phone, do a quick edit, upload with Imgur, get a link and post to a forum. All in just a couple of minutes, and all on my phone. Which is great - its much better than the old method, that involved switching devices mid process to complete the activity. And having a streamlined workflow means I am much more likely to post more stuff.
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For posting short term images for use here in the bazaar or threads I do not intend to maintain I use the gallery here. I tried to keep it to a minimum and delete regularly as the Prof was paying for the bandwidth and I have seen several sites implode under the number of images users were trying to host on it.
I know LAF is now a commercial site but old habits and all that...
For anything I want to store or long term thread links I created a Google site which is very easy to use (has to be if I can manage it).
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I generally use imgur for photos I don't care about being lost over time, we actaully don't know how long these platforms stay viable. For long term...there is the attachement option here and most platforms these days allow image uploads...Should really invest into a block, but that is something I personally have to do.
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I use a free image hosting site called MyAlbum. It's very simple, nuts and bolts, doesn't have ads or any frills. I've got hundreds of photos on there (all backed up on the hard drive).
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I tend to use my blog, simple linking the images from there. I keep Facebook for group discussions on rule sets I use, and only run into the occasional jackwad.
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Talking about jackwads, it depends on what the group is about, how the playerbase is like and if it is a international, national or regional group.
I can tell you 2 things, a group with a toxic fandom or playerbase you can write off on a international or national level by default, not worth the effort or pain and your not going to change their attitude except for maybe in the wrong direction from you.
The more local the group is the nicer things generally are, people know each other so being a jerk generally means you have 1 less person to play against at the very least. Local groups can still be toxic depending on the game or subject the group is about or even be toxic in general.
Now on a last note, there are exceptions to the rules, not every 40k group is toxic, not every Hail Ceasar group is nice and sometimes things aren't meant in a meanspirited way and the group has developed its own social dynamics.
Note: the games mentioned here were the first things that came to mind, I didn't mean to imply 40k is toxic, though I now realize it might not been the best game to pick for a unbiased example.
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I use Blogspot and now host photos in Imageshack (I also went through the Photobucket debacle). Both work very well and I’m happy.
No issues with people on Facebook yet, but it has no depth or history. Newbies ask the same questions on a regular basis. There is no collective memory, it’s very much about the here and now. What happened yesterday is ancient history. I’ve found Twitter a better community but maybe I’m lucky as it can be just as toxic as FB.
The youngsters don’t really embrace forums, which is a shame but it seems they prefer the immediacy of social media.
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Youngsters...well I’m not that old but I feel ancient already. Guess I should join the local club and let one of the grognards adopt me into one of the historical or “historical” wargames they play.
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Websites have become less important and function primarily as transactional sites. Consumers don’t go to websites to make their decisions and choices, they get those from social media. Most younger consumers only use websites for transactions and would quite happily forego that if they could do the transaction in social media. Forums? What are they? They are looking more and more like non-transactional websites. That’s where old people hang out. The same people who still send emails to each other. Oh how they laugh at our funny ways.
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Both a blessing and a curse, getting more to the curse side though...I gladly accept the day Facebook goes out of the air...though knowing things that probably means it gets replaced with something else...alright nuke the internet, were going back to snail mail.
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Yay for tbe LAF, boo for Facearse and all other such frippery lol
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One thing I've found using facebook as a "youngster" is that more and more I'm using it like a forum.
I no longer use facebook to talk to friends - other services have made that easier and facebooks changes over the years have made it more and more difficult as it pursues a more retail focused model.
Instead i use facebook as a sort of community hub, where i can long in and see what's happening with the INQ28, pirate modelling, napoleonic and Ma.K communities as a glance. In many ways I think the facebook group model has replaced the old model of smaller specialized forums. I know I couldn't sustain a community for planet 28 on a forum of my own, and on a more general forum it might get drowned out, But the facebook group has almost 500 members now and is growing because people can join and engage passively whilst scrolling through other hobby stuff.they can post their blogs and crosspost to other groups, which helps disseminate interest across multiple groups. I think facebooks group model has alot of potential for allowing niche communities to thrive in the same way they did during the early days of the web. it's a shame it has to be through facebook, but as the web becomes more and more homogeneous we have to carve our niche somewhere.
BUT forums win out in an important and specific way for wargaming, and that's long form projects. Facebooks group system doesn't really work for little updates on bigger projects, cus it makes them impossible to follow - that's where forums and blogs are excellent.
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Main problem with Facebook is talking....and everyone is gone.
Generally it is better for smaller communities like you said, traffic don’t tend to smother less popular posts. Like for the several local playing groups it is okay. The 3d printing groups related to wargaming I’m in...well I left in spirit, not much that wants me to stay in those glorified advertisement groups.
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........ The 3d printing groups related to wargaming I’m in...well I left in spirit, not much that wants me to stay in those glorified advertisement groups.
That is not just a Facebook problem.
People dealing in 3d files and those running undeclared "3D printing service" businesses are swamping Kickstarter, and even more so Etsy, as well. Trying to find any traditional handcrafted scenery or pieces for games like Inq 28 and Mordheim is nigh impossible due to the hundreds of traders flogging HeroForge prints or selling home prints of other people's Thingiverse designs.
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imgur is still fine
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. Forums? What are they? They are looking more and more like non-transactional websites. That’s where old people hang out. The same people who still send emails to each other. Oh how they laugh at our funny ways.
I like forums and emails. An email is like a letter. But I am almost 60 so I guess that proves your point. :-[
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This is really quite strange. In the last month or so I've seen a number of posts in the various FB groups that I frequent asking about alternative media, including forums. Increasing numbers of people seem to be falling out of love with FB at the mo.
For me, visiting a forum is like visiting one's club (Reform, Diogenes, Drones, Hellfire, take your pick! lol ). Visiting a Facebook group feels more like trying to run a club meeting in a busy pub with the telly on too loud, a couple ten feet away having a screaming match, the damn fruit machine going "Diddle-dee dit de-DEE!" every forty seconds on the dot, and various patrons wandering over to hover over your shoulder looking like they're about to vomit. Then, after you finally wrap up, the landlord following you home and taking a note of your address.
Not quite such a restful experience, even if there is an element of convenience.
As to images, I too was hit by the 'bucket. At the moment I'm using the direct upload function, and I rather like it.
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I like forums and FB for different purposes.
Like, I can casually pop onto a FB group and ask a quick question that I'd not see worthy of starting a forum thread about.
But if I'm interested in a more substantial discussion, I'd generally always prefer a forum. People on FB don't tend to be willing to write as much or read as much as folks on a forum.
Also, I can search a forum for a topic... I don't think FB groups have that function... and I agree that forums feel a bit more intimate, like I get a better notion of the posters than on FB and feel like they are pals of a sort.
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Ancients fan here... the usability of LAF (this forum) is unfortunately not up to standard (compared to other special interest fora that I use) and the main competition is even worse (sorry to mention the epic car crash that is TMP).
I really really do not want to spend my ancients time on Facebook - and even the face of silly newb repeated questions and duplicate posts across near identical groups - Facebook is easily winning at the moment.
This LAF should be the one but it’s just so painful to use, especially on mobile.
Take me automatically to the latest unread post
Give me a notifications count/icon of my active posts with replies
Give me a count/icon of direct replies
Give me the option of new or latest posts in my topic area
Give me likes
Give me a big button for the next page - not the next thread (mobile!)
This is the basic stuff I am used to that is missing and sends me scurrying back to Facebook. I think this is the basic stuff ”you” need to make LAF stickier and get the right combination of auto-my-blog-posts and discussions.
Cheers!
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Each to their own, but frankly “Likes” are too often used as alternatives to any actual engagement and they’re completely empty. It boggles me that people dislike the simplicity of this forum’s layout, it isn’t exactly much work to navigate to where you want to be, and I like its clean look rather than notifications, whistles and bells and other stuff that serves only to clutter the screen for no other reason than saving a couple of clicks.
I say all this whilst using the forum on my mobile. Easy as pie.
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Each to their own, but frankly “Likes” are too often used as alternatives to any actual engagement and they’re completely empty. It boggles me that people dislike the simplicity of this forum’s layout, it isn’t exactly much work to navigate to where you want to be, and I like its clean look rather than notifications, whistles and bells and other stuff that serves only to clutter the screen for no other reason than saving a couple of clicks.
I say all this whilst using the forum on my mobile. Easy as pie.
If I could, I would like your post, David.
LAF is indeed a terrible free site ;)
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Personally I like forums that use likes (though dislikes are more trouble than they are worth!). Sometimes I genuinely like something somebody has done, but don't really have anything to say, so often as not there will be no response from me, and for that person it is the same as if I had ignored it or not seen it. At least a like would let the person know someone had engaged with their work on some level.
I suppose I could just post "I like this!", but that would get pretty tiresome after I while, perhaps. :)
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Personally I like forums that use likes (though dislikes are more trouble than they are worth!). Sometimes I genuinely like something somebody has done, but don't really have anything to say, so often as not there will be no response from me, and for that person it is the same as if I had ignored it or not seen it. At least a like would let the person know someone had engaged with their work on some level.
I suppose I could just post "I like this!", but that would get pretty tiresome after I while, perhaps. :)
I like to post a simple +1 in that case after using the “quote” option.
Like this=
If I could, I would like your post, David.
LAF is indeed a terrible free site ;)
+1
I would however agree that a bigger next page button would be cool and I'm not sure about what oldest newest post in the topic area means exactly but I probably want that too.
That being said I find the forums excellent and it's easy enough to use the “show replies” button to follow threads I've commented in and the “recent” sidebar to find the occasional new topic to follow outside of my usual interests.
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I only ever use LAF on a mobile: I don’t find it difficult to interact with (TBH, if it was, I probably wouldn’t bother as I prefer my hobbies to be an enjoyable experience). I don’t think there’s a comparable free resource: it even hosts my images and my ramblings (though hopefully they help draw some traffic to the site). There’s minimal advertising here and what there is, is hobby relevant.
I don’t use Facebook for wargaming, as I use it for my other hobby. My experience of Facebook places it’s functionality way behind LAF, it being unsuited to long-running project threads while it’s inaccessible history encourages the same questions to be asked over and over again. Facebook is fine for a self-contained news post, that is all.
I don’t see the need for like or dislike buttons. If something is worth saying, people will likely say it, from which some use might come. A thumbs up doesn’t really tell me anything. [Shrugs and gives thumbs up] :)
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I suppose I could just post "I like this!", but that would get pretty tiresome after I while, perhaps. :)
Personally I would be very happy with a "I like this" from you Plynkes!
When I just used the forum to look at other people's stuff I would see posts or threads that I enjoyed, or were inspiring or impressive, but I could not think of anything uniquely interesting to say in response so did not post anything. I have since started a couple of threads of my own and seen how pleasant it is to receive feedback, even if it is just "I like this" or "+1". I am not sure numbers of "likes" would be quite the same. If users are encouraged to comment on others work without feeling pressure to make the comment long or insightful that should mean that "likes" are unnecessary.
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Well, Bearwoodman, I have been quietly admiring the recent production output of SHODDY. Perhaps I will even make a comment when the next update rolls round. :)
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Well, Bearwoodman, I have been quietly admiring the recent production output of SHODDY. Perhaps I will even make a comment when the next update rolls round. :)
I like this.
:D
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I really really do not want to spend my ancients time on Facebook - and even the face of silly newb repeated questions and duplicate posts across near identical groups - Facebook is easily winning at the moment.
I can't think of a single thing that Facebook does that works properly. I frequently don't see posts in groups that I am in but it will show me the same post from six different groups in my feed. The are no quoting tools. The threads only have a single level of indenting so its impossible to follow a post. There are no formatting tools.
Take me automatically to the latest unread post
Other than the 'Unread Messages' page?
Give me a notifications count/icon of my active posts with replies
Give me a count/icon of direct replies
Give me the option of new or latest posts in my topic area
Give me likes
Give me a big button for the next page - not the next thread (mobile!)
Notifications are notably buggy on Facebook though. Even moreso if you run pages. I get notification alerts that are just prompts to buy ads or tell me that someone hasn't visited a page in a while. It also favours giving you notifications on aspects of the site that it thinks will increase your engagement.
And border on spam unless you do something to trim them down. Funnily enough, Facebook had a control for fine-tuning your notifications but they removed it. After I used to to trim down the number of notifications I was getting but now I can't access it any more and so I can't re-enable some notifications that I actually find useful now.
For me there are two basic problems with Facebook
1) It actively profits from spreading hate and division. It is responsible for helping inflame genocide in Burma amongst other things. If you use it then you are saying that you are okay with that.
2) You are not the user that Facebook cares about. Facebook is built for advertisers and the company does enough to try to keep you engaged and on the site to gather more demographics about you and your circle of friends. To Facebook, there is no difference between you seeing pictures of your granny and you posting plans to engage in some armed civil disobedience. This informs issue 1. It also is why Facebook is such a crappy site to use. They get no additional benefit from making your user experience on the site easier. If it limited engagement they would fix it but people don't seem to care enough so they don't.
I am in the midst of winding down my account mostly because I can't support the site promoting things like climate denial and vaccine denial.
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Each to their own, but frankly “Likes” are too often used as alternatives to any actual engagement and they’re completely empty.
Exactly. You see a post with 30+ Likes but not a single comment. It is emprty and meaningless.
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(...)
1) It actively profits from spreading hate and division. It is responsible for helping inflame genocide in Burma amongst other things. If you use it then you are saying that you are okay with that.
(...)
I am in the midst of winding down my account mostly because I can't support the site promoting things like climate denial and vaccine denial.
Do kindly avoid politics, all. Thanks.
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I'll gladly admit I prefer LAF in its current state. Much as Facebook is useful for certain things - normally whatever the latest wargaming controversy is (looking at you Lardies ;D ) - I dislike like/dislike features as it turns me into someone I don't like.
The irony thing is that I post updates to projects on FB rather than here - possibly because I know my incompetent fumblings will be lost in a day or two on FB!
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The LAF is the only ‘social media’ I use,it’s a community with all that entails ;) ; I have got to know like minded people,even made one or two friends,not Hammers obviously lol As a bit of an introvert without this place I would be seriously boring my wife with my various eccentric projects, and we don’t want that. Instead I have you lot. And it can be very inspiring,my painting et cetera has definitely got better,I have even learnt one or two things. It’s a practical art, which the forum supports,a good thing in this day and age...
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I joined FB mostly to keep in touch with a group that organises games- really, exactly what it should be used for. It is also handy for directing traffic to my blog. :D
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I understand Facebook is some kinda social thing using those fancy smart phones which I don't own. I hate phones and I socialize face to face.
I also had tons of images on "Photo Butthead", however, all of my hobby photos I uploaded here in the gallery section. Nowadays I use imgur, but still, if I post a photo in a post, it almost always ends up in my gallery.
Of course, one can also directly upload photos as attachments to your posts. The problem with that, for me, is that when I come to the forum the first thing I do is go to the View the most recent posts on the forum at the bottom of the forum under Forum Stats and look at the last 100 posts. Attached photos do not appear using that feature.
As for likes and stuff... if I see something that interests me, it does no harm to make a nice short comment on the thread. That also serves as a "bookmark" if you will as I can then go to the show replies under your User stats and see if additional material has been added when I visit at a later date.
Overall, the forum has plenty of functionality if you know how to use it. It is my favorite forum and has been for years. As a matter of fact, it is my favorite website period.
As a member for over 12 years I must say that I enjoy the camaraderie of the folks who visit here and if it only appears to appeal to older folks with good manners... I'm okay with that.
So come now, give me a like! lol
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I like that!
Also I learned something:
Of course, one can also directly upload photos as attachments to your posts. The problem with that, for me, is that when I come to the forum the first thing I do is go to the View the most recent posts on the forum at the bottom of the forum under Forum Stats and look at the last 100 posts. Attached photos do not appear using that feature.
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imgur is still fine
+1 to that. I use it on my forum. I hate Facebook.
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I use my blog, on blogspot as I was already paying for storage on google for documents it had the side benefit of image storage. I post a WIP, or completed model or figures on my blogs then copy the image location for here.
Cheers
Matt
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I'm a member of a lot of groups on facebook (I'd say it makes up 90% of my feed), and for what it is it works well enough. Get a nice stream of terrain and modelling pics to look at whilst losing interest in whatever tv show is on. Then I come up to my study and spend quality time on LAF.
Facebook has too many flaws to be really useful though. Remember that photo you saw two days ago? Yeah the really good one of those Osgiliath Ruins, man that was sweet. Shame it's lost forever unless FB decides it suddenly becomes relevant to me.
LAF is, let's be fair, painfully old fashioned. But that's fine, so are we :D It reminds me of the good old days of forums, just after we were pried screaming from newsgroups, when people actually talked and gave a shit what the other person said back (zomg).
I've run forums for years (my gta forums were mentioned in the official game manuals I'll have you know.. yes that's right, games used to come with manuals), and they'll always have a special place for me. I was thinking about this the other day when someone referred to the boardgaming community, to which I scoffed. A group of shitposters on reddit is not a community, nor are most of the FB groups (unless they support an active group of folks, like say Terrainiacs). Forums spawn community. I've never met any of you, but I've read your posts and admired your work for years. This is a place where you can have discourse and get input on what you're working on. Sure you can't farm likes or karma, but you can get and give advice.
That said, I have just kicked up my own project site again. I like to have a place that's mine, and where my sporadic posting doesn't mean I have to go to page 10 just to update my own logs. And finally getting to it, in answer to the original question, I'm hosting my own wordpress and storing my photos on google. Jetpack makes it pretty easy to take photos on my phone and dump them into my entries. I used to write my own web apps but just couldn't be bothered any more. I do it all day every day, and my spare time is for getting my arse kicked at Fortnite or sploshing paint on small plastic things. I'll let someone else write the tech. Just not FB, they do a shit job.
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Facebook has too many flaws to be really useful though. Remember that photo you saw two days ago? Yeah the really good one of those Osgiliath Ruins, man that was sweet. Shame it's lost forever unless FB decides it suddenly becomes relevant to me.
I had the same issue however, I discovered at the top right corner of each post are three dots (...)
If you click on that you have the option to to save the post and can sort them by category. I do that now for miniatures, terrain and other ideas.
My problem with Facebook (or just some particular groups) are because the feeds disappear or it's too hard to search or people are lazy or not properly moderated, the SAME questions get asked all the time...
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If you click on that you have the option to to save the post and can sort them by category. I do that now for miniatures, terrain and other ideas.
And then get ready to be reminded about them by Facebook. Its bloody annoying
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Good shout on the saving of post. To be honest if something is really remember worthy I take a screenshot. Does make me miss my categorised bookmark list though every time I need to rummage.
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If something is really good i pin it on pinterest. Best place to keep artistic ideas organized.
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If something is really good i pin it on pinterest. Best place to keep artistic ideas organized.
As a casual browser of images I find Pinterest annoying.
If I use a search engine for an image it invariably gives a list of images all on Pinterest.
If I try to look at it, even if it's obviously an image from someone else's website, then Pinterest won't let me look at it unless I register with them.
By posting this I'm secretly hoping there's an obvious way around this that I'm missing lol.
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As a casual browser of images I find Pinterest annoying.
If I use a search engine for an image it invariably gives a list of images all on Pinterest.
If I try to look at it, even if it's obviously an image from someone else's website, then Pinterest won't let me look at it unless I register with them.
By posting this I'm secretly hoping there's an obvious way around this that I'm missing lol.
Borrow someone else’s phone...as long as they’ve got Pinterest ;)
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:) :)
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There is an obvious way around it: Register with them!
:)
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There is an obvious way around it: Register with them!
:)
I quite object to having to. It galls me a bit that they can hold someone else's images hostage in the way they do.
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I quite object to having to. It galls me a bit that they can hold someone else's images hostage in the way they do.
I guess it is a small price to pay for a free service.
If you have chrome (or maybe it is a youtube account) all you have to do is click yes to register. I will do one day, because there are what appears to be a treasure trove of photos there.
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I guess it is a small price to pay for a free service.
If you have chrome (or maybe it is a youtube account) all you have to do is click yes to register. I will do one day, because there are what appears to be a treasure trove of photos there.
I've just been having a bit a a Google around Pinterest and I'm even less inclined to register with them now.
As far as I understand, when someone pins an image (whether it belongs to them or not) they are confirming they do have the copyright and grant Pinterest to be able to use the image as they wish - this is what allows Pinterest to block access to the real owners site.
Their defence appears to be that they accepted the image in good faith and the offence has been committed not by them but by the person who pinned the image.
So when an artist or photographer creates and copyrights an image it is essentially stolen and, if google be believed, it is quite difficult for the real owner of the image to seek redress.
I'm an oldie and may have missed something but I think, on balance, I'll pass as it seems to give carte blanche to steal other peoples work.
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As a casual browser of images I find Pinterest annoying.
If I use a search engine for an image it invariably gives a list of images all on Pinterest.
If I try to look at it, even if it's obviously an image from someone else's website, then Pinterest won't let me look at it unless I register with them.
By posting this I'm secretly hoping there's an obvious way around this that I'm missing lol.
Fear not! When you search for images, you can add "-pinterest" (without the quote marks) to the end of the search and Google will filter out all the Pinterest results.
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Fear not! When you search for images, you can add "-pinterest" (without the quote marks) to the end of the search and Google will filter out all the Pinterest results.
Thank you.
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I left Facebook over a year ago after being quite the Facebook fanboy for a long time. So much so I encouraged many people to join Facebook back in the day. I ran a few different groups as an admin. I had over 2,000 friends from all over the world. Checking Facebook was a constant endeavor. My world news came through it. My validation from likes. My political and artistic rants consumed me. Every day I raged because someone on the internet was wrong... or had told me I was wrong. It all became too much.
It was difficult to leave. But I did. I let folks know I was going and told them how we could stay in touch.
However, many people who promised to stay in touch via email have not. Many who promised to follow a blog of mine if I started one have not followed the one I did start. I miss elements of Facebook, the connectivity, the sense of community but I do not regret my decision. Facebook is not your friend, largely because as was said earlier Facebook is more interested in advertisers than users. And much of the Community aspect is an illusion.
Thanks for the heads up on Pinterest. I am not a member and that information confirms it was the right decision.
This is why my thread in the fantasy section on here is so important to me. It is one of my few connections to the world outside my little village.
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As far as I understand, when someone pins an image (whether it belongs to them or not) they are confirming they do have the copyright and grant Pinterest to be able to use the image as they wish - this is what allows Pinterest to block access to the real owners site.
Their defence appears to be that they accepted the image in good faith and the offence has been committed not by them but by the person who pinned the image.
So when an artist or photographer creates and copyrights an image it is essentially stolen and, if google be believed, it is quite difficult for the real owner of the image to seek redress.
Yikes!
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To avoid pinterest polluting your google search just add
-site:pinterest.*
after your search term. It's amazing how similar your results are, it's just they come from the original locations rather than the pinned ones. Even if people are genuine and site their sources, it still adds a couple of annoying clicks to your journey, the above strips that out.
That said I was trying to find something on the alternative armies site yesterday and it was a pinterest board that helped me :D (the big helmeted guys from space marines and adventurers, which is why I couldn't find them in ion age I guess)
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Pinterest is another of the American "nothing to do with me" social media sites that hide behind the law allowing them to distance themselves from the content posted by users. If hosting sites were held legally accountable for the content they host you can be pretty sure that 95% of the illegal and dangerous material would be gone overnight. (Would also serve to force Kickstarter to actually start protecting its backers)
I don't know how you feel about installing browser userscripts (via Tampermonkey) on your system but there are several scripts available to allow you to view Pinterest without registering, to view the maximum size image without having to trawl through the links and to force it to allow access to the original source of an image.
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I guess it is a small price to pay for a free service.
If the service appears ‘free’ it’s actually you and your data that is the product being sold.
I wouldn’t touch Facebook with two barge poles tied together and someone else holding them. The forums have always been a more useful resource and community.
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Pinterest is another of the American "nothing to do with me" social media sites that hide behind the law allowing them to distance themselves from the content posted by users.
...while completely plastering that "borrowed" content with ads, becoming the only party who makes money from it. And to take that to the next level, collecting or helping to collect very detailed user profiles, one way or another.
Think carefully what exactly happens when you "share" someone else's content on FB, Pinterest and such. Who did the actual work? Who reaps the benefits? Who is the fool?
If hosting sites were held legally accountable for the content they host you can be pretty sure that 95% of the illegal and dangerous material would be gone overnight. (Would also serve to force Kickstarter to actually start protecting its backers)
Of course, such accountability could also mean that someone on LAF would have to go through every image uploaded to its gallery and compare it against all copyrighted material out there. That general effect is one of the reasons why hosting sites are not immediately responsible for all of their users' content. The new EU copyright directive is trying to address that balance but it's...complicated.
I won't go any further right now, primarily because I'm hosting today...not a website but a game. :) Let's see if can be bothered to return to this subject matter at all. To keep it short, I simply dislike all solutions which require getting married with a single provider that uses a walled garden model. Even more so if the business model is based on blatant leeching and privacy violation. That's all, folks. :-I
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I’ve just left a load of groups on Facebook, too many idiots on various groups, there’s some nice people but I can’t deal with stupid people! Rather avoid them!! The lafs always been great, this and the old Steve dean painting site were my go to forums! That’s it for Facebook for me now really!!