Comments and likes from outside Smugmug, without the need to log in, please!

travelways

Hi,

I know this has been addressed already quite a long time ago, but nothing has been done so far...

I'm participating in other photography sites for more socialization, exposure, fun, etc., but I have all my pictures on SmugMug, and I'd like to share them.

I think this is good for me to diversify the marketing horizons, but at the same time good, if not great for Smugmug in terms of having incoming links, to the business site.

Unfortunately, I'm reluctant to place any links to my Smugmug gallery vs. direct uploads to those sites, because I cannot not get any comments or likes, or traffic to my Smugmug site...

I know the reason for not unlocking this feature is related to the possibility of receiving spam, but if we are notified about these comments, we can simply delete them.

On the other hand, this is actually a gross sales pitch from Smugmug. You are obliging people to make an account with your business (at least this is what it seems to be), in order to make a comment. Is this not a little cheap? It really doesn't look good, and in my opinion you are actually losing credibility and popularity.

Can you please make this feature available for the benefit of us, the users?

Thanks,

Tatiana

rkw624

It's time for this. If you guys can't figure it out maybe Zenfolio can help. Just a thought.

BeautifulWorld

I'd like to keep bringing this up. I think this is very important and not sure why this can't be done. I think having guest comments is one of the best ways to interact with others and maybe also allow them a chance to slowly warm up to wanting to sign up. Forcing them to sign in to comment seems like a negative thing to me.

Here are two examples. I used to have a very popular Incredible India photo gallery on Pbase. 10 years it got so popular that I was getting 1000s of hits and also people were recognizing me in my hometown in India. This was before Instagram took over. It inspired me to keep shooting and every chance I got, I was travelling. See my gallery on Pbase here. pbase.com/yardbird/incredibleindia I moved away from Pbase because it wasn't keeping up with technology. But scroll down past the galleries and you will see how many comments were there and the interaction was great. I followed up with everyone who left their email.

Now look at the my gallery here on Smugmug. Yes, I love the presentation, the app, the mobile ease, the e-commerce but I've completely lost contact with people. I am in a bubble.
https://beautifulworld.photography/IncredibleIndia

Can we please enable guest commenting?

Thanks
Karthik

Shinrya

I'm in agreement with the previous posters. Something needs to be changed, and that first step is to do away completely with the need for a Smugmug login to post comments.

We need guest commenting!

Shinrya

Wix and Squarespace have the ability to add 3rd party commenting systems like Disqus. SM honestly should too.

konacurrents

Ok, I'll add my request for this true guest comment feature, without a login. I was just on the phone with my dad (89) to have him add comments on historical picture (and he has a lot to say). But walking through the mac Keychain access to find his "google" account password is very painful. And it didn't work.

As was mentioned, we can delete the comments that are spam and we can disallow comments, so those two features minimizes spam.

Also, the comment feature is a black box over black background - which my Dad had a hard time finding.

thanks,
scott

ps I didn't know a password was needed since (but my Dad mentioned it) since running sugmug as a guest isn't something I do very often (and is hard to enable it seems).

jayegirl

That explains the lack of requested comments. Seems comments without logging in could be allowed on Unlisted galleries so only those with a link could post a comment. I have an Ancestry section that I have asked family to comment or help identify photos but now it makes sense why most aren't doing that.

rgomez

So THAT'S why no one is commenting LOL! Yes, that needs to change but I understand the hesitation. There are many bozos on Disqus and you can get hammered with SPAM and shady types. Or maybe have Google-login be enough. There has to be an easier way for people to leave comments.

jimh

Let me add my vote to this. I've been using SM as my 'gallery' site, linked to my blog. My blog posts link to photos on SM, but visitors aren't exactly made to feel welcome there. No one, ever, creates an account to leave a comment. And this restriction really discourages anyone from browsing and ultimately buying.

I'm currently looking at other gallery options specifically for two reasons: this one, and better SEO.

Most people today tune out and move on as soon as they're confronted with that tedious "create an account" thing. I know I do.

havanese

I have been here for over 10 years and lol...I didn't know you had to be logged in to comment either...no wonder there are no comments. I like to see this as well or as others have said allow us to utilize Disqus.

jimh

Just realized this thread was started almost 4 years ago. Clearly, what we want is never going to happen here. I think it's time I looked at some more up-to-date gallery sites. Suggestions, anyone?

gSeaVelo

I agree that this is a huge gap. One alternative would be to support logging in to leave comments via Google and Apple login identies - that way folks don't have to create an entirely new login in order to comment. And along with this it'd make it possible to share photos to specific people (such as you can already do with Google photos or Apple photo sharing) instead of having to use the "private" URL system (which is a hack).

rainforest1155

@gSeaVelo said:
One alternative would be to support logging in to leave comments via Google and Apple login identies.

We do support logging in via Facebook and Google alongside of SmugMug accounts to leave a comment. As far as I recall, this has been available since we didn't accept anonymous comments anymore all those years ago. While we don't have an option for Apple ID log ins, I added this as a feature request for our team.

And along with this it'd make it possible to share photos to specific people (such as you can already do with Google photos or Apple photo sharing) instead of having to use the "private" URL system (which is a hack).

If you're on a Power plan or up, you may actually use our "private sharing" feature that allows you to invite people via email and once they accept the invitation by creating a free guest account (or logging into their existing SmugMug account), they'd be able to view the content you shared with them.

booksurfer

Having worked around this for 8 years for CLUB and FAMILY MEMBERS TO UPLOAD THEIR PHOTOS and ADD THIER PHOTO INFO (AS COMMENTS), I would like to see having no login, and/or make it so you can send someone a guest invite to a gallery AND keep the gallery accessible as unlisted! Otherwise, if you can get someone logged in as a true guest, they are directed to the guest status gallery, away from the unlisted one they are trying to comment on. Then, in the Guest gallery, I have to provide the unlisted gallery link they were originally trying to submit photos to and leave information, for them to navigate back to, and/or they have to seek out the unlisted gallery link again and hope they are still logged in as a guest.
As an alternative, I also provide a guest account login (give them the user name and number of guest account I created) to everyone in my club to use, if they can not figure out how to respond to the guest invitation. I remind them that they have to leave their name, along with the comments, or I can not updated the metadata of the photo(s) they have contributed.
All would be solved by not being logged in, or at least not have the galleries exclusive access to just unlisted or private invite.
Thank you for your consideration,
Kim (I have several Smugmug accounts serving clubs and family groups).

jbriginshawphoto

Bump.