Named share groups

dwterry

I friend of mine offered to help fix what I consider an irritation in

smugmug's

handling of share groups. His fix was so simple that it made me wonder ... why doesn't smugmug just do it?

The problem with share groups is that it produces an incomprehensible jumble of letters and numbers. (I realize there are both pros and cons here, but for me and my usage of share groups, it's mostly con).

The solution is to be able to name the share groups. I'd like to have the Matt-and-Melinda share group, and the Andrea-and-Anthony share group, and the Allison-and-Travis share group, and so on. All of each are so much easier to remember and type than xZYnm6s0o45bc.

My friend's solution?

He would set up a server that would accept a specific name and automatically redirect the page to the smugmug provided share group page.

So it seems like there are two possible fixes here:

1)

Smugmug

could do the real fix (let us name our share groups), or 2) smugmug could set up a front end that let us name our share groups and then have them automatically redirected to the smugmug provided share group name. (the latter being less desirable because people ultimately still have to be able to navigate across galleries within the share group so they will see the smugmug name and wonder what it means)

Obviously www.smugmug.com/shares/Matt-and-Melinda won't work because I may not be the only photographer with a Matt-and-Melinda set of galleries. But it wouldn't be hard to change it to use www.smugmug.com/

dwterry

/Matt-and-Melinda or dwterry.smugmug.com/shares/Matt-and-Melinda or better yet, take the word "shares" out completely once it's under the dwterry.smugmug.com domain.

Why am I using share groups?

Because I'm shooting weddings. And because I want all of the galleries to be private (to the public), but open to my customer and anyone with whom they want to share the pictures. Share groups works because, with one entry point, they have access to all of the private galleries. Meanwhile, my public web site is not "clogged up" with tons of "visible yet password protected" galleries. (I believe I have over 300 galleries, I don't need customers wading through endless streams of stuff that doesn't interest them just to get to their pictures, so again, share groups works great, the only downside is the incomprehensible name)

Thanks,
David

Allen

Have you seen this thread creating vanity urls? Might be what you can use.

Andy