Weird question about unwanted traffic

jfriend · April 25, 2007

One of my public family galleries has been linked to by some high volume site for reasons which I don't understand. I't some foreign site that doesn't look bad in itself, but also doesn't have any business sending hundreds of strangers to my family galleries. I don't want the traffic from this site so I'd like to break the link (e.g. make it inoperable and go nowhere). The link is to a specific page in the gallery, so the "external linking" setting won't affect it.

For the moment, I've put a password on the gallery, just so all these folks can't get in to see that gallery, but I'd like to do something more elegant than that for the long term.

What suggestions would people have for dealing with this?

DavidTO · April 25, 2007

jfriend wrote:

One of my public family galleries has been linked to by some high volume site for reasons which I don't understand. I't some foreign site that doesn't look bad in itself, but also doesn't have any business sending hundreds of strangers to my family galleries. I don't want the traffic from this site so I'd like to break the link (e.g. make it inoperable and go nowhere). The link is to a specific page in the gallery, so the "external linking" setting won't affect it.

For the moment, I've put a password on the gallery, just so all these folks can't get in to see that gallery, but I'd like to do something more elegant than that for the long term.

What suggestions would people have for dealing with this?

Move everything to a new gallery.

jfriend · April 25, 2007

DavidTO wrote:

Move everything to a new gallery.

I just did a test and if you try to go to the link for a deleted gallery, it takes you to www.smugmug.com. Perfect!

What's the best way to move everything to a new gallery these days? Reupload? Or is there a better way?

DavidTO · April 25, 2007

jfriend wrote:

I just did a test and if you try to go to the link for a deleted gallery, it takes you to www.smugmug.com. Perfect!

What's the best way to move everything to a new gallery these days? Reupload? Or is there a better way?

It's in Photo Tools.

jfriend · April 25, 2007

DavidTO wrote:

It's in Photo Tools.

Ahhh, I thought that was one photo at a time, but it's copy that's one photo at a time. I can mass move there. Thanks. I'll do that tonight.

Andy · April 25, 2007

jfriend wrote:

Ahhh, I thought that was one photo at a time, but it's copy that's one photo at a time. I can mass move there. Thanks. I'll do that tonight.

Yep, but remember, if they have photo links, those will still be alive and active, even in a a new gallery (by design).. so if you ever wanted to break all links, you'd reupload (to get new Image #s).

jfriend · April 25, 2007

Andy wrote:

Yep, but remember, if they have photo links, those will still be alive and active, even in a a new gallery (by design).. so if you ever wanted to break all links, you'd reupload (to get new Image #s).

Damn. I knew direct image links would still survuve, but what they linked to is of this form http://xxx.smugmug.com/gallery/yyy/3/zzzzzz and that link survives a move to a different gallery number. What a pain. The move to a new gallery didn't stop them because they link to a specific image in a gallery page, not just a specific gallery. What a pain.

In this case, your Smugmug code is ignoring or fixing a wrong gallery identifier so I can't move the images somewhere to break the link they are using.

Is there any other option besides re-uploading everything from scratch.

P.S. I'm not sure that a link with a dead gallery identifier (regardless of whether the image ID is valid) should really take a user to a live image.

Andy · April 25, 2007

jfriend wrote:

Damn. I knew direct image links would still survuve, but what they linked to is of this form http://xxx.smugmug.com/gallery/yyy/3/zzzzzz and that link survives a move to a different gallery number. What a pain. The move to a new gallery didn't stop them because they link to a specific image in a gallery page, not just a specific gallery. What a pain.

In this case, your Smugmug code is ignoring or fixing a wrong gallery identifier so I can't move the images somewhere to break the link they are using.

Is there any other option besides re-uploading everything from scratch.

AlbumFetcher? I don't really have a better answer for you, I'm sorry John

P.S. I'm not sure that a link with a dead gallery identifier (regardless of whether the image ID is valid) should really take a user to a live image.

I think it has to do with allowing folks to move images to new galleries, and to change nicks also...

jfriend · April 25, 2007

Andy wrote:

AlbumFetcher? I don't really have a better answer for you, I'm sorry John

I think it has to do with allowing folks to move images to new galleries, and to change nicks also...

OK, something I thought I could fix while on my trip can't be done that easily. I'll have to do it the hard way when I get home.

One more thought popped into my head. I wonder what will happen if I make a 2nd copy of the one image in the URL they linked to and then delete the original image?

bwg · April 25, 2007

jfriend wrote:

OK, something I thought I could fix while on my trip can't be done that easily. I'll have to do it the hard way when I get home.

One more thought popped into my head. I wonder what will happen if I make a 2nd copy of the one image in the URL they linked to and then delete the original image?

it will take them to the gallery the image is in. Since you moved the gallery, it should then take them to www.smugmug.com. Worth a shot!

jfriend · April 25, 2007

bigwebguy wrote:

it will take them to the gallery the image is in. Since you moved the gallery, it should then take them to www.smugmug.com. Worth a shot!

I'm baffled. It doesn't work. The link now takes the user to the first image in the gallery. To recap.

A web site has a link an image on a gallery page as: http://aaaaa.smugmug.com/gallery/yyyy/3/zzzz

That's image zzzz in gallery yyyy.

I moved all the images to a new gallery and deleted the original gallery, creating a new gallery ID, but the image IDs stay the same. The above link still takes the user to the same image in the new gallery.

Then, I made a 2nd copy of the image and deleted the actual zzzz image. So, at this point, neither the original gallery identifier yyyy or the original image identifier zzzz still exist (both have been deleted).

Yet, when I go to the original link http://aaaaa.smugmug.com/gallery/yyyy/3/zzzz, it takes me to the first page in the new gallery. Unless this is just some sort of transient issue until a clean-up script actually deletes everything for real from your databases, I have no idea how or why the link still continues to work.

Anyway, I'm out of time to debug it while on the road here so I'll have to look at it more later.

Andy · April 25, 2007

jfriend wrote:

OK, something I thought I could fix while on my trip can't be done that easily. I'll have to do it the hard way when I get home.

Or I can do it for you, if it's urgent, just let me know.

One more thought popped into my head. I wonder what will happen if I make a 2nd copy of the one image in the URL they linked to and then delete the original image?

Yes, as the 2nd copy will have new image id.

Mass Make 2nd Copy?
http://smugmug.jot.com/WikiHome/SmugMugHacksAndApps

jfriend · April 25, 2007

jfriend wrote:

I'm baffled. It doesn't work. The link now takes the user to the first image in the gallery. To recap.

A web site has a link an image on a gallery page as: http://aaaaa.smugmug.com/gallery/yyyy/3/zzzz

That's image zzzz in gallery yyyy.

I moved all the images to a new gallery and deleted the original gallery, creating a new gallery ID, but the image IDs stay the same. The above link still takes the user to the same image in the new gallery.

Then, I made a 2nd copy of the image and deleted the actual zzzz image. So, at this point, neither the original gallery identifier yyyy or the original image identifier zzzz still exist (both have been deleted).

Yet, when I go to the original link http://aaaaa.smugmug.com/gallery/yyyy/3/zzzz, it takes me to the first page in the new gallery. Unless this is just some sort of transient issue until a clean-up script actually deletes everything for real from your databases, I have no idea how or why the link still continues to work.

Anyway, I'm out of time to debug it while on the road here so I'll have to look at it more later.

Apparently, Smugmug knows that the deleted image ID is in the new gallery ID and is outsmarting us all even though the image ID has been deleted. One more move to a new gallery of all existing images (or if I'd done the make 2nd copy and delete original before the move to a new gallery) is the last thing to try. Then, Smugmug should have no idea how the original image ID could possibly be associated with the new gallery. Now, it knows that the original image ID was moved to the new gallery. Oh well, it's not urgent Andy so I can try some more things when I get home. At this point, it's more of a puzzle to be solved in time and a way to kill some time in the airport than an urgent problem.

jfriend · April 25, 2007

Figured it out

jfriend wrote:

Apparently, Smugmug knows that the deleted image ID is in the new gallery ID and is outsmarting us all even though the image ID has been deleted. One more move to a new gallery of all existing images (or if I'd done the make 2nd copy and delete original before the move to a new gallery) is the last thing to try. Then, Smugmug should have no idea how the original image ID could possibly be associated with the new gallery. Now, it knows that the original image ID was moved to the new gallery. Oh well, it's not urgent Andy so I can try some more things when I get home. At this point, it's more of a puzzle to be solved in time and a way to kill some time in the airport than an urgent problem.

OK, my flight's delayed even further (3 hrs and counting) so I tinkered some more and figured it out. A final move to a new gallery after deleting the original image worked. Now, when someone tries to go to the URL that was linked to, they end up at www.smugmug.com, not any of my galleries. Cool! These unwanted visitors won't be taken to my family galleries from the URL that's embedded in that external web page.

In the future, the smallest number of moves to render an URL with a gallery ID and image ID in it to be dead is as follows:

Make 2nd copy on the original image.
Delete the original image. This kills the original image ID
Then, create a new gallery.
Move all the images to the new gallery with the "move" command in photo tools
Delete the original gallery (which is now empty). This kills the original gallery ID.

At this point, the orignal image is dead and the lats gallery that Smugmug new it to be in is also dead so the original link has nowhere to go so Smugmug takes you to www.smugmug.com.

For those who care about the technical details, here's some tech info:

If you have a Smugmug URL with just an image ID in it, that link is gallery independent. For example: http://jfriend.smugmug.com/photos/66770280-M.jpg. No matter what gallery you move this image to, it's URL stays the same so the link will continue to work. To break this link, you can use Make 2nd copy to make a new copy of the image in the same gallery and then delete the original image. That will break this link.
If you have a Smugmug URL with just a gallery ID in it like http://jfriend.smugmug.com/gallery/879690/, then you can break that link by creating a new gallery, using the photo tools "move" command to move all the images to that new gallery and then deleting the original gallery.
If you have a Smugmug URL with both a gallery ID and an image ID in it like http://jfriend.smugmug.com/gallery/879690/#62370578, then you have to do both steps above in that order. If you just move the images to a new gallery, Smugmug is smart enough to still show the same image in the new gallery, even though the gallery ID is now different. If you move the images to a new gallery and then do make 2nd copy, Smugmug is smart enough to know that the image ID in the URL used to be in your gallery so it takes the user to the start of that gallery. Only when you delete the original image and then move the images to a new gallery can you break a link with both mage ID and gallery ID in it.

bwg · April 26, 2007

jfriend wrote:

Make 2nd copy on the original image.

Delete the original image. This kills the original image ID

Then, create a new gallery.

Move all the images to the new gallery with the "move" command in photo tools

Delete the original gallery (which is now empty). This kills the original gallery ID.

thats what i thought you were talking about doing in the first (or second) place. Glad you got it figured out.

richW · April 26, 2007

John,
Sorry to here about the hotlinking to the family galleries. I had a site link to some of my "Peace Officer's Memorial" pictures to their spam ad site. Not the place I want pictures from that type of event to be. I deleted and replaced the images they linked to. I kept one image they linked to and replaced it with a nasty note I made in photoshop. You should have kept one image and replaced it with......:boid
Have a safe trip.....

Weird question about unwanted traffic

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