Downloading entire galleries
papajay
Registered Users Posts: 441 Major grins
I installed and tested FriendSync. Pretty nifty little program...and it worked like a charm! All that's needed after a quick download of the .exe program is to enter the gallery URL (no password needed for a "public" gallery that is not password-protected), and an entire gallery of originals can be downloaded in a matter of seconds.
That's absolutely great in cases where a smugmug account holder is happy to allow friends/family download copies of original-size photos to their own computers (without emails, shares, attachments, etc).
SmugMug has worked diligently to address the privacy concerns expressed by myself and many others. So I'm not pointing this out to be critical...but
there's so much information in so many places in HELP that I feel it's likely that some average SmugMug account holders (especially those who do not participate in Dgrin forums) might be shocked to find out their galleries can be downloaded without their even knowing about it, let alone "authorizing" it.
SmugIslands settings can keep Google out, but as long as one's site is public and not password-protected, anyone who knows the site name can access and download originals!
Again, this is a "good thing" for many of us, in many situations...but it should be clearly communicated so all users are aware of it. Maybe it's there, and I didn't find it...but I looked, and I didn't find it.
That's absolutely great in cases where a smugmug account holder is happy to allow friends/family download copies of original-size photos to their own computers (without emails, shares, attachments, etc).
SmugMug has worked diligently to address the privacy concerns expressed by myself and many others. So I'm not pointing this out to be critical...but
there's so much information in so many places in HELP that I feel it's likely that some average SmugMug account holders (especially those who do not participate in Dgrin forums) might be shocked to find out their galleries can be downloaded without their even knowing about it, let alone "authorizing" it.
SmugIslands settings can keep Google out, but as long as one's site is public and not password-protected, anyone who knows the site name can access and download originals!
Again, this is a "good thing" for many of us, in many situations...but it should be clearly communicated so all users are aware of it. Maybe it's there, and I didn't find it...but I looked, and I didn't find it.
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Originals can only be downloaded if originals are turned on at the gallery level. The app does nothing different that what a user can do via your website atm, if originals are enabled
Cheers,
David
SmugMug API Developer
My Photos
Sorry this caught you off guard! As a general rule, any photo a visitor can see, a visitor can download. Turn off original sized image viewing if you don't want visitors to download your originals.
-Anne
Hi Papa,
I think we're very upfront about it:
http://www.smugmug.com/help/protecting-images
and here: http://www.smugmug.com/help/picture-storage
"If you'd rather your visitors didn't have access to view your high-resolution original images, select a smaller size as your largest size. Pro users can block even the large size by choosing to display medium as their largest size."
Thanks for telling us how you feel about it though, and we'd love to hear from other customers as well
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Thanks, Anne...yours is the kind of straight-forward (no "jargon-speak") reply that is clear, to the point, helpful....and appreciated!
Thanks David...It clear to me now, even considering I'm not familiar with your use of the "atm" abbreviation (...no clue on this end what that refers too)
Especially now that SmugMungous is launched (Man, Oh, Man....is THAT ever sweet!!!!), I will definitely be turning off the switch that enables originals to be viewed.
Hi Papa
atm = at the moment.
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OK Andy,
I'll grant you that the declarative statement* I was looking for is indeed there to be found...and not too deeply buried in the help screens at that, so you are, in fact, "pretty up front about it"!
* http://www.smugmug.com/help/download-photos
Flip side: I didn't entirely appreciate what I percieved to be a slightly patronising reply, however accurate it might be. I carefully followed both links you provided in your reply. Maybe it's because my temporary internet file folder has cached pages or something, but one link took to me to a help page about "customizing galleries" with over 30 more links on the page. First, I tried to guess which of the 30+ links I should follow to find out the "up front" answer I was supposed to find. After going down a few blind alleys, I finally gave up and went back to the top of the page and clicked my way through each and every one in sequence to no avail.
The other link pulled up a help page about Blocking Printing. Some of the info on this page rather obliquely dealt with the issue at hand, but didn't seem to hit the nail on the head either...I never said anything about "Printing" in my original post, and would not have thought to look in a "printing" section about "downloading" anyway.
I also didn't express any concern about viewing originals in my post, as you seemed to think. I very specifically expressed concern about downloading originals.
Finally, I started at the top of the help screen and clicked my way down until I hit the "Photos" section...and there it was (plain as day) in bold letters....."Downloading".
Another poster recently commented that the Help screens could an overhaul, or words to that effect. I'm sure people work very hard at trying to make Help pages "helpful"...and I'm also sure it isn't an easy thing to do for a product as feature-rich (and therefore complex )as Smugmug.
But just because the answer is "in there somewhere" doesn't mean it's easy to find for those of us who don't make a living writing code.
I'll bet if you polled 100 Standard account holders who don't frequent Dgrin, way fewer than 1/2 of them actually realize their collection of original images can be downloaded gallery by gallery by anyone, anytime...even though SmugMug provides the switchable setting to prevent it from happening.
Aha!...so simple...thanks Andy.
Dear Smug Pros,
Regarding "Friendsync" (I just stumbled across it) I have some concerns as a long time pro customer...
What isn't clear (to me anyway) is if any 'joe-schmoe' can download any of my public galleries in their entirety :cry - will my "100/30 tiled watermarks" be included, since I've watermarked ALL my galleries?
Thanks,
rich56k
Note - I only offer medium as the largest size already (in 99% of my galleries) but that's for other reasons...So what I'm hoping to hear is that what they'd get are medium/watermarked images at best...
Member: ASMP; EP; NPPA; CPS