Merry Christmas OVAS! New Photo Gallery feature!

[darkdep]

I'm very happy to announce the official implementation of our new Photo Gallery feature for OVAS!

You will notice a new "Gallery" link on the top blue navigation bar.  At the moment we have the previous 6 months of OVAS photo contests archived, and the public gallery will be greatly expanded over time.

But, what you're all going to really love is the fact that we now have "Personal" galleries!  Click on the "View Gallery" link under anyone's Avatar, and you can view their pictures.  You can add categories, rate photos, add comments, etc etc.  Go play!

One important note; we have secured additional server space and bandwidth to ensure the long-term viability of this new feature, but because there is an additional cost for us to maintain this space, the Personal Gallery feature is available to card-carrying OVAS Members only.

So, for all of you who have been hosting photos on various other image services, bring your photos home to OVAS. 

As an example, I've thrown a few pics into my own gallery for you to see.  Click on the "View Gallery" link to the left under my Avatar, or click on the link in my signature.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know!

[beowulf]

Real nice!!!  How exactly do I get my pics in there?

[PaleoFishGirl]

Good question.  APW, I can access the photos I've submitted for the Photo Contests, but how do I move them into a personal gallery? Do I have to download and reupload them??

[darkdep]

There are two ways into your own gallery.  Either click your own "View Gallery" link in a post, or click on Profile on the top navigation bar, and click on View Images from within your profile page.

You can then click on Add Category to add new categories (you need at least one; I personally created one called "My Tanks" and one called "My Fish" but you can do anything you want).  Once the category is created, go into it and you will have links to Add pictures.

[darkdep]

Actually, once in your gallery you will notice a "My Images" link which will show you ALL images you own in all galleries.

The personal galleries are seperate from the public ones; so yes if you want a photo in your personal gallery you will need to upload it into there.

Another note; although we don't currently limit the size of photos to anything reasonable, please format your photos to a MAXIMUM resolution of 1024x768 or a moderator may adjust them for you

[darkdep]

Another cool link...click on Gallery above, and then there is a link called "View User Galleries" that only shows users who have actually added pics to their galleries.  Link Here.

[gvv]

GREAT!!!

[az]

Nice feature indeed!

[Rudy00]

awesome new feature

[squeeker]

I love it... except that it looks like I haven't uploaded anything.

If you make a folder, and then make a subfolder and put photos in there, the total number of images in the main folder displays a zero.  I don't like that, but I like everything else 

[darkdep]

Yes, this request has been passed along to the developers and should have a fix soon.

[sas]

This is a great new feature It's forced the procrastinator in me to get moving One question, I know this is a fish site but can we download pics other than fish related in our Images gallery? Great work on the site

[darkdep]

There are no real rules at this time.  Nobody is going to complain about a handful of pics about other things, but obviously if you upload 100MB of photos of your car we might have to say something

[PaleoFishGirl]

Just to clarify, if one of your photos appears in the OVAS gallery (for the Photo Contest, etc.), there doesn't seem to be a way to have it appear in one of your personal galleries as well. 

The only way to get around this (well, other than to not have it appear in your personal gallery) is to re-upload the photo.  This means that, in your "My Images" section, you will have two copies of the same photo... but you'll be able to show it off in your personal gallery as well as the main gallery.

[kennyman]

I was wondering if ovas will be reserving the right to use any pictures from the galleries. Pat from Badman'shas the right to use any of the pictures I upload in my gallery on his site for articles, profiles ect on the site. It's not a big deal in any way and I know some people might get freaky about this issue. I do not want to start anything like that. I was just wondering so I know now and not later what the pollicy is. I'm always pleased when he selects one of my photos for the main site since it is a way I can contribute back to a place I learned so much from. But I do hold back some special photos in case I ever decide to use them as more than a keepsake.

I'm also unsure about duplicating some shots between the two galleries from the site owners perspective. I know that I have won photo contests on both this site and Badman's with shots of Mrs. Crabtree and those had to be different photos. They were different angles taken within a few frames of eachother so they were very very close. But there were rules in both contests about the shots not being published anywhere else. Up to now I don't think OVAS has ever really published much in the way of photos, certainly not web wise, but as the site develops that may change.

I just want to understand pollicy beforehand rather than sort it out later. Thats why I'm asking 

[babblefish1960]

A very good question kennyman, with some serious thought going into the development of this feature. I'm sure as we grow, we will be developing more in the way of rules surrounding this. In the meantime, the personal galleries are just that, personal.

[darkdep]

At the moment, the only official OVAS rule regarding photos of any kind is that by entering a photo into an OVAS Photo Contest, you grant OVAS usage rights for promotional material, and things like the upcoming OVAS Calendar.  You're not granting ownership rights.

Other than that one not-very-restrictive example, we currently have no rules established for the photo galleries.  And, I'm hoping, there will not be any need for any rules for quite some time.

One thing for sure tho, I very much doubt that there would ever be a policy of not posting photos on another site   That just seems silly to me.

[kennyman]

Sounds great. Thanks for the explaination and thanks for seting up a gallery where ovas members can share photos 

[fischkopp]

i can't find the link/button that says add gallery 

[darkdep]

Easiest way to do this is look at the top navigation bar where it says "My Gallery".  You should be able to add from there.

[charlie]

Just thought  i`ll give this a bump, as we are approching it`s 1 year anniversery  , This is just one more great reason ( among others) of becoming a club member, Thanks APW.