ATTENTION PLEASE! Protecting your photos.

[SourdoughStomper]

Many of the photos that some of the members generously share with the Arena are being used by others in various parts of the world wide web! Most often without credit and nearly always without asking permission. The trend mostly centers around new G4 pony merchandise you find in the stores.

We have changed Arena forum settings so that visitors (either unregistered or members who are not logged in) cannot see pictures. Perhaps this will cut down on the theft, but sadly, it won't stop fellow members from helping themselves.

We highly encourage the use of watermarks on your pictures. If you use Photobucket, I believe they have editing software that would allow you to put your name or screen name on the pictures.

PLEASE NOTE: As a side issue - the "hide image" setting caused the automatic image resizing function to stop working. So if you post a humongous picture, it will stay humongous. There is a very easy way to resize the picture yourself to make it smaller so it won't stretch the screen. It works like this:

Regular Way: (Normal image tag)

Code: [Select]

[img]http://mlparena.com/mlp/logo.gif[/img]
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Better Way: (You put "width=600" in the first image tag)

Code: [Select]

[img width=600]http://mlparena.com/mlp/logo.gif[/img]visitors can't see pics , please register or login



If you see a "last edited by [mod or admin]" in your post with no notes, most likely we were in there making your pictures smaller. But feel free to develop the habit yourself. Thanks for your attention in this matter.

[hathorcat]

  Thanks so much for taking care of us again SDS!

[Kiwi]

Great info Stomper!

[Oneleo1]

Thank you!

[Buddafly]

thank you for the info!

[Gingerbread]

Thankyou!

[Uninu]

Thank you for looking out for us!

[ponylady]

Thanks Stomper for always taking good care of us!

It really does seem to be a huge issue anymore.  I know I have gone on a few sites and was like hmmm....I have seen that picture somewhere before.     

[michelle53]

Thanks Stomper for always taking good care of us!

It really does seem to be a huge issue anymore.  I know I have gone on a few sites and was like hmmm....I have seen that picture somewhere before.     

Relcelestia seems to be one who's images get heisted quite frequently.  I've seen her tell-tale upside down cup all over the place lately.  It's funny because I did a Google search of "My Little Pony Starry Wings" and I instantly spot StephBryant's tell-tale background, NoDivision's Barnacle, LilSparks' SW in the tree and holy smoke...my blue-haired SW and a bunch of my ponies!!

Thank you SDS for taking care of us!! 

[NoDivision]

Thanks SDS! That's a great idea, and I hope it helps And I hope this post also brings the issue to the attention of those members who are taking pictures without asking.

[MsTwilight]

Awesome! There's nothing worse than seeing your photo on ebay with another persons name watermarked on it. 

[xdartfrogx]

Thats why my pics were coming up like blimps while I was adding to my trade page. I got frustrated and gave up yesterday. Heehee! Good to know. Will try the watermark thing as well!

[hyenacub]

Yeesh!  What a bunch of schmoes.  LOL  Thanks for all the info and great idea! 

[Knibitz]

\ouo/ oh this is FANTASTIC news!
unfortunately the arena has always been a HUGE market for people taking my photos because they show up in image google search

Glad to know that hopefully this means that stops!





And just a tidbit of information: Google images does not automatically give you the right to take an image! All google images does is crawl the internet and reports the images it finds! MOST of these images are not available for public use!
SO PLEASE! DO NOT use images found on google, and PLEASE do not source "google" as where you found the image! look at the page google says it's from!

[kaoskat]

  Thanks SDS! You are the best! Hopefully this will help keep the thieves from lifting everyone's pics!