A Question from the OTPN Team to Readers
Good Morning Orlando Theme Park News Readers!
Today, the OTPN Team wanted to briefly ask some questions to our readers. As you may have noticed, we are taking some important steps in protecting the photos and logos that belong to us (that we take in the parks or that we create from scratch), including placing our logo on those photos and disabling the right-click feature.
After having received some complaints on the matter, we decided to put back the right-click feature, and agreed to just watermark our photos using a small logo we created. Unfortunately, we still received complaints that the logo is either too big or too visible. For this reason, we kindly ask all of our readers to please share some ideas and/or comments on what you think would be the best step in that regard.
What should we do? Should we continue watermarking our photos as we have done on our latest update, or should we use a smaller logo? What about making the logo more transparent? Do you think we should just avoid watermarking our photos and let others use them without giving credit (we are not saying that everybody does that, but we have noticed a few sites that post our photos without putting a link back to our updates)?
Just to be clear, anyone can use our photos for their personal use or to share them on other sites. We just ask that you please give us the credit (only on the photos that actually belong to us, of course. If you copy images we posted that come from the WDW Resort or other sources, you will have to give them the respective credit), along with the link back to our original update. It just seems fair to us.
Just to be clear, anyone can use our photos for their personal use or to share them on other sites. We just ask that you please give us the credit (only on the photos that actually belong to us, of course. If you copy images we posted that come from the WDW Resort or other sources, you will have to give them the respective credit), along with the link back to our original update. It just seems fair to us.
Please, we really need your feedback, and you can be sure that we will appreciate that.
The Orlando Theme Park News Team.
This is your site, your property.
ReplyDeleteDon't let others complain about you protecting your stuff.
I say keep the logo that size, any smaller and it will be easy to crop it out. I also understand the no right clicking, even though I myself, link to your sites pictures all the time.
I say you can allow linking, but don't shrink the logo.
Make the logo bigger! Just transparency it, so people can see through it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had a problem with your logo before, but must admit the new one did jar with me when I saw your last update. And please let us save our favorite photos of yours for our own computers!
ReplyDeleteContinue using watermarks. I liked the blue logo with the palm tree. You must have the credit for your good work. Congratulations on your site is excellent. Greetings from Yucatan, Mexico!
ReplyDeleteYou MUST do what is best for you. If your photos are showing up on other sites without credit you MUST take steps to protect your property. Small transparent watermarks would be my preference, but you can't please everyone. Personally, if I didn't take the picture, why sould I expect to be able to use your photos without a watermark? I guess I just don't understand people's problem with this issue.
ReplyDeleteI also run a theme park site and we have this problem so I feel your pain. I suggest a simple transparent 'OPTN' placed in the top left of the photos.
ReplyDeleteHere's some examples of how we do it on our site (Our site is called Ride Guide Group, hence RGG):
http://go-merlin.co.uk/files/2012/03/5c28fef5-058e-2277.jpg
http://go-merlin.co.uk/files/2012/03/5c28fe85-ff3e-5860.jpg
http://go-merlin.co.uk/files/2012/03/5c28fda6-c3d3-ece6.jpg
I'd hope you let us use your photos and give credit, but just so there is no confusion in who's original it is, I'd say make a small transparent watermark. I don't mind watermarks as long as the person or group gets their credit!
ReplyDeleteHi Sam,
ReplyDeleteMy preference is that you use a logo on the bottom right. Something a little smaller and more transparent than what you used yesterday would be appreciated. I would not want to see a large transparent water mark because it distracts from the photograph. Almost every other theme park site I visit has a logo or credit, so this is perfectly acceptable in my opinion.
Use your facebook profile picture I see on the side, that's small and undistracting, plus you can tell it's yours!
ReplyDeleteA big thank you to all those who responded so far.
ReplyDeleteWe added a few more lines to our post to specify that anyone can use our photos and post them elsewhere. We would just like to receive the due credit, as we have seen people that just copy and paste our work without linking to us. That is our only problem (but it is a big one).
@Daniel: Thanks for the suggestions. Your logo looks very nice, by the way! We may do something similar, based on the feedback we receive.
@Jason and all the Anonymous posters: Thank you also for your suggestions. We appreciate that.
being from the UK, and not being able to get to Orlando as much as id like, i love seeing your photos and often right click and save - this is for personal use only and just for memories / cell phone screen savers etc!
ReplyDeletei have no problem at all with the watermarks - however i must admit in your latest update i prefer the single line version. Please dont go bigger or transparent as it will detract from the photo. but whatever you do, please keep up the good work! :)
I don't see any problem with protecting your photos by using a watermark in the image, especially on the bottom. I think if you make it transparent you can also make it a little larger. As others have said, you don't want to make it too small that it can easily be cropped out without losing what the picture is about.
ReplyDeleteBut on the other hand, being able to right-click and save the photos is nice. And please don't ever use a giant transparent watermark that goes across the whole photo! Those are awful to look at.
The internet is a lot of different things to different people. But when you put something on it it's almost public domain. Look at artists who make music or movies or games or comics or whatever. It's wrong. But they keep on making that stuff for the right people, for the ones they care for.
ReplyDeleteThe question to you is, do you look at the positive, the peeps like me who love what you are doing, giving me joy when I'm living in pain all day and hope I can come back to the US on a vacation once every few years. Giving me a view of the fun stuff that is out there. Or are you going to be angry and frustrated, put logo's on your beautiful pictures because there are some dicks who think they can stealing whatever they want and put it on their site not giving you credits. You have every right to be angry and frustrated for not getting credit but even those stolen pictures bring joy to visitors from those other sites who don't know. And you know you provided their joy and you can be proud of it.
Hope you guys understand what I try to see all the way from The Netherlands, love your work.
water mark is ok by me
ReplyDeleteI like much more the version with the logo and the Orlando Theme Park News watermark on the bottom right side of the Picture.
ReplyDeleteMaybe is just better if you change the color of the sign from blu to orange that is a better visible color
I'm really pleased to read that fellow users of your site respect the need for you to protect your photos.
ReplyDeleteMy preference is to use the watermark in the bottom right hand corner.
Thanks for your great work on the site, it brings the parks that bit closer to me here in the UK.
I completely understand your frustration and (possible) anger over people taking your pictures and posting them onto their sites. However, I feel that if I post something up to the Internet, whether it's got a watermark on it or not, there is always the risk of someone taking it, tweaking it, cropping it and calling it their own. The right-click thing can be avoided by using a screen capture tool; there are cloning tools that can be used to "brush out" watermarks, and so on, so there's no easy way around it.
ReplyDeleteIn my (humble) opinion, I think that since these pictures are of Disney World - where any of us can (and do) visit, they should not have a watermark. It's a lot of work for you to do, and as mentioned above, there is always a way around watermarks. Perhaps something like "Creative Commons" (www.creativecommons.com) might be useful? I don't know if they cover photos, but maybe there's something similar that does.
I love your photos and would hate to see them with watermarks. But as I said, that's just me.
A small transparent 'OPTN' is ok for me as saved pictures are for my personal use. Greetings from Paris, France.
ReplyDeleteI've already posted a comment on the other thread, the one that is populated by...less understanding people.
ReplyDeleteThey're your pictures, and I thank you for taking the time to visit the parks and post your pictures. I only get to the parks once a year or less so I enjoy living vicariously through those of you who can visit so much more often.
The watermarks are totally understandable and appropriate and I would continue putting them on there. I have never missed what could be seen in that tiny corner of your pictures so I don't see what the big deal is.
When a person starts and maintains their own Web site they can do what they want with their own pictures. Until then, I think they should appreciate your hard work and enjoy the pics.