Vote: Member Gallery Issues

What is your view on the picture loading issue in the member's gallery?

  • Yes, I would like the issue fixed as it stops me from viewing the gallery.

    Votes: 2 16.7%
  • It doesn't affect me, but I would like the issue fixed, so that affected users can also view the gal

    Votes: 7 58.3%
  • No, leave things as they are.

    Votes: 3 25.0%

  • Total voters
    12

Nic

Posts: 1,519   +1
Julio will probably kill me for posting this one ... :grinthumb :blush:

:) If any members here are experiencing issues whereby gallery pictures do not show up when using a firewall with privacy options enabled, then please vote if you would like to see the issue resolved.

Even if you don't have any problems yourself, but feel that any issues should still be solved so that other members can view the gallery, then you can vote for that option. After all, it may well affect you someday, especially as security is now a big issue when online.

This issue does not appear to affect browsers that are based on Internet Explorer, but if you are an Opera fan, and you use Norton firewall, or ZoneAlarm with some privacy settings (e.g. cookie control switched on) then none of the gallery pics will load. All forum pics show up fine. Only the member gallery is affected.

Please vote.
 
Looks like it neck and neck on the voting right now, with some voters too embarassed to identify themselves. Hmm ...

PS: Just to point out that the result of any voting will not necessarily result in any changes being made to the gallery. It is simply a means of communicating your opinion. Only one person can action change, and that person isn't me. :)
 
Well, I do not suffer from the problem but I would like to see it fixed, or atleast looked into and then decided what we should do about it...

It is not a good thing to fix it if it allows other sites to link to our pics and steal our bandwidth that way...
 
Is it too much to assume that all the mods will be voting 'No'.

Any mods willing to prove me wrong?

Anyone brave enough?

Your positions are safe. Honest.

Really, this is just a bit of harmless fun, so if you believe in democracy, and freedom of speech, then cast your vote. Just remember to be honest about it.

Update: nice one Per. A very sensible comment I might add. :)
 
Well I haven't voted myself. I don't suffer from that problem so not doing anything about it won't really be a problem for me.;)

On the other hand, the fact that some of these pictures show up on the front page might make it necessary to fix, so that other people that use privacy features of their firewalls do not have nice red Xs showing up on the front page.
 
Maybe we are being a little over causious as regards bandwidth stealing. In my experience I have NEVER seen links to user galleries from other locations on the web. Is it not the case that our forums alone have more pictures available than in the galleries and no one has complained about bandwidth stealing on the forum. Similarly, members here have linked to other websites, thus stealing their bandwidth. Most links that are used for bandwidth stealing tend to be download links or news pics and the like. Member gallery pics is not something that most would find interesting enough to link to from another site. Just my opinion of course, and it is possible I could be wrong. Who knows, we may even get more site visitors/members through other sites linking to techspot.
 
Bandwidth stealers are the scum of the Earth !!!
toad666.gif


Ok maybe not that bad, but they're way up there in the list of online things that need to disappear.;)

If I want to post an image taken from another website, I generally download it, upload it to my ftp, post it here & provide a link to where I found the original image.

It does take a little longer to do it that way so I guess many people just hotlink the site where they got it from.:(

PS. I voted. One small step for man...
 
Where's the option for "users should fix the settings of their software, not blame the server"? :p
 
Why not blame the users instead. Excellent idea!

Thanks for being honest, and brave enough to admit to it. ;)

Besides aren't users entitled to have some privacy settings enabled when online. It is only techspot gallery that has an issue, so you can hardly blame users for that now, can you? Also, what do you do about users that experience this problem and don't know what the cause is? Not everyone here is a computer nerd.
 
I have been able to fix this through firewall settings, but I have noticed that this allows personally identifiable info to be sent to the server. This is ok here, but not at other places. I have also tried using rules, but the problem is that the waay the gallery works, I'd have to enable several rules for it to work that way.

I have also noticed that many sites use code that is blocked by my firewall and treated as an attack. These sites no longer show up correctly unless I disable my firewall or write an exception rule for thwe site. I don't trust many sites that much, especially since most of them are trying to gather info I don't want them to have. I hope this is not the case with the gallery server but I still don't see why it needs personal info in order for me to view a picture.

BTW, there are ways of preventing hotlinking without messing up the ability for us to see the images while keeping a bit of privacy. Many sites I go to don't let you hotlink but I can see the images there without having to disable any settings.

For the record, I use IE and Norton Firewall, doesn't really matter what browser I use, it does the same with IE and Firefox if I have those settings enabled in NPF.
 
Bottom line on this issue... so far I have credited this problem to those security measures that do not permit 3rd parties to directly link to our pictures and steal bandwidth.

A few users have reported such problem and we definitely have to take care of it, even though the majority is not having trouble when using other popular firewalls such as ZoneAlarm.

I suggest we do the following:
Go to http://www.photopost.com/ and check if you have the same problem with other galleries, try at least with 4-5 of them. If the problem persists, I will contact Photopost developers for support.
 
Thanks for listening Julio (really). I tried ALL the galleries on the link you posted and no problems with any of them (except for 'Club Lexus' with seems to be an invalid link). It really is a mystery why only techspot galleries are affected. maybe some setting somewhere is causing this. Hopefully with support from members here, and some investigation, we can get the issue resolved.
 
I went to PhotoPost, and with Opera or MyIE2 I can see all the photos, no problem. At TS, MyIE2 is okay, but can't see photos with Opera.
 
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