----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Roberts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2001 10:09 AM
Subject: Re: The Lycos thang (again)
>
> How about putting all the individual (full-size) images and
their corresponding
> web pages in a directory separate from the monthly PUG page of
thumbnails and
> then excluding that directory in the robots.txt file?
I tried that for the first couple of months I did the gallery
(minus the robots.txt exclusion), and found it to be a nightmare
to compile, so I have gone back to everything in a single
directory. We have added the robot.txt exclusion to the gallery
page template. Rob assures me that will keep the image
harvesters from latching on. I will put the same tag into the
index page as well. Apparently, if the image harvesters follow
the rules, that will be sufficient.
Mark, if you can tell me how to exclude an entire directory from
a harvester (gads, I wanna be back on the farm!!) I will look at
it most carefully.
Personally, while I am not happy about this situation, I really
don't think it is as dire a problem as it is being made out to
be. Unfortunately, the internet isn't a very secure place. I was
directed to a site dedicated to images done with Minolta
cameras. (I think it is the Minoltian). The guy is advertising
that the images are safe from being filched because he has
disabled the right click dropdown menu. Yup, works good. makes
navigating the site a pain in the butt, and if you really want
an image, it is an extra 5 seconds to secure it for downloading
(I tried).
What I do think is that if I put in a bunch of stuff to attempt
to add security, the PUG will lose some of it's appeal. We could
password protect it, and turn it into a little inbred community
with no fresh input. We could make it invisible to search
engines (exactly the opposite of what I have been doing for the
past few months) and no one would find it, and there would be no
new contributors, and no new people finding the PDML from the
link on the PUG and eventually our numbers would dwindle to
nothing.
This is the least desirable option for me. I want to see the PUG
grow, attract new submitters, and get fresh images and ideas.
The only way to do that is to put our names and our work out
there for all to see, and attract as many people in as we can.
If this means we have a few people downloading our images, so be
it. The image restrictions are designed to make them unusable in
any application other thean a computer screen. If it means we
have to be vigilant WRT image harvesting robots and scum sucking
websites such as Lycos Multimedia then thats what we will have
to do.
I promise that anyone who brings to my attention a deep link
into the PUG, I will take action to shut that link down, and
exclude the page from having it's image harvested again. I have
delinked about 30 images so far, and I can do as many more as I
need to.
I think that if we turn the PUG into something that you have to
be a member of a club to see, then I don't really see much
reason for continuing the PUG project, and I will not maintain a
gallery that runs itself like a pay per view pornography site.
Now, you know how I really feel about it. Lets just suck it up a
bit and get on with life.
Bill
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