I knew about the private...learned the hard way..
but if you put a pic on the forum and some one clicks on it to make it bigger it will show in the stats.
All my albums are private, yet any pics I post show many hits...
Everyone should have them private especially if they have family pics in them...

I've got mine All private too. But does that mean they are still open to who ever clicks on them? I'm confused on this. Kind of makes you feel 'Exposed' to all.

jane

Thanks for that info! I had just been thinking about it this week when I discovered I had a couple of family pictures in Photobucket that were not private. It really wasn't something I was aware of that people could access my entire album & not just that particular pic I had posted. I went back and made sure there were only pictures on there I didn't mind sharing, and put 2 in a "private" file.

Jane, you asked "But does that mean they are still open to who ever clicks on them?"

To find out, I clicked on one of your pics in Fall Decor #3.

Answer is, no, they do not show up. I got a Photobucket Exception with this message "The action that you were trying to perform has failed." No photo came up.

Hope you feel better about this.

Lee

I have all my albums at PB marked private. I realized that once I looked at some pics I saw on a blog, that I was able to look at every album the person had besides the picture they had on their blog.

I have albums with my grandkids pictures & I surely would not want just anyone to access those, so it is the best idea to mark all your albums PRIVATE!

Those are amazing stats Lynn, just shows what a great decorator you are huh? ;o) Seriously though, Kathleen alerted me to the fact that I might want to make mine private a long time ago. I do try to mostly only put pictures on there that are my creations, tablescapes and decorations. In case anyone has an idea they wouldn't want copied--don't put it anywhere accessible on the internet. Luvs

Well, most all the albums I have on Photobucket are public.
Including my family one. I wanted to be able to share them with friends and my two Forums. Now you have me wondering if the family one should be private? Sounds like it.
Photobucket actually sent me stats to see how many hits, but I have the pro account (to keep those darn ads off my pages) so maybe that's why they notified me. I expected a lot of hits since I have so many albums for Holidays and Garden Junk forums.

hugs, Karen

Lee...thanks for doing that. I was actually going to ask someone to do it. I had marked them all private, when I was setting up my account, but was wondering about it.

Are you a 'Newbe' ? ...If so, Welcome and I hope you visit here often. We love adding new friends to our group. We're all friendly and love any pictures or ideas, you can share with us.

jane

Yes, hello and welcome, Lee!
Karen, there's an option on Photobucket to make any album private and let it be accessible to friends and family that you give a password to. You designate a specific password to each one or the same for them all from the looks of it. That, I think, is the wisest option.

And, again, I hope this post isn't taken as a complaint about any lurkers here. It sure wasn't meant to be.
Lynn

(waving wildly) Hi, Karen! How is Stoney doing? Does he have a fall outfit?

I know you have to do what makes you comfortable re:Photobucket. I am guilty of accessing your pics, and other ones here, more than once. I like to go back and look and see what I missed. Guess I have a retention problem. lol In fact, I was looking at the cloche photos last night.

I am sending you an email about the family pictures. I was going to put it in this post, but decided an email would be better.

If this post makes no sense, chalk it up the fact that I started it an hour ago, and was interrupted three times. Guess that means I shouldn't be at the computer?

Lee

Lee, I'm so glad you've come back to us. Yep, Stoney has his Fall ribbon around neck right now. LOL. He'll get spiffed up a bit for Halloween soon.
I'm glad you accessed my pictures as I love sharing them with my Forum family. But I did decide to go make my family album private when I saw I could still share it with a password. So if any of my friends want it, then I will email it privately to you.

By the way, there is also a thing you can click to keep others from copying your photos if you want. I didn't do that since my albums set up for Holiday and Garden Junk forums ARE for sharing and saving.

hugs, Karen

I am a lurker! I've been coming here for years. There was a time when I posted regularly, (before you had to join to post), but then got busy with my job, health issues, etc. and had to stop participating. Now, I just check in now and then to see what's new. Lately I've gotten a huge charge out of the wonderful tablescapes. Believe it or not, I feel like I'm starting to get back into my old self. Lately I've been looking at my dishes and goodies and thinking I need to get moving and do something pretty with them.

But, I must admit that I feel horribly insulted to be looked at as someone who is outside staring in at just a select few who belong. This is the sort of place where people should be encouraged to look and get ideas and participate. It takes a lot of nerve to open yourself up to strangers and try to join in a closed group. I'm sure that many would not bother to join after reading how much you all seem to look down your noses at 'lurkers.' This is probably the last time I'll post anything, but I thought you all should think about things from another point of view. Maybe I'm looking to try to spark something in myself that I've lost. Maybe I'm looking because I don't have anything beautiful to add or share, but I crave beauty in my life. Is it really so horrible to have other people look at your precious decorations? Is it awful to think that someone might take one of your ideas and rearrange it for themselves? Why are lurkers so disliked?

Just a lurkers two cents worth.

glor

I'm so confused... I haven't seen anyone post anything negative about lurkers.

Melvalena

Glor: I'm so sorry that you feel the way you do about Lynn's post. But, I'm mostly a "lurker" myself and I didn't take Lynn's post offensively. I have re-read her post several times and she's just cautioning everyone who's posting their pictures as public and letting them know their options at Photobucket. As she said, she means this in a non-judgmental way and she takes it as a compliment that her pictures are being viewed by so many. I occasionally post a quick comment only because of many reasons (time, content, etc.)and mainly "lurk" because its a delightful break in my workday for me to read everyone's ideas. Thanks everyone for your pictures and inspirations, I know you don't mind my "lurking" here for my new ideas!

Glor,
I hope you will reconsider.

I think Lynne just meant to alert people to the fact that Photobucket albums can be public or private.

Mine are private as I don't want my family pics shown on the net. Some very strange things have happened esp with children's pics..someone's child showed up on Craig's list as an adoption.

So lurk away, I did for a long time, then join in anytime you like! We are always happy to have you, even if it is only once in awhile..

I'm sorry if I misunderstood. It is understandable to keep personal pictures in a private or locked area, I would do the same. Sorry that I overreacted, it just seemed like a slap in the face so that I felt I had to comment. I even had to sign up to join, which I have hesitated to do before now. This has always been such a nice giving sort of group that I feel as if I know you all and it has always been fun to drop by and see what everyone is up to. Thanks for being so nice while I was being so b*tchy.

Sorry.

glor

Whew, glad you had a change of heart there, Glor. This is the most friendly, caring bunch you will find on any Forum I am willing to bet. And many of us started out lurking. I know it takes nerve to do that 'first' post or show your first pictures. Especially since some of these gals are super talented. But we all love seeing anything and everything! I've gotten so much encouragement and support myself here. I couldn't do a pretty table setting if someone forced me to at gun point, LOL, but we all can laugh about that here and I don't feel badly.
I think, if anything, the lurkers Lynn might have referred to are those who aren't interested in anything to do with forums, but are trolling for other reasons. There are bad folks on the net who will use any information they can get.
I refuse to let them scare me off, but I am aware they are there. There is certainly nothing wrong with not wanting to post and yet enjoying our Forum. But we always hope new folks will join us and we have a lot of fun sharing things.

hugs, Karen

glor...Welcome!
I agree with Kathleen, Lynn's post was just to inform us that on 'Photobucket'..our pictures would be Open to ALL, if we haven't made them private.
Also, as Kathleen explained, many of us do have private family pictures there, that we'd like to keep Private. In no way, was she condemning those, who just want to take in what's going on Here...w/o actually participating.
On this site..Any & All pictures we post, are FOR ALL to see...Lurkers included. I, like you, and many of us here, started out as - Lurkers, and when we felt the time was right, we joined in. We always encourage All to participate. In fact, our site has often been called one of the MOST Friendliest sites here. We embrace ALL who come with their ideas, OR who just want to say 'Hi, I enjoy what I see'. We don't pressure anyone to participate..nor do we Exclude those who don't.
We do enjoy when someone jumps in, with some thoughts or questions. We know 'Lurkers' are out there..this is NOT a private site.
As Kathleen said, I hope you reconsider us. We'd be very happy to have you join in...or just look.

jane

Glor,
No need to be sorry..just a misunderstanding..
And welcome..anytime, just comment whenever you feel like it, or not!
Everyone here is willing to help..
Glad you signed up, now it will be easy to pop in and say hello!

I'm a lurker! Well, usually I start lurking around the end of the summer when Christmas talk starts to creep in, because I LOVE CHRISTMAS! But mostly I lurk because I love to see the beautiful tablescapes and vignettes that are created here. Admittedly I don't have the talent of most of the regular posters here, but I do so admire your work!

pdg777..

A Big Warm Welcome to you...
Please join in...

We ALL started at your point.
A little over a year ago, after months of 'lurking'...I decided to bite the bullet, and jump in.
Everyone was so friendly and very supportive.
At first, I just enjoyed sharing ideas and pictures.
I didn't put together a table for quite some time. (just me) Finally, I gave it a try... After that 'first step'... I never looked back.
The best part, we're still leaning from each other, and we always find inspiration in each other's ideas.

So, please, even if you just want to 'Add your 2 Cents' or show off some great purchase you made, we'd Love It!

Look forward to hearing from you again.

Jane

I am thrilled to know there are decorating divas lurking, but I also think lynn meant that not so nice people surf the internet & could be going to our albums & seeing kids pictures.

I am really anal about my grandkids pictures on the internet & wouldn't want to see them on some site, or even photoshopped to look different than they are.

I think lynn was just putting out a cautionary warning about which albums you should keep private & which should be public for saftety sake.

Of course we'd love all you decor lurkers to join us in person, but some don't have the time, or maybe just enjoy seeing the pics & getting ideas. I'm sure her post was not intended for any of you.

Well, hasn't this all turned out nicely? I'm so happy that there are newbies and lurkers out there who have been encouraged to consider joining in.

Welcome to all of you.

Slinkey, thanks for the welcome. I have posted before, though but its mostly during Christmas season.

pdg...

I thought I recognized your name!!
Glad your here, even if it's just to visit.
Welcome back!

jane

pdg I recognized your name too.
Good to see you again!

thanks, Kathleen, Slinkey! Glad to be back!

Bring on CHRISTMAS!

Okay, guess I'll slow down and enjoy Thanksgiving.

Yikes! I'm glad I was off in Missouri and not online when all that angst about my post surfaced . . . good grief!

Thanks to all of you who so calmly and nicely pointed out that I SPECIFICALLY said *several times* that I was not criticizing anyone for lurking and was actually "flattered" that anyone would want to take a second look at one of my pics.

And, thank you for pointing out that my main purpose was to remind everyone that personal pics ( like photos of your children that sexual predators and perverts could copy and use elsewhere ) are accessible to anyone with internet access unless you make those albums private.

And thanks for reading through my entire post so that you knew what I was actually discussing. As I said in my initial post ~and subsequent second post ~ this was NOT meant to be a complaint about lurkers/readers-but-non-posters, just a warning about possibly keeping family and personal pics private.
Lynn

I'm not really a newbie here altho seldom post but do lurk every now and again.

Lynn, very important information for everyone who posts pics to know. Thanks.

I finally made my albums private after stumbling over the stats and being mind-boggled by how many people had looked at my pics. What I hadn't realized is that with a public album anyone can do a photobucket search and find your pics. So not everyone who looks at public albums has come from GW. It's the same at Shutterfly and Flickr. Of course now I have albums out for everyone again but nothing I'm not prepared to share.

I think it's also important for all of us to know that there are people who will use your pics for whatever they like. One of mine was recently posted on a well known site. No mention of where they got it but the implication was it was from a different site. Someone who recognized it as mine PM'd me to tell me. Not much one can do about it, but people should be prepared for that. Doesn't really matter to me (much) as I post pics from all sorts of sources at times for inspiration.

Here's a link to give an example - I didn't sign in to photobucket, just did a search.

Here is a link that might be useful: lamps in home decor

Hi ladies :)

I'm becoming a lurker as I have almost no time to spend in the forum any more like I used to do few months ago. But there's something you seems having missed since you probably are not search engine experts: your pictures are showing in Google's images result pages as this forum is NOT private.

So, if you see a huge amount of views of your pics - even those of your families - it's because you displayed the pictures here and because the forum is not marked as a private one otherwise there wouldn't be many visitors and posters.

Another thing I'd like to say is that I used pictures from Purplemoon's Holiday Inspiration album for my own works - my Halloween and Christmas sites as well as my Squidoo lenses. I even opened a thread here to ask if I could do so. Except Luvs and Purplemoon, I don't remember having got a lot of answers nor views to the thread but like Purplemoon said, since they're on the album I could make use of them as it was their purpose.

Of course, some of your pictures are in my works as I found them wonderful and worth the look by other people on the Internet who are looking for inspiration, ideas that will make their own holidays stand out from the crowd.

While I can understand how you feel if you would happen to end up on your private life picture on someone else's work, there's something I would strongly advise you to not do: upload such pictures to Photobucket, Flickr or any other kind of public site and certainly not displaying them in a forum; which links and threads are public.

The same goes for blogs: if you don't want to have your pictures displayed all over the Internet, don't upload them to your blogs as they also are public.

And if you still want to upload your personal pictures but don't want others to make use of them, protect them by a copyright - which won't certainly ensure that they won't be used by someone who wouldn't mind about it but this will at least reduce the risk of having your pictures displayed where you don't want to have them displayed.

Feel free to shoot me an email asking to remove your pictures from my sites if needed, I'll send you the link in private and you'll be able to make decision.

Whatever you do, be sure that I did it because I really liked your decorations and always considered them as references!

Dom.

Hi - lurker here. I truly enjoy all of your posts and the talent that is exhibited on this board. I don't have the talent you folks do, and learn a lot by reading and looking and "lurking". Thank you all!

Now - I have to say, Lynn, that your initial post didn't offend me at all. I didn't read anything negative about lurkers in it. Glor did, which is fine, but the others gently and in a friendly way explained completely well that that isn't the way you meant it. Good for them.

But - then you came back and pretty much slammed Glor with your subsequent post. Now that's the one that I said "ouch!" to. You weren't friendly or gentle in it. You were indignant. The matter had been addressed and resolved. It's unfortunate that you had to come back with your uppercase and asterisk emphasis and implication that your post hadn't been read all the way through. Why did you feel you had to open it up again and pretty much reprimand? I think that post showed an attitude that your first post didn't. To me it seemed that you were then dissing Glor for not reading closely enough.

Too bad. Thanks to the others for clarifying what you thought Lynn meant. I think she meant it well, too, but could've done without the later post.

Anyway, I'm back to lurkdom.

I guess everyone can have a bad day or a misunderstanding occasionally.

Let's 'let sleeping dogs lie' as the old expression goes and get back to having fun.

I love all of my Family here. Each one is special in her own way. You too, Jim. BTW, we miss you.

I truly thank Lynn for reminding me to be careful with my Angel's pictures. There truly are sickos out there who wouldn't think twice about coming to your town if they thought they could..... I'm sure you get my drift.

Please make my day and lurk/look at my pictures of my decorations and tablescapes. I learned EVERYTHING I know right here. I would be so proud if someone liked something I created enough to use it. I mostly copy-cat things I've seen here anyway. :o) LOL

Glor, I was looking at my page the other day and realized that I have been here since early '07, so I didn't have the pleasure of getting to know you when you were here before. I hope your health issues are all past and I'm glad you are feeling more like your old self. Welcome back. The tablescapes are my favorite. Yes, please do one and share pictures of your "Pretties".

Right now I have a Kid Friendly (lots of plastic) tablescape set up that I'm still tweaking. I will be posting pics soon, I hope.
I'm trying to come up with a fun, but easy, menu that DS and DGSs will enjoy. I'd better hurry or I'll miss Halloween!

Betty

Gee...Let's Just Clean Off The Table And Start Over!!
Okay..now that I said that..
I agree with Betty, 'let's just get back to having fun.' That is why we come here.
Remember.. most of us here were 'Lurkers' before we joined in. We're not here to be judgemental. We just want to share ideas, even silly and fun ideas, and also to learn from each other.
When a 'lurker' does jump in, GREAT!! the 'More The Merrier'. It's nice to know someone got inspired and wants to add their 2 cents too!
So, to Any -
Holiday....Dish-a-holic....Tablescaper..Decorator Lurkers.. out there, who would like to join in...don't feel intimidated.. Please, we'd love to hear from you.
Or...if' you'd still like to just 'Lurk'...that's okay too.
I hope find something here that we inspired you with.

jane