I'm just glad it sounds like folks have been able to break the links they wanted to break.

I still wish one could post photos with the image info (html) without having to download to one's computer and then upload again. I will post a lot fewer pics for sure.

Got an email back today, and it's what I figured.

"HI there,

Photos can be uploaded directly to Houzz, so while you may include links to photo bucket or other photo sites in your posts and comments, the photos can not be embedded directly.

Original posts must be edited within an hour. Comments on posts can be edited up to one week later. The reason these limits are in place is to insure consistency in the discussion that follows and to allow for minimal disruption to the other users participating in the conversation. If posts are editable forever, discussions can lose their coherency as people come back and remove their content"

@awm03

I would recommend saving the picture of something you want to show from pottery barn and uploading it to the site if the new format is being difficult. At least it will show up. That's how I handled the houzz forums before the merger anyway.

The new picture rules are annoying to me... I liked being able to use and manage (and shut off instantly if need be) by linking them directly from PB. It was also nice because if someone wanted to see the full resolution version they were able to if they clicked it instead of the smaller ones available here. Now I guess we're stuck with medium sized pictures and I'll have to watermark them. :/

Linking to another thread discussing whether or not you can embed from photobucket, apparently someone was able to at some point after the merge but not anymore: CLICK HERE

I really don't think they're going to allow the html links. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be enough people that seem to care, or realize.

Well, I realize, care and miss them. I find myself much hampered in expressing myself here...as they say a picture is worth 1,000 words...

I miss the photoshop help and colorseed posts very much, which were done by annie and others using the old technology . I would learn to accept the terms if houzz could explain their rationale behind not allowing them. It is ironic that I could easily embed houzz pics into other forums.

Other than this very big issue I am happy with houzz. They have been very friendly and interactive even with all our griping. I am hopeful they may even decide to change the photo linking ways in the future too, who knows.

I find the forum almost useless without the ease we are used to of bringing in imagery; this is a decor forum. Just go look at all the GW threads. Most of them could not be done on Houzz as I understand it, or could only be done in a highly burdensome manner.

I hate not being able to easily post pictures from outside sources easily and I'm not nearly as prolific of a poster as most of you are. It would probably be a big legal headache, though, for Houzz to allow us to post photos as technically most of those postings probably violate copyright restrictions if those restrictions are interpreted broadly.

Fun, How was it different for Ivillage? (eg Gardenweb?)

Re. images: People will notice once there are substantially fewer images. I, for one, will not go through the trouble of downloading images on my computer and then uploading them to into a post. A related issue is that using an html embedded image allowed people to see where the image came from and go to the web site.

Of course, posters will use more houzz images, so if that was the intention, it may work.

I don't get what the OP is complaining about. There is a totally clickable link in the post, AND a picture as well. I

copy paste worked for this link to PB for me. Using the link tag did not.

http://www.potterybarn.com/shop/organization/entryway-furn-org/?cm_type=lnav

And for posting photos there is the Photo tag to do that, couldn't be easier LOL;

There are two major problems that I see, and hope houzz would consider changing the policy:

1) downloading an image off the web to which you have no rights and uploading them to post here is a copyright violation. Posting the image source however does not as you are not making a copy of that image.

2) any image you upload to houzz becomes their property to do with as they wish into perpetuity. You lose control over the image. When you post just the image source, should you decide to change or delete the image, you still have the power to do so.

Hi - thinking that if you are concerned about appropriating someone else's photo, why not just add the URL along w/ the photo - for example:

http://www.bhg.com/decorating/do-it-yourself/accents/fast-and-fabulous-decorating-projects/#page=6

& FYI, I simply dragged the photo from the webpage to my desktop, then clicked the camera icon & uploaded it. I can then put it in the trash on my computer & the image will stay in the post.

Thinking this'll be nice in that you can put more than 1 photo/image in your posts a lot more easily now...

& I like you can simply mouse over an image to enlarge.

You could put as many images as you wanted in your post before when you could use links from photobucket.

Well, I agree with AnnieDeighnaugh on the legal and practical differences to uploading photos vs. embedding links.

As a practical matter, when the link is embedded, the owner/author still "controls" what is shown through the link on the original linked site. When you upload a photo from someone else's site to your computer and then to Houzz, there's now a .jpeg living on Houzz, and the owner/author would have to contact Houzz to have the photo taken down.

Just because something is easy to do doesn't make it right...you do not own the image and its copyright, and therefore can't legally post it.

From houzz terms:

By posting or providing any Content on the Website, you represent and warrant to Houzz that you own or have the right to use and permit us to use and license such Content in the manner stated in this Agreement. By way of example and not limitation, if you post or otherwise provide a photograph which includes an image of any person, you need to first obtain permission or a release from such person appearing in the photograph to use their image and permit us to use and license it as stated in this Agreement and you must be the owner or licensee of the copyright in the photograph, with the right to permit us to use it as stated in this Agreement.

" I simply dragged the photo from the webpage to my desktop, then clicked the camera icon & uploaded it. I can then put it in the trash on my computer & the image will stay in the post."

I think the point is people do not what to have to put the images on their own computer where they will take up space.

"I like you can simply mouse over an image to enlarge."

This does not happen for me. The only image in this thread that does anything when I hover over it is the OPs and it just creates another image that is the same size beside the one that is in the thread.

I don't plan to give Houzz ownership of my photos by uploading them to the site to use in a post. I can't imagine anyone would.

Kswl2? Feeling silly over here for being confused. The bunny plates? Are you done posting photos?

Stolenidentity, I don't think you quite understand my original post. There are times one wants to type in html code to display a picture from another site. That is different than downloading then uploading. It is a real convenience and also preserves a semblance of proper citation as one can click on the picture to see the original source.

I am away from my computer so can't retest typing/pasting html code, but I absolutely could not do it when I posted originally. Has this feature been added?

I just tried it again Awm and it didn't work. Did you see the email I posted from Houzz above?

Thanks for testing sheeshareell.

Found this link about how to upload from photobucket. thread titled - trying-to-get-a-link-to-work?

There was more than one method. I got it to work using the photo icon, pasting the direct link, and clicking open.

Hi Shee!

I haven't paid much attention to the picture situation since the site changed over to Houzz (I have been traveling) until I tried to post a photo and had to upload it from my iPad, not post from smugmug. That led me to this thread and a few others, and now I realise the situation better.

Houzz can't be blamed for wanting to own the content --- every other site seems to---- and I do get that they don't want to give users the power to delete content. Gardenweb was an incredibly generous hosting platform, allowing us to embed photo links that could later be removed, and I don't think any of us really appreciated that at the time. I wish gardenweb could have crowd sourced funding or asked for a nominal subscription fee that would have kept it afloat, but that's water under the bridge :-( In the future I will think very carefully about any pictures I post. Not too worried about the bunny toile though, lol, and instead of an avatar I used a very old picture of my house that, since the renovation, doesn't resemble it one bit!

Does uploading a pic directly from photobucket allow us to delete the photo after the two week delete period is over by breaking the link or is it still permanent after the grace period?

I don't know...reading about it, they said it takes some time for the photo to appear, so I wonder if somehow houzz isn't grabbing a copy of the photo from the link even though you only give them the link. I'm very suspicious of what exactly that does.

Kswl - I'm still undecided about how much photo posting I'll be doing.

Roarah - I deleted my test photo last night and it's still showing this morning. My next test, if it worked, was going to be to delete one after the one week comment period.

Annie - The photo I used showed up here right away. "I'm very suspicious of what exactly that does."

Me too.

Sheeshareell, I see no photo under your postings on this page? Did you delete using photobucket?

Sheesh...looks like your pics disappeared to me.

I don't think I can do it...when I click the photo button, it wants me to select a file...there's no box to enter a url. I'm on a mac...

I tried entering a url in the houzz photo link but it wouldn't work.

Roarah - I tested it on the roll call thread.

Annie - It wants me to select one from my computer too. I pasted the link in the box and clicked open.

Oh that is to bad I was hopeful it had worked....

Although I liked the control we had over our pictures as a contributor, I as a reader and while doing project research within the old GW did not like when old pictures were no longer available. I guess I can understand and appreciate both sides of this arguement.

I must also assume our old posts containing pics are now permanently on houzz as of monday. I will most likely still post pics of my projects for help. I am not worried about copyright and no one has ever made me feel bad about my modest house and I try never to include faces in online pictures as a rule anyway. It is the design seeds, photoshop help and professional copyrighted work that will be jeopardized with the Houzz policy in my opinion.

I agree with you about both sides of the argument. I really don't think there would be many people here pulling their pics as most, I imagine, would use their (Houzz) way of uploading, but it is frustrating at times when there are no pics to go with the post you're scrolling through. I agree with you about the design sees, photoshop help, etc.

I also didn't think a ton about copyright (on here) with photos before. I would sometimes add a link or at least say who it belonged to or what blog. So we should really make sure we provide a link with photos even though we're copying and saving them to our computer to upload............ ? That's the issue, huh, since that would be violating copyright.

I Must admit I often embedded houzz pics into old gw posts to offer an idea because with my limited pc skills it was the easiest way for me to keep from infringing upon copyright issues. But I loved Annie's photoshop and design seed work and I think those days are no not possible. ..BOO.

Annie, when you click on embed photo, you can click on Houzz URL. Just enter the regular URL, and at least for me the pic will embed.

I'm sorry to be so dense...I'm not seeing any box to paste the url into...when I click photo, it pops open a directory on my desktop and I can only select files from there. There is no box to paste the link into. I think in windows they did add a box at the bottom of a directory for pasting in urls.

When I try to paste the url into the houzz photo url box, it won't accept it...nothing seems to happen.

Annie, I am having the same issue working on my tablet, have not tried on pc yet. When I try to paste the url under houzz photo i get no image exists?

I'm using a PC, which is most likely the explanation.

OK, first you need to have just the houzz URL of the picture.

When I try to post, I see at the bottom of the text box, from left to right:

Photo --- Houzz Photo --- Video --- Link

> Click on Houzz Photo, which opens a box with:

Insert Photo

Idebooks Houzz URL

Living room with a bunch of photos Click or Drop here to upload....

>Click on Houzz URL

Ideabooks

Houzz URL

Insert a photo you found on Houzz

Box with Insert URL here

e.g. http://www.houzz.com/photos/5/Amazing-Kitchen

When I paste the Houzz URL of the picture of the Houzz web site,

it shows up.

"I'm sorry to be so dense...I'm not seeing any box to paste the url into...when I click photo, it pops open a directory on my desktop and I can only select files from there. There is no box to paste the link into. I think in windows they did add a box at the bottom of a directory for pasting in urls.

When I try to paste the url into the houzz photo url box, it won't accept it...nothing seems to happen."

Annie - you are not dense - it does not work on a mac. Or, we are both dense because I am also on a mac and it works the exact same way for me as it does for you :)

nosoccermom, we're talking about 2 different things. I'm not looking to post a houzz photo...I'm looking for a workaround so I can post internet pics based on their url or img src and not download them to my machine and then upload them.

dekeoboe, thanks for the support. I think it is a mac limitation...

It's a Mac thing. It really surprises me because one of the mantras of website design is cross-platform usability, including mobile devices. So many developers use Macs/iPads/iPhones that this is puzzling to me.

Unless...being able to use a URL to add a photo (with a PC) is unintended and they will close it off. Not saying that will happen, but why not provide the same usability feature to Mac users?

All I know is, between all the dull white space and the inability to post pics like I'd like so I can better express myself, this place just ain't so much fun anymore. :(

I'm just echoing the sentiment that photos are integral in good design advice. What's going to happen to the "finished kitchen" or "finished bath" threads if people don't want a big business having control over/using their photos?

I'm glad to see familiar names, though! I've been avoiding the site because of the change, but that isn't a long term solution.

Annie,
nope, that doesn't work, and I complained about that above, too. Only pictures from the Houzz web site can be entered with their URL, i.e. without downloading to and then uploading from one's computer

I was reading your comment like this
I tried entering a url in the [houzz photo] link but it wouldn't work, i.e. houzz photos

and not as
I tried entering a url in the houzz [photo link] but it wouldn't work, i.e. photo link

How did stolenidentity attatch the potterybarn photo by using the photo tag? Or did she copy to her hard drive first?

Using Android tablets with some browsers I am able to use the photo icon to have it open the directory on the device to find a stored picture to then upload and post. However that is not the case with all browsers. I use Boat Browser as my primary browser on my kitkat Android tablet and when I click on the photo icon absolutely nothing happens, it does not open any type of dialog box or directory it does nothing. So on that tablet my only option is to be forced to use a different browser like Chrome. In fact even the stock Android browser will not open the photo option for me. Kind of a pain to have to change browsers any time I wish to post a picture. The only way around that is saving pictures to my Houzz ideabooks from my pc or using an alternate browser on the tablet and use the houzz photo button to post them from there. I don't know why it works with some browsers and not all.

Those of you on mac or ipad is there an alternate browser you could try using? There are lots and lots of them for Android in the play store.

On my samsung tablet, I can easily take pictures from my device or cloud under the houzz photo icon using the right side click and drag/browse option but my photo link does nothing and i can not easily embed pics directly from websites now.

So if I link to photobucket instead of posting photos directly in the post, Houzz can do whatever with those? And if someone is 'helpful' and posts them in the thread I can't request they be pulled, correct?