The Artwork of Brian Kliewer

Yes or No to Pinterest?  That is the Question.

I had the "nopin" code snippet on my website for about a month.  I decided I didn't want my images being "pinned" until I got a better handle on things.  But since I now have copyright and website attributions embedded in them, I think I'll allow pinning again - at least for a trial period - and then we'll see where things go from there.

I still have issues with their Terms of Service.    Frankly, I don't like them.  But with the popularity of the site, blocking it could be like saying  "Don't index my site" to Google.   And I certainly want my site indexed by Google.  Believe it or not, I don't have a problem with people sharing my images.  The problem I have is with "P's"  TOS.  That's it.

Before adding the "nopin" code, I did join Pinterest for a short time.  I would never "block" a site like this without at least trying it out first.  I "pinned" one of my own images just to test it out and my site got a significant traffic boost the following day....but...

Good Website Traffic or Not?

This was the fly by kind that doesn't do me a lot of good.  In fact, each "hit" was on that single page and I don't think anyone even stayed on that one page long enough to really "read" what the blog post was about.  I got the same kind of traffic a few years ago after a user on StumbleUpon "stumbled" something on my site.   There were over a thousand new visitors overnight.  But no one stayed on for any length of time, and very few looked at other pages.   But I suppose, if enough traffic were gained, some of those visitors (even if the number were very small) would be the type to stick around longer.   They can't ALL be of the Evening Grosbeak fly in and fly out, variety...can they?  (If you know anything about Evening Grosbeaks, then you know why I used them as a metaphor.)

Tumblr

My angst over Pinterest really stems from Tumblr.  As I've mentioned before, I had an account there too.  I watched how things were being shared.  Unless the images had an attribution embedded in them, you never knew where they originated.  Pinterest requires a link back to the originating site, at least.  But those often get lost, or were getting lost, in the "re-pins."  That's the same sort of thing I saw on Tumblr.  If I do the work, I at least want credit for it.  That's all I ask, and I don't think that's too much to be asking.

Well, we'll see how things go with "P" this time.  I've seen some reports from bloggers stating that their traffic (comments and readership) has been hurt by it.  Others are saying just the opposite.  We'll see. But, no, I don't expect to join it again myself.  I'll let others do the pinning, if they so choose...at least for now.  I can always put the "nopin" code back if needed.

Just in case you've been wondering what's been going on with my site, I'm beta testing Image Attributions, Copyright Notices and Watermarking for www.FASO.com.  Some of the attribution lines you see are quite long.  Eventually they will all look like what you see on this image.  This will be my permanent attribution line.  You might also see some large watermarks across the center of my images.  These will only be temporary during the test period. 

FASO is just testing this feature for now.  I volunteered to test it for them because I finally reached the point of seeing this as a necessity.  With sites like Pinterest and Tumblr gaining popularity, it has come to this point in my opinion.

We recently lost our weekly newspaper, thanks in large part to the Internet.  Four newspapers  just closed shop, in fact...in one fell swoop.  But along with them went the website, which I often relied on for local news, since we no longer have a local radio station that carries the news.   Ouch!

So, what happened today and why the reason for the title of this post?  My brother went to the store to pick up a few things and decided to buy one of the baseball preview papers...you know...one of the special sports "rags" that come out every spring.  Well, the clerk informed him that she couldn't sell it to him because it wouldn't "scan."   The scanner couldn't read it!  She told him to come back tomorrow because it "should be working by then."  Umm, have things gone too far?  I mean, she was there, my brother was there with money in hand and ready to pay.  How DUMB is this?!   I remember when power windows in cars were the new craze.  In fact, I seem to recall one model that featured both power windows and window cranks!  The person who came up with that idea at least had a clue.

The Time For Image Attribution Has Arrived

While I'm on the subject of technology, if you look at the images on my site, you'll now see an "attribution" line on many of them.  None are on the blog yet, but you'll see them if you look through the painting collections here.  (Eventually they will appear in every image on my site.)  With the popularity of sites like Tumblr and Pinterest, I feel I have to do this... even if I don't want to.  But if my images are going to be "shared" (lifted) I, at a bare minimum, want a credit line.  Those who like Pinterest can scream "free advertising" at me all they want.  I had a Tumblr account and saw how things were "shared" there.  If an image didn't carry an attribution or watermark, you never knew where it came from.  Once something got reposted, there was no telling.  The same thing has been happening with "re-pins" on Pinterest.  And if you do have an account there, I suggest you take a close look at their Terms of Service.  Frankly, I don't think these kinds of sites would have near the popularity they currently enjoy if more people would take the time to carefully read the TOS.

Do you think maybe it's time we at least brought back the crank?

Shhhhhhhh!  Don't tell anyone but....I have a Twitter account.  Yep, it's true.  The "anti-social-media" artist of the www does have a "T" account.  But not for the reasons you might think.  It's a private account used solely for keeping tabs on techie news items, world news and sports and such.   

I don't use it much but I had to open it recently so I could see what this Pinterest debate was about.  Someone "pinned" some of my things a while back.  At first I thought, "how nice"....  Now?  I'm not so sure.   Anyway, for the time being, no one can "pin" anything of mine here on my site or blogs.  I installed the "nopin" code snippet on my blogger account and another one here on my website...so, no pinning allowed, at least not until I get some things figured out. 

No, I'm not going to get into a long discussion on this.  But here are a few of articles on the subject:

Brian Sherwin's article has some interesting info.

So does Katherine Tyrrell's.

And here's one by a photographer/lawyer explaining why she deleted her Pinterest account.

The problem?   It's as old as the web itself....image theft/copyright infringement.  Pinterest does facilitate posting images from other sites...without asking permission.  It makes it very easy to do so. 

I know all about this stuff, though.  Early on, I made it part of my mission to see whether online images could be protected from pilfering.  I saw many "tricks" used by webmasters...and defeated them all.  The best one used tiny thumbnails that only popped larger images when you hovered your mouse over them.  No matter how hard you tried, you just couldn't save that full image.  It ALWAYS disappeared the moment the mouse was moved.  Clever.  But not clever enough to stop me.   

Another one I liked...the transparent gif overlay.  When you'd right-click to save the image, it always looked like you got it.  That is, until you went back to enjoy the stolen image.  What the....?  There's nothing there!  Ahh, the IE Temp Internet Files Folder to the rescue.  Bingo!  A treasure trove of full sized .jpgs.

The most recent one I like?  It's a slide show feature.  No right-clicking possible. On this particular one, a screen capture is about the only option available.  But this stupid slide show has "next" and "prev" buttons that interfere with the images.  A screen capture would only capture those too...  but Firefox has an interesting "view page source" feature.  Voila!  It's like magic....if you know what' you're doing.   

Press down and hold "Alt 0169" anyone? ©