Torn World Forums

Right now, only registered and logged in readers can browse the entire art gallery - if you aren't logged in, you get only the first page,and do not have the option to view individual artists' galleries. Even on character and member pages, you are restricted to just a few of the most current images, and in articles, you have to log in to see any attached artwork aside from the primary illustration.

This was done to encourage people to register... but I'm beginning to re-think this policy! I think the artwork is a great way to get people hooked on the project, and we should show more of it off.

I'd love to know your thoughts about changing our policy to allow full access to our art gallery!

What about allowing full access to all of the full-size art that's available to the public, but only to thumbnails if it's subscribers only?

Oh, yes, definitely. Whether you're registered or not, work reserved for subscribers continues to be reserved and shows the thumbnail only.

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aka Vaerys (at livejournal.com)

I should also mention that this would simplify me adding next/previous thumbnail browsing on artwork, too. I didn't do that before for the very reason that not everyone could use it, but I think it would add a lot to the gallery experience.

Other thoughts and opinions?

I have no major issues about letting the artwork be shown. The only one I do have is the higher chance artwork will be stolen as people won't have to go through the bother of logging in.

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Lorna.
There is hardly anything in the world that cannot be solved by the eating of cake.
*flails around*
Owner of: Lenarai, Areluu, Olarali Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ

I think allowing non-subscribers to view all art that is available to non-subscribers is a fine idea. At some point, it might also be useful to group artwork into separate "galleries" as well. Maybe sections for characters, flora/fauna, regions, etc. It's not too overwhelming large yet, but might be good to start thinking ahead.

Non-canon images are separate and would only be seen if logged in, but reserving artist galleries is not as easily done - if we make the main gallery all-visible (barring supporters-only work), the artist galleries will be, too.

Galleries by topic are mostly in place, I just need to do a little workaround of some security that I put in place that bit me in the butt...

Theft is a valid issue, too - though the truth is, if they were canny, they could get through the archives using simple URL substitution anyway.



Given the general input, I am going to go ahead and work towards making the gallery accessible to visitors and adding next/previous thumbnails.

Automated watermarking is possible - but not easy. I can even make it let you select some colors and positions... but that's REALLY not easy. It's a pretty daunting task, actually... I paid someone else to implement that feature at Portrait Adoption.

One thing to keep in mind is that you are welcome - encouraged, even! - to watermark your own work before you upload it. That way, you can adjust it to be the right colors and placement perfectly, and even use a custom logo, if you want. A couple of my pieces are watermarked with my webpage address. If you'd like to replace images you've got approved at the site with watermarked versions, send me the new versions and I can do that for you. (If they're still in the queue, you can replace them yourselves!)

Gimp should do that! (Gimp.org, I think?)

I wouldn't say GIMP makes watermarking easy, but you can definitely use it for watermarking. You could also use IrfanView ( irfanview.com ), which can do batch processing. I'm not really sure it's "easier", depends on what you're used to and what exactly you want to do. (I usually use GIMP, unless I need to to a whole bunch of images at once.)