A Bitch About Sponsors Free Hosted Galleries

[gonzo]

!. If you guys are going to take the time to spam my mail box with an update on your new galleries... take the fucking time to encode the goddamn links in the email so I can cut and paste. Im a lazy ass and I dont need a email prompting me to come to the site to look them up. If your gonna spam me --- make it worthwhile.

2. If your going to have FHG why the fuck are you worried about the thumbnails being hotlinked? If I cant use your thumbnail then I cant post any promo for you. Ill find another sponsor that doesnt give a shit and appreciates the traffic.

[spazlabz]

Agreed bro, those seem like common sense things that programs should use inside their newsletters but;

1. Newsletters are not spam
2. You can opt out of newsletters (if the sponsor doesn't allow this then drop them any way)
3. You know how many different ways there is to delineate links for import.. which ONE should a sponsor use so YOU can copy/paste it? And then what about the other guy who uses a different format?

It's hard to please everyone and a lot of the times the best a sponsor can do is provide the various import formats inside their site.


spaz

[Jace]

I know of one sponsor that didn't have any hotlinking protection when they first started, but eventually did finally get some, and once they set it up their bandwidth was cut in half

there are good reasons the hotlink protection is up, but I am sure if you just email them and ask they will put you in their htaccess as a authorized hotlinker

[venturi]

Ditto to what Spaz said. As far as using the thumbs goes though, there are at least a half dozen different "standard" sizes that the various TGPs want submitted to them, not to mention all the quirky variations that abound. The majority of "full-time" gallery submitters generally do their own thumbs anyway for a variet of reasons ranging from needing multiple sizes to wanting very specific shot types and quality levels, etc. etc. I know a few submitters that literally will spend 10 to 15 minutes per thumb to get just the right color correction, gamma, etc. for their thumbs so that they get that tiny bit of edge in perceived quality to hopefully get a few extra clicks over the other guy.

And Jace is right on the mark too. Hosted Gallery servers burn a massive amount of traffic - hundreds of mbit per sec. Hotlink protection can save a boat load of money for the sponsor just on BW alone, not to mention having to police content thieves that just want to rip your thumbs to pad their traffic scams - and watermarking thumbs is akin to trying to teach a pig to sing...

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by venturi

Ditto to what Spaz said. As far as using the thumbs goes though, there are at least a half dozen different "standard" sizes that the various TGPs want submitted to them, not to mention all the quirky variations that abound. The majority of "full-time" gallery submitters generally do their own thumbs anyway for a variet of reasons ranging from needing multiple sizes to wanting very specific shot types and quality levels, etc. etc. I know a few submitters that literally will spend 10 to 15 minutes per thumb to get just the right color correction, gamma, etc. for their thumbs so that they get that tiny bit of edge in perceived quality to hopefully get a few extra clicks over the other guy.

And Jace is right on the mark too. Hosted Gallery servers burn a massive amount of traffic - hundreds of mbit per sec. Hotlink protection can save a boat load of money for the sponsor just on BW alone, not to mention having to police content thieves that just want to rip your thumbs to pad their traffic scams - and watermarking thumbs is akin to trying to teach a pig to sing...

So very sad.
When Im testing something out Im not going to that level of effort.
There are plenty of sponsors that email me how Id like it on a weekly basis.

Its no different that how you send out your RSS feeds.

[venturi]

Originally Posted by gonzo

So very sad.
When Im testing something out Im not going to that level of effort.
There are plenty of sponsors that email me how Id like it on a weekly basis.

Its no different that how you send out your RSS feeds.

What does "testing something out" mean though, bro? And how is Your definition of that going to stack up to somebody else's? Besides, the FHG links sent out in the periodic newsletters by sponsors are not geared toward the "just joined the program" webmasters; they are intended to keep the entire active affiliate community apprised of what is new/happening.

"We" send out the latest FHG links in the newsletter basically as a heads-up so affiliates can see what sites have new promo stuff. There is a lot more useful data available a couple clicks away by logging into the webmaster panel - like descriptions, categories, model names, etc.
We don't let you hotlink the thumbs, but we DO let you download them. When we (NSCash) send out our FHGs in the newsletter there is also a link in the email that will automatically DOWNLOAD all of the FHG links in the mailer complete with your own personalized settings from within the webmsater area. So for example, if you want your links dumped in a .csv file that is pipe(|) delmited, with URL Description & Category, "SE friendly" urls and the 'default' thumbs - you click that link and our system will zip/tar/gzip it all up for you and download it to your computer in one click. You just need to login once to the webmaster area and set up your preferences to make that work to suit your needs.

I don't spend much time looking at what other programs are offering - my time is better served looking at what We can do, prioritizing and making that happen. Bottom line is that the truly good programs are working steadfastly to provide the tools that will benefit the largest number of webmasters, and there really isn't an 80/20 split when it comes to things like this so we take our best shot down the middle make adjustments where it is warranted.

I know you're frustrated and my response doesn't make everything rosy and perfect; it merely is what it is and I hope you understand that we (sponsors) do try very hard to feasibly provide the best tools we can to help the largest percentage of our affiliates.

edit: btw, I know you're probably not talking about "our" newsletter and don't even know whose you are referring to. my comments are here merely to provide my perspective as a grunt in the trenches working on the very tools that our affiliates use.

[Jace]

I think what gonzo is saying is that there is a "standard" that most programs follow.....and when someone tried to be different it is more difficult than anything, because most people are used to that "standard"

nscash has a perfect newsletter, exactly how I like my emails from sponsors to be

news
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updates
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new fhg gallery links