Stolen photos - dunno where else here to post this thread:

[DJKennedy]

Seems that my daily visitor count as tripled today.

It also seems that the visitors are for the most part checking out 3 photos from the same gallery. Normally I wouldn't care but with the amount of visitors tripling, and checking out the same 3 photos - well, this seems a little 'odd'.

I am assuming that another web site has my photos on their site, but when people check out the photos it loads (?) from my site.

Is there any way for me to find out what site this is happening from? I've only posted these 3 photos on MY site, so I know *I* didn't place them some place else.

My tracker(s) are not telling me any thing such as what the search criteria, or where they linked from - stuff that would actually help me :P

Any here have an idea? I plan on placing some sort of (stolen) copyright watermark on those 3 photos...but would like to know who is doing this.

Derek

EDIT: I'm trying to check out the stats that SM provides, but the page will not load (after I click on the information that I want to check out)

[Furono]

I assume you have "ext. links:" under "security & privacy" set to Yes?? If so and you don't wish people to link to your photos set this to off. It's under Gallery Settings.

Google Analytics or something similar should tell you where from. Click "tutorials" on the Dgrin navbar to find out how.

Steve

[DJKennedy]

I assume you have "ext. links:" under "security & privacy" set to Yes?? If so and you don't wish people to link to your photos set this to off. It's under Gallery Settings.

Google Analytics or something similar should tell you where from. Click "tutorials" on the Dgrin navbar to find out how.

Steve


Thanks for that Ext links, I totally forgot about that :P

I saw that there where 3 photos used, so I deleted on (lousy wb anyway), and watermarked the other two for now. I *do* want others to be able to link to the photos, but NOT in this way :P

THanks again for the ext links, I forgot about that setting (and yes it is set to yes). If this problem gets worse after watermarking, I will set it to no.

Derek

[jfriend]

I assume you have "ext. links:" under "security & privacy" set to Yes?? If so and you don't wish people to link to your photos set this to off. It's under Gallery Settings.

Google Analytics or something similar should tell you where from. Click "tutorials" on the Dgrin navbar to find out how.

Steve


Just for reference, Google Analytics only tells you where people come from when they come to your Smugmug gallery pages. It does not and cannot tell you where people are direct linking to your images (e.g. embedding your images in their web pages) since no Google Analytics code is ever invoked when that happens. Only Smugmug could reveal that info but they don't currently have a feature to share that with us.

[DJKennedy]

Only Smugmug could reveal that info but they don't currently have a feature to share that with us.

A pity really.

I have four trackers on my site, and of course - not one will tell me what I need to know :P

For now, I just watermarked all the photos in the gallery in question with my name. Maybe this way people will know that the site they clicked from do not own the photo(s).

If I had one handy saying something like 'This photo was stolen from DJ Kennedy" or something like that I would have used it, but had a different one handy.

[Furono]

Just for reference, Google Analytics only tells you where people come from when they come to your Smugmug gallery pages. It does not and cannot tell you where people are direct linking to your images (e.g. embedding your images in their web pages) since no Google Analytics code is ever invoked when that happens. Only Smugmug could reveal that info but they don't currently have a feature to share that with us.

I get it, so what your saying is that when the photo itself is browsed on a web page that Google can't see that access to your site? Makes sense because the web page itself isn't accessed.

Steve

[jfriend]

I get it, so what your saying is that when the photo itself is browsed on a web page that Google can't see that access to your site?

Steve

No, that's not what I'm saying. Google Analytics works by embedding code in your Smugmug page. It records hits on your Smugmug pages because when a browser loads your web page, the Google Analytics code gets to run and do its recording.

When someone does a direct link to one of your images and embeds that image directly in their own web page, your own web pages are never hit and thus the Google Analytics code in your web pages never gets loaded or run and thus it can't possibly record the direct image loads.

The Smugmug web servers are hit because they are the ones that deliver the images, so that's why only they could record where the images were being used (by looking at the referrer).

[DJKennedy]

The 4, now 3 as I deleted the one, photos that are being hit where NOT posted to any other site - by ME. So, someone else would have had to do it, linking to my site.

I just *really* wish I could find the site and see it with my own eyes. The photos are of my 5 year old son.

[Furono]

No, that's not what I'm saying. Google Analytics works by embedding code in your Smugmug page.

Ahh thats what I meant. I get it. Just not writing well today. Thanks.

[jfriend]

The 4, now 3 as I deleted the one, photos that are being hit where NOT posted to any other site - by ME. So, someone else would have had to do it, linking to my site.

I just *really* wish I could find the site and see it with my own eyes. The photos are of my 5 year old son.

If I were you and they were my kids, I'd immediately either remove the current copies (you can re-upload and they will get different URLs if you still want them in your gallery), turn external linking off or do a replace photo with a message that says to stop linking to your images. In all cases, I'd break their external links with the current photos. You can put new copies in your galleries if you want.

I agree that it would be really nice if Smugmug gave us some log info on external linking and where it was coming from.

[Art Scott]

not sure if this will actually work..but have you tried googling the tiltes of the photos to see what comes up....just a thought.

[ivar]

Seems that my daily visitor count as tripled today.What is telling you this? GA? Statcounter? If so, it means it is not linked on other pages, but they are viewing your pages as the code from GA/Statcounter will only count hits on your pages, not on others'

[DJKennedy]

What is telling you this? GA? Statcounter? If so, it means it is not linked on other pages, but they are viewing your pages as the code from GA/Statcounter will only count hits on your pages, not on others'

Actually the count qaudrupled. Always nice to see traffice increase, but not sure I like that they are all checking out the same 3 photos - of my boy.

None of the stat counters (even GA) are telling me anything to give me a hint as to what brought the visitors to the site.

[ivar]

Actually the count qaudrupled. Always nice to see traffice increase, but not sure I like that they are all checking out the same 3 photos - of my boy.

None of the stat counters (even GA) are telling me anything to give me a hint as to what brought the visitors to the site.I'm not sure if I explained my self properly. Is GA telling you that the count increased? If so, the photos are not linked, but they are actually visiting your pages.

[DJKennedy]

I'm not sure if I explained my self properly. Is GA telling you that the count increased? If so, the photos are not linked, but they are actually visiting your pages.

Definitely possible...but seriously - the count quadrupled! If so far this morning, the count of visitors so far are what I should have the whole day!

(dont get me wrong, I love the fact that people are coming in droves to the site but what are the odds of all those people clicking on the same 3 photos - 1 is buried behind several pages, the other two are on page one so maybe. The fourth, which I deleted, was buried more than the 3rd photo.)

If I set those photos to 'hidden' or whatever - would that act the same as deleting them as far as the world is concerned?

[ivar]

Definitely possible...but seriously - the count quadrupled! If so far this morning, the count of visitors so far are what I should have the whole day!

(dont get me wrong, I love the fact that people are coming in droves to the site but what are the odds of all those people clicking on the same 3 photos - 1 is buried behind several pages, the other two are on page one so maybe. The fourth, which I deleted, was buried more than the 3rd photo.)

If I set those photos to 'hidden' or whatever - would that act the same as deleting them as far as the world is concerned?No, not if the link is known, which appears to be so. What you can do, is delete them and reupload them so that they get a different imageID and therefor different URI. Links to the gallery still remain though. Or you can password it of course.

[DJKennedy]

No, not if the link is known, which appears to be so. What you can do, is delete them and reupload them so that they get a different imageID and therefor different URI. Links to the gallery still remain though. Or you can password it of course.


Yeah, I think I will pw the gallery for the day - maybe then someone will get the point.