View Full Version : Who should view photos?
As bandwidth seems to get gobbled up more daily, and as I'd like to increase membership, I've been toying with the idea of having photos only viewable by registered members. I think this is common practice on other sites and now Im starting to see why. :)
But I leave it to you.... vote!
Deer Killer
07-23-2004, 01:37 PM
yeah.. well it sounds like a good idea now, but's in the overall sense of the 'net it's really annoying and against the spirit of what it is. Hyperlinks don't mean anything anymore, you just get registration pages, If I registered every time I was asked I'd have thousands of accounts by now.. If you're smart you'd need a thousand different passwords too because any site admin can easily retrieve your password.
Well most forum software packages do the right thing and only stores a 'hash' of your password and not the actual password. When you enter your password, it's immediately hashed and checked via whats in the database. Thats why when you can't remember your password you have to reset it. Don't trust places that can email you your password, that means they are storing it in plain text.
Deer Killer
07-23-2004, 01:59 PM
Hash only means some doofus can't just look at a text file and see you password. There are readily available crackers for any hashed password. If someone has access to the hash file, game over.
I was under the impression SHA1 hashes were computationally infeasable for the average cracker to open. I've seen projects like Rainbowcrack, but never read anyone actually getting decent results from it and taking a huge amount of time. That's why you should salt your passwords.... which makes me wonder if phpbb can do that.
BTW, my roommates started a little company called "PGP" so I get plently of security talk at dinner. Though they do talk over my head alot. :)
NUTZO2309
07-23-2004, 04:44 PM
I voted so only registered users may see the photos. On the other hand, it can be used to maybe "lure" more users to this site if they are able to view photos.
brady_bunch
07-23-2004, 05:08 PM
How do other enthusiast sites (e.g. nasioc) handle the costs?
What about limiting the size of the images that can be viewed to membership? Is that an option? Only allow smaller images to be viewed by non-members and members can view all images.
inthedeck
07-23-2004, 05:13 PM
curious, but would there be a way to program the amount of times a user has visited? I mean, if they visit more than three times, the can no longer see the pictures after that? At least that way, some people wanting to register can check some stuff out, for a little while, and then are locked out from doing so, till they register?
Just some thoughts,
i.
I could code other measures such as providing thumbnails only to non-members but I'd rather spend the time finishing up stickers, moving to the new domain name, and other maintainence. I like to do what you all want, so come August 1st, whatever the poll says, goes. There isn't anything off the shelf that I've seen that currently offers those other suggestions, but thanks for the ideas.
:) :) :)