Photo uploading etiquette

September 17, 2007 9:25 PM

I would like to know everyone's thoughts on uploading photos to the web. I never thought anything of it myself, but now that I'm on facebook, my worlds are colliding.

Sometimes I feel a bit weird that work colleagues can see party photos of me dressed as a pirate, or a ninja turtle. I know you can restrict access to this stuff on facebook, but this stuff otherwise really isn't hard to track at all, if you could be bothered.

Does anyone abide by any particular rules when it comes to this stuff? Just curious.

Thanks!

posted by mooza to computers & internet (14 comments total)

I don't post pictures doing anything that would reflect negatively on me professionally (like, totally wasted), but I don't mind looking silly/weird/nerdy/strange. I'm a bit of a stuffed shirt at work, but if people go out of their way to find out what I'm like off the clock I don't have a problem with them finding out.

I think you need to consider the social norms of your own workplace, and your own personal privacy threshold. It's OK to post personal stuff online, if you're OK with people seeing it. If it makes you uncomfortable to think that your boss might see it, don't put it up.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 9:29 PM on September 17, 2007

I set my profile to 'private', and if anyone tags me in their photos I sometimes ask them to set them to private too.

Uh, was that the question?
posted by Lucie at 9:30 PM on September 17, 2007

Would you feel weird if your colleagues ran into you at a party or on the street while you were dressed as a pirate, ninja turtle, or whatever costume you fancy?

I think it just comes down to making sure your online profiles are representative of who you are in real life. If you are a silly, outgoing person who is prone to outlandish events and experiences, then pictures of you doing god-knows-what wouldn't be out of character. But if you are a private, reserved person, then keep your online photos private in kind.

Of course people can find ways beyond the public areas...it's called snooping, and is not your problem beyond locks on doors and access restrictions.

For myself, I use Flickr which I find useful in that there are three "tiers" of privacy...public, friends only, private. And you can easily change your mind about access on individual or batches of photos. You can also set up "guest passes" for certain email addresses to have access to a set. I find it useful for sharing, but not sharing with everyone.
posted by iamkimiam at 9:43 PM on September 17, 2007

I made the decision long ago that I should be myself on the internet. No hiding who I am, what I believe, etc. It's kind of a direct corollary of all that "be yourself" advice you got in grade school.

Then again, I also chose a career in academia, where I'm not as likely to have my beliefs or pasttimes held against me.

If I were in a more traditional corporate environment and felt that I had to keep work and play seperate, there would be only two options:

1) Don't accept work colleagues as Facebook friends unless you are very close to them.

2) Accept casual work colleagues as friends on facebook, but meticulously scrub your profile of incriminating stuff. Untag pictures, remove quotes, get out of that "420 forever" group you joined, etc.
posted by chrisamiller at 9:47 PM on September 17, 2007

Have two online identities.
posted by pompomtom at 9:56 PM on September 17, 2007

Get to know the Limited Profile feature.
posted by ALongDecember at 10:00 PM on September 17, 2007

I don't let work touch my real online life at all at this point, though even with a pseudonym on everything, my little brother did find my myspace by looking through friends, and I send flickr pictures to a few choice people at work. The personal is political, after all. Even though here in Santa Cruz, people talk pretty freely about getting high with work colleagues, I just think protecting yourself against the possibility that your evil boss might find one thing to toss HR as justification for a "you're not a good fit" firing if the purse strings tighten or something, is a good idea.

I don't have facebook, but use all the privacy controls they have to their best effect.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:20 PM on September 17, 2007

1 simple rule: Don't put anything online that you wouldn't want your Granny to see.

Plus, if anyone asks you to remove a photo of them, you do it; and they'll do the same for you.
posted by robotot at 11:31 PM on September 17, 2007

I generally try to avoid being too strange (or political) on Facebook because my online persona could indeed come back to haunt me in real life (I am what you would call a professional schmoozer who works in government). Facebook is really just a way to get back in touch with friends and broadcast to these friends, or ones living far away, what I'm up to. For more private or personal information (the so-called ninja suits), I use Flickr.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:31 PM on September 17, 2007

Sorry I should have been more clear, I really don't have a problem with it other than sometimes feeling slightly funny, but I don't have anything to be embarrassed about. And it's not me uploading them, it's other friends. Again, no big deal really, but I have had other friends recently say stuff along the lines of "gee I wish so-and-so hadn't have uploaded that pic of me with the handlebar mo, heaps of my colleagues are on facebook". We all scrub out what we don't want up there.

I guess I'm interested in the rules you're governed by when uploading pics of other people, not necessarily you. The other day for instance, I had a goofy shot of some school kids (with their permission), which was hilarious. I was showing them to friends, but then stopped short of uploading them to my flickr page because of the under 18 thing.

Perhaps I'm waaaaay overthinking this.
posted by mooza at 2:29 AM on September 18, 2007

i post just about everything online...but my photos are rather tame. i just try to make sure they're not searchable by my real name. i'll google myself once in a while just to make sure.

i don't really play with facebook, so that's not an issue for me, but it would seem that my whole life is on Flickr. i can hide what i want to hide, and let the world see everything else.

everyone i work with knows i'm a bit of a weirdo though, so it's not a big deal for me.

but like the commenter above said. don't post anything that you wouldn't want your parents or grandparents to see....
posted by picture_yellow at 2:33 AM on September 18, 2007

If someone posts a picture you don't like (say, one of you puking on your neighbor's lawn), there's a handy feature called "remove tag." After that, no one can tag it again unless you approve. If a friend doesn't get the whole work/friend duality of facebook, then have them start their own group (invite only/invisible, obvs) where you and your ten best friends can post your goofy pictures and regale each other with tales from the strip club or whatever.
posted by SassHat at 4:46 AM on September 18, 2007

Although, facebook being facebook, when you remove someone's photo tag, they don't get notified. So, if they think they just didn't tag it in the first place, and they try to tag that person again, it just kind of doesn't work. No message saying "so-and-so removed that tag, so you can't add it again". Very confusing. Unless they fixed this... I certainly filed a bug on it.
posted by smackfu at 5:44 AM on September 18, 2007

I don't post pictures of friends without their implied or explicit consent.

Like, at a metafilter meetup, it's pretty implied that pictures will be posted. But, if someone at the meetup said "please don't post my picture" you don't. End of story. I find this rule is also true with a lot of blogger meetups (ie, they're my internet friends and one day we meet in real life, it's a given we're documenting it and flickring it to show all our other online friends).

With real life only friends (who don't have blogs or who I don't have an online relationship with beyond email) I generally don't post those photos or blur out their faces. But generally I don't post.

Since I do use flickr, I do have some photos of me and family members uploaded and set to family/friends only. I'm not sure if there's a way for devious folks to get around that restriction, but I haven't had problems so far.

And, if you posted a picture, and someone for any reason ever at any time asks you to take that picture of them down, you must. Otherwise the karma gods will hork on you.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 6:56 AM on September 18, 2007