Please recommend a method of posting photos online for comment/discussion by older relatives
April 1, 2012 9:21 AM Subscribe
Please recommend a method of posting photos online for comment/discussion by older relatives
I have approximately 400 old family photos I would like to show to some relatives across the country, in the hopes that they can help me identify the subjects of the photos, most from the early 1900's-1940's.
Some of my older relatives aren't very computer savvy, and I'd love to be able to send them a link to an online gallery/blog so they can comment online. I am open to anything - but simplicity is the key.
I would love a solution where someone can click a link I send, and be presented with the photos in question, and be able to type something brief ("oh, that's your great-great aunt Mable and her dog fluffy") and move on to the next photo. They need to be able to do this without registration, or logging in to some third party service like Facebook, G+, etc.
Bonus if they can do this in an organized, sequential way, meaning rather then just seeing a wall of thumbnails which might invite them to click around in random order, it's important that they see each photo, so ideally it won't be easy to skip one, or lose their place since they will be unlikely to do this in one sitting. (At minimum I could set captions to display the sequential file names 1-300, so that they could just jot down which photo they left off on)
The other consideration is that since I have so many photos, I want to be able to bulk post them somehow. I have looked at Blogger, Tumblr, Wordpress, etc. but it seems like I'd have to post each photo as a separate entry in order to allow comments on each individual photo. But I could be missing something.
Willing to get my own domain/hosting if needed, prefer to use something hosted and ready to use, if possible though.
I have approximately 400 old family photos I would like to show to some relatives across the country, in the hopes that they can help me identify the subjects of the photos, most from the early 1900's-1940's.
Some of my older relatives aren't very computer savvy, and I'd love to be able to send them a link to an online gallery/blog so they can comment online. I am open to anything - but simplicity is the key.
I would love a solution where someone can click a link I send, and be presented with the photos in question, and be able to type something brief ("oh, that's your great-great aunt Mable and her dog fluffy") and move on to the next photo. They need to be able to do this without registration, or logging in to some third party service like Facebook, G+, etc.
Bonus if they can do this in an organized, sequential way, meaning rather then just seeing a wall of thumbnails which might invite them to click around in random order, it's important that they see each photo, so ideally it won't be easy to skip one, or lose their place since they will be unlikely to do this in one sitting. (At minimum I could set captions to display the sequential file names 1-300, so that they could just jot down which photo they left off on)
The other consideration is that since I have so many photos, I want to be able to bulk post them somehow. I have looked at Blogger, Tumblr, Wordpress, etc. but it seems like I'd have to post each photo as a separate entry in order to allow comments on each individual photo. But I could be missing something.
Willing to get my own domain/hosting if needed, prefer to use something hosted and ready to use, if possible though.
Just a thought: once you send them the link, you might just want to get on the phone with the old folks and "walk through" the images with them, transcribing their responses. Understanding how to comment on an image might be beyond the ones who are not computer savvy, but clicking a link in an email, then clicking a "next" button or arrow to see the next photo is pretty simple, especially when they've got somebody on the phone encouraging them to keep going.
posted by Scram at 10:53 AM on April 1, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Scram at 10:53 AM on April 1, 2012 [1 favorite]
I know it's tempting to do all of this online but sometimes physical items are easier to deal with, especially for people who aren't as technologically literate as we are. An idea in the physical realm is to get them printed and split them up into batches, sending each batch to a different family member. Have them write the info on the back and then send the photos back to you, or to the next person on the list. Include envelopes and postage so they don't have to deal with it.
It looks like SnapFish is running a special for 4x6" prints on the cheap. I've used them before, their interface is kind of weird but the photos turn out really well.
posted by zrail at 3:02 PM on April 1, 2012
It looks like SnapFish is running a special for 4x6" prints on the cheap. I've used them before, their interface is kind of weird but the photos turn out really well.
posted by zrail at 3:02 PM on April 1, 2012
Some time ago I found this little known one, keepandshare. If they make an account there (or if you make accounts for them, or even a single account they can all use) they can add comments. I think it will be easier to use for non-techies than Flickr, after you set it up, and I use it for that purpose. You can also set things to public or private. It also lets you store any kind of file, but it has particular Photo Album layouts. You could make the album and send them a link to the first picture. It also keeps out of Google and Yahoo etc. account privacy and tracking problems (but may have its own? none known so far).
posted by caclwmr4 at 4:53 PM on April 1, 2012
posted by caclwmr4 at 4:53 PM on April 1, 2012
All sites including Flickr, Picasa, Imgur, etc will require someone to be signed in and registered to post a comment. Imgur can log people in from other accounts so may work best.
posted by JJ86 at 7:05 AM on April 2, 2012
posted by JJ86 at 7:05 AM on April 2, 2012
Smugmug is what I have used for this. They charge a yearly fee, but you can send a link and people can comment on each picture without needing to create their own account/login. You can also select which way your galleries display, so you can pick whichever presentation you think will be clearest for them.
You can password protect your site or individual galleries if you want to, or leave them open.
I've been happy with them.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:08 PM on April 2, 2012
You can password protect your site or individual galleries if you want to, or leave them open.
I've been happy with them.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:08 PM on April 2, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by laskagirl at 10:09 AM on April 1, 2012