Lurvely.com / Discuss

scottmon    says:

So what's this Lurvely thing?
Simply put, Lurvely is a web site that helps people discover spectacular photography on Flickr. In short, I love Flickr, I wanted to build a site that helps people like me discover even more great photography. You can learn more about the genesis of the Lurvely idea here.

Did Flickr build this?
Nope, I built the site using the Flickr API to display publicly sharable photos on Flickr. You can see examples of how other third party developers are extending Flickr in new ways. I am not affiliated with Flickr, I am just playing with the toys they provided me.

So what about these photos. What's the criteria for them being on Lurvely?
Currently, the main page of Lurvely displays photos based on Flickr's Interestingness stream. This is Flickr's way of calling out interesting new publicly sharable photos from across Flickr.

What about the rest of the photos on Lurvely?
If you click off the main set of photos on Lurvely, you'll see that there's a lot more to explore. You'll see photographers photos sorted by their most popular work first as well as my own home brewed feature: "People who lurve this also lurve" These photos are publicly viewable photos provided by Flickr's API. Photos that I am aware of as being explicitly marked as private or that the owner doesn't allow sharing do not appear on Lurvely. I am only interested in surfacing photos that Flickr users want to display publicly.

Answers for Flickr users:

On the Flickr verification page it says Flickr will authorize Lurvely to "Access your Flickr account (including private content)." Why does Lurvely need this?

The language that appears on Flick's verification screen is an unfortunate byproduct of the feature we do want to allow Lurvely users to do. Lurvely allows you to add and remove favorited photos on Lurvely to Flickr. Lurvely does not use private photos on the site. All the Flickr calls Lurvely makes are for public photos only. If there was a way access favoriting features without private access, we would totally do that.

So why would displaying my work on Lurvely a good thing for me?
In short, Lurvely helps more people see your work. For the same reasons you would want your photos to appear in Flickr's Interestingness pool, it would benefit you to display them on Lurvely. Photos on Lurvely link directly back to your Flickr photostream. Also faved (aka lurved) photos on Lurvely add towards your fave total on Flickr. The more faves you get, the more it increases your chance of making it into the Interestingness pool.

What are the rules for showing photos on Lurvely?
First and foremost, we respect the right of Flicker users to decide where their photos appear. Lurvely uses the Flickr API to link publicly sharable photos from Flickr. To learn which Flickr users would like to share their public photos with third party sites, we honor the Flickr preference to allow others to share their photos. In other words, the only photos that appear on Lurvely are photos that the owner has 1) marked as publically viewable and 2) allowed others to share. We feel this best captures the intent of Flickr users in regards to their public photos and third party sites like Lurvely.

Are my photos currently appearing on Lurvely?
If you have publicly viewable photos on Flickr and you allow your photos to be shared by others, your photos may appear on Lurvely. You can search for photos by user name here to find out. To be absolutely crystal clear, if your photos do appear on Lurvely, they are not actually hosted or stored on Lurvely. Lurvely just links to the photos stored on Flickr. Again, we don't want your photos. We just want to make it easier for people to discover them.

I have opted not to share my photos with third party searches on Flickr. Why is Lurvely showing them?
I'm very sorry to hear that. I apologize for the misunderstanding. Unfortunately the Flickr API does not allow me to detect this preference. In other words, I don't know you opted out of this. Regardless, I have done substantial work to honor the Flickr preference to allow others to share their photos. I feel this best captures the intent of Flickr users in regards to their public photos and third party sites like Lurvely.

How do I remove my photos from Lurvely?
Regardless of your Flickr preferences, you have the right to unlink your photos from Lurvely at any time. There are three methods to unlink your photos here. I am a Flickr user too and understand your desire to control where your work appears. Please note that if you have very recently turned off your blog preference it could take a little while for the servers to catch up.

I'd like my public photos to appear on Lurvely, but I don't want to turn on my sharing preference. Can I do that?
You sure can. You can opt in here. We will honor this agreement over your Flickr preference if that is your wish.

How can I follow up with more questions?
I would lurve to hear your feedback. You can either post your feedback on this Flickr discussion board or send me Flickr mail.

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Originally posted at 7:41PM, 14 November 2008 PDT (permalink)
scottmon edited this topic 3 months ago.