Best way for a community to host pictures?

**Deep Days** · 09-09-2007, 06:34 PM

So I've been kickin' around some ideas for my photo club in the old noggin, and I'm trying to figure out the best way for the club to upload, share, comment on, etc. images. My initial thought was a photobucket account for which I'd just share the password with all the members, but that seems a little unrestrictive. And although facebook is ubiquitous, there would be a lot of "noise," I feel like.

I had also thought of having a .php forum (kinda secondarily to a main place to host images) for people to post what they think is their BEST work, or if they want to get particular criticism on a particular photo. I don't think it would work to have this as the only source of interaction among the community (other than printed images shared at meetings on campus).

Anybody have any ideas for something I could do to host a shitpot load of full-res images for a group of maybe 20 or 30 kids? Does the club photobucket account sound dumb/crazy?

Input would be much appreciated.

**f2f** · 09-09-2007, 06:37 PM

pony up for a hosted site (club fees will pay for it, only $120 for two years and that includes the domain name) and set up all members with an upload ftp account. you need not know anything about web servers, the host account is provided with everything you want.. software for hosting image galleries abounds, or you can search for a hosting company that will do that bit for you.

**AstroPax** · 09-09-2007, 06:59 PM

Originally Posted by Deep Days

Input would be much appreciated.

I agree with f2f.

I strongly recommend Lunarpages.

You can get a basic hosting package from them (350 GB) for $6.95/month:

http://www.lunarpages.com/basic-hosting/

It includes a free domain name, and a ton of extras to include some sort of photo gallery.

**Deep Days** · 09-09-2007, 07:00 PM

Sick. Thanks, guys.

I forgot to mention that I applied for and received some colorado.edu webspace. Does this give me more freedom?

**f2f** · 09-09-2007, 07:25 PM

Originally Posted by Deep Days

Does this give me more freedom?

i would say no, it doesn't: you have the web space but that means you must create the whole site yourself and upload it there. further, there will be restrictions on accounts (i.e., who can upload there will be decided by colorado.edu and not by you) and possibly a severe limit on what you can do with CGI scripts and active galleries (say, ones including php).

the university web space is, in my opinion, either good for a basic setup, when you don't need much more than a few simple pages, or when you know full well what you're doing. main benefit: it's free

if the university wants to force you to host there that's a different issue, but most likely sidestepped by simply putting their logo on your (private) site if they give you any money for it.

**Deep Days** · 09-09-2007, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by f2f

i would say no, it doesn't: you have the web space but that means you must create the whole site yourself and upload it there. further, there will be restrictions on accounts (i.e., who can upload there will be decided by colorado.edu and not by you) and possibly a severe limit on what you can do with CGI scripts and active galleries (say, ones including php).

the university web space is, in my opinion, either good for a basic setup, when you don't need much more than a few simple pages, or when you know full well what you're doing. main benefit: it's free

if the university wants to force you to host there that's a different issue, but most likely sidestepped by simply putting their logo on your (private) site if they give you any money for it.

Very cool. I'll definitely look into lunarpages. Many thanks to both of you.

**Shaggy** · 09-09-2007, 11:57 PM

Lunar pages looks pretty cool. They don't say what their image hosting program is, but if it turns out to suck you can easily install gallery2 (free) which has tons of cool features, like the ability to set-up multiple accounts for uploading, etc. IIRC, setting it up is pretty straight-forward.