I Miss (free) Fotki. Is There Anything Similar Out There We Can Use?

[halee_J]

Am I the only one who misses the Fotki days? Where you could nicely organize your hair progress folders and share? Granted I was more of a viewer then, but now I want to be share not just hair pics but keep track of my reggie. I miss it, it used to give me so much insipration!

Is there anything similar we can use now (keyword free lol)? I dunno blogs, fb, ig and pin.terest aren't the same...

 

[larry3344]

You are not the only one...so much knowledge locked up in fotki databases

 

[Chromia]

You're not the only one. I also got a lot of inspiration from Fotki albums. I don't know of a similar free web site.

 

[TLC1020]

I miss it too.. I haven't posted any pics in there in so long and that's where I got a lot of inspiration from.. It's like a distant memory now..

 

[ElevatedEnergy]

I wish there was something like this again as well. I get tired of the "on and off, sometimes you can post pictures...sometimes you can't" flip flop motions that I go through on this site trying to post pictures as of late. Over it.

 

[sunnieb]

I hope something comes out like this. I remember the days when errbody had a Fotki. I could spend hours looking through albums.

My Fotki is still open, but I haven't posted new pics in a long time and I probably won't renew it this year.

 

[LushLox]

Try shutterfly.com it's not as good as fotki but I believe it's still free.

 

[Prettymetty]

What about photobucket? Dh has an account with them from his photography days

 

[Sharpened]

What about photobucket? Dh has an account with them from his photography days

Photobucket is not free anymore. There are still free photosharing sites, just not organized like Fotki is.

 

[halee_J]

Try shutterfly.com it's not as good as fotki but I believe it's still free.

I'll check this one out, I hope we can find something a reform our hair (picture) community. Knowledge (including hair) should be open-access

 

[ak46]

I definitely miss the old Fotki days! I went on Fotki after being on hiatus for a while and was pretty sad that I no longer had access to anyone's shared albums. I paid their fee so I can track my journey but wish they would just make it free again.

Maybe another option is to start a photo blog? Maybe something like tumbler. Only thing is you would have to make "posts" and won't be able to organize photos as nicely Fotki.

 

[halee_J]

I definitely miss the old Fotki days! I went on Fotki after being on hiatus for a while and was pretty sad that I no longer had access to anyone's shared albums. I paid their fee so I can track my journey but wish they would just make it free again.

Maybe another option is to start a photo blog? Maybe something like tumbler. Only thing is you would have to make "posts" and won't be able to organize photos as nicely Fotki.

Yeah I really like veing able to arrange things in folders.

 

[gforceroy]

You could probably just use Google Drive and make a photo album that is viewable with whoever has the link (or public).

I used it all the time for school
or just when I want to share certain files with someone.

 

[EzrasNumberOneFan]

Hmmm... I wasn't around during the fotki days but I have a habit of trying to solve things and I just randomly thought of something, so don't mind me sharing my somewhat crazy idea here.

What if one solid and private pinterest account (as in, photos posted would not be visible to other Pinterest users or across the Internet) was made for ALL of the ladies here on the hair board who want in? Anyone who uses this hair board could get the password and then make a folder to upload their specific pics. Then when you log in you could look at all of the folders with other peoples pics and upload your own too for whatever reason you want. And you can add a caption to each of your pictures too to share details.

I know it sounds weird, but it was all I could think of. The only thing I can't think of is how we would get access to the password, since we wouldn't want just anybody to be able to see it here in plain sight on the website. I was thinking maybe it could just be a rule to only share the password by PM.

 

[YvetteWithJoy]

I've been looking and looking since I first saw this thread. I'll keep looking.

So far the best and/or most similar free things I've found are:

1. http://www.traveldiariesapp.com (according to the site rules, it's okay to use it to journal about things other than travel)
   
2. http://www.ourstory.com (I don't like this one)

 

[YvetteWithJoy]

traveldiaries is a no.

I just played around with it. Photos seem to need to be seriously cropped.

I'll create an ourstory account and see. It's not looking promising. At all.

 

[Napp]

Wasn't there at one time some members here tried to make their own website for sharing hair pics. I remember reading about it a while ago and I guess things didn't take off.

The closest thing to fotki is hairlista's photo albums

 

[sarumoki]

Why not Dropbox or Google drive?

 

[sapphire74]

I see there is a Media button on this forum. What is that used for?

 

[ak46]

I see there is a Media button on this forum. What is that used for?

I just clicked on it to check it out. Looks like we can upload photos and create albums right in this site. I'm going to play around with it more.

 

[halee_J]

Hmmm... I wasn't around during the fotki days but I have a habit of trying to solve things and I just randomly thought of something, so don't mind me sharing my somewhat crazy idea here.

What if one solid and private pinterest account (as in, photos posted would not be visible to other Pinterest users or across the Internet) was made for ALL of the ladies here on the hair board who want in? Anyone who uses this hair board could get the password and then make a folder to upload their specific pics. Then when you log in you could look at all of the folders with other peoples pics and upload your own too for whatever reason you want. And you can add a caption to each of your pictures too to share details.

I know it sounds weird, but it was all I could think of. The only thing I can't think of is how we would get access to the password, since we wouldn't want just anybody to be able to see it here in plain sight on the website. I was thinking maybe it could just be a rule to only share the password by PM.

Oh I like that idea! A lot!

 

[halee_J]

I just clicked on it to check it out. Looks like we can upload photos and create albums right in this site. I'm going to play around with it more.

I hadn't realised that either, Ill do some fiddling...

 

[YvetteWithJoy]

Ladies, I think folks might love using something like the free blogspot.com and linking their blogs.

I'm a wordpress girl myself, so I'll have to explore how image storage works, but this looks like an AWESOME solution!!!

I quickly created a blogspot.com blog using the Dynamic theme and the Flipcard mode within it. (There are prettier/fancier themes.)

I believe that once I add a post that has images, then the image will be the little icon/flipcard for that post.

You can easily organize posts by labels, which would amount to foldering, essentially. With this option, you will always have access to your photos and posts, whether you are a (paying) member at LHCF or not in the future.

I created one post entitled, "Welcome!" When you hover/click on it, it shows a blog post, where you can embed photos, videos, discussion, comments, etc.

SUPER simple and easy to use. And free!

I have seen teachers use blogspot/blogger to create a link/ring of blogs. I'm not sure how they are doing it, but it's effective. I'll update once I've played around with it more.

(photo enlarges upon click)

 

[YvetteWithJoy]

^^^

Here is another mode/view of that same blog setup. You can add additional MENU ITEMS besides just the sole "HOME" item that is there.

NOTE: Photo enlarges upon click.

Magazine mode:

 

[YvetteWithJoy]

Here's the link to the mock one I made: https://naturalhairandpescoveganadventures.blogspot.com/

 

[YvetteWithJoy]

I made a video clip about the Blogger/Blogspot option so that folks can see it in real time. It might just work!

Here again is the link to the mock blog I made that is demo'd in the video: https://naturalhairandpescoveganadventures.blogspot.com/

Here is the 5 to 6 -minute video showing how I made it (the theme, view, and labels that yielded that organization/look).

Blessings, all!

NOTE: Please change the YouTube viewing settings to 720p High Definition.

 

[halee_J]

@YvetteWithJoy great tutorial!

 

[YvetteWithJoy]

YOU GUYS!!!

Don't make a blog. Scratch everything I posted before.

I just remembered: Wikis!!!!!!

Check out slimwiki. It's free for life. I'm making a mock one as we speak. It is much more like fotki than anything I've seen.

 

[YvetteWithJoy]

Okay:

It just hit me that Fotki is likely from Photo/Foto WIKI. I got it!

So in terms of finding a replacement wiki, I think we would need to find an wiki that is free and allows an unlimited number of public viewers. Slimwiki isn't going to fit that bill, though it yields a very beautiful wiki and is super duper intuitive and user friendly.

ETA: pbwiki - There may be a way to submit an application for a free community wiki, I think.

 

[Alma Petra]

I have been messing with the Media feature in this site today and I think that, combined with the Profiles feature, it can easily reproduce the Fotki experience.

Let's use the profile of our beautiful @YvetteWithJoy as an example

https://longhaircareforum.com/members/yvettewithjoy.451303/

You can read all the details about herself and her hair in the Information tab. This can be used to share extensive details and can be decorated with photographs, color-formatted text, etc.

You can then click on the Albums tab to see all her albums. Each album shows a name and a thumbnail of her choice, the date it was created and the number of photos it contains. When you open an album, the photos it contains are displayed. Each album can have a short description under its name. For a longer description, the author can use the comments feature. These are displayed just under the albums photos and other members can leave comments as well. Members can also rate the album.

Upon clicking on a photo it opens up. You can rate it or leave a comment on it. The information tab shows technical details about the photos like its size and dimensions, the date it was posted, and the date it was originally captured, etc. To navigate through the photos in the album, click on one and it will open in a light box making navigation very easy. To give more details about the photo, the owner can also add a caption tab. This can be used to give more information about a photo. It can be formatted and can even include photographs. This is an example from one of my photos that contains a caption:

https://longhaircareforum.com/media/close-up.129361/

And most importantly, to avoid getting upload errors, make sure that your photo's size is less than 1 MB before you attempt to upload. This should make it upload like a breeze. Any photo editor can be used to resize. My favourite is the Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

The only thing I am wondering about is the maximum storage space each of us is allowed. But so far all looks good.