The Fotolog.com FAQ

What is Fotolog?

Fotolog.com is a website that lets you easily put your digital photos on the web in a daily log format. If friends/family have their own Fotolog pages, you can see everyone's latest photos on one page and link back and forth to each other. And, you can comment in each other's guestbooks.

So is that like a Blog or Weblog?

Sort of. Blogs are generally a lot of words with a few images. Fotolog posts tend to be a lot of images with a few words. After all, for most people, it's easier to see something interesting than to say something interesting. Some say that the web is "a writing medium" — we say that the web-logging revolution isn't necessarily about the writing — it's about personal, continual publishing irrespective of whether it's done through words or images. If you'd prefer to blog with more words than images, we recommend Blogger, LiveJournal, Radio Userland, and Movable Type.

What isn't Fotolog?

Fotolog is not an online photo album for you to store all of your digital photos and get them printed out. So, if you've got 50 or 60 photos from your 3-year-old's birthday party that you want to share with the world, we recommend Fotki, Ofoto, or ShutterFly for that. Fotolog is more the kind of place where you'd put up a different photo of your children each day or each week so your friends and family could check in to see how they're growing up.

So I shouldn't put all of my photos on my Fotolog page?

No. We want you to use Fotolog to share your latest, greatest photo. Some people will post a daily photo. Some will post a couple photos per week.

Do my photos need to be artistic?

Nope. They can be about whatever you want. But, if you stick with it and try to post a new photo every day, we bet that you'll find yourself looking for interesting subjects and unusual shots and becoming a better and better photographer along the way.

Do I need to have a digital camera?

Nope. Many of our Fotolog Members use traditional film cameras, Polaroids and even pinhole cameras. They scan their photos onto their computers and upload them from there. Heck, you can forget the camera alltogether and just put some flowers or your fishbowl right on your scanner too if that's what you want.

Why use Fotolog if I can just email photos to my friends and family?

1. Your friends/family will see your network of friends/favorites photos on your page
2. Your friends/family can check out your Fotolog page when they want to, not when you bug them to
3. Fotolog automatically creates an archive of your past photos - so, for example, people can see '"how the baby's grown" whenever they want
4. You'll have your own continually updated website without doing very much
5. Fame and fortune will result from being featured on the Fotolog homepage

About Us.

Username search

If you're looking for a specific Fotolog member, try the search feature on the Fotolog homepage. Just type in the username and press enter.

Directories

Are you feeling lost? Are you interested in pictures from a specific area of the world, or are you trying to find the appropriate Group for you? Try the Fotolog directories, linked on the homepage. Members are listed by location while Groups are listed by topic.

Creating a Fotolog account

We've tried to make Fotolog really easy to use, and as self-explanatory as possible. Just click the "create your own free Fotolog photo-blog" link that you'll see all over the place and fill out the short registration form. It should take less than a minute and you'll be on your way. After that, you'll be able to upload a photo any time you want in less than a minute.

Choosing a password

Your password is what allows you to upload and delete pictures, change your preferences, and close your account. Please make sure that your password is difficult to guess and we suggest that you not share your password with anyone else. If someone is interested in Fotolog, help them make an account so they can experience it themselves.

I forgot my password

Go to the homepage, click on the "Forgot my password" link and enter your Fotolog username in the text field. Click on the "next" link and we'll send you an email that lets you change your current password.

Changing my password

Log into your Fotolog account and click on the "My Account" link in the navigation bar. In the text field next to "New password", enter your new desired password and re-enter it in the text field underneath. Save the changes by entering your current password and clicking on the "here" button.

Your new password will be in effect immediately.

Uploading photos

Once you've created your free Fotolog photo-blog, go to your page, and click on the upload link that you see in the navigation bar. Then click on the browse button to find the photo you'd like to upload from your computer's hard drive. Remember: photos must be JPGs or GIFs, and they need to be 2,000 KB or less. Most digital cameras out there today create photo files that are less than 2,000 K, so you should be good to go. But, for you folks with super-duper gazillion mega-pixel cameras, any basic image-editing software (check out this list at CNET) will allow you to resize your photos to the proper size to upload. Fotolog will ultimately convert your photo to a JPG, no larger than 500x500 pixels.

Uploading photos via email

For you advanced Fotolog Members: this is really cool... especially if you have one of those nifty new cellphone-cameras. You can send in your latest photo via email and it will automatically be uploaded (along with your journal entry) onto your Fotolog page. Here's how:

1. Send an email message to mobile@upload.fotolog.net The subject of the message should be in the format:

   username:password

   So, if your username is "maya" and your password "12345678" the subject of the email message should be:

   maya:12345678

2. The body of the message should be the caption you want displayed on your Fotolog page. Your caption must have fewer than 5,000 characters
3. You should attach 1 (and only 1) image to the email message. The image attached will be set to the active image on your Fotolog page
4. You should expect us to email you an immediate response to let you know if everything went well. If there is a problem, we'll try to let you know that too
5. Remember that the image cannot be larger then 2000 KB and should be a JPG or a GIF

Deleting photos

To delete any of your photos:

1. Log into your account and click on the Archive link in the navigation bar.
2. Click on the photo in question.
3. Mark the checkbox next to it, enter your password and click the "Update" button.
4. Repeat step 2 and 3 for all the photos you want to remove.
5. Remember: For security reasons you can only delete up to 20 photos per day.

Adjusting the colors of my page

If you're looking for something more colorful for your Fotolog page, go to your preferences page. There you can adjust the background color, the type color, and the link color as you like using provided HTML color codes.

Adding and removing Friends/Favorites

Don't forget about your friends/favorites. Fotolog pages you enjoy can remain right at your fingertips once you add them to your friends/favorites! You'll be the first to see their latest and greatest pictures right on your page. To add someone to your friends/favorites, simply go to the Fotolog page you'd like to add and click the "Add [username] to Friends/Favorites". It's that easy, but make sure you're signed in or this link won't show up.

To remove a Fotolog member from your Friends/Favorites list, log into your account, click on the Friends/Favorites link in the navigation bar and click on the "Remove from F/F List" link. You need to remove your Friends/Favorites one by one; there's no "remove all".

Adding links

While the friends/favorites feature is great to keep up on pictures, you can also add links to outside sites to your Fotolog page. Hobbies, blogs, sports, weather; anything you can think of can be made a part of your Fotolog page. Just go to your profile page and enter the link name and the URL, enter your password at the bottom, and click the "here" button.

Guestbook settings

When it comes to your guestbook, you choose who can comment. There are a variety of options spanning from "anyone" to "fotolog members only" to "friends/favorites only" to "no one". Go to your preferences page to adjust your settings; the default setting is "anyone".

What about Fotolog Groups? One photo a day isn't enough!

We love the group effort Fotolog pages that you've created. If you've got one that's getting lots of activity, like alphabet or fotocats, contact us and we'll take a look and consider giving you a higher daily upload limit.

Fotolog Messenger.

Can I use Fotolog for my artful nude self-portraits?

No. Scott wants his nephews to check out Fotolog. Please go elsewhere. Sorry.

What are the other rules?

The most important rule is to respect your fellow Fotolog members (and everyone else for that matter). Don't post obscene, hateful or mean photos. Don't say nasty things in photo captions or guestbooks. Don't post other people's photos without their permission. And, as we said, we want our families to enjoy this site. That doesn't mean you can only post pictures of babies and puppies. We encourage you to post some interesting, intriguing, artistic edgy stuff. But, if you post photos that contain things like nudity, explicit sexual content, bondage, self mutilation, obscene gestures, gory injuries, etc., we're going to make you take them back down.

You can view our full terms of service here.

If you see someone violating any of our terms of service or doing anything else that's really detrimental to the community, feel free to let them know with a polite comment in their guestbook or you can contact us and we'll look into the problem. Keep in mind though that there are just a few people working on the Fotolog team – we'd rather spend that time making Fotolog better instead of policing and moderating the community, so if it's possible to solve a problem on your own, we'd really appreciate it.

Closing a Fotolog page

We'll be sorry to see you go, but if you would like to close your Fotolog account, click on the "My Account" link in the nagivation bar. From there, go to the text that says "To permanently close your account". Follow the instructions on the following pages to close the account, but remember: closing an account is permanent.

Your account cannot and will not be reopened by you or by a Fotolog admin after you have closed the account.

Blocking someone

To block specific unwanted users from your guestbook, log into your account, go to your guestbook and click on the "block" link next to their username. To unblock the same member, go to "My Account". On the Preferences page, you'll find a list of all blocked accounts which you can manage as needed.

Fotolog Community Guidelines

We expect all members to abide by both the Terms of Service and the Community Guidelines. Please read both carefully.

Action on a Fotolog account

In order to keep your account secure, no action will be taken on your account unless we have been emailed by you, the account holder from the address registered to the account. While we appreciate the spirit of those who might email us to help a friend, there is nothing that can be done until the account holder themself emails us.

Is Fotolog free?

Yes. It's free for you to create your own Fotolog account (although people who become Gold Camera Members get some nifty special features).

How can I become a Gold Camera Member?

Click on any little Gold Camera icon on the site and you'll see instructions for becoming a Gold Camera member. It only costs about $5 per month – less if you buy a full year's worth.

Because Fotolog loves those who love Fotolog back, Gold Camera Members receive a nifty little gold camera icon next to their usernames whenever they're displayed on the site, along with access to a growing list of cool Gold Camera-only features like:

1. Upload up to 6 photos per day (instead of just 1)
2. Receive up to 200 guestbook postings per photo (instead of just 20)
3. Custom title image for your Fotolog page
4. A mini-thumbnail of your most recent photo will displayed next to your name in guestbooks
5. Fame and fortune by being featured on the Fotolog homepage
6. Get the "Last Word" in a full guestbook
7. A listing in the Gold Camera Directory
8. And more - new Gold Camera features are added regularly!

Why are there limits on things like photos and guestbook postings?

As we've said, Fotolog was never meant to be a site where you could upload a whole bunch of photos from a BBQ or a vacation. It's about sharing your world through your latest and greatest photo. We also never intended the guestbooks to become a place for one or two people to carry on an ongoing conversation like in a chatroom. The guestbooks were meant to allow people to feel the love and validation of having other people provide feedback on their photos.

Additionally, it's not cheap to host and serve millions of photos and guestbook postings. The only way to keep the site free was to find reasonable daily limits.

Can I buy prints of my photos?

Sorry. Not yet. It's one of the things we're looking into for the future. We think it would be really cool to be able to print out a coffee-table book of your favorite photos at the end of the year.

Do you share my personal info?

No. Fotolog does not share or sell your personal information to anyone.

Why not?

Because we respect your privacy. And because we hate it when websites do that to us. And that's not what Fotolog is about. What you choose to publish on your pages and in your profile is up to you, but we won't share or sell any individual user information from our database.