Hosting family pictures on public websites

[bobogs]

I'm curious what other folks do with their family pictures and home videos, when it comes to posting them online. I know of sites like flickr, .mac and youtube, but those sites are wide open to the public, where anyone (e.g. pedophiles) can browse through pictures of your children. I have been hosting my stuff on my home pc with dynamic dns for years, and it has everything I need control-wise, but the upstream bandwidth sucks for serving up large files. I give out the username and password to family and friends as needed, and I can change it at any time.

What do you do with these types of pics and videos? I myself would be very uncomfortable posting pictures of my daughter to a site like flickr.

Thanks!
Gary

- I added my vote, based on my current situation.
- Added a new option at classfour's suggestion.

[Bodyslide]

Host on your own pc/server/website

[classfour]

I didn't see a vote for "NO public hosting EVER".

I've never posted a family photo on the net, never will.

If I want friends, family, et.al. to have a photo - I will burn it on a disc and mail it to them.

[bobogs]

Bodyslide...are you satisfied with the upstream speed on your home pc, when it comes to serving up larger files? It can take from 5 to 10 minutes for my pc to serve up an 8mb wmv file.

[lordsmurf]

E-mail, mail CDs, or maybe set up password-protected hosting. The best method is to mail prints.

[Conquest10]

Flickr. Who cares if everyone can see them? Geez, people are WAY too uptight these days. Do you guys have robots open all your mail in special rooms, too? Also, you are aware that people CAN see you when you step outside your house right? You are not invisible.

Had a friend jump down my throat once about how they were in a picture I had uploaded. I told him to shut the f*&^ up and quit acting like a little b*#(#. That shut him up. In fact, he now has his own flickr stream where he posts his personal photos.

[lordsmurf]

Do you guys have robots open all your mail in special rooms, too?

How did you know?

Also, you are aware that people CAN see you when you step outside your house right? You are not invisible.

LIAR! I am too invisible.

[Bodyslide]

I have a website I use. That is all...

[thecoalman]

I don't but because I have access to uber amounts of server space that would be the way I would go. I do host a family tree project on one of my sites, nothing is 100% secure but for someone to hack into it they would first have to know the directory exists, then have to get by the directory password and lastly get by the script password. Hackers aren't going to bother. Most sites that get hacked are either high profile or the exploitable script can be found through a search engine.

[hech54]

I'm with Conquest10....people are WAY to uptight about this shit. Unless you super-empose your complete mailing address over each picture you post on Photobucket...how in the hell are they going to find you? AND....since most of the pictures I post have stupid little titles attached to them....even searching in Photobucket will get you virtually nowhere.
My pics are on Photobucket.

[thecoalman]

how in the hell are they going to find you?

Really depends on the information you have provided there and elsewhere, if for example you use the name hech54 on photobucket I could follow the yellow brick road to here and find out you're in Germany or the U.S :P . Through a process of elimination and specific searches I could find out more if you haven't been careful with your personal information.

I'd agree though I really don't think it's threat but personally I wouldn't want people unknown to me perusing my personal images. Especially when you don't know where they are going to end up, also many of those photo places have the rights to your images if you upload them there.

[Ron B]

I used to put photos on a Geocities website, but over time, I think it's best to keep your family business in the family. If I want to share photos, I put them up on a webpage not accessible to the public, send my family the URL, let them download the photos, then kill the page.
I also load them directly to my company website so they can download them, but that option would not be available to everyone.