This post really belongs in my web site update thread, but I’m putting it here to do a live test to make sure my latest changes are working properly.
For years, I’ve been using player action photos in my blog entries, but like a vast majority of small-time bloggers, have done so on somewhat shaky legal ground. I’ve always been on the look-out for a more legitimate, and free, way of obtaining photos to embed in my posts. Fortunately, such a source is now available to me.
A couple months ago, Getty Images, one of the largest image repositories (if not THE largest), announced that they would start allowing almost all of their millions of photos to be embedded in non-commercial web sites, blog posts and social media outlets. So, starting with this post, I plan on taking advantage of this. I will embed photos from Getty in all of my future posts.
As you can see, the embedded image contains links to share the photo as well as a link back to the original Getty host page if you click the photo. The one negative about the manner in which Getty has decided to make these photos available is that most industry insiders believe they will ultimately go the route of YouTube and include ads in these photos, one way or another. If/when that occurs, I may revisit this topic. But in the meantime, I think this should work great for this blog.
Mostly coincidental, the timing of this change is just about perfect. Mike has offered to start writing a semi-regular feature for the DTBL News. I’d hate to put our resident patent examiner in the awkward position of potentially breaking an intellectual property law, but now we don’t have to worry about that. I’m not going to spoil the theme of Mike’s article, but look for the first one to be posted very soon.
And on that note, if anybody else is interested in contributing to the DTBL News, whether it be occasional features or even a one time article, please contact me. I highly encourage this. You all already have the ability to create blog entries, but I would like to pass along some tips for keeping the posts consistent and compatible with the main site page.
Finally, I should mention one other temporary change to the site. In working on this new photo embedding feature, I had to upgrade this WordPress software since it was several years out-of-date. Unfortunately, in doing so, I had to remove the single sign-on bridge which allowed us to use the same logon account for the main web site, the message board forum and this blog. That bridge is not compatible with newer versions of WordPress and is no longer supported by the original developer. So I’m going to be looking for a replacement. But in the meantime, if you are logged onto your regular site account, you will still be able to make forum posts, but won’t be able to reply to blog posts or create your own blog entries without a separate log on. I should be able to fix this relatively soon though, so this is just a heads up.