Watermark Concerns From Users...

[Turbo]

The other day, I received an e-mail from one of our users that read:

Version 1.0 of sciphone was far better than version 2.0, and I'll tell you why.

Tagging images which do not belong to you with your site address is simply tacky and the reason I moved on from another wallpaper site to yours. Guess I'll be moving on again since you couldn't resist the urge to advertise. I don't want ugly tags messing up my clean iPod touch screen.

I'll check back from time to time, maybe with version 3.0 you'll see the light.

I understand exactly where he is coming from, but please look at things from our perspective:

We originally wanted clean wallpapers with no watermarks or anything, but there have been a BUNCH of iphone / ipod touch wallpaper sites popping up stealing our images and throwing it onto their site for the pure reason of advertising. I just couldn't stand all the hours I spent collecting and resizing just to have some idiots put them on their sites.

The position of the watermark was specifically designed by myself to not take away from the image, if you put one of them on your iPod or iPhone, you'll realize it fits perfectly inside the top bar where it's barely visible. The intention of the watermark was to stop all the posers out there from taking our wallpapers, not for promotional placement.

   

Thank you James, for bringing this up to us, we appreciate your feedback.

- Sunny

[Dash-2]

I too wasn't fond of the new watermark, but I never thought about where it is. I guess it's not much of a problem. =D

[Turbo]

yea I hope this thread will clear up some misunderstandings a lot of users have...

[heydatsmyrice]

the watermark isnt even all that bad. its in a spot where you cant even really see it cause its blocked. I'm ok with it.

[Turbo]

Just updated the watermark. On some of the lighter ( white ) images, the watermark really isn't visible at all, so we've adopted an all white design with a slight black stroke around it.

On a Black Background it displays fine:


But not so much on White:



Still in the same discrete location, and doesn't really get in the way either. Just another step in preventing all those leeches out there from stealing our hard work

Here's an example of how the new watermark displays:

On a Black Background:


On a White Background:

[Turbo]

Just to add to the watermarking, I created a new page for users to access on the bottom of the website.

Hopefully with the introduction of this page users will help us find the artists associated with our wallpapers.

http://www.sciphone.net/owners.html

Thanks,

- Sunny

[Turbo]

I've been thinking long and hard about it, mostly due to so much negative response I've gotten on the issue of watermarks. I have decided that, because we stand for the community, we are removing ALL of the watermarks on ALL of our wallpapers from the past, and ones in the future.

If other sites want to take our wallpapers, so be it, we're always going to provide the best, unaltered, watermark free collection for all of our users. There will always be followers and imitations, but they fall short to the real leaders. ( Microsoft vs. Apple )

This marks a big turn for Sciphone, and I hope my decision will tide well with our community of fans and users, both old and new.

Free should always be free, without anything tacked on. I'm sorry it took me so long to realize this, but from now on out, it's a whole new Sciphone mentality. Without our fans and users, we are nothing.

- Sunny