OMG Geograph

carys220

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OK so let me get this right - there are a load of horses in the field next to mine - I don't know the owner but i like taking pictures of them as they are cute. It was my understanding that I wasn't allowed to post those pictures on HHO without permission of the owner? s this just an HHO rule then? Or can I in fact post those pictures?
 

michaelj

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I think the problem we all have with this is not that our horses or friends horses are on there, but the fact that the are up there with a pin-point location. People can come and steal our horses, but why bother going round looking for a nice one to steal when you can type in the key-word ponies or horses on here? not hysteria. This is for EBBO!
 

hairycob

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Go on multimap, look at aerial photos & you will be able to see horses, lorries, outbuildings complete with access points. I really don't see that geograph gives a fraction of that info
 

Merlotmonster

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I have checked to see if my house is there. Its not but to be honest, it wouldnt worry me if it was. Its visible from the road and if a burglar targetted it I reckon it wouldnt be because of this site.
 

LCobby

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[ QUOTE ]
aerial don't give a sense of proportion, point of view images do.

[/ QUOTE ]
new ones are even better - ""Brids Eye View" can even rotate and look at a location from all directions.But use them to yor advatage, - looking at the birds eye view, perhaps a farm track across the field behind you is a weak security point,, for example, and misses your cctv range.
 

chunklovescooks

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http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/74563 to me.... That caption is far to imformative, tells you where the farm is, and from that the "criminal" could see; the barn is behind the boxes, i may be seen entering from that angle, there seems to be an office at the far right of the image, i will have to come from the other side in case i get seen. The fact is, criminals can do their proper research from farms using this, could they even see where the barn door is from a BEV? And would they notice the floodlight on the top of the barn door?

S
 

chunklovescooks

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OMG! Geo Grapher on facebook, no doubt a member of geograph reported the image i used on my group about geograph, it was removed, does this mean i can say taking pictures of my horses isn't acceptable, go to "The internet regulator" and get it taken down?

S

BTW i totally agree, LOADS of the captions are un-necessary, nothing we can do as people though
frown.gif
do you think H&H will run a story on this next week?
 

carys220

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Has anyone else noticed you can search for a particular breed of horse too? My OH pointed this out - if you type in haflinger you get a list of locations where you can get a haflinger! Same with shetland pony......so you can search for one you like, find out where it is an then go and steal it!
 

EstherYoung

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If you copied the picture without permission or crediting the photographer then it was breach of copyright which is illegal and that's why you will have been asked to take it down (copyright info for the pics is attached to each page - there are different levels of copyright and some contributors are more copyright conscious than others).

Just a though. Which of these two approaches do you think would have the most results:

1 - Screaming about how appalling some of the captions are, posting links to the site all over t'interweb, posting links to individual pics that would have otherwise been buried in over a million pictures, sending mails of abuse to the photographers, increasing web traffic to the site and to those pictures of concern, telling everyone on t'interweb how to search geograph for dodgy stuff, etc etc.

2 - Quietly and tactfully e-mailing the photographers of the very very few 'iffy' comments on the site, being nice as pie, but asking them if they could possibly change the comment on their pic due to the security risk.

As I said before, you catch more flies with honey. Someone on another forum used approach number 2 and lo, the caption was changed immediately.
 

RachelFerd

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You are all a bunch of fruit loops!

This geograph site seems like a lovely idea, full of well meaning people who obviously enjoy the english countryside and taking photos of it.

I simply can't believe the reactions on here!

It is not illegal to take photographs of anything that can be seen from a public footpath or bridlepath. If you are that concerned about your horses being nicked, why not keep them in a concrete bunker underground with security guards at the entrance?

This website is not the only one linking photographs to locations - panoramia is available on googlemaps showing photographs linked to places, and flickr also has a functionality of being able to denote the location (down to the smallest denomination) of the photograph. As previously mentioned maps.live.com also shows a lot of areas (mainly in the SE) in pin point detail from an Ariel photograph.
 

hairycob

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I expect Farmkey & Freezemark are gearing up for a big increase in business again.

A Police Officer friend once told me that the people who nick horses tack etc know what's in every tack room in their area better than the owners do!

If you are worried about theft there is plenty you can do to protect yourself.
Freezemark your horse - very few freezemarked horses are stolen & the majority of those are recovered. Few unfreezemarked horses that are stolen are recovered. Freezemarked horses can be pulled from sales, how is someone going to spot your chipped horse going through a sale.
Get your tack postcode marked & keep it in a secure place.
Mark your rugs with white/brightly coloured paint.
Postcode mark your trailer /lorry.
Mark everything, even buckets - if anyone is casing your yard they assume valuables/horses are marked & move on elsewhere.
Remember if a policemen stops someone with a van load of tack & it's not marked there is NOTHING they can do - that distinctive scuff mark will mean zippo in court. But if there is even a brush that is marked they can start to ask questions. Micro chipping is great but the Bobby out in the patrol car doesn't have a reader & he isn't going to take anybody in to the station without a reason one postcode marked item gives him that reason so thieves don't want to be caught with them.
Don't lose sleep worrying over photos on the web - get busy with a paint brush & protect yourself.
 

carys220

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[ QUOTE ]

It is not illegal to take photographs of anything that can be seen from a public footpath or bridlepath.

[/ QUOTE ]

Taken from a private access road:
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/719049

Taken from private land, and clearly not 'abandoned':
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/719080

These are just a few in my area.

It might be a 'nice' idea to photograph every grid reference in UK but it is for one slightly misguided and as has already been said, why does people's horses and boxes/trailers have to be part of it?
 

EstherYoung

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Tri_Konj - both those pics are taken from public rights of way. The photogapher was perfectly entitled to be there and take photos.

This site also has photos of your area and is asking for more: http://www.go4awalk.com/walks/placenamewalks.php?placeid=1544

as does google:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?um=1&a...esden+yorkshire

Incidentally I've just done a search for 'horsebox' on geograph and out of over 1,000,000 pictures it returns 24 hits, of which only two pictures contain horseboxes that look like they may be a permanent fixture. One of these two pictures is 3 years old (and appears to be a trekking centre/stud with its own website showing far more details of the farm than the geograph pic, and also seems to be used as a film set if google is to be believed) and only one was taken earlier this year. A sense of proportion, anyone?
 

carys220

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From this news story:
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/article.php?aid=270621&cid=397

[ QUOTE ]
UK Horsewatch Alliance chairman Garry Porter told H&H: "This would seem to explain the spate of photographers taking pictures of horses this year.

"I would be very concerned if my horse's picture were to appear there. The most commonly stolen ponies are Shetlands and coloureds and these are the ones that catch the photographers' eyes," he added.

Horsewatch advises anyone concerned about pictures on the site to contact Geograph.

The Horse Trust was shocked to see pictures on the site of horses, ponies and donkeys living at the charity's home of rest in Speen, Buckinghamshire. The charity says the pictures must have been taken on its land.

Horse Trust spokesman Susan Lewis said: "We have had people taking pictures of horses outside visiting hours.


An H&H reader, who did not want to be named, said: "Essentially, the site is providing any thief with a map of where horses and property are."

[/ QUOTE ]

So Horsewatch and The Horse Trust are also 'fruit loops' are they???
 

smokeybabes

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[ QUOTE ]
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/74563 to me.... That caption is far to imformative, tells you where the farm is, and from that the "criminal" could see; the barn is behind the boxes, i may be seen entering from that angle, there seems to be an office at the far right of the image, i will have to come from the other side in case i get seen. The fact is, criminals can do their proper research from farms using this, could they even see where the barn door is from a BEV? And would they notice the floodlight on the top of the barn door?

S

[/ QUOTE ]

Date of picture - 14/10/05 - i'm sure that most of those horseboxes aren't even there now and things have changed!

Smug Oak stables picture - dated 12/08/2005 - again many changes could have occured by now. Though i agree the caption is unnecessary.

I don't think someone would use such old photos to plan their raid cos many things could have changed since then.
It maybe fair to complain about some of the captions where they suggest its abondoned or quiet, but i don't think the photo's themselves pose too much of a risk, especially seeing as some of the pictures are 2-3yrs old.
 

chunklovescooks

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If you read my later post, i have no problem with the pictures being there, just the unneccessery captions on some of the images. They may be old, but they can still expect what to see on arrival (or get some kind of idea)
 

moomooland

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Having read all the above posts over the last few days it seems to me that you have all shot yourselves in the foot in a big way!

With your paranoia you have all brought into the spotlight a problem that did not exist.

Some of the photographs you have attached links to are three years old with probably very few hits but now you have placed them in full view of every Tom, Dick & Harry by publishing the links on here even though they were out there on the web i did not know these pictures even existed

As Esther Young stated she did a search for 'horsebox' on Geograph and out of over 1,000,000 pictures (YES 1 MILLION PICTURES) it returns 24 hits, of which only two pictures contain horseboxes that look like they may be a permanent fixture so get real.

As for statements like "OMG our livery yard is on there" so what! its located in a grid square and a prime candidate for showing what's in that particular area

The Geograph site is a great site with pictures from every aspect of life through out our country so why should the horse community be exempt?

If i were the owners of Geograph i would be seriously thinking about suing Horsewatch and The Horse Trust for slander as they are on very thin ice indeed and have no evidence what so ever that the site has in anyway contributed to the theft of horse's.
 

EstherYoung

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The only photos of horses near Speen on Geograph are taken from the numerous public footpaths in the area, from what I can see, and are pastoral scenes only. The Horse Trust have their own website with far more detailed photographs of their actual premises than on the geograph pics - just stick them into google images. And they open to the public....
 

carys220

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[ QUOTE ]
The only photos of horses near Speen on Geograph are taken from the numerous public footpaths in the area, from what I can see, and are pastoral scenes only. The Horse Trust have their own website with far more detailed photographs of their actual premises on the geograph pics - just stick them into google images. And they open to the public....

[/ QUOTE ]

That's because the pictures have been removed by request!! D'oh! The Horse Trust were angry because the pictures were taken from their own land(PRIVATE PROPERTY!!!!) and not during visiting times, plus some of the horses they have are involved in court cases and their pictures should not be on the internet with details of where they are!!!!


I am going to shout now.

THIS WAS A NEWS STORY IN HORSE & HOUND MAGAZINE! IT IS NOT SOME HYSTERIA THAT WE HAVE MADE UP!!!

Ca everyone hear me? Do you understand??
mad.gif
 

carys220

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[ QUOTE ]

If i were the owners of Geograph i would be seriously thinking about suing Horsewatch and The Horse Trust for slander as they are on very thin ice indeed and have no evidence what so ever that the site has in anyway contributed to the theft of horse's.

[/ QUOTE ]

Slander in the same way that some of the captions state things like 'it's cruel to keep a horse on it's own' and 'the horses can't be very well looked after as there is never anyone at the farm'????????
 

EstherYoung

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So the Horse Trust asked the photographer nicely that they would prefer any pics that may prejudice a court case not to be on t'net and they took them down? Who'd have thought it
wink.gif


They do have loads of public footpaths criss crossing their land though. It may be their land but the public have legal access 24/7 and there's no ban on taking photos of pretty ponies in fields. Heck, I've done it myself, if I see a nice shot and I have my camera with me (not Horse Trust ponies, I've never been there).
 
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