Brian Murphy - Posted - 07/21/2025:  06:54:47

Geoff Hohwald just posted on FB about his pictures being peeled and re-posted in fake ads. What if watermarks and dates were added to pictures uploaded to classifieds. This would at least limit their ability to be peeled and reposted. Of course, the person with the originals could still post in multiple places, which is no problem. But it would possibly hinder the scammers some.

Edited by - Brian Murphy on 07/21/2025 08:44:36

Texasbanjo - Posted - 07/21/2025:  08:26:27

Sounds like a great idea, however, how would you go about getting everyone who sells banjos and accessories to watermark pictures each time they sold something?

Is this something that could be done internally? If so, how would you be sure that the OP was the original owner of the pics and not someone who had peeled pics from somewhere else?

Brian Murphy - Posted - 07/21/2025:  08:43:27

Some platforms add the watermark on the platform end. The seller would not have to add one. There are different types of watermarks, but some are essentially impossible to remove (although AI might find a way to do that as well).

banjoy - Posted - 07/21/2025:  11:00:16

Watermarking is done at the server level, automatically with each upload ... and actually, this discussion happened a few years ago and Eric *DID* add watermarks to ad pics for a while, with "banjohangout.org" stamped on every photo in classifieds.

I see that's no longer being done. I wonder why it stopped. I never noticed until now. It's a good idea and needs to be re-started.

Eric?

schlange - Posted - 07/21/2025:  14:26:52

Still being done, as far as I can tell. All the ads I just pulled up have the text at the bottom-right. (Gotta click on the pic to enlarge them.)

banjoy - Posted - 07/21/2025:  14:53:16

When I made my post above I wasn't wearing reading glasses. I pulled up a few ads and with my glasses on I can see that watermark is super itty-bitty print. That would be easy to crop out by a scammer. I remember the watermark being much more prominent. Anyway, it's there, so my apologies for stating it wasn't.

Brian Murphy - Posted - 07/21/2025:  15:41:24

quote:

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Originally posted by schlange

Still being done, as far as I can tell. All the ads I just pulled up have the text at the bottom-right. (Gotta click on the pic to enlarge them.)

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If it isn't prominent, it won't raise a red flag to anyone.  And if it is in the bottom corner, it can be cropped.

KCJones - Posted - 07/22/2025:  04:54:57

AI can remove watermarks from any photo in about 2 seconds. So it's kind of a moot point, watermarking isn't an effective method regardless of how you do it. 

Edited by - KCJones on 07/22/2025 04:55:51