As stated in the landing page, the core concept of Pholody is to make the process of making slideshow as simple as possible, so we employed Google's account system to avoid the burden to remember another id + password pair.
On the other hand, from the very first day, we have been getting feedback showing concern on privacy. Yes, Google knows too much about you, and it is dangerous if it casually hands over to others. The fact is, Google has very strong policy to protect your privacy, and we are only allowed to retrieve email address and nick name from Google, but no touch on other personal information. So you don‘t have to worry much about that.
Anyway, that is not the topic today.
The big news is, now you will have the option to create account with email + password too! The only needed personal information is email address.
The even bigger news is, you can alternatively create anonymous account without providing any personal information!
To create anonymous account, just click the "Try as Anonymous user" button at sign-up page, then you will immediately grant access to members-only zone. Below is a screenshot of sign-up page.
Anonymous account is a convenient option if you just want to have a taste on Pholody. However, as a trade-off, there are several restrictions to be noted. This post will explain why such restrictions exist and how to work around them.
Here are several items to be highlighted.
- Your online works will be deleted 5 days after your last visit to Account page.
This is exactly how anonymity makes sense. You don’t want to leave any information here, so we erase all data when you walked away. Before that you should have enough time to download your slideshow as video file and save it locally.
- Your online works will be locked as private (i.e. not viewable by others).
This is a natural extension of the 1st rule. You can't share your works on SNS media, otherwise we will make piles of broken links there. However, you are free to download them as video files, then post to any video sharing site.
- You may accidentally lose access to all online works if you clear browser cache.
This rule is not invented by us, but the result of how anonymous account works. When you create anonymous account, we create a small piece of cookie in browser cache. That cookie will be the only evidence to identify you. If the cookie is lost, you account will become orphaned. Note that the cookie may be gone even if you didn't explicitly click "Clear cache" in browser. It can happen in, but not limited to, any of the following cases.
- You run some "System Clean-up" APP
- You re-installed browser APP
- You happened to be browsing in guest mode.
To avoid panic in such cases, we suggest you save every project locally. Note that the projects are not automatically saved after Publish. You need explicitly click the Save button.
- You can only have up to 5 works online.
While named user can have up to 24 works online, anonymous user is limited to 5. This is a passive protection to minimize the depression in case that you do accidentally lose all data. Consider upgrading to named user if you have published multiple works online.
The following items are less important but still make sense to be noted.
- You can't get any mail notification from Pholody.
The reason is straightforward -- We don't even have your email address! Therefore, when requesting video download, you won't get mail notification when video is ready. Instead, you need revisit account manage page to check the readiness from time to time. Usually it can be ready within no more than 20 minutes.
- You can't view your online work on other devices.
You can only view your online work on the device where you created it. This is because account identification information can't be moved out of that device.
The good news is, you can always upgrade anonymous account to named one. If you feel it makes sense to make a registration, go to account manage page, click the Add email button, then setup your email address and password. After the email address get verified, you account will turn to named one, with all data inherited. Below is a screenshot of the Add email button.
Happy Photo Slideshow!