Guidelines and best practices
Zaplife is an online service with a mission. Our main aim is to make it fun, social and easy to share photos that are both interesting and can inspire others. With our unique format and pure focus on the art of photography we hope that all photographers from amateur to professionals as well as photo enthusiasts will feel at home using Zaplife. Zaplife is primarily for personal use, but there are many suitable commercial applications for professionals.

Below we have compiled some general guidelines for the use of Zaplife. These guidelines will help you understand what it means to be a Zaplife member. Use of Zaplife is also subject to our Terms of Service. Stepping across any of the lines listed here may result in account deletion with or without warning.

  • Use common sense.
    There are many members on Zaplife and they all have the right to feel comfortable and have their own opinions. Always treat someone as you would like to be treated. When you interact be polite and respectful. Do not use Zaplife to vent anger, your frustrations, harass, abuse or intimidate others. If you feel that someone is crossing this line contact us immediately.
  • Upload tasteful content.
    When you post public content you will always need to consider that your photos can be viewed by anyone on the web and by all members of Zaplife. If you feel that your content is a bit strong and that it might offend some people consider making your entry private. Any illegal material will be immediately removed and may include reporting you to the authorities.
  • Keep personal content private.
    There are some things that are more relevant and interesting to your friends than the entire world. If you want for example to share photos from a private event we suggest you select the "private entry" option and add your friends to your friend list.
  • Upload your own content.
    You are only allowed to upload content that you have the rights to. This means that you can not steal photos from other people, organizations, websites or upload content that you have collected from around the internet. Always respect the copyright of other users!
  • Do not use your account for commercial activity.
    Using Zaplife to promote or sell products, services, or your self through your profile, stream, comments or messages is strictly forbidden. Read more about this below under "Commercial activity".
  • Do not use Zaplife to host content.
    Uploading content to Zaplife with the main purpose to host content for other websites is strictly forbidden. If you want to share your Zaplife content on other sites you must provide a link back to your account or use one of the services that we provide for sharing on third party services (Facebook, Twitter...).
  • Give us feedback.
    Whenever you discover objectionable content you can always flag it by clicking on the "Report" link under each photo, message or comment. If you feel that someones behavior is cause for concern you can report abuse to us by clicking on the "Feedback" tab that is located to the right on every page. If you have suggestions on how to improve Zaplife, questions about these guidelines or any enquires at all don't hesitate to contact us!


COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY

As mentioned above any commercial activity is forbidden. Examples of commercial activity include using your account primarily as a website or brochure/catalog to promote or sell a product or service, linking to commercial websites, using your account for SEO purposes, interacting with members with the purpose to promote your brand or product, uploading photos that are intended to sell or promote your product, make company announcements, post press releases or other marketing methods. If you want to promote your business there are many services on the internet that are more suited for this kind of activity such as Facebook pages and Twitter.

However, if you are a business, organization, group, or a non-profit you are still welcome to use Zaplife. By embracing our core values such as posting interesting and inspiring content that is unique you can tell your story and show off you organizations culture and personality. This will encourage users to follow you and and will help you build loyalty to your brand. Try to upload original authentic photos rather than staged, processed and manipulated photos that are better suited for a catalog or advertising.

Some examples of how you can use Zaplife:
  • Show behind the scenes photos from your event.
  • Give a personal inside look to how your clothes are made.
  • Tell a story about the people in your organization.
  • Share photos from your company hiking trip.
  • Share photos from your volunteer work.
  • Share photos from disaster relief efforts.
  • Create a slideshow of happy customers.
  • Post pictures of wildlife in your nature reserve.


PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY

As we are all about photography we want all types of photographers to feel at home and that includes everyone from amateur to professional photographers. Zaplife is an excellent platform to express your creativity and easily share your work to friends and followers. Having a Zaplife account enables you to create a great looking profile and post content that can inspire others as well as give you interesting feedback from other photographers.

However, sometimes professional photography and commercial activity go hand in hand which can interfere with our guidelines. Promoting your self as an individual is the right of all members.

Therefore it is for example ok to:
  • Post photos from your latest assignment without any recognizable links to a specific brand, customer, company or product.
  • Behind the scenes from your latest model shoot.
  • Photos to show off your latest equipment or technique.
  • Post a collection of your favorites photos from different assignments.

Things that are not ok would be:
  • Uploading a photo with a link to where it can be purchased.
  • Creating a group of photos that specifically promote a brand, company or product.
  • Promote your own services via links or advertisements.

We do recognize that professional photographers have different needs and requirements and therefore we will be over time adding many PRO features that will enable you to protect as well as promote your work within our guidelines.


FEATURED PHOTOS

We love great photos and sometimes we find photos that we want to share with all members of Zaplife. We select photos randomly and do not follow any specific rules to how a photo becomes featured but there are a few guidelines you can follow.
  • Upload original photos with full EXIF data.
  • You must own the rights to your photo.
  • Keep your photo clean without watermarks or copyright notices.
  • Do not process/manipulate your photos by adding borders or adding effects.
  • Do not add additional photos to the same entry that do not follow the same standards.


In conclusion:
We hope you will enjoy using Zaplife as much as we enjoy building the service. We want to keep the service at high standards and deliver quality content that is relevant, interesting and inspirational, therefore we strictly enforce these guidelines and the Terms of Service. If you feel that you might cross one of our guidelines then maybe Zaplife is not right for you. If something is unclear over our guidelines feel free to contact us at any time.



Feedback