"RECON 2026 Photos" Topic

Albums of photos for RECON 2026 in Orlando Florida:

Thursday:
link

Friday:
link

Saturday:
link

Links to your google photos aren't working…for me.

Nor me.

I have the same problem: none of your links to the Google photo albums work. I get a 404 error (URL doesn't exist or not found).

These symptoms are tragically common with Google photo sharing and file sharing – some people can see stuff, others can't, no rhyme or reason. Google sharing is notoriously fickle and hard to test, since most of us have only one Google account and it can see everything perfectly (of course). I recommend asking an AI for help (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.). It will be able to spell out easy troubleshooting steps and tests to help you share the photos so people can see them.

Personally, I got tired of dealing with Google's ill-designed sharing system and just abandoned it. (I have also abandoned Photobucket and Smugmug for different reasons, but I'm still using FlickR, which is obtuse but the sharing rock-solid reliable.)

Here's what Claude told me:

A friend of mine is trying to share photo albums through Google Photos, but many of us get a 404 error when we click the links. What can he do to make the albums visible?

This is a common Google Photos sharing headache. There are a few likely causes and fixes:

Most common cause — sharing settings on the album:

Your friend should open Google Photos, go to the album, tap the share icon, and make sure "Link sharing" is turned on. Even if he shared the link, there's a separate toggle that controls whether the link is publicly accessible. It can get turned off accidentally or may not have been enabled properly.

Google account and visibility issues:

If the album was shared from a Google Workspace account (work or school), the organization's settings may restrict sharing outside the domain. In that case people outside that organization will get 404s regardless. He'd need to re-share from a personal Google account instead.

The link itself may be broken:

Sometimes when an album is edited, moved, or re-shared, the old link stops working. He should generate a fresh share link rather than resending the original one.

What he should do step by step:

1. Open Google Photos and find the album
2. Open the album's sharing settings and turn link sharing off, then back on again
3. Copy the newly generated link
4. Send that fresh link to everyone

If some people can see it and others can't:

That usually points to the recipients being logged into a different Google account than the one the share is tied to. Ask people getting the 404 to try opening the link in an incognito window or while logged out, which sometimes bypasses the account mismatch.

One other thing to check — the album shouldn't be empty, as Google Photos sometimes 404s on empty shared albums.

FWIW, I tried to access your photo albums from a private browser session while logged out, and Google insists I have to login first. This is a clue to a permissions problem. Those photo album URLs are not publicly viewable.

"Link sharing" has been set on for all five albums. Thanks for the reminder Yellow Admiral.

All the albums were available to me. THanks for sharing the photos, quite an impressive set of games on display.

I'm intrigued by the Sponge Bob siege game…

Good show. Made it back to Alabama. Hope to go to Hurricon

Working now. Thanks!

I feel like the giant cephalopod with a rubber duck needs an explanation….

"The giant cephalopod with a rubber duck" was a piece of scatter terrain in a game of "Trailer Park Warlords of the Apocalypse" from Bad Goblin Games (which is based in the general Jacksonville, Florida, area). It is a beer-and-pretzels (emphasis on the beer) skirmish games set in the giant trailer parks which develop after an apocalyptic war (or two). Perhaps some member of the group that came up with the rules has a backstory on this cephalopod and its rubber ducky, but I suspect it was just somebodies neat idea when producing the many, many 3D printed terrain pieces for the game. It's a very tongue-in-cheek set of rules with a surprisingly fun set of game mechanics.
This particular scenario involved 4 gangs of rowdies of various species who were involved in trying to kill a specific member of a different gang. My gang was called the "Roadkill Gang" and was comprised of 4 "awakened" animals who were armed themselves with various weaponry. For example, the gang was headed by a chicken armed with a rocket launcher (Colonel Clucker) and the smallest animal was a squirrel armed with a specially designed assault rifle resembling a minigun. Each character had a special ability. Colonel Clucker did not have to pay to climb over obstacles or roll to leap to a higher level. The squirrel got to take a free move action after taking two normal actions so it could start its action hiding behind shelter, spend an action to move into the open, fire its assault rifle, and then take a free move back behind shelter.
Two gangs were largely human with some distinctly nonhuman members (such as a robot vending machine modified with a rocket launcher) and the remaining gang was largely plant based (ala Aubrey from Little Shop of Horrors). I did not succeed in scoring my "hit," but had the only gang with all 4 members still on the board at the end. I happened to start in the corner with the pool and stayed away from it just in case.