AF, thank you for looking into this!! What you say makes total sense.
Here is something to think about. I realize it might be a bit of a corner case, but you still might want to consider the following:
First of all, I wanted to have password protected area, but I didn't want it to show up as a folder in the main page of my site. Here is how I setup it up:
I created a private group (private, not password protected). Inside it, I created a password protected group. That allows me to have a hidden password protected area that you can reach with a direct URL, without showing up in my site's main page. This allows me to give access to my site to a special group of people that know the URL and the password, without being seen by all the other users.
(In other words, while technically the group is password protected, it is not visible by anybody anywhere on the site, unless you know the URL or unless you are me and are logged in.)
When you count the photos you might want to consider the following:
- Count the photos that can be accessed by the user that is browsing; if a user didn't enter a valid password for a password protected area, you might want to consider not counting the password protected photos.
- If the photos are not "click-reachable" from the area that the user is browsed, you might want to consider not counting these photos at all.
Just some thoughts.