Admin: Posting Pictures on this Forum

[JoeS]

1. In order not to distort how the forum is viewed when photos are visible, it's best to resize the photos to limit their width - I've standardized on 640 pixels at 72dpi. Wider photos result in ever-shrinking text (especially on tablets), necessitating manual size manipulation between text and photo as one scrolls through the thread.

2. When providing a link to an image on another website, when creating the post be sure to highlight the link and then click on the Img formatting box, which will result in

. This will embed the photo into your post, if the server you have the photo on will allow it.

 

[wmcbrine]

My tips:

Dropbox: It doesn't work for this. Don't use it.

Google: Even worse.

Photobucket: Nope.

Imgur: This is what you want... not necessarily the only one, but it works, so I stopped there. Note that you don't need to create an account there (I haven't); you can just hit the upload button.

Upload as single images, NOT an album. You can't inline an album. You can inline single images, like so:

[ img ] imgur.com/foo123 [ /img ]

(minus the spaces). Imgur provides the code you need (but it's just the URLs wrapped with "img" tags) under "BBCode". Resize the pictures (down to somewhere around 1024 pixels wide) so they don't force the page wide.

You SHOULD inline, rather than making people click on links. You should resize your pictures rather than resorting to links.

 

[Phximiev]

I use imgur also, but reduce the pic size to 400 x 400 or so.

In their beta "upgrade", I had to search for the edit feature.

 

[wmcbrine]

400 seems needlessly small to me, in this era. Unless you're targetting phones?

 

[PV1]

Dumb question, how do you re-size a picture when using the IMG tag?

 

[wmcbrine]

Well personally, I use The Gimp to resize, before uploading. (Any image editor will do.)

 

[Phximiev]

Will this impact us eventually?

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/16/12/16/2111220/dropbox-kills-public-folders-users-rebel

 

[PV1]

This apparently only affects Dropbox users that created their account before October 4, 2012. These users have a folder called Public in their Dropbox account. That folder is no longer going to function. This is different from the ability to share links to files or folders with the public, which is what I use to share pictures and information here. My account was created after the deadline, so it doesn't appear to affect me.

After the cutoff, the files/folders likely need moved out of the Public folder and a new share link must be made.

The differences explained here:

Public folder:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/16

Sharing folders and files (with a link):
https://www.dropbox.com/help/274?path=sharing_files_and_folders

They've also broken the ability to host a website from a Dropbox shared link.

 

[JoeS]

Another input, this one from kiev from another thread:

I use a free hosting site, imgur.com, for my pictures. They provide "get share links" for posting to forums which resize the photos to fit the page width. Just copy and paste the BBCode forum link from imgur into your message.

Related to this topic, has anyone used this website's extended (paid) subscription to host your photos? I didn't realize (or had forgotten) that it was even possible until someone encountered an issue with doing that.

 

[Aerowhatt]

Related to this topic, has anyone used this website's extended (paid) subscription to host your photos? I didn't realize (or had forgotten) that it was even possible until someone encountered an issue with doing that.

I would like to be. So far all I have gotten for trying to have my photos stay with the forum by being a paid subscriber is my handle in ugly red letters. Oh and I do have a 250 message PM box now, which is the feature that I don't need at all.

I don't know about anyone else but I hate reading old posts that used to have pictures which are no longer there. When someone changes or drops hosting for their photos they go bye bye. Now we all know a picture is worth a thousand words and posts with evaporated pictures are rendered almost useless. What an idiotic way to set up a forum (especially the technical discussions). It's common sense that the photos and schematics posted should be part of the forum database. Not scattered all over the net to be abandon by those passing thru and never available with the posts afterwards. Aren't we all just passing through ultimately??

Ok now that I'm done venting (more or less) I'm hoping that for my $30 contribution I will actually get me some guidance on how to upload photos to the forum data base for posting. So far there is nothing. No new buttons on the screen or anything. No FAC, or instruction supplied of any kind. Pretty crappy feature so far! I can't even get rid of the red letters in the control panel

Aerowhatt

 

[Don]

I've been here for 6+ years and never posted a single photo - It's just incredibly more difficult than on any other site I frequent (where I do post photos). Just not worth the trouble here, sadly

Maybe one day we'll join the 21st century here, but after waiting 6 years, I'm for sure not holding my breath!

Don

 

[wmcbrine]

So far all I have gotten for trying to have my photos stay with the forum by being a paid subscriber is my handle in ugly red letters.

Also you're now a "Gold Member"

 

[Aerowhatt]

So far all I have gotten for trying to have my photos stay with the forum by being a paid subscriber is my handle in ugly red letters.

Also you're now a "Gold Member"

Yeah I will sleep better knowing that :roll: . Tacky red letters for gold members?? Yeah that makes sense!

Aerowhatt

 

[kiev]

Here is another link with examples of the how to find the imgur "share links" that are used to post photos in the forum message.

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4079&p=36625#p36625

No gold members were harmed in the filming of this show...

p.s. i don't see any red letters. i use firefox and set the background color to a light green and i set the fonts how i want them, not how the web page wants to use--it is an option in the preference to "use only my choice for colors and fonts".

 

[coulomb]

I'm hoping that for my $30 contribution I will actually get me some guidance on how to upload photos to the forum data base for posting. So far there is nothing.

I haven't contributed, so I can't say for sure. However, based on other forums that use phpBB, I'd guess that for members that have contributed, and are therefore in a different user group, a new tab will appear below the submit button (you may have to scroll down to see it), labelled "Attachments". From there you can use the "Add files" button and follow the prompts to position your post in-line, or leave it as an attachment. Under rare circumstances, the "Attachments" tab might be compressed to three lines, or the "hamburger" icon. Like the first image below:

     

Just click on the three lines, and you should see the Attachments tab, as in the second image. The colours and details will vary from what I've posted, but the principles should be the same.

Please let us know if this allows you to use the forum to host your images.

 

[Aerowhatt]

Just click on the three lines, and you should see the Attachments tab, as in the second image. The colours and details will vary from what I've posted, but the principles should be the same.

Please let us know if this allows you to use the forum to host your images.

Thanks coulomb, there is an "attachments" below the submit. I will have to give it a try and see what happens. Really though how hard would it be to include a little generic guidance with the "upgrade" confirmation message?

Aerowhatt

P.S. it does work. A bit cumbersome to figure out but it will be OK to use overall. Thanks Coulomb for pointing where to look!! Now if I can just turn those red letters green I'll be fairly happy.

 

[bradleydavidgood777]

I've been here for 6+ years and never posted a single photo - It's just incredibly more difficult than on any other site I frequent (where I do post photos). Just not worth the trouble here, sadly

Maybe one day we'll join the 21st century here, but after waiting 6 years, I'm for sure not holding my breath!

Don

I think it took me 5 minutes to register on imgur.com and about 2 minutes to figure out how to copy the link to a photo I posted. Now it probably takes me a minute or two to post a photo. Surely even Don could do it.

 

[bradleydavidgood777]

Its so easy ... in one minute! [Edited by moderator]

https://youtu.be/qk7mmK6CYjg

 

[JoeS]

bradleydavidgood777, thank you for posting the video explaining how to use Imgur. I removed an unnecessary reference which could be construed as inflammatory.

 

[Don]

Yes, of course it's not that hard - If I wanted any of my photos (or anything else) stored anywhere on the Internet, I could set up an account and do that easy enough, but I don't. I purposefully avoid most all forms of social media (never had a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or any of those accounts) and I don't use the 'cloud' for anything either. I try to keep my on-line footprint as small as possible

I do post a photo now and then on other forums I frequent because I feel those venues are less likely to be hacked and data stolen than websites specifically set up to store tons of everyone's data - Might be wrong, but that's where my comfort level is. Not having photos here Is not a major 'issue' for me . . . . it's just a bit frustrating that the forum doesn't host them

Don