Best method for photo management?

[chopnhack]

What is the best way to post pics to the site?

Host photos on SawDustZone itself or use direct links to them on other server?

[Black wallnut]

The best way is to host them here. However currently there is an issue with that resource. I'm sure it will be solved soon.

When you direct link to other servers there is always the possibility that in the future the image may change or disappear entirely. With so many of the threads being pic intensive it creates holes when images go away.

[LCHIEN]

hosting them here preserves them with the threads. It avoids the situation where old threads have missing pictures as servers and hosts close or move or change addresses and ads and pictures on other websites change.

Currently there is some issues with hosting here though. I hope it will be cleared soon.

[cabinetman]

If you have the pictures on your computer, as in "my pictures", or just pictures in your library, you could upload them using the "manage attachments" (not sure if that option is the same as hosting to this site...like in the gallery).

I haven't lost any images when hosted by Photobucket.

.

[chopnhack]

I understand the mods position and it makes complete sense, I went through some of my olds threads and I had to update the links for that very reason - a folder change I made in photobucket made the images disappear.

The one reason I use photobucket is because of the size limitations of the forum. I know that they are of necessity, but they make it hard to show large areas in detail. Is this something that will change with the new server or are we still going to be limited in this?

Thanks!

[LCHIEN]

I understand the mods position and it makes complete sense, I went through some of my olds threads and I had to update the links for that very reason - a folder change I made in photobucket made the images disappear.

The one reason I use photobucket is because of the size limitations of the forum. I know that they are of necessity, but they make it hard to show large areas in detail. Is this something that will change with the new server or are we still going to be limited in this?

Thanks!

for quite some time the forum SW has allowed 9.5MB JPGS altho file sizes for other image types was limited. A 9.5M JPG can show a lot of detail... with photo images a lot larger than most people's screens. For a forum, I would think a 1600 x 900 image size or thereabouts would be the maximum for any embedded images, any larger would require shrinking the image to show its entirety on the screen. That could probably be done with a 2 MB JPG or smaller with reasonable compression.

In the past people have posted photos straight off their 12 MP cameras that, when displayed, show only a tiny bit of the picture on the screen. I usually reduce photos to ~800x600 for posting. or 1200 x 900 if i really need to show detail.

[Black wallnut]

We may be able to change the physical size of image attachments and then keep the thumbnails the same size as they are now. For images posted inline the size will not increase. There are still plenty of folks on dial-up as well as with the aging forum population I would not be surprised if there are more than a few members with their monitor resolution set to larger sizes like 800 x 600. In the future I would also guess that more members will be accessing the site with smart phones where image size could also be an issue.

By the way both methods of image hosting on site are currently unavailable.

[chopnhack]

Thanks Loring, I didn't know that. I had posted many years ago and wasn't satisfied with the physical size on the screen so switched to outside hosting. Whenever that feature is back up I will try it out, thanks guys :-)

[Black wallnut]

Image upload issue has been solved. Thanks David!

[dbhost]

No worries. Having to fish through and figure out the custom settings one at a time. It's a fun project for me, although I have lots going on

On the image hosting thing. And I am speaking as a regular forum user. Hosting an image offsite is no biggie for me except for 2 things...

#1. Corporate firewalls often will allow access to forums, but NOT image repositories, so the images will get stripped out of the post.
#2. Moving images around to reorganize your folders in your outside host, changes the path to the image file itself. This means people reading your post won't be able to see the pic. The truck forums are notorious for this. My ongoing winch install project got stalled because the guy that did the same project before me, used ImageShack and his images disappeared, I couldn't tell from his description HOW he re-ran the ATF cooler lines and was stumped until I could find another guy that had done the same thing on a slightly newer, but same series truck...

For my sanity sake, which is sort of teetering anyway, if you post on an outside host, please keep your images where they are so that future references to the files aren't lost in oblivion.

As far as file size / image size restrictions, I noticed that today as well while I was working the access issue. The staff will be discussing that if the email hasn't already gone around...

[big tim]

I am still not able to post an image. I've tried it several times the past few days but have not been successful.
I am able to post an image on another forum and have done so in the past on BT3.
I am able to download but when I try to upload I get a message that the upload failed.
The download is from my computer and is a jpg


Tim

[Black wallnut]

Two possible issues:

1. log out, clear cookies and cache
2. resize image to no bigger than 600x600

[big tim]

Two possible issues:

1. log out, clear cookies and cache
2. resize image to no bigger than 600x600

Thanks Mark, I'll give that a try!

Tim

[big tim]

I logged out, cleared cookies and cache, brought an image down to
600 x 450, but still no luck.
I have posted images on BT3 many times and as far as I can figure out, I'm doing it the same way as before.
I'm puzzled!

Tim

[dbhost]

At this point, we are able to bring in images to users galleries. However attachments are handled elsewhere in the software, and vBulletin is NOT playing nice... We are working on the issue. I will post up asking members to test once I am able to get it working on my end...