Picture posting

[DVamps]

Can someone let me know how to add pictures to my post.
Thanks!

 

[WattsUp]

I like http://www.postimage.org.

You upload your image(s) and it will format forum links for you, complete with thumbnails (you simply paste the formatted links into your posting). It adds some advertising (at the bottom of the page with your hosted image), but it is not obtrusive.

There are many other such free image hosting sites. Search the interwebs for "free image hosting".

Pro tip: Regardless of which image hosting service you use, make sure to use the "preview" feature (on the forum posting editor) to make sure your thumbnails/images look/work they way you intend.

Pro tip: Avoid creating posts that hold "giant" inline images. These are inconvenient to scroll through and make threads slow to load. Using thumbnails (which postimage.org makes easy to achieve) is great for this. Threads still load quickly, the available images are easy to see at a glance, people can simply click on a thumbnail if they want to see the large version.

 

[NightHawk]

On the Post Reply page, use the "Img" button - this lets you enter a URL to a photo image file already uploaded somewhere on the internet. Just paste the URL link to the photo between the img tags.
You can use a free picture uploading site if you wish to upload your own photo(s) first and get a URL link to it.
I use this free site for that purpose: http://postimage.org/

 

[WattsUp]

You can use a free picture uploading site if you wish to upload your own photo(s) first and get a URL link to it.

Note that is much easier to just paste in the links (pre-formatted by postimage.org) for this. After uploading your image, it gives you several choices for links, with buttons to plop them right onto the clipboard. The choice with thumbnails is what I use.

Posting direct links to large images in a message (that cause the images to appear inline, full-size) should be avoided.

 

[DVamps]

Thanks Everyone. Heres the start of my blacked out Blade mobile.

 

[hybridbear]

You can use a free picture uploading site if you wish to upload your own photo(s) first and get a URL link to it.

Note that is much easier to just paste in the links (pre-formatted by postimage.org) for this. After uploading your image, it gives you several choices for links, with buttons to plop them right onto the clipboard. The choice with thumbnails is what I use.

Posting direct links to large images in a message (that cause the images to appear inline, full-size) should be avoided.

I guess I disagree with this entirely. It's a pain to have to click on the images and open them in a new tab to see them full size. Posting from a site like Photobucket allows the full size message to appear right in the thread making things much more convenient for the reader. I've never heard anyone suggest otherwise on any forum before you did in this thread.

 

[WattsUp]

I guess I disagree with this entirely. It's a pain to have to click on the images and open them in a new tab to see them full size. Posting from a site like Photobucket allows the full size message to appear right in the thread making things much more convenient for the reader. I've never heard anyone suggest otherwise on any forum before you did in this thread.

Okay.

I just find threads with endless large pictures inconvenient to scroll through. They "pollute" the structure of the forum, especially when they are super high-res and so wide or so tall they don't even fit on the screen -- that's just obnoxious. You get lost in the thread, because you can't easily see the forum structure any longer... your screen is "all picture". I also don't appreciate having to wait for these giant images to load.

Then you also inevitably get the clueless people who quote the entire post, pictures and all, only to add a single line "cool photos dude!!!" at the bottom, and then the whole set of large pictures is doubled and shifted even further to the right. More scrolling, more pollution... ugh. If this happens to a post with thumbnails, at least the pollution is minimized.

I didn't mean to start a war, but I would think others would agree that thumbnails are friendlier, keep the forum structure compact and easy to navigate, avoid large unwanted downloads, and so on... but I could be wrong.

----

I appreciated DVamps's post with the thumbnails. I can see his post and what the photos are (it all fits on the screen) and if I'm interested, I click to see more detail. I wouldn't exactly call that "a pain". And, for me, the pictures don't open in a separate tab (I'm using Chrome fwiw). So, I just click, look at the large version, and then go back.

 

[WattsUp]

Thanks Everyone. Heres the start of my blacked out Blade mobile.

Nice job.

Btw, someone here (TexiCali) blacked out his FFE grill with Plasti-Dip. I saw it in person (it was on a silver FFE). Looked pretty nice.

 

[hybridbear]

I guess I disagree with this entirely. It's a pain to have to click on the images and open them in a new tab to see them full size. Posting from a site like Photobucket allows the full size message to appear right in the thread making things much more convenient for the reader. I've never heard anyone suggest otherwise on any forum before you did in this thread.

Okay.

I just find threads with endless large pictures inconvenient to scroll through. They "pollute" the structure of the forum, especially when they are super high-res and so wide or so tall they don't even fit on the screen -- that's just obnoxious. You get lost in the thread, because you can't easily see the forum structure any longer... your screen is "all picture". I also don't appreciate having to wait for these giant images to load.

Then you also inevitably get the clueless people who quote the entire post, pictures and all, only to add a single line "cool photos dude!!!" at the bottom, and then the whole set of large pictures is doubled and shifted even further to the right. More scrolling, more pollution... ugh. If this happens to a post with thumbnails, at least the pollution is minimized.

I didn't mean to start a war, but I would think others would agree that thumbnails are friendlier, keep the forum structure compact and easy to navigate, avoid large unwanted downloads, and so on... but I could be wrong.

----

I appreciated DVamps's post with the thumbnails. I can see his post and what the photos are (it all fits on the screen) and if I'm interested, I click to see more detail. I wouldn't exactly call that "a pain". And, for me, the pictures don't open in a separate tab (I'm using Chrome fwiw). So, I just click, look at the large version, and then go back.

I agree with the quoting thing. But I guess I find it a bother to have to click on the thumbnail and either then hit the back button because I've lost the post or else having to right-click and say "open in new tab" to not lose the thread being read. I didn't realize that the large pics make threads slow to load. I don't think I've noticed any major delay from the pics, for sure not on the Fusion Energi/Hybrid Forum, but that Forum runs different software than this Forum.

I'm not trying to argue either, I just hadn't heard that recommendation before. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to post from photobucket in a way that doesn't make the pics fill the thread if most users here find that annoying.

 

[jmueller065]

I use a 3rd method: when I'm preparing images to be included in a forum post I scale them to 1024 pixels or less--usually 800 or even 640. This keeps the image a reasonable size and doesn't disturb the forum format.

 

[WattsUp]

I use a 3rd method: when I'm preparing images to be included in a forum post I scale them to 1024 pixels or less--usually 800 or even 640. This keeps the image a reasonable size and doesn't disturb the forum format.

Yeah, but sometimes (often?) you would still want to allow interested folks to get at an even larger version of the picture (for the full detail at the original resolution). So, you might link your scaled-down images to the full-res versions. But, then, your 1024, 800, or whatever pixel wide images have simply become overgrown thumbnails whose "loud" large sizes didn't really help anything. It's sort of the image version of typing in everything in ALL CAPS or super large fonts and can come across as "yelling" and inconsiderate of the normal forum decorum (hey, that rhymes). But, anything that keeps overly large images from being inlined directly into forum posts, I am for.

(1024 x 768 still seems a little excessive, especially if the post were to contain several such images. One image like that probably wouldn't be bothersome, but if there are several, I would definitely consider smaller thumbnails, or perhaps linking to an external gallery.)

Use your own judgement, but I still contend that most folks probably don't like to see the forums crowded with large photos, and would prefer thumbnails for quick review and clicking only on the images they are interested in. (Like I said, I could be wrong, but that is my feeling.)

 

[jmueller065]

I have noticed some forum software automatically does that: resizes any images to a thumbnail about 200 pixels across with a link at the top to expand the picture to full size. Very nice feature.

 

[EVA]

I use imgur.com exclusively for posting in forums. The large thumbnail setting is perfect for just about everything.

My leaning was - how does Studio460 do his posts? Personally, I like those a lot. Perfect size to see the image and no clicking on a link to see bigger. I'm lazy.

Don't mean to keep adding fuel to the debate.

The thing I dislike about that image org thing (the one just used in this thread) - they posts ads at the bottom of the image. If you check that it is an adult image, you get adult ads. Even the supposedly family oriented ads are almost all women in bikinis.

 

[WattsUp]

The thing I dislike about that image org thing (the one just used in this thread) - they posts ads at the bottom of the image. If you check that it is an adult image, you get adult ads. Even the supposedly family oriented ads are almost all women in bikinis.

I guess the ads are different for different users... I don't get a lot of bikini ads. Just a lot of ads for lame celebrity gossip, diet plans, movies, and TV shows. I pulled up the postimage.org page for one of the images in this thread and refreshed the page about ten times. I only saw one bikini.

But, hmm, that is kinda annoying. Maybe I should find a different service. Sorry, I never notice the ads... I use the Ghostery browser plug-in which blocks such things, in addition to a lot other annoying stuff on the internet. (I turned it off to try the above refresh test.)

 

[jmueller065]

I use the Ghostery browser plug-in which blocks such things, in addition to a lot other annoying stuff on the internet. (I turned it off to try the above refresh test.)

I've been using AdBlock Plus for years (in both Chrome and Firefox) with very good results.

 

[EVA]

Yeah the advantage of imgur - there are no ads anywhere, ever, nothing to block.