Thread: The way this site handles pictures could really be improved.

Originally Posted by Groggy

- the thread loads quicker and doesn't hang while the pic from hell loads,

I rarely hang around waiting for anything to load. When I reawaken my laptop I already have at least 5 applications running and my browser has about 10 key tabs/pages auto open from up to 10 different sites 2 from outside Australia. I don't bother switching to pages to read them until the download/upload is complete. No waiting.

What I dislike doing is starting to read something and then find I have to click on thumbnails to see the associated pictures, then I do have to wait because I am in the middle of reading the text. I find the most efficient way to cover a lot of ground is to start a download, go do something else useful, and then read the downloaded article/page in its entirety.

- mobile devices trying to scroll the forums are slowed by the pics and typically have less bandwidth than a PC. Mobile devices are becoming a lot more popular (phones, PDAs, iPhones etc).

Thumbnails on mobile devices are about as useless as a squashed ant in between the screen cover and the screen.

Originally Posted by BobL

I rarely hang around waiting for anything to load. When I reawaken my laptop I already have at least 5 applications running and my browser has about 10 key tabs/pages auto open from up to 10 different sites 2 from outside Australia. I don't bother switching to pages to read them until the download/upload is complete. No waiting.

What I dislike doing is starting to read something and then find I have to click on thumbnails to see the associated pictures, then I do have to wait because I am in the middle of reading the text. I find the most efficient way to cover a lot of ground is to start a download, go do something else useful, and then read the downloaded article/page in its entirety.
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lol, that's exactly what I think and do too. I'm on a 22" widescreen and Ive got about 12 tabs going.

Originally Posted by martrix

lol, that's exactly what I think and do too. I'm on a 22" widescreen and Ive got about 12 tabs going.

I'm guessing you have more tabs on RC cars than I have on CS sites?

Sorry, I haven't read this whole thread, but here's my two bobs worth.
Apart from thinking that the OP was being a bit rude, I liked this post:

Originally Posted by arose62

The suggestion was that this responsibility could be moved to the software that runs this board. IE - wouldn't it be nice if you could just upload, and the *software* would resize the pictures to comply with the chosen and agreed specs for pictures on this board.

Just wondering if anyone has counted the number of posts where the poster has been unable to post pics, or had to be instructed how to, or redirected to another site in order to resize their images.?

Cheers,
Andrew

Good point.

I use my free Photobucket account generally, because I can keep track of my photos for use on other websites, emails, link to my entire private album, and I can delete the whole lot if I choose to do so. I like having control over my photos and albums, but Photobucket resizes the images to 650 pixels wide.

At the moment I’m working on some drawings for my new bathroom to get estimates on all the glass and mirrors that I’ll be installing. I was going to post the drawings here to get opinions and perhaps ideas. With Photobucket or the forums hosting I’d have to break it up into several pics so you could read the details, so instead, I’ll use my free Imageshack account.

These drawings are unfinished (I’ve yet to finish drawing the vanity along with other elevations and a floor plan), and I’m going to make all the text a lot smaller so it’s not as obtrusive when you zoom in for a close look. There's more text to go in yet and I'd have trouble fitting it unless it's reduced.

If you click the thumbnail it brings you to my Imageshack page, and if you click the photo again you’ll get the original. The size of the image is written underneath;



This next one involves a bit of trickery with the HTML code because I’m linking the full sized image with another copy that I’ve reduced to 650 pixels wide. If you click the image you'll get the original (slightly different) version:




If I linked the full sized image, it would distort the whole page and bugger up everyones posts. (If they write more than a short line, it will keep wandering over to the right, and you'd have to scroll.)

Here's the ceiling plan showing the perimeter mirrors, the mirror over the shower, and the mirrors on the laundry cupboard walls if anyone is interested;

And this annoys me sooooo much


All that for a few thumbs up






.

Originally Posted by Lignum

And this annoys me sooooo much


All that for a few thumbs up.

Should I have used Tasmanian Blackwood?

I don't think he's talking about your table, I think he's talking about Phil including all of your embedded photos in a quote of your post within his, which is the default behaviour if you choose to quote someone's post. It's totally unnecessary but people do it all the time. That's another annoying thing about embedded images.

This thread demonstrates how it causes confusion. Post #12 embedded a photo of a Preston bullnose rebate plane. Post #14 was in reply to #12 and the poster quoted post #12 in his reply, which included the full size embedded photo. He attached his own photo of a Record 077 as a thumbnail and said "Here's a picture of my 077". Two and a half years later someone comes along and, seeing the large embedded photo of the Preston in post #14, tells us that the photo is not of a Record 077 but of a Preston.

But the only real issue I have with embedded images is what happens when you delete them from your online image hosting account? They will all disappear from the posts. If you upload them to WWF, then they will be there as long as this site is here.

You can embed an image from the forum the same as from any other site:

Originally Posted by silentC

I don't think he's talking about your table...

I know, I was being silly and frivolous.

So how do you embed photos that are hosted by the forum?

Originally Posted by silentC

But the only real issue I have with embedded images is what happens when you delete them from your online image hosting account? They will all disappear from the posts. If you upload them to WWF, then they will be there as long as this site is here.

I agree embedding from another site is a bad idea. There was a poster on another forum that contributed a heap of good info from his business website. Then his business went bellyup and all his pics all vanished.

Quoting and leaving the images embedded for a thumbs up - yep high annoyance factor but no more so than quoting a long text post for the same thing.

Originally Posted by Woodwould

I know, I was being silly and frivolous.

So how do you embed photos that are hosted by the forum?

Sorry, I thought that might be the case. It's very hard to tell sometimes when your leg is being pulled

There are probably easier ways but all I did was to open the image by clicking on the thumbnail, and then right click on the expanded image, click Properties, copy the URL from Location, click the "Insert image" button in the editor and paste that address into it.

Originally Posted by silentC

There are probably easier ways but all I did was to open the image by clicking on the thumbnail, and then right click on the expanded image, click Properties, copy the URL from Location, click the "Insert image" button in the editor and paste that address into it.

I use the same method when copying images from external sources, but how do you get the image source from images on this forum (assuming you're posting new pictures); do you place them in an album first, or is there another method I'm unaware of?

Try this Woodwould, not exactly the same but allows you to put the thumbnail anywhere into the post

Posting Pictures to Your Post

In the case of silentC's pic in post 68, the image already exists elsewhere in another thread on the forum and what he has done is copied the URL of that image and inserted the image here as well.

Thanks DJ, I saw that link in your previous post. It doesn't really adress the issue though.

Can I upload larger images into an album on the forum and then insert the full size images into my threads, or are album images limited to 100kb too? (I'm a believer in showing detail where it's waranted).

You can upload images into an Album here on the forum, your album can be located by going to User CP then Pictures & Albums located under Networking. But the albums are restricted to 600 x 600 / 100kb from memory, also there is a limit to how many you can store in there as well, think its 100 images.

The other way is to do what a few others do, that is to upload images as normal and then open the image from the Manage Attachments popup and then copy the URL from there and then insert the image before you submit the post or thread, the only drawback with this is is still leaves the thumbnails at the bottom of the post such as shown here in one of BobL's post of which I personally don't like, I'd rather the thumbnails were embedded into the text and I had the choice on whether to open them or not, rather than Bob forcing the choice onto me as he has already done it.

This is where we get the most complaints from people when there is a thread with lots of inserted images as it does slow things down especially for those that are on a slower connection or on dial-up or when the images are wider than the set limit of 800 as it forces people to scroll across the screen.