Post by laura on Nov 7, 2011 15:07:39 GMT -5
HOW IT WORKS
In short, to display an image in your forum message, you need to have your photo uploaded and hosted somewhere on the internet and then place the direct link inside the IMG tags:
The most common mistake users do here is try to link the image by simply copy/pasting the link in the web address bar, but it usually points to the whole page and not single image.
Your path to the image MUST end with ".jpg" (or other image format) and your album hosting service must allow hotlinking (they usually provide you with special links for that).
Photo will be displayed on the forum in its full size, so please make sure you resize it before uploading and linking. It's best to keep the photos under 800px on the long side.
CHOOSE WISELY
There are many many free options where to upload and store your images on the internet, but be careful when choosing.
Most "quick" free services that do not require sign up will store your photos for a limited time only. And when your photos "expire" they'll be deleted and stop showing on the forum (+ if you don't store copies, you lose your images forever.)
Some services have very unreliable servers and your images might be showing in "on/off mode" (if the server is down, your photos become unavailable).
Some services require "activity" to keep storing your photos (e.g. regular login to your album).
Just read the rules and their policies if you choose some less known photo hosting company. Or simply stick to the Bucket
PHOTOALBUMS I USE
www.photobucket.com - my oldest images sit there for about 4 years now, nothing's broken. It does have some hiccups sometimes but it's peanuts compared to some other image hosts.
www.flickr.com - most of you know it, use it and love it. However, I don't think it's perfect for random forum images. I prefer to keep it as photo sharing/portfolio site, and I have my bucket for forums.
BUCKET GUIDE with tips and tricks
- creating albums
- upload and advanced upload options (resizing)
- links for forum use
- quick way to share multiple images
1. Register at www.photobucket.com
They'll try to sell you a pro account but just skip that. The free service is good enough for our basic needs.
The photos here are stored in two ways - all in one bucket or in different albums and sub-albums.
2. you probably want to create some albums first.
NOTE: It is important to decide how you will want to organize your images NOW, because if you publish them on the forums and then some months later decide to move pics to a different album links will be broken and the images will stop showing on the forum.
On the right you'll see "sub-albums" box, let's make album for forum pics:
I chose to make my album "Private", but as you see it doesn't stop me from linking to my images on the forum.
3. Now let's upload the images
Did you resize your photos? If not, the bucket will let you do that just now, during upload.
Hit that "upload" button and stop for a second - look at the "upload from" on the left and especially the "upload to" on the right, make sure you are uploading to the right album and not dropping images in the general bucket:
IF YOUR IMAGES ARE more than 800 pixels on the long side now choose "customize your upload options" <--- this will let you resize images during upload.
800x600 is a decent size for most boards, but you can choose to make your photos even smaller if the detail is not too important.
Bucket will tell ya that small images load faster but it's not only that - images longer than 800px will break most forum boards layout and generally are very hard to view on smaller screens. (e.g. some images in this guide)
Now we can upload our images - feel free to hit the large green "select photos and videos" button.
A dialog screen will pop up asking you to select what to upload - it allows choosing multiple images.
4. Hunting for code and linking
Select "view album" and now we have several ways to drag the photos to the forum post:
------> for single image hover your mouse over thumbnail and the options box will expand.
Just grab that "IMG code" and run - COPY the link in that box and PASTE it to the forum. DONE!
You can also take the "Direct link" and do it the "hard way" - copy/paste and then add the IMG tags manually.
If you are on the single picture page, not the whole album, you'll see this box on the right, it's the same stuff - you need the "IMG code":
-------> for multiple images in album view hover the mouse over thumbnail and see where the arrow in the screenshot points - check that box.
Repeat for all images in your album that you want to post.
Scroll down and near the bottom you'll see this:
(Here you can also select/unselect ALL images in the album if that's what you need.)
Hit that "Choose action" link, and ask the bucket to "generate link codes for selected"
Now this is what any serial photo poster would LOVE
You can now grab the block of code for all images you've selected. You get two options for forum - clickable thumbnails or full size. I prefer Full.
Paste that block in your forum message:
NOTE - if you publish it like that (and you can), the images will form a solid block. So at this step I like to insert blank lines after each image
make sure you do not introduce any blank spaces inside the link code. I've highlighted the start and end tags for each image link. You want to put space after the closing tag.
Even if you prefer to use some other image hosting service, the major steps are usually the same - upload, organize, and look for either "direct link" or a ready IMG code that you can simply copy/paste.
So that's it for now Show me your pics!
In short, to display an image in your forum message, you need to have your photo uploaded and hosted somewhere on the internet and then place the direct link inside the IMG tags:
[img]link-to-your-image.jpg[/img]The most common mistake users do here is try to link the image by simply copy/pasting the link in the web address bar, but it usually points to the whole page and not single image.
Your path to the image MUST end with ".jpg" (or other image format) and your album hosting service must allow hotlinking (they usually provide you with special links for that).
Photo will be displayed on the forum in its full size, so please make sure you resize it before uploading and linking. It's best to keep the photos under 800px on the long side.
CHOOSE WISELY
There are many many free options where to upload and store your images on the internet, but be careful when choosing.
Most "quick" free services that do not require sign up will store your photos for a limited time only. And when your photos "expire" they'll be deleted and stop showing on the forum (+ if you don't store copies, you lose your images forever.)
Some services have very unreliable servers and your images might be showing in "on/off mode" (if the server is down, your photos become unavailable).
Some services require "activity" to keep storing your photos (e.g. regular login to your album).
Just read the rules and their policies if you choose some less known photo hosting company. Or simply stick to the Bucket
PHOTOALBUMS I USE
www.photobucket.com - my oldest images sit there for about 4 years now, nothing's broken. It does have some hiccups sometimes but it's peanuts compared to some other image hosts.
www.flickr.com - most of you know it, use it and love it. However, I don't think it's perfect for random forum images. I prefer to keep it as photo sharing/portfolio site, and I have my bucket for forums.
BUCKET GUIDE with tips and tricks
- creating albums
- upload and advanced upload options (resizing)
- links for forum use
- quick way to share multiple images
1. Register at www.photobucket.com
They'll try to sell you a pro account but just skip that. The free service is good enough for our basic needs.
The photos here are stored in two ways - all in one bucket or in different albums and sub-albums.
2. you probably want to create some albums first.
NOTE: It is important to decide how you will want to organize your images NOW, because if you publish them on the forums and then some months later decide to move pics to a different album links will be broken and the images will stop showing on the forum.
On the right you'll see "sub-albums" box, let's make album for forum pics:
I chose to make my album "Private", but as you see it doesn't stop me from linking to my images on the forum.
3. Now let's upload the images
Did you resize your photos? If not, the bucket will let you do that just now, during upload.
Hit that "upload" button and stop for a second - look at the "upload from" on the left and especially the "upload to" on the right, make sure you are uploading to the right album and not dropping images in the general bucket:
IF YOUR IMAGES ARE more than 800 pixels on the long side now choose "customize your upload options" <--- this will let you resize images during upload.
800x600 is a decent size for most boards, but you can choose to make your photos even smaller if the detail is not too important.
Bucket will tell ya that small images load faster but it's not only that - images longer than 800px will break most forum boards layout and generally are very hard to view on smaller screens. (e.g. some images in this guide)
Now we can upload our images - feel free to hit the large green "select photos and videos" button.
A dialog screen will pop up asking you to select what to upload - it allows choosing multiple images.
4. Hunting for code and linking
Select "view album" and now we have several ways to drag the photos to the forum post:
------> for single image hover your mouse over thumbnail and the options box will expand.
Just grab that "IMG code" and run - COPY the link in that box and PASTE it to the forum. DONE!
You can also take the "Direct link" and do it the "hard way" - copy/paste and then add the IMG tags manually.
If you are on the single picture page, not the whole album, you'll see this box on the right, it's the same stuff - you need the "IMG code":
-------> for multiple images in album view hover the mouse over thumbnail and see where the arrow in the screenshot points - check that box.
Repeat for all images in your album that you want to post.
Scroll down and near the bottom you'll see this:
(Here you can also select/unselect ALL images in the album if that's what you need.)
Hit that "Choose action" link, and ask the bucket to "generate link codes for selected"
Now this is what any serial photo poster would LOVE
You can now grab the block of code for all images you've selected. You get two options for forum - clickable thumbnails or full size. I prefer Full.
Paste that block in your forum message:
NOTE - if you publish it like that (and you can), the images will form a solid block. So at this step I like to insert blank lines after each image
make sure you do not introduce any blank spaces inside the link code. I've highlighted the start and end tags for each image link. You want to put space after the closing tag.
Even if you prefer to use some other image hosting service, the major steps are usually the same - upload, organize, and look for either "direct link" or a ready IMG code that you can simply copy/paste.
So that's it for now
Show me your pics! 
