News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

Is there a better way to attach photos?

Started by guitar1580, December 06, 2017, 01:53:02 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

guitar1580

Hi all.  I haven't been on for a while, but you guys (Dennis & Mr. Hilz) I believe, were very helpful with helping me find some misc parts I needed for some old phones I was fixing up a few years ago.  I don't always get online regularly, especially in the summer, but lately I've been back into phones and thought I'd get on here and share some phones that I've found over the last couple of summers.

I was looking at my old posts, and realized that after changing image hosting sites, many of my photos attached to my old posts are gone.  Oddly, some of the photos still show up, even though I don't think I did anything different when I posted them a while back.  I know it is unfortunate to lose photos that are dependent on an image hosting website, especially when someone wants to look up a thread long after the fact, for reference.  If there is a way to permanently insert a photo into a thread, other than the standard method of posting a link to the host site, please let me know.

Thanks, Josh

TelePlay

Quote from: guitar1580 on December 06, 2017, 01:53:02 PM
Hi all.  I haven't been on for a while, but you guys (Dennis & Mr. Hilz) I believe, were very helpful with helping me find some misc parts I needed for some old phones I was fixing up a few years ago.  I don't always get online regularly, especially in the summer, but lately I've been back into phones and thought I'd get on here and share some phones that I've found over the last couple of summers.

I was looking at my old posts, and realized that after changing image hosting sites, many of my photos attached to my old posts are gone.  Oddly, some of the photos still show up, even though I don't think I did anything different when I posted them a while back.  I know it is unfortunate to lose photos that are dependent on an image hosting website, especially when someone wants to look up a thread long after the fact, for reference.  If there is a way to permanently insert a photo into a thread, other than the standard method of posting a link to the host site, please let me know.

Thanks, Josh

Lot of stuff about posting photos on this board:

     http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?board=84.0

Using external links to post images is strictly forbidden by the moderators to preserve the posterity of forum information, including images. First Picassa pulled the plug a couple of years ago and all externally linked images were lost, and a lot of those were in topics that dealt with very good procedures to take apart a dial and clean it, stuff like that.

Then Photobucket denied using 3rd party links unless the person with the Photobucket account paid an annual fee of about $100 to Photobucket.

If you recently posted externally linked images, I may have spotted them, saved them to my hard disk and then uploaded them as attachments to the topic. I think I did that to about 200 Photobucket externally linked images before they were lost for good.

You can attach up to 6 images to each reply/post by clicking on the "Attachments and other options link on the lower left corner of the text composition box and then "(more attachments)" below the first "Browse" button to get up so 5 more attachment options.

By attaching the image to the reply/post, the image will be there forever, or as long as the forum exists. External link to eBay, Photobucket and other external image hosting sites last as long as the URL to the image is perfectly correct so any change to the image location, the account or the site will result in image error icon in the reply/post.

This is a good starting point on attaching images. As long as the longest side of the image is less than 3000 pixels, the image will show in high resolution and will not cause a large image stack overflow (images that are 6000 x 4000 taken by 12 MPixel smart phone cameras will not load due to their file size. Rotate, crop and resize images to show your items the best.

     http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=8990.0

This is one of 3 topics on why not to use externally linked images.

     http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11610.0

I've attached 3 images as examples of how it's done.

TelePlay

I just spent and hour going through all of your posts to date to find those externally linked images which are now also attached permanently to the appropriate reply.

I don't know why those 5 Photobucket images are not visible to me so I could not save and upload them as attachments.

In the future, pleat use the "Attachments and other options" option to permanently attach images to your posts/replies.

guitar1580

Thanks TelePlay.  I'm glad I asked, I guess I was thinking in the right direction.  I'll read those threads and make sure I'm attaching properly.  Way back when I first started using forums, it seemed like most wanted the external links. 

I still have my old pics.  When I get time I'll re- attach if there is anything interesting.

Josh

TelePlay

Quote from: guitar1580 on December 06, 2017, 07:18:39 PM
Thanks TelePlay.  I'm glad I asked, I guess I was thinking in the right direction.  I'll read those threads and make sure I'm attaching properly.  Way back when I first started using forums, it seemed like most wanted the external links. 

I still have my old pics.  When I get time I'll re- attach if there is anything interesting.

Josh

The first two years of the forum, most members were advising other members to use external links and many used Picassa. When Picassa folded into google, all of the URL links changed and many of the members who posted in 2008 to 2010 that way no longer log in or even could, if they had the time, to update all of their links.

Currently, some members post something like "I saw this on eBay yesterday and it seems like a good price." and then post the eBay link or a tinyurl link to the auction. eBay links are good for about one month to several years depending on the sale price of the item. A $20 item link goes dead quickly, a $20,000 item can be up with images for years. The first delete the image and then some time later, remove the listing from the link. That's why I always grab at least a screen capture of the link only post and add it so years from now, someone reading the post will be able to see what was being discussed.

With external links, members can delete an image, cancel their account, have their account cancelled for non payment or the image hosting site going out of business on one way or another. All of those will end up with images missing from a post or reply on the forum.

I realize it is nice to put images in the middle of text when showing how to do something but if the images are gone, "nice" turns for frustration. It takes a bit more time to put a file name such as 1, 2, 3, and 4 for 4 images to be attached and then refer to each within the text as (see image 3), for example.

And with only 6 images per reply, sometimes it take two replies to get 9 or 10 images uploaded. Takes a bit more effort up front but what is created will be there for someone to read in 2025. Nothing more frustrating than to search for some obscure information, find it, click the link and find all the images missing, leaving the text meaningless.

Thanks for your understanding on this and if you ever have any questions or problems uploading images, send me a PM.