Question for the Forum - Pictures

Cheetah · Post by **Cheetah** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 6:11 pm

I was just thinking, since photos of ourselves and our dogs seem to be quite popular, and pictures get lost quickly in a thread that becomes 15-20 pages long, that maybe we could have a separate section for posting pictures. All the other forums I go to, whether they are breed-specific, strictly training forums, or just all around dog forums, have a separate section for posting your photos, and those sections are very successful and get a lot of traffic.

So what do you think?

emmabeth · Post by **emmabeth** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 7:59 pm

I think its a good idea, but its up to Board Host to do (I am but a lowly mod.. *tugs forelock and looks 'umble* and do not have the special powers

).

The only reason I set up the sticky thread was to save the whole of the general chat area being cluttered with 'how do i post...' queries, with the sticky thread the instructions are on thefirst page.

I do take your point that the thread is now very long, but as I say - its up to Board Host.

Cheetah · Post by **Cheetah** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 8:28 pm

Oh, alright. Thanks! Does that mean that nobody minds individual photo threads in the general area until the admin decides what is best? I'm a picture buff and I just LOVE to post photo threads about my dogs LOL. >^^;<

emmabeth · Post by **emmabeth** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:34 am

Go for it, I dont see any reason why not

Paul&Muttley · Post by **Paul&Muttley** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:47 am

One thing to consider is that some of us (like myself) are still using a dial-up internet connection, and large photos take a long time to download. Also, if they have not been properly sized, they sometimes appear huge and detract from the general appearance of the thread. I use a photo editor that came with my computer to resize my photos to about 640x 480 pixels, and that is generally about right for most displays. I also save them in JPG format with moderately low quality (about 40%-60%), which results in files that are about 50k in size, down from the 300-400k that are default for my 1.3 MPixel camera. Newer cameras are often much higher resolution and files are over 1 MB.

For instance, this is a picture of Muttley looking a bit sad, outside of his kennel, not long after I rescued him. It is a 59k image that should take about 10 seconds to download on dialup:

Here is a 32k image of me holding Muttley on a perhaps too-tight leash while he exchanges proper doggie greetings with an Anatolian, Max, who is about twice his size:

And here is a 106k image of Muttley on one of the trails on the back part of my property, near the stream:

I agree that images really dress up a post, and each one tells a thousand words. I have my own web space, so I can just FTP my images there and store them and use them here. If anyone cares to have people look at many more images, it is best to post a link to where they are stored, such as: http://www.smart.net/~pstech/Muttley/ or http://www.smart.net/~pstech/Lucky/

Perhaps the board host may suggest a storage area where members may upload their files. And thumbnails, such as the one in my sig, are good for showing lots of images without wasting bandwidth or causing long downloads on dialup. Mine is a mere 12k:

Noobs · Post by **Noobs** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:06 am

I posted a screenshot on this thread about how to use a free photo hosting site like photobucket.com:

http://www.victoriastilwell.com/phpBB2/ ... php?t=3880

Paul&Muttley · Post by **Paul&Muttley** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:54 am

I was wondering why you posted a link to a thread about eggs

, but then I found the information. The only problem with some sites like Photobucket is that their ads also appear. But if that happens, I found a way around that. When you have the photo you want displayed in explorer, click on the View|Source menu selection to look at the HTML code. If you search for ".jpg" you will find the URL for the picture itself. But your post showed an image of the main page (perhaps it was a screenshot), and other images were just pictures. So maybe it is not necessary, at least for Photobucket. There are many of these services out there.

I just prefer to have my own unrestricted web space where I can set up multiple websites and store images or any kind of files. But then I am a geek...

Noobs · Post by **Noobs** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 11:00 am

I have my own site too, but for the purposes of this forum I just prefer to use photobucket because it gives me the IMG tags fast and I don't have to type it out by hand like I would for my own site. I'm lazy like that.

Cheetah · Post by **Cheetah** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:20 pm

I don't see how slower connections will make photos any more difficult to view in their own separate forum than they are to view here in the general forum. And besides, if there is a thread with a bunch of gigantic photos, I thought it was customary to put "Warning - Image Heavy" on the outside of the thread.

Also, Photobucket doesn't give you ads if you just hotlink the photos, and that way nobody has to visit the actual Photobucket website. They allow that and even provide you the code for hotlinking just the image (the codes for each image are provided right under each thumbnail). All the images I post here and use on my av and sig are hosted by Photobucket.

I honestly don't think there's a need for the forum here to create a storage space for our photos, although they can if they want to. If they do, I'll continue to use Photobucket so I don't have to use up space on this forum. >^^;<

Noobs · Post by **Noobs** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:49 pm

For everyone's convenience and so they don't have to read the Eggs thread

here's a screenshot of photobucket after you upload your photos. Circled is the code you need to copy and paste to this board in order for the photos to come out.

And conveniently, a nice photo of Murphy to boot.

Post by **BoardHost** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 11:30 pm

Thanks to everyone for the requests and info. FYI, we're working on a forum re-design that will accomodate such threads specifically. In the meantime, feel free to create placeholder threads as such - we'll move them to the appropriate place once the redesign is complete.

Thanks!

Paul&Muttley · Post by **Paul&Muttley** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:04 am

It is wonderful that you plan to upgrade the site with even better and easier mechanisms for inserting photos and enhancing the appearance of the threads. It is already one of the best formats I have encountered, and it is great that even more improvements are on the way. Thanks for a very useful tool to promote communications among dog owners and trainers of every level of expertise.

Just please don't fix it so much that you break it!

The AOL CBB board used to be a good place to post and it allowed the insertion of pictures, but the last time I looked it was overloaded with graphics that detracted from the content, greatly slowed download time on dialup, and wasted bandwidth. They closed the forum a few months ago and many regulars transferred to RPDB and here. And this is a much better place.

Cheetah · Post by **Cheetah** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:38 am

Yay, it's great that we will have a picture section later on! Thank you! >^_^<