Picture Posting Instructions

Subject: Picture Posting Instructions Wed 31 Aug 2011, 1:51 pm

When users first join this fine forum, they almost always ask the question, "How do I post pictures on here?" After answering this question several times, I thought I'd make a thread to specifically cover the steps needed for new users to post pictures. I hope it helps users get started posting pictures. Here goes nothing...

The FAQ section of the forum covers the subject with minimal adequacy as follows:

Quote :: Can I post Images?
Images can indeed be shown in your posts. However, there is no facility at present for uploading images directly to this board. Therefore you must link to an image stored on a publicly accessible web server, e.g. http://www.some-unknown-place.net/my-picture.gif. You cannot link to pictures stored on your own PC (unless it is a publicly accessible server) nor to images stored behind authentication mechanisms such as Hotmail or Yahoo mailboxes, password-protected sites, etc. To display the image use either the BBCode [img] tag or appropriate HTML (if allowed).

So, what does that mean? In a nutshell, it means that no images are stored directly on the forums servers. That mean all users who wish to post pictures must utilize an external public server to store pictures. There are a lot of these available. The list below contains some of them, but most certainly does not represent all of them. I recommend a server that allows storage of both pictures and videos, just in case you happen to get some video during an event that you want to post.

Servimg - This is the default choice if you click the "Host an Image" button at the top of the "Post a Reply" pane. See figures 1 & 2. This server is OK, but it doesn't offer video storage capability, at least not that I have found.
Photobucket - This is a pretty popular choice for many on the forum. This one allows for storage of pictures and videos.
Picasa - Another server that is pretty popular. This one offers storage for pictures and videos. It also include some online picture editing and movie creation tools.
Flikr- This is another popular picture hosting site, particularly for photography enthusiasts and professional photographers. It offers photo and video storage as well.

Figure 1. Post a Reply Pane
Picture Posting Instructions Post%20a%20Reply

Figure 2. Host an Image Button

Figure 3. Image Button
Picture Posting Instructions Image

Now that you've gotten the background information, here's what you need to do to post pictures on the forum.

Establish an account with an image hosting service like those listed above. Have that account and the picture(s) you want to post open on your web browser.
In a separate browser window (or tab), start a new thread or reply to an existing thread from this forum.
When you are ready to post your picture(s) you have 4 alternatives. All will involve copying and pasting the image location from your image hosting site. (a) You can either click the "Host an Image" button (See Figure 2). Be sure to use the url option if using anything other than servimg as your image hosting site. (b) You can click the Image button (See Figure 3). (c) You can copy and past the image location in between the bbs code text "[img][/img]" (Example: [img]hxxp:myimagevault.com/user/dsc0001.jpg[ /img]). (d) Finally, you can just copy and paste a link only directly into the post a reply pane.
If you are just going to copy and paste links, you can also just copy and paste the location of the entire album. This is commonly practiced on the forum and is very quick and easy means of getting all users to all your pictures and videos.

It really is just that simple. The worst part is actually deciding on and setting up the image hosting site. If I have missed anything, or if anybody has any suggestions on other picture posting methods I didn't cover, please add them to this thread so all users can benefit from the information.

Happy posting! cheers