HEY!!!
This is for everyone asking about how to post pictures here on this forum. This is also to remind everyone that OG is no longer accepting the creation of new, individual albums here.

HOW TO POST PICTURES WITHIN A POST ON THIS FORUM

FIRST RULE!

For the love of God, PLEEEESE downsize your pictures!!!!

1023pixels X 687pixels is too freaking large for the board! It's also damn, downright inconsiderate to other members who have dial-up connections because for them it takes a painfully long time to load a page that has such a ginormous (or lots of ginormous) pictures on it.

Resize your pictures to at most - 640pixelsX430pixels. Every online album will give you an option to resize. They'll also tell you the number of pixels for each size. It's not rocket science. Take your time and use your head.

Okay, now that that's drummed home (hopefully), here's the basic instructions for posting pictures here:


First you must have your photo(s) in an existing, online photo album like Photobucket, Flickr, Picturetrail, etc. YOU CANNOT LOAD PICTURES HERE DIRECTLY FROM YOUR OWN COMPUTER. THEY MUST BE LOADED FROM AN OUTSIDE SOURCE.

From your outside album, click on the picture that you want to load here. Once you do that, you will be given the URL for that picture.

• Copy that URL.

• Come back here. Begin to make your post.

• In the message box there’s a green bar on top
with a bunch of squares.

• Click on the next to the last square.

• A little green box will open up that says:
“Image URL”.

• In the blank space that appears in that box
type - since pasting doesn't seem to always work - the URL you copied from your online album.

• You can choose to have your picture in any
position you want within your post. (“Align
Image”) Or not.

• Click “OK”.

• Finally, hit “Post Now”. Your picture will
appear within your post.

______________________________________________
NO MORE PHOTO ALBUMS ON OG
Since approximately September of 2008 the management of OG Forums' website is no longer permitting the creation of new photo albums. No reasons or explanations have been provided to the Forums' members for this action.

Existing photo albums, however, can still be viewed but no new photos can be added to those albums.

gardenz

So what do we do if we don’t own a photo-editing program?

Every site I have ever used before would reduce the pictures for me if they were too big.

I'm posting the following that was a post on our Backpacker forums made by thier Moderator which contains some helpful hints regarding photo posting and resizing. Hopefully it will be of some help.


One of the fun features of this new forum is the opportunity for members to post photos with messages. There are two options: a photo album (photos displayed with captions only), and messages illustrated with one or several images embedded.

Photos for web page display should be 72-dpi, no more. They should also be about 500 pixels (or less) by 500 pixels (or less); bigger is not better, and people with dial up connections will not enjoy waiting for lots of too-big files to download.

So where do these photos live?
Photos must already be on a server somewhere; you cannot upload to the Organic Gardening servers as you can with custom avatars. Popular (and free) options include:
Webshots (** -Hard to link pictures correctly!)
Photobucket. (****)
ImageShack (*****)

Once you have pictures uploaded to PhotoBucket:
COPY the URL of the thumbnail image...

Once you upload to ImageShack:
COPY the DIRECT LINK info under the image of your uploaded picture...

Come back to your Organic Gardening message and type in opening and closing IMG tags, then PASTE the URL between the tags, like this:

[IMG]http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/2604/cpnorthhs1.jpg[/IMG]

Do NOT use the"easy format" tabs! They won't do this correctly. TYPE the IMG tags by hand.

This results in my picture of the Carson Pass area (CA) being imported from ImageShack:


The photo isn't moved, it's just like a hole is punched in your message and the reader sees through it to a picture on another site! How cool is that?

Important: You are expected to do your part in controlling the sizes of photos! Use your own image editing software to crop, clean up, tweak, and size the photos before you load'em up. A JPG quality setting of 30 to 50 percent is really quite good. I have posted many photos 750 x 400 pixels that are only 50k files, and the quality is very good. The carson Pass photo is only 20k.

PC Users: Need photo editing software? Check PhotoPlus 6. It's free!

Mac users: your iPhoto app will handle this stuff.

Check these examples of files sizes...

Steve (forums.backpacker.com moderator)

*NOTE: I investigated ImageShack and found it to be the absolute easiest site to use, bar none. In fact it is so convenient and fast that I have started using it instead of my own web space.

Nearly every computer on the planet that runs Windows has Microsoft Paint already installed which can be used for quick editing and resizing. I've got a number of photo editing programs but still end up opening Paint to do a quick resize.

(Use the Images-> Stretch/skew" function.)

Wayne

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHGGGGG.This sounds really difficult.Where's the idiot button??
Mavis

quote:

Originally posted by littlefrog:
AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHGGGGG.This sounds really difficult.Where's the idiot button??
Mavis

No idiot button for you, Mavis. No way!!

If you don't have a photo application/program on your computer that can resize your pics, then you'll have to set up an album off site like some of the ones suggested. There, you can resize them to the proper OG-required size and then load them here into your photo album. **Check my post on Posting Images Within A Post. The same steps I listed there apply to resizizng & loading photos into a photo album here.

Uh, now that I think of it...
One of the main reasons for retooling OG's forums was to create the ability for members to upload their pictures and/or create their own albums. That's great. Even if they can't be any larger than a specific size. That's understandable. I mean, OG's got to have some limitations on their bandwith! But I was under the impression that OG/Groupee/Eve would automatically resize the pictures we upload from our own computers as so many other forums do. But, if we either don't have a photo resizing program on our computers or it just takes too much time (which is my case) then a person has to go offsite and create another album on, say, photobucket, flickr, picturetrail, etc. which will resize it for them. Seems a bit redundant and, like I said, extra work and time.

In other words, why should someone create an album here, if they only have to go somewhere else to create another album in order to load properly sized pictures here? Whuh?

Why then, wouldn't that person just create an album offsite and link it here, like many of us have been doing all along? Why do double-duty and go through twice the steps?

We now have the ability to post pics in our messages. Worth the changeover.



So, for instance, if I wanted to brag about how I decluttered my kitchen, I'd have to use hyperbole verbally... Right?

Elfie,
Is this the before or after picture? Bahahaha!!! (Sorry, I couldn't resist!)
Beautiful countertop btw!

AFTER.

quote:

Originally posted by gardenz:
Uh, now that I think of it...
If one of the main reasons for retooling OG's forums was to create the ability for members to upload their pictures and/or create their own albums right here...uh...then (correct me if I'm wrong - and I'm sure someone will)...then if you have to create an album elsewhere (because you don't have a photo application/program on your own computer) in order to resize your pics so that they'll "fit" on an OG album, then..uh....isn't that a bit counterproductive to the members' original request to make it easier for them by having album and pic loading capabilities right here?

As previously stated, Rodale no longer controls the programming on these forums. They were outsourced to Groupee so we are at the mercy of their feature set. That was a decision made by upper management and NOT the I.T. department.

I'm sorry, guys & gals. Please don't take my comments personally. I (nor most other members here) initially hadn't a clue as to who was going to be at the helm of this new ship.

No blame or aspersions are being cast on you folks there. I'm sure, now that you've been made aware of the varied problems and concerns of many members here, you're doing your very best and working overtime to help them out.

My comments about the photos and such still stand no matter who's at the helm. Groupee... Shmoopee. Whoever. (Boy, that's sure gonna jack up my Karma points, ain't it?) It still doesn't make any sense to go through double steps to downsize a pic to get it into an album on here. Once again, I'm fortunate that I do have the capability on my computer. But, if one doesn't have the software to edit on their own, then they can open a Flicker or Image shack or whatever account just as they would have before the switchover to the newly formatted forums. Still and all, the other bells and whistles are neat and it'll be fun fiddling w/the new toys for awhile.

It makes me sigh a bit, though. Cause based on your comments, it stinks for anyone to be at the mercy of some other entity's edicts. (Aren't we all, in a way, come to think of it?) But, that's the inherant problem w/outsourcing especially. Anyone who's ever called a tech support hotline or a customer service rep knows what I'm talking about.

Thanks for all your efforts, though.

BTW: If Rodale no longer controls anything here...then where does that leave Scott & Lee in the pecking order of who we contact w/questions or problems as so many of us have done in the past? They've always been so willing to jump in and advocate. Has our advocacy been outsourced, too?

Gardenz,

First, Thanks for your help while I was getting email set up.

Second, How do you learn all this stuff?

Third, I love your posts. They are always so well worded and helpful. Do you have to use a computer all day at work? Is that how you can do all this stuff so fast and so good? My heavens, I was one here for 2 hours before I even figured out how to generate a new post.

Sure wish I had your skills.

I can't make heads or tails of this album thing.

Thanks again,
lisaann

quote:

Originally posted by lisaann:
Gardenz,

First, Thanks for your help while I was getting email set up.

More than welcome, lisaann

quote:

Second, How do you learn all this stuff?

Trial and error and error and error and finally, some semblance of getting it correct. DH is an ardent reader of instructions and maybe by doing that he gets something mastered faster. Me? I'm notorious for NOT reading instructions. I much prefer to "get right in there and learn by the seat of my garden pants".Hah! May take me longer, but I get there. Besides, I've found over the years that if you work things through on your own as much as possible (and w/a little help from your friends - like when I was trying to set up my first webpage and learn the HTML coding and got so much help from people here) you tend to retain it better and longer. Learning things that way also allows me to tweak the rules and exact order of things (sometimes) so I can adjust what I've learned to suit my particular tastes and needs. One size, afterall, does NOT fit all!

quote:

Third, I love your posts. They are always so well worded and helpful. Do you have to use a computer all day at work? Is that how you can do all this stuff so fast and so good? My heavens, I was one here for 2 hours before I even figured out how to generate a new post.

Sure wish I had your skills.

Again, thank you.(*We're missing that "blushing icon" now that I could use it!). I love gardening, but writing is my first love. And when you write, you have to do research. Whether it's looking in books, on the Internet, or looking within yourself and your own personal life experiences. Fact is, though, even if I didn't write, I love to research anyway. Always have. Used to do it for real money at one time. When I can contribute along with others to answer someone's question, I usually learn something for myself in the process of researching that answer. Makes it doubly worthwhile then.

quote:

I can't make heads or tails of this album thing.

If you really want to get involved in setting one up, I'll be glad to help you with what I've learned so far about how it's done here on this website. I've got albums on other photo image sites, but learning and tweaking it on here is taking some getting used to. In the meantime, go to the post I made "Placing Images/Pictures Within A Post" and the steps there can be used when setting up an album here.

Hi gardenz,

I will read highlighted info, but remember, it took me 4 days to get back here and my son had to finally do it. I don't learn things on the computer very quickly, and I'd hate to waste your time if I can not do this stuff on the first try. You have so much valuable information and I don't want you to waste your time on an idiot such as myself. I will watch posts and read and try to learn. I have already ask too much. And no, I'm not feeling sorry for my shortcomings, I am thanking you!

lisaann