Picture posting woes

[MN Dave]

Okay. You can see it and so can I. But I have thousands of pics and am not keen on transferring them (time + aggravation) to yet another hosting site. As I recall, there have been complaints about Photobucket as well: lost files, etc. This is the only website I frequent with this sort of constant trouble, and I've had issues not only with photos but with poofed content and having to log in repeatedly when it says I'm already logged in. At times, it's like swimming upstream in a river of sh*t.

This is far from an isolated incident. When the Forum was new, a terabyte cost a lot more than it does today. Why can't Woodenboat support a group that consists largely of paying subscribers with some storage space? Failing that, why not direct users to use one or more of the free image hosting sites that don't require an account to post images? possibly: <<EDIT -- removed suggested site -- image search found inappropriate content. >>

As a technically recalcitrant OF, I don't have any stored images, hence no personal experience to relate. There appear to be a number of options readily available:
https://www.thebalance.com/top-free-...bsites-1357014
https://www.thebalance.com/imgur-review-1357009[/QUOTE]

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Storage is not the issue - that is almost free these days - but bandwidth costs so I can understand why Wooden boat would be reluctant to host our photos.

Those terribly nice people at google give you quite a lot of space - free - with Google Photos - and all the pics on my phone automatically upload when WiFi is available (so it doesn't hit my mobile data plan).....



One of the nice things is that I don't have to wally about moving pictures from Phone to Computer to PhotoBucket and hence to WBF.

There's a premium (you have to pay) service which allows unlimited resolution pictures in very large quantity - the keen photographic sprog uses this as backup for his (Large) collection of pictures.

[The Bigfella]

Storage is not the issue - that is almost free these days - but bandwidth costs so I can understand why Wooden boat would be reluctant to host our photos.

Those terribly nice people at google give you quite a lot of space - free - with Google Photos - and all the pics on my phone automatically upload when WiFi is available (so it doesn't hit my mobile data plan).....



One of the nice things is that I don't have to wally about moving pictures from Phone to Computer to PhotoBucket and hence to WBF.

There's a premium (you have to pay) service which allows unlimited resolution pictures in very large quantity - the keen photographic sprog uses this as backup for his (Large) collection of pictures.

Worked the first time I looked... gone now. I'll stick with Smugmug

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Yeah - the share from google works well into some browsers - and badly into others....

Not the whole answer.

[Tom Christie]

I love photos.
"A picture tells a thousand words" or more!!
To be unable to easily post pics on this forum is a huge distractor for me.
Any forum that doesn't make it easy to post pictures sucks.
Forums should address this issue and make it E A S Y.
Just seems a no-brainer to me, but what do I know...

[Breakaway]

On the computer, I simply open another tab in my browser, go to the image I want ( must be on the web, not my hard drive), and drag and drop the image from that other window into the Forum post. Done.

On the phone and tablet, I use the Tapatalk app, which has a function to upload images directly from the device's memory. Just tap the button, select the image, publish the post.

Kevin

Kevin

[The Bigfella]

I love photos.
"A picture tells a thousand words" or more!!
To be unable to easily post pics on this forum is a huge distractor for me.
Any forum that doesn't make it easy to post pictures sucks.
Forums should address this issue and make it E A S Y.
Just seems a no-brainer to me, but what do I know...

The distractor for me is the picture hosting websites. Sony closed Imagestation some years ago and thousands of photos I had on this and other forums disappeared. I found that somewhat annoying and, ten or more years on, still avoid buying anything made by Sony (with some minor exceptions... eg some movies).

Photobucket was good... and I purchased their extra bandwidth option - about $30 a year because I had around 10,000 photos hosted there. Then their IT went to ****. I still pull some of my images from there, but almost prefer to re-host them, the Photobucket experience is so bad. Their ads slow things down.

I now use Smugmug - and pay about US$60 a year from memory. Great site. Easy uploads. Easy to bring here, or elsewhere. Right click - copy image. Bring here - paste.

Youtube is pretty easy too. I've got plenty of material on there.

[Chip Chester]

Third-party hosts going out of business -- or even changing slightly their API -- can really trash a thread. Happens often, and folks have either moved on, or it's too complex to re-do all the links. Either way, the site loses. Pics should be hosted on-site, and the site should have a method of re-sizing as appropriate. This site does it well: http://www.lazydazeowners.com/index.php?action=forum with a drag-and-drop upload of pics or other allowed filetypes. (Have to register to see it, though.) Similar auto-sizing things available for xenforo, and probably this software as well.

Chip

[Desert Rat]

I wonder if the forum switched to a different mode if all photos from previous would transver into the new format. Or would it just leave a bunch of empty placeholder icons. Perhaps switching at this point would be too damaging and traumatic?

[Tom Lathrop]

There is a very simple and cheap solution used by many FREE websites and Woodenboat should get grief from all of us paying customers for not updating this old beast.

[Pitsligo]

As a non-paying member of Classic Campstoves (CCS), where photos are hosted by the site for free, the WBF site is a first-class PITA --I post here despite the site, not because of it. I use Flckr, a free site, but I don't store anything there that I'm afraid of losing; the tales of woe from here on this forum are enough to keep me cautious.

I can also say that a couple years ago CCS changed to a completely different piece of forum software and all the previous photos transferred straight across. From my point of view, it was seamless. (The webmaster, a busy and dedicated gentleman, may have another opinion of the transition.) WBF could take more than one lesson from CCS.

Alex

[MN Dave]

I wonder if the forum switched to a different mode if all photos from previous would transver into the new format. Or would it just leave a bunch of empty placeholder icons. Perhaps switching at this point would be too damaging and traumatic?

As far as I know (not very far) the past images are links that would not change. The text includes HTML code that is not displayed.

The code that tells the computer to display an image is IMG in square brackets followed by the url for the image and then /IMG in square brackets again. If WB provided an image storage location, the images would be downloaded there in any new posts instead of linking to their original locations. How automatic that would be, I have no idea.

[tink]

On the computer, I simply open another tab in my browser, go to the image I want ( must be on the web, not my hard drive), and drag and drop the image from that other window into the Forum post. Done.

On the phone and tablet, I use the Tapatalk app, which has a function to upload images directly from the device's memory. Just tap the button, select the image, publish the post.

Kevin

Kevin

Agree Tapatalk never fails - I'm using an iPad

[MN Dave]

The issue is not whether you can link easily to a third party image on the web, nor is it that you can link to your own stored images on an image hosting site. The problem with the third party sites is that those images are totally uncontrolled by either the poster or the forum. Even when you have stored images on an image hosting site, that site can be sold or changed. The addresses change and the images are lost to the forum. There are also difficulties that vary from one image hosting site to another. If I store an image on say 'Store Looser' that site can be sold, and the addresses change, so if I think that you might like to see them again, I have to find all of my posts with my images and fix the addresses one at a time. Not happening.

[Chip-skiff]

For WBF pics, I started using a free hosting site that's been around for a while: https://imgur.com

It's dead simple and free of popups and other crap (so far). And no one has complained about not being able to see the photos.

Recently, my browser tells me that the WBF Forum log-in is insecure because it's an http: site rather than an https:

[landlocked sailor]

Just go on the FB WB site problem solved

[Yeadon]

As a non-paying member of Classic Campstoves (CCS), where photos are hosted by the site for free, the WBF site is a first-class PITA --I post here despite the site, not because of it. I use Flckr, a free site, but I don't store anything there that I'm afraid of losing; the tales of woe from here on this forum are enough to keep me cautious.

I can also say that a couple years ago CCS changed to a completely different piece of forum software and all the previous photos transferred straight across. From my point of view, it was seamless. (The webmaster, a busy and dedicated gentleman, may have another opinion of the transition.) WBF could take more than one lesson from CCS.

Alex

There's a forum for Classic Campstoves! That kicks ass.

[pcford]

A good hosting service would solve this problem. Go to pair.com Check out shared hosting. Package #3 could handle 1.2 million downloads of 250kbyte image. More or less the size of a common image here. Cost? Less than twenty bucks a month.

Why is the management here not explaining what is going on!?

[Yeadon]

Why is the management here explaining what is going on!?

Why should they respond to poorly phrased questions? Slow down, wipe the spittle off your chin, and read what you write before posting, buddy.

[pcford]

Why should they respond to poorly phrased questions? Slow down, wipe the spittle off your chin, and read what you write before posting, buddy.

Talk to us Great Gods of WoodenBoat!

[pcford]

Why should they respond to poorly phrased questions? Slow down, wipe the spittle off your chin, and read what you write before posting, buddy.

Or, as we clueless suburban white kids like to say: WORD!

[jpatrick]

If WoodenBoat charged a fee for using this site, they might have an obligation to explain their management decisions. Since there is no fee......

Personally, I have no problem with this.

Jeff

[StevenBauer]

A good hosting service would solve this problem. Go to pair.com Check out shared hosting. Package #3 could handle 1.2 million downloads of 250kbyte image. More or less the size of a common image here. Cost? Less than twenty bucks a month.

Twenty bucks a month. For the 17 years I've been posting pics here that would be over four thousand dollars!

[PeterSibley]

A photo I just put up on Facebook.

[pcford]

Twenty bucks a month. For the 17 years I've been posting pics here that would be over four thousand dollars!

That's for Woodenboat (or whomever is running the server.) To host everyone.

Some strange comments here. The winning entry was the guy that described the forum software as "agricultural." I have no idea what that means.

[Tom Lathrop]

That's for Woodenboat (or whomever is running the server.) To host everyone.

Some strange comments here. The winning entry was the guy that described the forum software as "agricultural." I have no idea what that means.

Agreed PC and that is not something I always do. Is this really a free site or would it exist if there were not lots of paying customers for the magazine and its myriad of other offerings? Digital magazine, plans, adds, etc? All of us who spend with WB have a legitimate interest and what PC say is true. The cost to WB for making the forum as good as many others on the web is pitifully small. Even free sites offer photo hosting and loading from your hard drive. The horror stories of lost photos on some photo hosting sites is almost as bad as the scammers who lock up you computer for ransom. So yes again, PC is right. WB management does owe us an answer as to why the WB forum does not allow photo loading from your hard drive.

[Phil Y]

That's for Woodenboat (or whomever is running the server.) To host everyone.

Some strange comments here. The winning entry was the guy that described the forum software as "agricultural." I have no idea what that means.

Agricultural is the sort of engineering you get when a farmer has a good idea, and goes out into the shed and knocks something up from stuff lying around the farm, using nothing more than an angle grinder and a stick welder. Often sufficient to get the job done, but rarely elegant.

[PeterSibley]

Agricultural is the sort of engineering you get when a farmer has a good idea, and goes out into the shed and knocks something up from stuff lying around the farm, using nothing more than an angle grinder and a stick welder. Often sufficient to get the job done, but rarely elegant.

You talkin' 'bout me ?

[Yeadon]

Hey Pat, it's the same as when people call you a farmer.

[pcford]

Hey Pat, it's the same as when people call you a farmer.

Noting poster's provenance, it appears to be an Ozzy thing.

[Yeadon]

Organized or constructed in a crude or improvised manner. He says agricultural, others say farmer.

[pcford]

Organized or constructed in a crude or improvised manner. He says agricultural, others say farmer.

If you go away...I will make no mention of your boat painting technique.

[MN Dave]

A good hosting service would solve this problem. Go to pair.com Check out shared hosting. Package #3 could handle 1.2 million downloads of 250kbyte image. More or less the size of a common image here. Cost? Less than twenty bucks a month.
Why is the management here not explaining what is going on!?

Looking for pair.com, I found a review of free hosting sites, http://blogpros.com/blog/2016/03/host-blog-images-free that describes a little bit of some of the sites mentioned here and on the related thread about the Photobucket ransom debacle. It alludes to problems with Google + Photos being counterintuitive.

Imgur is starting to look good.

I have to agree that WB should comment.

[pcford]

Looking for pair.com, I found a review of free hosting sites, http://blogpros.com/blog/2016/03/host-blog-images-free that describes a little bit of some of the sites mentioned here and on the related thread about the Photobucket ransom debacle. It alludes to problems with Google + Photos being counterintuitive.

Imgur is starting to look good.

I have to agree that WB should comment.

"Free" image hosting can be turned off at any time.

[Canoeyawl]

It is problematic, we must remember the business here is the magazine. It is all ephemera anyway. The trick is going to be finding a new image hosting site.
It is a priviledge to be here and enjoy the forum and I would gladly pay a small fee to be a forum member, but note that in the beggining I wouldn't have.
And I know the bilge regulars are not going to make up the mortgage, they are the ones that want to use Elmer's glue and paper to build a Kayak!

A fee based forum would need to be done in the style of the pusher man, the first year is free... then, once you are hooked, Wham! "We wants the money"
That is the M.O. of Nihilists, photo-bucket, and the Epi-pen.

It is fine, we will adjust, and in the interim we shouldn't blame WoodenBoat for the greed of another corporation.
We should be apologizing for the problem, and thanking them for hosting the forum.