I understand it is possible to automatically resize photos on forums like these. This is where someone embeds a link to a picture which is over a certain size and the 'forum' automatically resizes it so it doesn't stretch the page in an ugly manner. I think this would be useful for people who forget to resize or who don't know how to.

like 3000-pixel-wide out of focus photos?

I agree, this is a needed feature.

This would be a very good idea to make a reality.

I should also add that where I have seen it you can then click on the photo to get the full size version.

Testing...

Sandy

Testing 2...

Sandy

Another test.

Hopefully the final test of attaching images...

Placed inline.

Sandy

Linking to images:

Small:


Large:

So, I've tweaked the settings a little (threads like this one would have been prevented), but it seems that as long as we allow the IMG tag, messages can still stretch the forum (as seen above). Personally, I like the idea of getting rid of the IMG tag. If all images were uploaded to TwistyPuzzles.com as message attachments, we wouldn't get any NEW stretching (the old ones remain unchanged), and we'd stop getting the situation where the images basically ARE the message but since the images are long gone from where ever they were hosted, the thread is now useless.

Sandy

Photobucket has an automatic resizer when you upload. It is very handy. It can reduce to a variety of sizes. From 1024x768 to 100x75.

I use the "Medium" setting, which is 320x240, which looks something like....


or


as opposed to:

or


It seems that if people used a tool like this, the problem would be solved. It takes NO time to auto resize once you have the setting applied.

It seems I haven't been clear enough.

When you attach images to your message (using the "Upload attachments" section of the message posting form), large images are resized nicely, viewers can click to see the full size version, and everything works out fine. You have the option of simply attaching the images (in which case they will appear at the bottom of your message), or you can "inline" them using the [ attachment ] BBCode after you upload it to get them to appear within the body of your message. (See my message "Hopefully the final test of attaching images" above for examples of both.)

However, if you chose to use the [ IMG ] BBCode, you can stick in the URL to whatever image you want. The image is not hosted on this server, so it isn't being stored and resized for display. (See my message "Linking to images" above for examples.)

Getting rid of the [ IMG ] BBCode tag solves this problem. People wanting to post images that are hosted elsewhere will have to download them to their computer first, then upload them to this forum as message attachments (and include a photo credit?). Which is basically what Photobucket is doing, for example.

Thoughts?

Sandy

Uploading to the site is the solution, but I wouldn't want to lose my {img} ability because some people can't re-size their photos.

Hmmm. Let me try again.

Image Attachments:
- required for posting images that are not yet on the internet
- less convenient for posting images from other websites (requires downloading to your computer, then uploading to TwistyPuzzles)
- automagically resizes if required, shows a thumbnail which can be clicked to view the fullsize version
- saves the image on the server for all time
- can be placed "inline" (within the body of your message), or simply left at the end of the message

[ IMG ] BBCode:
- can be used to easily post images that are already somewhere on the internet
- cannot be resized: a wide image will mis-shape the forum design as seen above
- not copied to TwistyPuzzles.com, image may become unavailable at some future point
- can be placed inline

Sandy

I prefer if people upload their photos intead of linking to offsite ones because I often read this site from work. Many photo hosting sites such as photobucket are blocked for me so I can't currently see Caphits' photos. I never really understoon why people use photobucket instead of uploading pictures directly here. I made a post in the new puzzles section two days ago with some attached photos that I uploaded and the resizing worked wonderfully.

In the past, it was very easy to adjust almost everything by using the html code.
Is there any chance of doing so in the future. or at least something similar?




Pantazis

I dont know why, but it just seems really inconvenient for me to upload a pic to the forum, even though it really IS easy.

Also, I think it is very convienient to be able to just copy the link to a pic, and just repost that link here, which uses [img] tags.

This is another of my daft questions, but how do you post an image to the forum if you don't use the IMG button?
I can't move any of "measurements" pictures because if I do they will be gone forever.

And another one, As I'm typing this, I notice that there is a huge amount of space to the right.
I have hit the enter key at the end of each line so this doesn't have to be scrolled over to read.
I really hate having to do that.

you type (without any spaces) [ i m g ] your host url here [ / i m g ]



Thats why large pictures annoy so many people.

First, you attach the image using the "Upload attachment" section of the "post a new message" form. Click browse to select the file from your local computer (if it's an online picture, you'd have to download it first), then click "Add the file". Now the image will be displayed as an attachment at the bottom of your message. It is saved on TwistyPuzzles, so the image will always remain with the message. Also, once you've attached an image to your message in this way, look directly beneath the textbox where you type your message for a new dropdown called "Place inline". Select the picture in the dropdown, put the cursor where you want the picture to go, then click "Place inline". Using this feature, you move the picture from the bottom of your post to whereever you choose in your post.



That's exactly what we're trying to fix here! This thread was purposely made "wide" as an example of what we're attempting to fix. If we get rid of the [IMG] tag, it won't be just getting rid of the button, it'll be getting rid of the IMG bbcode functionality. Doing this means people can only ever ATTACH images (as described above), and that the forum will never get misshapen like this thread has been, requiring all the scrolling back and forth just to read the text.

Sandy

...

This is just a wallpaper from a windows xp theme I downloaded, but it won't stretch the page.



And there are other colors, too!





Just, imagine this was about a new cube mod with multiple angle shots.

Would it be possible to add a feature to the upload image attachment part, where you can just put in a URL to the image, if it's an image that happens to be on a webserver rather than your hard drive? After all, we gotta move with the times -- local storage is going out of fashion.

I've added the new custom BBCode: ImgPix. It's the same as the old Img tag (which also still exists), but you can now specify the width in pixels. This will make it very easy for a user or a mod to edit offending IMG tags to resize an image that is too big for the forum.

I took one of the larger images above and posted it using the new [imgpix] tag with various specified widths. This code:



Displays this:







Sandy

Okay, solved. See here.

I'm going to fix up those images using the ImgPix BBCode now so this thread isn't so broken!

Sandy

Cool, now I can do crazy stuff like this!

Hi

There's another point not mentioned (i guess - i been skimming this). Why not have an option where pictures uploaded directly to this site will be resized to fit the normal thread page width (if too big). This would save some storage space as well as making slightly faster rendering of the pages. My main concern was to minimize the storage space of pictures though

Per

I like that they get thumbnailed a bit and you can still choose to see a larger image. As an example, here is a 3000x200 pixel image of, well, nothing really, but it'll get thumbnailed and can get expanded in a new window/tab.


Lorum ipsum is pretty cool.

The new IMGPIX code is really nice, but people are already using it in the wrong way! Check out this topic. You can see how they used the IMGPIX code to make thumbnails for their odd 20+ 2000x2000 pixel images. This took me ages to load (and made my computer really, really slow).

Sandy, you know that resizing images on the client side is bad and what advantages resizing images for real has. After seeing what this guy did I'd rather just get rid of the IMGPIX because this is ridiculous. Or at least limit the amount of times it can be used in a single post.

If you are going to post a load of very large pictures, you need to make real thumbnails and not use HTML to do that. Remember, there are people still on dail up on this forum. I'm not and it even took me ages to load it. And think of all the people with a pay per kilobit mobile thingy.

I'm already a terrible forum member.

I went and changed that. I wasn't hip to how the imgpix worked exactly before, but I understand it better now.

This is a great feature. There should be something like this forced on people who use signatures that take up half the screen.

Don't feel sorry. It was a rant towards the feature being there, you were just an example of how it could trigger 'misuse'.

On a topic not unrelated to this thread, I wanted to try putting in photos direct from Flickr, but Flickr stipulates that pictures on other websites should link back to Flickr itself, ie (the equivalent of)

, or in BBCode terms
However, that results in:

Supercube stickers

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/corruptedjasper/3386299332/]

[/url]

In other words, [url] doesn't work when it's around [img]. This may be something common to phpBB or it may be that something broke in your mods to [img]. Either way, could you look into this and see if there's an easy way to fix it? If not, I guess I'll be sticking to photobucket (or violating Flickr's terms of use).

That's weird, because it worked fine for me here:http://twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=12998

It's from the line break before the img tag. Just do it all on one line.









[url=http://www.google.com]

[/url]

[url=http://www.google.com]

[/url]

Without line breaks:


Well, hot diggety. That does indeed work. I was wondering what the heck I was missing.