Forum problem - IMG tags broken & needs fixing.

[ExtraMedium]

Could something be done to make the IMG tags work correctly please?

It works in more or less every other forum I've ever seen. I'd imagine it's something trivial to fix. Lot's of image hosting paces even have cut and paste to set them up too (photobucket for one example), but that of course is of no use if it's not working as it should be.

[Noddy]

I think image tags have been disabled to prevent in-line images being posted - some people post naughty stuff on forums....

Why not install a proper gallery? there are half a dozen good one's just for VBulletin alone - photoplog and photopost being two of them, images could then be moderated, and IMG tag used to put pictures in posts.

I've run VB for about 5 years, and never had any problems using my sites own gallery, or Flickr/photobucket links come to that. All thats needed is good Admin/Moderators, and on-the-ball members who report bad things.

[Shamal]

We can upload photos directly using the manage attachments feature, up to 5 photos per post are allowed and at good size too. I don't think there is need for a dedicated gallery when photos can be attached to posts.

Regards,
Shamal

[Noddy]

We can upload photos directly using the manage attachments feature, up to 5 photos per post are allowed and at good size too. I don't think there is need for a dedicated gallery when photos can be attached to posts.

Regards,
Shamal

Thats as maybe, but it is not the ideal way to do it, attachments would usually be files, not images. A better viewing experience of threads, and more logical, is to have pictures shown in-line with the text.

The way this forum is set up, you have to leave the post you are reading to view images, if the IMG tag were allowed, like most forums, pictures would be shown in thread. A gallery also allows you to resize images - usually to 640 x 480 for posting in forums - so no large images to download.

Also, if IMG tag were enabled, photobucket etc could be used to host images, removing the need for a gallery, and also reducing bandwidth, as the load is on photobucket (or other image host's) servers.

[Shamal]

I'm sure those who run this forum will take your advice on board.

As I said, I like the way it is done at the moment and most seem happy enough that they can simply upload to a post and have the image as a clickable thumbnail. Image tags can cause problems for several reasons in my experience.
1: This site is at the mercy of an off-site host and therefore reliability of delivering the image is out of their hands
2: This site has no control over the physical size of an image hosted off-site, which can cause thread layout issues. It would be nice to think everyone knows the suitable size but that isn't the case.

3: People change and delete their off-site hosted images regularly so a photo displaying today may not be displaying tomorrow.

4: Some people are on slow connections, so threads can get bogged down whilst images are downloaded, and again there is no control over the size of these image files.

5: It can encourage leeching bandwidth from third-party websites.

If I look at a thread on here, it is my choice whether I open the thumbnail image and download the full photo and I can view the file size before doing so. I like it that way.

I think most of all, photography is just one minor aspect of this fun and happy forum. I think if it were a dedicated photography site, then a gallery may be worthwhile.

Regards,
Shamal

[ExtraMedium]

Of course this is all well and good but overlooks one basic set of facts; that being that the copyright of the photo belongs to the photographer, and in uploading to anywhere that is out of your control, you totally lose control of your own intellectual property.

Any forum electing to do that is going to discourage anyone who takes their rights in photography seriously. That is why it is not done this way on the majority of forum sites that make anything more than a perfunctory use of images.

It is also why the forum software has a perfectly adequate function to make it all work nicely, but which, in this case, has been disabled in what might appear to look like some sort of shortcut to putting in the required effort to make it work in the other respects raised.

In short it's much more about respecting the rights of IP owners, and much less about work-around techniques for dealing with hypothetical attackers. Anything else is much less attractive for an IP owner. It just boils down to a matter of properly observing professional courtesy really. Doing anything less is somewhat disingenuous and perhaps a little naive.

[Shamal]

I totally disagree with the above, and I sell photos and protect my copyright more than most.

I'm sure if you simply contact one of the forum leaders, they will remove your photo. No ones copyright is at stake here?
No one is forcing you to upload a photo here anyway. Besides, there are plenty of websites where you upload without having full control over the image at a later date, although most will remove upon request.

I can't understand all this negativity to what is a free and happy site.

Sorry but my advice, and this may well get deleted, is if you don't like it, don't use the site. There are plenty of other venues out there to display you treasured images.

Shamal

[ExtraMedium]

I totally disagree with the above, and I sell photos and protect my copyright more than most.

I'm sure if you simply contact one of the forum leaders, they will remove your photo. No ones copyright is at stake here?
No one is forcing you to upload a photo here anyway. Besides, there are plenty of websites where you upload without having full control over the image at a later date, although most will remove upon request.

I can't understand all this negativity to what is a free and happy site.

Sorry but my advice, and this may well get deleted, is if you don't like it, don't use the site. There are plenty of other venues out there to display you treasured images.

Shamal


OK, I'll not bother sharing any further "treasured images" as they're clearly not appreciated. How do I delete those I have posted? Oh, yes, I can't can I? I guess that illustrates the problem so anyone can see it really.

[magnuspullus]

A "Whinge" perhaps?

I am all for that old saying - "If it aint broke, don't mend it"

[ExtraMedium]

A "Whinge" perhaps?

I am all for that old saying - "If it aint broke, don't mend it"

Agree with that completely.

It's not that big a deal anyway, no one died and it's only about making a personal choice to prefer not to share a few images in that way now the implications are clear. Does not mean not using the forum at all or anything like that.

It was an old thread, posted originally in the spirit of spotting something that did not work, and with no explanation or warning, so it looked like a bug at that time, and was reported as a bug report. For 6 months or so it went seemingly un-noticed. Not sure why it came back to life really, that seems a bit odd in itself.

I'm sure we can all take away something newly learned from it, at very least. Probably time to move on I'd guess.

[Ollie]

I'm sure those who run this forum will take your advice on board.

As I said, I like the way it is done at the moment and most seem happy enough that they can simply upload to a post and have the image as a clickable thumbnail. Image tags can cause problems for several reasons in my experience.
1: This site is at the mercy of an off-site host and therefore reliability of delivering the image is out of their hands
2: This site has no control over the physical size of an image hosted off-site, which can cause thread layout issues. It would be nice to think everyone knows the suitable size but that isn't the case.

3: People change and delete their off-site hosted images regularly so a photo displaying today may not be displaying tomorrow.

4: Some people are on slow connections, so threads can get bogged down whilst images are downloaded, and again there is no control over the size of these image files.

5: It can encourage leeching bandwidth from third-party websites.

If I look at a thread on here, it is my choice whether I open the thumbnail image and download the full photo and I can view the file size before doing so. I like it that way.

I think most of all, photography is just one minor aspect of this fun and happy forum. I think if it were a dedicated photography site, then a gallery may be worthwhile.

Regards,
Shamal

These are essentially the reasons that I was about to post - the IMG tag is at present meant to disabled - it's not a bug. The main reasons for this are to try and maintain the images in line so old threads still make sense, and to give the end user the opportunity to load images when they want to see them. Whilst many people do have broadband nowadays, we still have to remember those that don't, or those that just like their pages to load very quickly like me! A thread full of images can take ages to load even on Broadband. As said before by Shamal, it also prevents ridiculously large photos being posted which break the thread layout.

I will however make sure this gets reviewed soon, but I feel it'll probably stay this way, at least for now.

Best Wishes,

Ollie

[Ollie]

Just to clarify a few points:

Of course this is all well and good but overlooks one basic set of facts; that being that the copyright of the photo belongs to the photographer, and in uploading to anywhere that is out of your control, you totally lose control of your own intellectual property.

Any forum electing to do that is going to discourage anyone who takes their rights in photography seriously. That is why it is not done this way on the majority of forum sites that make anything more than a perfunctory use of images.

You retain both control and intellectual property of your posts and photos. You can easily manage all of your attachments in your user control panel - just as easily as you can with any external provider. I can't see what the difference is.

http://www.cjwildlifeforum.com/profile.php?do=editattachments

About the only thing to be aware of with regarding our usage of the photos is that they get backed up with the rest of the site, but hopefully that's just common sense.

Thats as maybe, but it is not the ideal way to do it, attachments would usually be files, not images. A better viewing experience of threads, and more logical, is to have pictures shown in-line with the text.

This is entirely possible. Allow me to demonstrate:

I went for a walk.

728

It was very nice.

729 730

I went home again.

More than possible. Quick to load. Easy to view.