Posting images in threads (1 Viewer)

Status
Not open for further replies.

mjp

Founding member
NOTE: This applies to old forum software. You no longer have to go through this misery to post an image.

---

You probably realize that you can link to an image anywhere on the web and have it show up in most of the threads here. But if you look at some of the older threads, you can see that a lot of the images are missing, which kind of defeats the purpose of sticking an image in there in the first place. Not to mention making the thread hard to follow.

The images disappear because people move them, delete them, photo sharing sites go away, accounts expire, etc., and as a result we suffer from what the kids call "link rot."

But there is a way to make sure the images you add will always be there, and that is to add them as attachments. If you look around you will see that some of the cool kids already add image as attachments.

Here's how you can do it too: when you start a new thread, reply to a post or quote a post you will see a "Manage Attachments" button below the main text box.


attach1.gif


If you click that, it opens up the groovy window below. From this magic window you can pull a file from your computer of enter a URL to the picture you want to use (just like you might when embedding a picture in a post the normal, boring, link rot way).

Once you have successfully attached a file it will show up in the groovy window under "Current Attachments," as you can see below.


attach2.gif


Note: If you use the "Upload File from a URL" method and link to an image from an album here on the forum, the attached image in your post will die if the album image is deleted. It's always best to upload an image from your computer when adding an attachment.

Now just close the groovy window and submit the thread or post, and you should see this:


attach3.gif


You can stop right there if you'd like (or if you're tired from the gruelling process), and people will be able to see your image by clicking the link.


~~~~~


Or - if you are feeling ambitious, you can make the image magically appear in your post by doing the following.

In your post, right click the attachment link - the underlined bad-tattoo.jpg bit in the image above - and then left click the option to "Copy Link Location" (Firefox) or "Copy Shortcut" (Internet Explorer). That will copy the image address to your clipboard so you can use it in the next step (the clever among you will note that you also could have copied the link from the attachments pop-up window before you closed it).

Now click the edit button in your post. You have to do this right away, because your ability to edit a post disappears about 15 minutes after you make the post.

Click the image button in the post edit window and paste the URL you copied from your post into the box that pops up (right click in the box, select "Paste").


attach5.gif


Now the link should be inserted in your post wrapped in an IMG tag. Just hit Save and watch the magic happen:


attach6.gif


If you didn't fuck anything up, you should now see your attached image displayed in your post in all its glory:


attach7.gif


If it seems like a lot of work, it isn't. It's just clicking a mouse. Don't be so lazy. After you do it once or twice you'll be an expert and you can insert all kinds of unnecessary pictures of lolcats and bad tattoos, and they will stick here in the forum forever, even if the meanies who run the site you stole them from shut down or move to Panama to live a real life.
 
So typically, how many lolcat pictures per post are considered unnecessary? Are we talking, like... 12? 20?

I'll go with 20...
 
There's a limit, but I don't know what it is without checking. But really, can you ever have too many lolcats? I think not.
 
The above doesn't exactly appy to the new version of the forum software so I'm going to cover the new method.

First, to attach a file you need to use the 'Go Advanced' button when you're posting. The button used to attach files still features the familiar paper clip icon:
attach.png


With the new Manage Attachments window, you can either re-use a previously uploaded attachment by dragging it from the upper window to the lower window:
Image3.png


Or you can upload a new file with the Add Files button:
Image1.png
Image2.png

The Attach Inline button will make a link to the attachment appear in the text body of the post.
Image4.png


To get the link or URL of the image you need to preview the post first. Links to the attachments appear at the end of the preview.

So if you want to make an image appear in the post, preview your post, and right-click the link to the attachment and copy the link location. That's the link you need for the insert image feature.
insertimage.png


Clear as mud?


Hope that covers it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top