Can We Make It Easier to Post FORUM Pics?

[+pgrig]

I was just noticing (again) that many newcomers to our pages have difficulty figuring out how to post pictures in the Forum. I myself get all tangled up trying to do this, which if I recall involves "spoofing" the image as part of one's "avatar."

 

In contrast, it's super-easy to post images while logging benchmarks.

 

Couldn't we find a way to make a similar easy approach available to folks on the Forum?(like a button that appears after you post text and says "Post Image")?

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

I was just noticing (again) that many newcomers to our pages have difficulty figuring out how to post pictures in the Forum. I myself get all tangled up trying to do this, which if I recall involves "spoofing" the image as part of one's "avatar."

 

In contrast, it's super-easy to post images while logging benchmarks.

 

Couldn't we find a way to make a similar easy approach available to folks on the Forum?(like a button that appears after you post text and says "Post Image")?

 

Sure. And here is a link that explains it all with a picture.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Shirley~

[+pgrig]

Shirley, it was your info that enabled me to eventually get my Forum images up, and thanks for that, but what I meant to say was that this procedure seems to me to be way too convoluted, and confuses many of us, even after reading your instruction.... There's get to be an easier way!

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

Shirley, it was your info that enabled me to eventually get my Forum images up, and thanks for that, but what I meant to say was that this procedure seems to me to be way too convoluted, and confuses many of us, even after reading your instruction.... There's get to be an easier way!

 

OK, maybe this link to GCs answer to this question might help?

 

There is no easier way than that. If you want to make a suggestion as to how to make it easier, then you should go the Geocaching.com Web Site forum and start a thread as to a "feature request". That would be the only way to change how they are willing to work things that are now "As Per Groundspeak".

 

Shirley~

[AZcachemeister]

I don't think they would want to change the way photos are dealt with here in the forums.

 

'The forum' is a software purchased from a third party vendor, and slightly customized by grroundspeak for our/their needs. It's a completely text-based program, and as stated on the old 'transfer page', completely separate (on a different 'machine' from all the other benchmarking/geocaching/Waymarking stuff).

 

There is no capability to store images written into the program.

 

When you upload a photo to a geocache or benchmark, it gets cataloged and categorized and stored on the image server. I daresay most of the photos that get posted here are already on that server, so another upload (even if it were possible)would just (needlessly) duplicate what is already there.

 

Personally, I recommend posting 'additional' photos (photos you haven't already included in your benchmark note) to a note on one of your archived or unpublished caches. If you don't have one, make one!

[+Black Dog Trackers]

I was just noticing (again) that many newcomers to our pages have difficulty figuring out how to post pictures in the Forum.

...here is a link that explains it all with a picture.

I myself get all tangled up trying to do this, which if I recall involves "spoofing" the image as part of one's "avatar."

 

Alternatives for posting a picture in the forum (all require your picture be uploaded to the web first):

 

1. The avatar method is one alternative.

 

2. The method of using an archived cache or unpublished cache space that AZcachemeister mentioned is another alternative. I don't know what an archived cache or an unpublished cache are and don't know how to use them for this purpose. Maybe someone can explain this. I assume it involves making a new geocache just to make a storage place to put pictures. I've never made a new geocache, unpublished, archived, or regular.

 

3. Making a waymark for the marker in the U.S. Benchmarks category.

 

4. Publish your picture in a free picture hosting website. I did this for an experiment here. In this experiment, I used www.tinypic.com. After over a year, the picture still shows. Certainly this is long enough to answer or finish with the usual question - "I found a benchmark, it isn't in the database, can anyone tell me anything about it.".

 

I guess I could gather a bunch of current free picture hosting websites and write about them here, posting the same benchmark picture on each for another experiment.

 

I agree that alternative #1 has several steps and could be confusing and #2 might involve even have more steps.

I recommend #3 because, although it also involves some steps to do (making a waymark), at the end of the process, instead of just a picture, you have a complet log of your find, with the coordinates you got from your GPS receiver, your pictures, and your description of it.

 

The very simplest method, though, is to use a free picture hosting site, and although we don't know how long it will last, it will be more than enough time to finish asking the question, and get answers based on the picture. At the end of all that or alternatives #1 and #2, if you don't use #3 above, then you still have no log of it, only some forum posts.

[+Harry Dolphin]

2. I archived one of my caches when the city completely rebuilt the park. It's a great place to post lots of strange pictures! And easy to do. I aso have several geocoins/trave bugs that have disappeared. It's also easy to post photos on them. I wouldn't create an unpublished cache, but I know of several people who have, mostly for storing trackables. You go to the 'upload photo' screen and upload it. Right click on the photo, go to properties, and copy that url. (You used to be able to copy it from the top of the screen, but that doesn't work anymore.)

3. I found whymarking to be a very cumbersome site to use. To go through that for each new benchmark would discourage me very quickly!

4. I've never felt the need for a free pictue posting website. But lots of people do, and it works well. I use geocaching.

[+Black Dog Trackers]

It is true that establishing a waymark has a few dropdown menu items (most of which are optional) and therefore takes a few more seconds than logging a benchmark in the geocaching benchmark site (which has 2 dropdown menus), but then most benchmarks waymarked have no coordinates, no description, no stamping, no agency identified, no go-to information, etc. so the idea is to supply these things since they aren't already done for you by the NGS.

 

Certainly it could be said that finding a benchmark that isn't in the NGS/Geocaching database is neither fun nor interesting, and doing a log for it is simply a thankless chore. However, others feel that all of it is fun - finding a benchmark, especially after specifically looking for one in a likely place such as an old post office building, an old bridge, BM on a topo map, is a thrill, and establishing your find on the internet with a picture or two is part of the fun of the finding of it.

 

I was looking for some more free picture posting websites like tinypic but all the ones I saw today required login names, etc.

[AZcachemeister]

So, although one has many options for WHERE to upload the image on the interweb, the point still remains that in the forums, you can only LINK to an existing image that has been uploaded elsewhere (unless you are brave enough to set your own computer up as a webserver! )

[+pgrig]

We seem to be branching out on this thread!

 

What I had originally hoped was that GC.com could make it as easy to post images in threads as they have made it to illustrate BM logs--by hitting a button marked "Add Image" or equivalent.

 

I got it that this would be a problem if the server serving the Forums didn't have the space to store images (and they couldn't arrange to have these stored elsewhere in their vast IT space ).

 

So I guess my real question is, "Who do I nudge at GC.com to see if we can get some images server space assigned to our Forum?" (I would think that we benchmark hunters would have more occasion to use images to ask each other for advice and inputs on our work than would, for example, cache hunters.)

 

Do I have a chance here, or should I just drop it?

 

-Paul

[+Black Dog Trackers]

pgrig -

 

I certainly agree that there should be some 'personal' or 'forum' space on the Groundspeak server for uploading pictures for the forum to link to. I'm sure all of us here in the benchmark section would agree that we work on a lot of technical problems here in the benchmark forum that are visual in nature. It seems silly to have to use free sites, spoof the avatar section, or use fake or archived geocache spaces, and take all the extra steps to do so.

 

I think that, until you get an answer or at least an acknowlegment of the issue from Groundspeak, you should not drop it. The problem is to get their attention on this request - perhaps none of them have read this thread yet. If no answer shows up here after a while, you could try emailing them. From experience, it may take some weeks to get an answer.

[+pgrig]

OK. No problemo, BDT.

 

Whom should I email?

[southpawaz]

One other option for storing images on Groundspeak: Buy one of the many nice benchmark geocoins available. Activate said geocoin, and then upload your images to its page.

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Whom should I email?

Groundspeak.

[Wintertime]

I got it that this would be a problem if the server serving the Forums didn't have the space to store images (and they couldn't arrange to have these stored elsewhere in their vast IT space ).

As "AZCachemeister" said, it isn't a matter of storage space, but the capabilities of the IP.Board software that Groundspeak is using for these forums. "There is no capability to store images written into the program."

 

Patty

[AZcachemeister]

One other option for storing images on Groundspeak: Buy one of the many nice benchmark geocoins available. Activate said geocoin, and then upload your images to its page.

 

Why didn't I think of that?

 

Seems as if we all have the capability to create our own upload space, if we choose to.