Lon
06-03-2011, 11:04 AM
Tomorrow morning, June 4th, I will open our all-new Avatar Forums Photo Gallery. It is an integrated permanent storage system for Avatar photography, images, illustrations; media of all sorts.
We will no longer make use of the "Albums" system that is built-into our forum. It performs poorly, and does a awful job of displaying the library.
I'll will encourage everyone to move their album images into the new photo gallery (at your convenience). I will also disable the ability to add any new photos into the old album system.
If you follow AvatarForums on Twitter, you got a sneak peek at the gallery yesterday. All others should wait until after mid-night tonight, when I'll enable the links and allow new media to be added.
It's no coincidence that the Avatar Forums Photo Gallery is opening on the same day as the Avatar exhibit in Seattle. I expect hundreds of photos to be uploaded into the gallery, and in fact, I've created a separate category just for them. :d
The gallery is also useful for storing artwork, illustrations, and photography that you wish to show off. Therefore I'm strongly discouraging links to personal images that are stored on other sites. The inherit problem with linking away to other media is that at some point, probably in the near future, for some unknown reason, the media will no longer be available.
Then the thread loses its usefulness because of the broken image links. Broken links are a huge problem for many communities, one I will not allow to plague us here on Avatar Forums. I want our community to be much better than everyone else, both technically and in the quality of our content.
I've anticipated your questions so let me share some insight with you.
Q. When adding a photo to my post, should I use the attachment system or the photo gallery?
A. Technically either is fine. However if you think you may want to add similar images later, use the gallery. Further if you would like to store your images in one central location, use the gallery.
Q. How do I move my images from the albums area into the photo gallery?
A. The simple method is to download them all (unless you still have them locally on disk). Then upload them into the photo gallery. I will be emailing everyone who has images stored in the album system and encouraging them to move them into the photo gallery.
Q. Do I have to upload each image, one at a time into the gallery?
A. Actually you can ZIP compress several images together, and upload the ZIP file. The photo gallery will decompress the ZIP file and add the images to the gallery. Please keep your ZIP files under 8 MB in size otherwise the gallery will not accept them.
Q. I see many "categories" in the photo gallery, where do I upload my stuff?
A. Typically you upload your images into the Members Gallery. You can also create separate categories for your images. For instance I may create: "My Neytiri Illustrations", "My Avatars", "Movie Night" etc; create as many categories as you need.
Q. I see some "main categories" what should I upload there?
A. The neat thing about using a photo gallery is its ability to display photos based on "association or theme". So for instance, when I upload my illustrations in my cateogry, I can also share them with other "main categories". Even though the image is physically stored in my personal category (where I actually uploaded it), I can display it in any number of main categories. Likewise if I choose to upload directly into the a main category, the image is automatically stored into my personal Member Gallery as well. Uploading to categories works in tandem with your personal Member gallery and the category you're uploading into. This ability allows collections of similar images to be built really quickly without having to upload the same image to multiple categories.
Q. How many images can I upload; are there store limits?
A. There are no storage limits. Upload as many as you like. Now pay attention to this part. Sadao, ar0c6 and I manage a very sophisticated server; but everything has its limits. That said, the maximum size of any image you may upload is 4000x4000 resolution OR 8 MB in size. If you try and upload any media that's larger than what's allowed, you'll get an error. The key is to use some common sense when deciding how to crop your images. Large images that you may upload will be cropped into smaller useful sizes for the web, so I suggest you keep images under 1mb in size. Additionally smaller image take less time to upload.
Q. Can I upload videos?
A. Absolutely, but keep in mind there's an 8 MB server upload limit.
Q. Can I make "main categories"?
A. Actually yes you can. You should probably ask a moderator to help you name the category so it's most effective.
Q. What kind of images can I upload.
A. The upload menu will show you the types, but basically any JPG, PNG, and GIF image files are allowed.
Q. How do I link to an image I have stored in the photo gallery?
A. When you start or post in a thread, you'll see a new image tool icon. When clicked, it will open up a window that displays all the images you have stored in the photo gallery. From there, you can simply click on them to insert them into the post.
Q. I attempted to upload an image right from my camera. It received an error, what's wrong?
A. Sometimes, with some cameras, the RAW image types, even if they're saved in the supported file formats, may not be accepted. To correct this, open the image into a photo editor, and save it for the web. The editor will remove the unnecessary RAW components embedded into the image, making it easier to read by the photo gallery.
Q. Any restrictions on the content of the images that I can upload?
A. Use some common sense. Obviously this is an Avatar community, so I'd expect to see similar content in the Photo Gallery. Don't use the gallery to store images that you're using elsewhere. I've disabled the ability to serve images outside of our community.
The Avatar Forums Photo Gallery is a sophisticated storage system utilized on thousands of communities across the Internet. I want our gallery to be the very best so feel free to upload to it whenever possible.
If you need further assistance, please ask a moderator or myself for help.
We will no longer make use of the "Albums" system that is built-into our forum. It performs poorly, and does a awful job of displaying the library.
I'll will encourage everyone to move their album images into the new photo gallery (at your convenience). I will also disable the ability to add any new photos into the old album system.
If you follow AvatarForums on Twitter, you got a sneak peek at the gallery yesterday. All others should wait until after mid-night tonight, when I'll enable the links and allow new media to be added.
It's no coincidence that the Avatar Forums Photo Gallery is opening on the same day as the Avatar exhibit in Seattle. I expect hundreds of photos to be uploaded into the gallery, and in fact, I've created a separate category just for them. :d
The gallery is also useful for storing artwork, illustrations, and photography that you wish to show off. Therefore I'm strongly discouraging links to personal images that are stored on other sites. The inherit problem with linking away to other media is that at some point, probably in the near future, for some unknown reason, the media will no longer be available.
Then the thread loses its usefulness because of the broken image links. Broken links are a huge problem for many communities, one I will not allow to plague us here on Avatar Forums. I want our community to be much better than everyone else, both technically and in the quality of our content.
I've anticipated your questions so let me share some insight with you.
Q. When adding a photo to my post, should I use the attachment system or the photo gallery?
A. Technically either is fine. However if you think you may want to add similar images later, use the gallery. Further if you would like to store your images in one central location, use the gallery.
Q. How do I move my images from the albums area into the photo gallery?
A. The simple method is to download them all (unless you still have them locally on disk). Then upload them into the photo gallery. I will be emailing everyone who has images stored in the album system and encouraging them to move them into the photo gallery.
Q. Do I have to upload each image, one at a time into the gallery?
A. Actually you can ZIP compress several images together, and upload the ZIP file. The photo gallery will decompress the ZIP file and add the images to the gallery. Please keep your ZIP files under 8 MB in size otherwise the gallery will not accept them.
Q. I see many "categories" in the photo gallery, where do I upload my stuff?
A. Typically you upload your images into the Members Gallery. You can also create separate categories for your images. For instance I may create: "My Neytiri Illustrations", "My Avatars", "Movie Night" etc; create as many categories as you need.
Q. I see some "main categories" what should I upload there?
A. The neat thing about using a photo gallery is its ability to display photos based on "association or theme". So for instance, when I upload my illustrations in my cateogry, I can also share them with other "main categories". Even though the image is physically stored in my personal category (where I actually uploaded it), I can display it in any number of main categories. Likewise if I choose to upload directly into the a main category, the image is automatically stored into my personal Member Gallery as well. Uploading to categories works in tandem with your personal Member gallery and the category you're uploading into. This ability allows collections of similar images to be built really quickly without having to upload the same image to multiple categories.
Q. How many images can I upload; are there store limits?
A. There are no storage limits. Upload as many as you like. Now pay attention to this part. Sadao, ar0c6 and I manage a very sophisticated server; but everything has its limits. That said, the maximum size of any image you may upload is 4000x4000 resolution OR 8 MB in size. If you try and upload any media that's larger than what's allowed, you'll get an error. The key is to use some common sense when deciding how to crop your images. Large images that you may upload will be cropped into smaller useful sizes for the web, so I suggest you keep images under 1mb in size. Additionally smaller image take less time to upload.
Q. Can I upload videos?
A. Absolutely, but keep in mind there's an 8 MB server upload limit.
Q. Can I make "main categories"?
A. Actually yes you can. You should probably ask a moderator to help you name the category so it's most effective.
Q. What kind of images can I upload.
A. The upload menu will show you the types, but basically any JPG, PNG, and GIF image files are allowed.
Q. How do I link to an image I have stored in the photo gallery?
A. When you start or post in a thread, you'll see a new image tool icon. When clicked, it will open up a window that displays all the images you have stored in the photo gallery. From there, you can simply click on them to insert them into the post.
Q. I attempted to upload an image right from my camera. It received an error, what's wrong?
A. Sometimes, with some cameras, the RAW image types, even if they're saved in the supported file formats, may not be accepted. To correct this, open the image into a photo editor, and save it for the web. The editor will remove the unnecessary RAW components embedded into the image, making it easier to read by the photo gallery.
Q. Any restrictions on the content of the images that I can upload?
A. Use some common sense. Obviously this is an Avatar community, so I'd expect to see similar content in the Photo Gallery. Don't use the gallery to store images that you're using elsewhere. I've disabled the ability to serve images outside of our community.
The Avatar Forums Photo Gallery is a sophisticated storage system utilized on thousands of communities across the Internet. I want our gallery to be the very best so feel free to upload to it whenever possible.
If you need further assistance, please ask a moderator or myself for help.