How to Post Photos, Pictures, and other Images

Post by **tig** » Apr 05, 2018 4:59 AM

Written by tig

MyE28.com does not have a built-in photo gallery (yet). In order to post photos and other pictures that show up in-line the first thing you need to do to post a picture here, is to have that picture hosted on the web somewhere else. You cannot post a picture if it is located on your hard drive.

Fundamentals of posting photos
First, for all this to work, you need to know what a URL is. A URL is the gobbly-gook you see in the address bar of your web-browser when you are viewing a web page. They usually start with "https://". URLs are also known as web addresses or locations. The URLs for photos that work on mye28.com MUST be URLs that point directly to the image file. None of this will work if the URL is to a web page that contains the image file. You can usually tell a URL is a direct link to an image if the URL ends in .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, or .bmp. If the URL does NOT end in one of these extensions, then your URL will probably not work, and you'll need to choose a different way of hosting the photo.

The second thing you need to know is how to use the 'Clipboard' functionality on your computer. Cut, copy, paste. Every modern mobile phone, tablet, PC, or Mac supports a clipboard, and they all work similarly. If you don't know how to use the Clipboard on your device, STOP and go learn, because you'll never be successful in posting photos here. It's not hard.

The third thing you need to know is the syntax for adding images to posts. To add an image, in-line, to a post on this forum, you must use a special 'code' you type as part of your message. These codes are known as BBCodes (BB stands for bulletin-board, which is a name old folks use for online forums). The primary BBCode relevant for posting images is

Code: Select all

[img] [/img]

If, for example, you had an image with an address (URL) of `https://i.imgur.com/Uf2PKX2.png` you'd type an img tag like this:

Code: Select all

[img]https://i.imgur.com/Uf2PKX2.png[/img]

You MUST include the URL scheme and it MUST be https://. It can NOT be ftp://, http://, or fred://.

As of late 2024, the board supports an WYSIWYG editor that can create img tags for you. Simply clickthe Image button on the toolbar and you'll be prompted to enter the link.

I created the tag for the picture of our mascot above with this:

Choosing a photo hosting service

Here's what you want to look for:

Your images will be hosted forever, for free. There is nothing (literally nothing) worse than finding a thread with JUST the information you need only to discover the photos that have been posted have been disabled because the hosting website went out of business or became evil (like Photobucket).
You don't have to be a customer (e.g. signed in) in order to view the direct links to the images.
The hoster will serve up multiple-resolution versions of your photos.
It is easy to copy/paste the direct URLs of images from the hoster website AND mobile app. The mobile app part is important because without it, posting images while using mye28.com on your mobile device will be much harder.
It's not Photobucket. This is not a joke. Photobucket is the WORST service you can use. Do not use it.

The good ones, as of early 2018 seem to be https://www.flickr.com and https://www.imgur.com. Both are free. Both let you post high-resolution photos. Both appear to be healthy and will be around for the long haul. Some folks have success using Google Photos but figuring out how to copy/paste direct URLs is tricky.

Pro-tips:

Never delete photos from your hoster that you've used in posts here. It's just rude.
Post medium-sized images, surrounded by a URL tag linking to the full-resolution versions. Medium sized means ~800-1024 pixels wide. When creating a BBCode snippet on Flickr, it gives you the option to choose what size to use. Choose one that starts with ~1000. This helps keeps threads loading quickly and folks with lower-speed connections.