Photo hosting: http://my.gn15.info

[Emrys]

These are exciting times, ladies and gentlemen.

The GnATTERbox is on a new server and seems to be bedding in without too many issues, Gn15.info is waking up from a period of dormancy and there's a new service available.

Yes, if all goes well you'll be able to host the photographs you're using to illustrate your posts at http://my.gn15.info.

There are a couple of limitations:

• Only JPEG/JPG images (for now - other formats may follow)
• Images will only be viewable in the GnATTERbox (including the MinimumGauge.info version, if anyone's still using that)

It should be user friendly enough for anyone to use and, as part of the process, resizes the images so that they don't break the forum layout.

Have a play and see what you think. All feedback will be welcomed with open, um, eyes.

[Emrys]

Ok, then. That was more complicated than I'd hoped but the image hosting has been revamped.

You log in using your GnATTERbox ID and password and get to upload and delete your own photos (and only your own photos).

If you try to upload a photo with the same name as an existing image you'll be asked to rename your image and try again. To avoid this I'd recommend getting into the practice of putting your initials at the start of your filenames (e.g. if I wanted to upload a photo called "img1234.jpg" I'd rename the file "ewh_img1234.jpg" before starting.


For example if anyone wants to use this photo of Wroxham Broad and Blickling Hall at the Bure Valley Railway, they'd use the code below in their post:

Code: Select all

[img]http://my.gn15.info/ewh_img_0868.jpg[/img]

Why not click on the logo below to head on over and try it out:

[Steve Bennett]

That's working perfectly Emrys, well done. It really couldn't be simpler to use, thanks for taking the time to do it, another great feature.

Promise I will continue to use Photobucket for the bulk of mine though don't want to clog the system up with all the images that I post .

[Emrys]

You'd have to use Photobucket (or similar) if you want to post to other fora anyway, Steve, as you (should) get broken links if you link from any other site.

The GnATTERbox is clocking over 15GB of bandwidth per month - and that's with the images being served from Photobucket and the like.

While My.Gn15.info will increase this, I think the benefit makes the cost worthwhile if it's benefitting the GnATTERbox. I've no wish to increase my bandwidth costs any further by serving images for someone else as well.

[Steve Bennett]

You'd have to use Photobucket (or similar) if you want to post to other fora anyway, Steve, as you (should) get broken links if you link from any other site.

Just tested it on another forum, you will be pleased to hear it won't show the image. So that is working correctly too.

I've no wish to increase my bandwidth costs any further by serving images for someone else as well.

Thats a very good point. I think those of us that have hosting elsewhere, should continue to use it, to at least help to keep the bandwidth down.

I guess, we should also encourage newcomers to sign up for something like Photobucket, once they get the hang of posting photos. It will be easy to learn as the two setups run in much the same way, just a few more features with Photobucket.

[Emrys]

I think those of us that have hosting elsewhere, should continue to use it, to at least help to keep the bandwidth down.

That would be appreciated.

I guess, we should also encourage newcomers to sign up for something like Photobucket, once they get the hang of posting photos. It will be easy to learn as the two setups run in much the same way, just a few more features with Photobucket.

True, but my.gn15 is spam and advert-free!

[Steve Bennett]

True, but my.gn15 is spam and advert-free!

It also costs you money don't make it look too attractive

[Emrys]

True, but my.gn15 is spam and advert-free!

It also costs you money don't make it look too attractive

Oh, yes. It certainly does that. I may have to add a "Make a Donation" button to the GnATTERbox and tug at a few heartstrings.

[andrew milner]

This may (probably does ) sound dumb, but it never occured to me you were paying for all this from your own pocket

I think you should put the button on , this much fun is never free!

[Gerry Bullock]

Has anyone else found that this feature sticks onto the log-in page and doesn't then call-up the post picture page

The log-in is correct as it automatically links to my password system so details cannot be wrong

I'm baffled.

[michael]

I just tried this out for the first time, and saw the image on letting me know that the picture was loaded successfully.

My question Emrys, is what is the process for organizing the pictures once they are loaded if any, and what are the limits for uploading?

I must say that I like the way the pictures upload, quick, simple, no fuss.

I have been using Photobucket but I do not like having to wait for all the advertising, and dynamic pop ups.

[PeterH]

I looked at how to use this a few months ago, so I'll hazard an answer from my end. No doubt Emrys will say if I am wrong, and correct my grammar too:

1 The point of storing photos on gnatterbox is so that they will not become lost when users forget to keep their Photobucket etc. accounts active. There are many lost photos in older posts.

2 When you upload a picture, if it is wider than 800 pixels or higher than 600 pixels then it is resized to be smaller than that (ie a picture 800 high by 600 wide becomes 600 high by 450).

3 The photos are stored on Emrys's servers, so it is preferable to upload photos smaller than the maximum 800 by 600 to conserve space.

4 Emrys would like us to upload as many photos as we can (healthy forum), and does not expect us to graduate to other on-line storage places (like photobucket) after a certain number of photos.

5 Each photo must have a unique name - I call all mine with names starting with 'PeterH'

6 All your photos are in the one place - you can not put them in sub-folders, or do anything like rename, resize or crop them. So it is simple and fast. After you have uploaded a lot of photos it becomes difficult to find one you uploaded earlier, though I can't imagine I would ever need to.

The only problem you might have is the excruciating pun.

[chris69]

OK, am at a loss.What have you done to the Gn15 photo page?????????
I uploaded pictures as usual, but when i place the link on the article page I now get the MINI pictures instead of the normal ones.
THIS IS REALLY ANNOYING

Look at my latest post. The first picture was uploaded a few weeks ago and comes out fine.......
The new ones STINK..................
Any explanation, because I have done everything the same way as before

viewtopic.php?f=1&p=119240#p119240

A very unhappy
CHRIS

[chris stockdale]

A couple of tests of my own.





Hmm, looks OK - Tom, can you help, suggest anything?


Chris,

Whilst I appreciate you're not a happy bunny Tom does all this for us for free. I think you could be more polite….

bestest,

[tebee]

I've not done any changes to the code behind my.gn15.info.

Looking at these the uploaded images are small - are you sure you are uploading the right size ?

Tom

[fatmac]

I have to agree with 'Stockers' - please be more civil.

[chris69]

Have to agree with you, sorry for the rant.
Was a bit out of sorts and overall not a good day, so I went a bit off color.
Please accept my apologies.
Best
Chris

As to the upload, I used the maximum size of the picture to upload and normally they are resized to the size shown in the first picture, the new ones only show very small.
Here is the comparison again:
OLD


NEW

[chris stockdale]

Hi Chris,

Whilst not of a technical bent a couple of thoughts.

1. If you have the ability to resize easily enough to something more suitable before uploading have you tried seeing what happens if you do that in http://my.gn15.info.

2. The new version of the Gnatterbox allows you to upload directly to the post as you write it. Again, if you can resize your photo in readiness I like to hope that just bunging pics in as go go might be even quicker and easier that using http://my.gn15.info

What do you think?

cheers,

[chris stockdale]

Additional.

Just to satisfy my curiosity…

Do you start with the 'full fat' photo straight from the camera and bung that into http://my.gn15.info ? If so, what size, in MB or kB is the starting photo?

Are you using a different camera and is the photo that goes into http://my.gn15.info any different in size to what you used to put in?

A general question to anyone looking in - I see that Chris' small photo in this thread is called 'eeenew2.aspx.jpg' which makes me wonder if the 'aspx' part of the description is anything to do with anything? It looks like something to do with a browser, which seems strange if Chris is loading a file from a camera, unless he is doing something else too. Any technical folk with ideas/knowledge out there?

cheers,

[fatmac]

On having a quick 'Google' - it appears that .aspx.jpg are 'thumnail' photos.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=.aspx.jpg&ia=images

[chris69]

TEST



OK now I it works. The only thing I did different, I uploaded the file to the Gn15 page from my G mail account not from Hotmail......
The pitfalls of computers.
Thank you all for all your feedback and tips.

All the best
Chris

[Geeky Gecko]

Good day, everybody.

I'm after some advice about which photo hosting site to use.
I've recently lost access to my Photobucket account. My own fault (tip: don't forget to update the name of the email account you registered with when you change your email account provider, or at least don't forget your password). Just hope I don't need to do any maintenance to keep pictures visible on this and other forums.
I could register a new account with Photobucket, but I notice that I need to deactivate my adblocker to view pictures on Photobucket itself. Is this likely to be the same on all sites? Can anyone recommend a site that is simple to use?

Thanks

[PeterH]

Hi Stefan,

This is a can of worms.

For gnatterbox and some other forums you can upload photos as attachments to posts, and I do this if possible.

On ngrm-online.com you can't do this and there is plenty of discussion on photo hosting websites. Also on getting the BBC code to insert on the forum (forums don't want plain links like a website uses). Though you need to register to see ngrm online. The consensus seems to be Flickr or photobucket. Though I feel insecure using such sites - I worry about my lack of privacy and that I might loose my photos by making a mistake or if the rules change.

By photo hosting, most hosts mean storing your photos on the cloud, then sending links to your friends so they can see the photos. They might also see advertising and a reduced size photo first. The kind of link that a website (like gnatterbox) uses is different, more of a direct link to the photo, and I imagine the free sites discourage these sorts of links because they can't send advertising and the traffic might be a lot higher. There are several hosting sites like Dropbox and box that do the first link of link but not the second. Dropbox used to provide the second kind of link but I think it stopped. I worry that Flickr and photobucket might stop providing this second kind of link in the future.

I use Amazon S3 storage, which I pay for, but is very cheap - you pay for what you use. I've got about 25 GB and pay $1 a month, by credit card. Unfortunately it requires a bit of learning and setting up. But it's easy to use - on my iPad I use the app Transmit to upload the photos and get the link to the photos. The link is the second kind, which I change to a BBC code if required. One of the purposes of S3 is to host photos for websites, so the rules won't change in the future.

Good luck.

[docnjoj]

Good info to know. I may try S3.
otherDoc