Uploading Images

[Silence]

One of the most common questions I see from new users (and one I myself asked when I joined) concerns the uploading of images to the SSC forums. People who are new to forums--or at least to forums that require much image uploading--might be at a loss as to how to do this, and people who have been members at forums that allow for attached images might also be concerned.

When attached images are allowed, members generally use up lots of server space, which is why attachments are disabled for users here. However, there is a workaround that also allows for much larger images than the ones here, and it involves directly linking to an image hosted at another site.

First, sign up for an account at a free image host, such as Photobucket. I personally don't like Photobucket too much, but they are decent for regular use, so I will assume that you are using Photobucket for the rest of this article. Once you have signed up and are logged in, upload the image (or images, but multiple images often play havoc with your upload speed and timeout errors might occur)--and that instruction should be simple enough. Thumbnails of all the pictures in your album should be visible, and from here on, there are a few options.

1) Copy the text below the appropriate thumbnail and paste it directly into the post editor here at the SSC forums. This should be the simplest procedure, but for some reason I haven't been using it. I'll start that right now.

2) Copy the text in the first field under your thumbnail--it should be the picture's URL. In the post editor, click on the tool button at the top that looks like a postcard with a picture of a mountain on it; then, a popup should appear, and you can paste the image's URL directly into the popup's field. Alternatively, experienced users might use the template, "[IMG]copy URL here[/IMG]."

3) Click on the thumbnail, and you'll be taken to a page that only has that image. Note that this page does not have the same URL as the image itself, so do not just copy the page's URL! If you want to copy the URL from the address bar, you'll have to click on the link with the name of your image.

4) This page (right after the album page, not the one with the actual URL) will have the same information about the picture as the main album page. Use options 1 and 2 here.

EDIT: I guess I forgot to mention that you can just create an old-fashioned link to your image's URL. Some people do that, and I don't blame them, because less actual images on a page helps improve load times for people with slower Internet connections.

[Silence]

I've just found the perfect host! FileFront!

Seriously, I always thought that it was only a gaming site, and not a free file host. But's that what it also is. Just take a look at these stats, from http://freespace.filefront.com/1:
Unlimited file uploads
Unlimited file downloads
Unlimited bandwidth
Unlimited space
Public and private storage
[Max image size of 1 GB--which is huge]
[implied: Unlimited number of files]

Isn't that amazing? Plus, it's a well-known and popular site, with next to nil chance of downtime or bankruptcy. I believe this isn't really against the rules of the forum regarding "advertising" products, as this is free.

[C-A_99]

www.imageshack.us works well too, I believe you don't even have to register.

[Silence]

I don't know, I found the site too confusing--I never really found the method of uploading pictures there in the first place. It's the users' choice though. The reason I like this is because of the [un]limitations.

I can't think of a single other host that offers even two of those features mentioned above. Now that's impressive.

[C-A_99]

Personally, I don't see anything confusing about the site. If you register you can get the list of images you've uploaded, and there's an undelete feature. You can also do batch uploads (though they cost a penny per upload but you get 20 to start out with), there's image resizing, etc. I have yet to think of a situation where you'd need to upload a picture larger than 1024kb.

Filefront is probably better for other things, but I haven't used it much yet. Last time I downloaded stuff (stuff for games) I had to go through some weird process where you waited for it.

Of course, it's up to the user, all that matters for the rest is that the images are posted reasonably. (i.e. not having them as links or thumbnails or we have to click all of them, but being reasonably sized, no more than around 800x600 when directly posted on a forum page. Obviously, people can't be using .bmp's either)

[Silence]

Surely you mean 1024 Mb, not Kb. Their file hosting service is very different from their games section, just like their forums are also different. Batch uploads are probably free, and I think every place lets you delete files. Plus, you can upload any type of file there, whether it be images, videos (the current video hosts are terrible), or anything else. Whatever, it depends on whether you want the performance or not...

[Commander Soakage]

is there a way to upload images without signing up on another website.

[Silence]

Now you can simply attach an image. But you can only embed in the text using this method.