What is This Forum For ?

[The Old Ruminator]

As matter of interest a sentence on here from my dear friend Mr'O Doc.


"This is primarily a forum for discussion and pictures would be best posted elsewhere "

Perhaps I am making a big mistake posting photos here. I tend to treat this place like I do with my collectors forums where we thrive on photos. One would assume cavers would like to see photos of caves as that appears to be their primary interest. I am not being sarcastic I genuinely would like to know this forums agenda. Sensible replies would be appreciated.

 

[ChrisJC]

I like pictures. On this and other forums too.

Sensibly sized pictures though, maybe 800px wide at the most, so pages load up in a reasonable amount of time.

Chris.

 

[Mrs Trellis]

Some threads need photos, some don't.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

One of the collectors forums automatically resizes photos. You click the image if you want to see it full res.
This is how it works over there.

http://www.bottledigging.org.uk/forum/Topic261257.aspx?PageIndex=24

 

[Peter Burgess]

Hi OR.

Maybe I am a maverick, but when someone tries to tell me what I should or should not do, I tend to disregard them unless they can provide a persuasive case for what they advocate.  If you think the forum suits your purpose, use it as you see fit. You don't have to justify your actions to anyone unless you breach the rules here. Provided what you do is positive and adds to other people's enjoyment, then why on earth not? As one grows old (aren't we all?), I like to think wisdom plays a more important role in what we do or say than simply playing by other people's "rules".

 

[Peter Burgess]

And I would like to add that over the years I think you have earned yourself the "freedom" to post stuff here as you see fit without reference to anyone else (dig rules and owner's conditions excepted). You have never done anything here to cause concern as far as I know.

 

[paul]

One of the collectors forums automatically resizes photos. You click the image if you want to see it full res.
This is how it works over there.

http://www.bottledigging.org.uk/forum/Topic261257.aspx?PageIndex=24

The resizing appears to be a function of the site where the photos are being hosted (PhotoBucket) rather than the one hosting the Bottle Digging forum. Presumably posting a similar link on this forum would allow the same functionality?
I would say there is defintely a place for photos on this forum as part of the discussions. But they should be to add interest of information to the discussion topic rather than simply a photo album with just loads of photos. But that is just my personal opinion.

 

[Blakethwaite]

If photos are relevant to the post then why not. But... many people look at the internet on their phones now, often with a slow connection. The words, 'Pic Heavy' or similar in the thread title is helpful in such instances!

 

[bubba]

"This is primarily a forum for discussion and pictures would be best posted elsewhere "

Perhaps I am making a big mistake posting photos here. I tend to treat this place like I do with my collectors forums where we thrive on photos. One would assume cavers would like to see photos of caves as that appears to be their primary interest. I am not being sarcastic I genuinely would like to know this forums agenda. Sensible replies would be appreciated.

More photos the better imo.

Fair point about perhaps marking the title [pic heavy] or similar for those on phones if you know in advance it's going to be a picture topic.

It can be a little annoying to have to scroll past massive photos but it's easy to restrict the size of images like this:

To restrict just the width:

[IMG]http://myimage.jpg[/IMG]

To restrict just the height:

[IMG]http://myimage.jpg[/IMG]

To restrict both:

[IMG]http://myimage.jpg[/IMG]

 

[mrodoc]

"This is primarily a forum for discussion and pictures would be best posted elsewhere "

Perhaps I am making a big mistake posting photos here. I tend to treat this place like I do with my collectors forums where we thrive on photos. One would assume cavers would like to see photos of caves as that appears to be their primary interest. I am not being sarcastic I genuinely would like to know this forums agenda. Sensible replies would be appreciated.

More photos the better imo.

Fair point about perhaps marking the title [pic heavy] or similar for those on phones if you know in advance it's going to be a picture topic.

It can be a little annoying to have to scroll past massive photos but it's easy to restrict the size of images like this:

To restrict just the width:

[IMG]http://myimage.jpg[/IMG]

To restrict just the height:

[IMG]http://myimage.jpg[/IMG]

To restrict both:

[IMG]http://myimage.jpg[/IMG]

Agreed but that might be a bit technical for OR

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Found this on line. Maybe not too technical. I have not tried it yet.

http://www.shrinkpictures.com/

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Taken down to 64 kb but may be too small.

 

[dunc]

If photos are relevant to the post then why not. But... many people look at the internet on their phones now, often with a slow connection. The words, 'Pic Heavy' or similar in the thread title is helpful in such instances!

I agree with this..

I use my phone to look at the forum whilst at work. I work in more than one location and generally have no wifi available so rely on mobile data; I have a reasonable amount of data available on my monthly contract but even so I'd rather not have it frittered away on large numbers of slow loading photos.

I've reached the stage where threads like, for example, the ones OR posts in (TFD) and others such as Friday Video Clips, Silly Pics etc I avoid on the phone and wait until I return home to view on my laptop (with a decent fibre broadband connection).

A short note in the title suggesting pic heavy would be good, but these threads can usually be spotted quickly if you inadvertently visit them and stopped, or the return/back button quickly pressed before it downloads too much.

I'm all for photos, they always add interest. Maybe post one photo and then just insert a link to an album on whatever external site is being used to host the photos - far quicker to load the thread and gives people the choice of whether to view them or not? Or ensure photos displayed are not large/full-size and perhaps generally smaller in nature.

But that's just me; I grew up with computers constantly changing and from an early age realised memory/speed/storage was usually in short supply, since then whatever I've done has involved a slimline/optimised approach. Even though we have broadband/fibre/cable, far faster connection speeds and more memory and space than anyone could have imagined 30 years ago, I still adopt the slim/optimised approach with the website I (allegedly) maintain.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Oh dear. I really hate mobile phones so I dont have one. That programme works well this is the next size larger at 72KB. Is this what folk at getting at ?

 

[kay]

If photos are relevant to the post then why not. But... many people look at the internet on their phones now, often with a slow connection. The words, 'Pic Heavy' or similar in the thread title is helpful in such instances!

It's helpful - but then people add a big pic or video to an existing thread....

Some of us don't yet have a decent fibre connection available, and we may not be able to update out machines as often as we'd like. Until recently I was having real trouble with slow loading pics - and it was a real pain when I clicked on "new" only to find someone had quoted the whole of a post, including the offending picture/video clip, so I got caught by it all over again.

 

[graham]

Oh dear. I really hate mobile phones so I don't have one.

So you express your hate by trashing the experience of those that do?

Unfair I know, but it does demonstrate that there are many different ways of doing something and just because yours is the best for you does not mean that it's the best for everyone else as well.

Now, anyone know what happened at the BCA AGM today? Anyone live-tweet from it or upload a podcast?

 

[ah147]

I appreciate seeing photos on here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bubba]

Oh dear. I really hate mobile phones so I dont have one. That programme works well this is the next size larger at 72KB. Is this what folk at getting at ?

TBH that looks pretty terrible - I'm not saying post massive pictures everywhere but I don't belive people should have to post shite quality images just to keep mobile users on limited data contracts happy. 

I'm not exactly sure which mobile browsers support such functionality,  but this sort of thing from Chrome looks handy if you're worried about data usage: http://www.citeworld.com/article/2114408/mobile-byod/chrome-mobile-bandwidth-management-how-to.html

 

[dunc]

TBH that looks pretty terrible - I'm not saying post massive pictures everywhere but I don't belive people should have to post shite quality images just to keep mobile users on limited data contracts happy. 

I'm not exactly sure which mobile browsers support such functionality,  but this sort of thing from Chrome looks handy if you're worried about data usage: http://www.citeworld.com/article/2114408/mobile-byod/chrome-mobile-bandwidth-management-how-to.html

The picture wasn't that bad quality in the grand scheme of things - perhaps it depends what screen you're viewing it on? It's not just mobile users, going on what Kay has said. Just because the majority have access to fast speeds, doesn't mean that covers a large portion of the country (read; countryside/small villages etc - I know a good few cavers that fit this category).

When I indulged in the wezzit era the pictures I posted were smaller in dimensions and in file-size (all below 100kb, usually). For adding interest to a trip/dig report or whatever then a couple of pictures at a few hundred kb's is probably OK and should be acceptable enough picture quality, similar to what I said above, post a photo or two of a few hundred kb and link to the full-size original (it's not rocket science). It's when people upload a few (or more) full-size straight off the camera/multi-Mb pictures that it can potentially become a little annoying for those with 'slower' connections (of whatever kind).

 

[cap n chris]

"You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time but you can't please cavers, ever". (Cap'n Chris, circa 2005).