Posting images

[AnimalToyForum]

To include an image in your message, first you need to upload it onto the web, so that it has a permanent location (URL). There are plenty of free image hosts that you can use, such as  https://postimages.org

To place the image in your message click the picture button. This will place two bracketed pieces of code into the message, like so (but without the spaces):

[ i m g ] [ / i m g ]

Place the full URL of the image between the two bracketed pieces of code, like so (but without the spaces).

[ i m g] http://www.image.com/image.jpg [ / i m g ]

Note that the URL of the image must begin with http:// and end with the image file name, typically .jpg

And that's it.

EDIT - 23rd July 2017. Avoid Photobucket. They used to be a popular image host but the service is now now spam-laden, slow and difficult to use, and charges a fee for third party hosting. Images hosted by Photobucket are therefore no longer visible on the dinotoyforum.

[bluessky]

Dear all, how to post photos? 

[tyrantqueen]

1. You need to upload your chosen photo to an image hosting site, such a flickr, photobucket, facebook etc.

2. When it's uploaded, right click on the image and choose "copy image location"


3. Press the little mona lisa button that you see on the far left of the reply toolbar. Paste in your code that you copied in step 2, between the two IMG tags.
It should look like this, but without the spaces

[ img ] Pic code here [ / img ]



4. Click preview beforehand just to make sure the image is showing up correctly.

Hope this helps. It becomes like second nature after a while.

[brontodocus]

I have moved this here since we already have an instruction for posting images in the rules, feedback & FAQ section. But tyrantqueen's illustrated instruction seems very helpful for new members, too, so many thanks for that!

[Cape Buffalo]

Uploading pics. through a host site like photobucket , flickr etc.  is the most annoying thing and very tedious that I faced in STS too.  Time consuming and confusing too 

I would be very happy if you could guide me some easiest way of uploading my pics. directly

[brontodocus]

Uploading pics. through a host site like photobucket , flickr etc.  is the most annoying thing and very tedious that I faced in STS too.  Time consuming and confusing too 

I would be very happy if you could guide me some easiest way of uploading my pics. directly

I'm afraid a direct upload onto the server here isn't possible (and would probably severely slow down the server if it was). It's true, linking image urls can be time consuming and I don't use my photobucket account anymore for the same reason... But since I know you have a facebook account, too - you can also use photos you uploaded there. You'd just have to copy the image url into the [ i m g ] [ / i m g ] tag (I don't know if it works if you begin with "https" instead of "http", so you may have to leave out the "s"). I have countless albums and just link the pictures here. Often enough, I use special albums which are visible only for me but linking the images still works. There's only one downside: About two years ago, facebook changed the urls of my pictures previously shown on other forums, especially the Dinosaur Toy Forum, and the links don't work anymore (the pictures are still in their albums, only the url is different). I could edit every single post affected to update the image url but so far I found it too time consuming.

[AnimalToyForum]

Uploading pics. through a host site like photobucket , flickr etc.  is the most annoying thing and very tedious that I faced in STS too.  Time consuming and confusing too 

I would be very happy if you could guide me some easiest way of uploading my pics. directly

I'm afraid a direct upload onto the server here isn't possible (and would probably severely slow down the server if it was). It's true, linking image urls can be time consuming and I don't use my photobucket account anymore for the same reason... But since I know you have a facebook account, too - you can also use photos you uploaded there. You'd just have to copy the image url into the [ i m g ] [ / i m g ] tag (I don't know if it works if you begin with "https" instead of "http", so you may have to leave out the "s"). I have countless albums and just link the pictures here. Often enough, I use special albums which are visible only for me but linking the images still works. There's only one downside: About two years ago, facebook changed the urls of my pictures previously shown on other forums, especially the Dinosaur Toy Forum, and the links don't work anymore (the pictures are still in their albums, only the url is different). I could edit every single post affected to update the image url but so far I found it too time consuming.

Https should work just fine. Other valid image extensions work too, jpg, gif, png. My instructions are highly simplified!

[sbell]

I just wanted to add these steps here, for anyone else that may store thir photos with Google Photos. It is a great, free, huge place to store them, but they don't make it easy to post them.

And after spending a week fighting with it, I think I have the method down. It's a couple steps, but only requires two different copy-pastes...

I think I am doing this post as much so that I remember how it works--until they chage again!

First, in Google Photos, make sure that the pictures you wish to share are in a Shared Album.
Click the picture that you wish to share (it should open big on the screen). In the upper right, click the share icon (that weird < icon)
A window will pop up--choose Get Link. Then COPY once the Link is created.

Now, paste that link in your browser bar (I tend to use a Private Browser window--makes sure I can see it). The page should look like a Google Photos window. Click on the picture to open it. When the image opens as a larger picture--right click and select Copy Image Address.

Now, in the forum, you can select the Insert Image icon, and paste the copied link in your post. It should work now!

[stemturtle]

Thanks for the instructions, sbell. The link address is https. I  erased the s for the image of the Furuta /Kaiyodo Mock Turtle.

[sbell]

Oddly, it doesn't seem to matter whether it is https or http. Unless it does. It's an awkward system in many ways.

[BlueKrono]

Flickr doesn't seem to be working for photos. Am I doing it wrong? Are the ones Tyrantqueen posted in the third comment on this page visible to anyone? I get boxes with Xs in them, which is what they did on my collections post. I've been using photobucket so far, but the mobile site is so riddled with popups and ads I can't get through to uploading my photos. And now Flickr does this. Does anyone know of a photo hosting site that's actually user-friendly?

[brontodocus]

Flickr doesn't seem to be working for photos. Am I doing it wrong? Are the ones Tyrantqueen posted in the third comment on this page visible to anyone? I get boxes with Xs in them, which is what they did on my collections post. I've been using photobucket so far, but the mobile site is so riddled with popups and ads I can't get through to uploading my photos. And now Flickr does this. Does anyone know of a photo hosting site that's actually user-friendly?

Yes, those free image hosts... My photobucket account is orphaned for a few years now, the main reason was that there were often bandwidth problems which made images temporarily invisible. I think tyrantqueen's image links don't work anymore. I've seen that Blaine uses postimage.org now, maybe he can share his experiences here?

Edit: I just had a look at your last post in your collection thread. The problem here is that you link to a Flickr page, not to an image url, e.g. here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/147138852@N04/31702476093/in/dateposted-public
The url must end with the used image file name, e.g. *.jpg
If you enter the url in a separate window you'll get to the flickr page with the image. I have no experience with Flickr but you could search for the image url in the page's source code. I did this with one of your images and found the url for the image to be:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/317/31702476093_ca5a2e13d2_b.jpg
You could try this one with the [ i m g ] [ / i m g ] tag around it in your collection thread and if that still doesn't work you can change the https into http. Hope this helped.

[BlueKrono]

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried postimage and it worked pretty easily. I was able to find a way to get a "direct link" on that site, as I used to do with photobucket. The problem with bucket is at the upload stage from my phone - the ads and popups make it unusable, and it usually turns off the internet because it can't handle all that garbage. With Flickr I couldn't find a direct link URL, but on postimage I could.

[bmathison1972]

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried postimage and it worked pretty easily. I was able to find a way to get a "direct link" on that site, as I used to do with photobucket. The problem with bucket is at the upload stage from my phone - the ads and popups make it unusable, and it usually turns off the internet because it can't handle all that garbage. With Flickr I couldn't find a direct link URL, but on postimage I could.

I used Photobucket for years but recently switched to Postimage and it is sooooooooooooooooooo much nicer and smoother!

[stargatedalek]

I used to use Photobucket but switched to Deviantart a few years ago, the extra fields and other such gibberish things it forces you to fill out for every upload are worth the few seconds in exchange for better security and organization. I've never tried Postimage, how fast is it to upload with?

[BlueKrono]

Having only been using it for 12 hours, I will never go back. Couldn't be simpler and more straight-forward. Postimage FTW.

[bmathison1972]

I used to use Photobucket but switched to Deviantart a few years ago, the extra fields and other such gibberish things it forces you to fill out for every upload are worth the few seconds in exchange for better security and organization. I've never tried Postimage, how fast is it to upload with?

Photobucket to Postimage is literally night and day. All of the Bug of the Day posts have used it, which is one reason I can do several taxa in a short time period

[brontodocus]

Now you really got me interested. Although I didn't know about postimage until very recently, I just checked, apparently they are around since 2004 so they are probably not necessarily going to disappear in a year or two... I think I should give them a try, too.

[widukind]

I found out that i can the images on STS copy here   All the pics in my searchlist you can also here

[brontodocus]

It seems that almost all of my walk-around photos don't show anymore, even those from 2016 have now different urls. Apparently, facebook renames image urls now faster than they did before. I switched to postimage.org recently. I will try to fix every of my walk-arounds but it will take a while, probably months. I've just downloaded approx. 4000 of my photos from facebook and will upload them to postimage but the sheer amount of data will make this a long term project.