Rusty, you are killing me here!
Allow me to explain the process using less assumptions that I have previously.
There are 2 ways to get a photo into your post.
- attach
- embed (RECOMMENDED)
Attach
To
attach a photo (or any allowed file), you use the "Upload attachment" tab when creating your post. This tab is below the window where you type and below the buttons (Submit, Preview, Save Draft). Using the attachment feature is straightforward--it pops open a window where you search for a local file and submit it. Most people are very familiar with this process. When you
attach a file, the file is uploaded to the RideForum server and stored on my hard drive. It uses my space. It costs me money. Also, it shows up in the post as an attachment link--NOT as an image. So people have to click your attachment link to see the image in a new window. This is probably not what most people want when it comes to including photos in posts. Here is
an example of a post with images attached instead of embedded.
Embed
What I prefer and recommend is that you
embed your photos in your posts. This is done using the 'img' BBCode. What are BBCodes you ask? The BB stands for Bulletin Board. Forums used to be commonly called Bulletin Boards, in fact many still talk about "posting on the boards". The most popular Internet forum software system is called phpBB. (PHP is the programming language it is written in.) RideForum.NET is powered by phpBB.
Back to embedding photos...when you click the "Img" button while creating a post, the img BBCodes will be inserted. These look like this:
That is an
opening code and a
closing code. You put your content between the codes. With img codes, the content is a
URL (pronounced Earl). An URL is a
Uniform Resource Locator. For example, the URL to reach RideForum is:
The URL to reach this specific post is:
Code: Select all
http://www.rideforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1538
I use a photo hosting service called Picasa Web Albums. The URL to my Picasa albums is:
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http://picasaweb.google.com/114961483561685365572
A "link" in a web page is a link to a specific URL. Using the URL above, here is a link you can click that takes you to my Picasa photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/114961483561685365572
So those are examples of URLs. Suppose I want to embed this photo into this post:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1149614835 ... 8549534946
As the album owner, when I look at that photo at Picasa, I see options on the right that allow me to create links to "embed" the photo. Using those options, I'm able to create this URL:
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https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2qA3eq7SgTA/TvHTEfx7-OI/AAAAAAAAABk/_1dynxQeGn0/s800/ride%2520dau%2520troy%2520wolf%2520kyle%2520wolf%2520843.jpg
WHOA! That's really long, but remember, I just copy & paste, and nobody will have to ever type or even see that URL once I embed the photo. So now that I have a public, Internet URL of a specific photo I want to embed, here's how you do it--click the Img BBCode button, then paste your URL between the codes. It will look like this:
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[img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2qA3eq7SgTA/TvHTEfx7-OI/AAAAAAAAABk/_1dynxQeGn0/s800/ride%2520dau%2520troy%2520wolf%2520kyle%2520wolf%2520843.jpg[/img]
And here is the result! (I about peed my pants on this jump!)
I think a key concept that many folks are confused by is that you must first get your photo online before you can embed it in your forum post. In the example above, I embedded a photo that was already online because a long time ago, I uploaded that photo into my Picasa Web Albums. It is Picasa that is hosting the photo. It is Picasa that is providing the storage space (not RideForum).
The concept is
upload once, share multiple ways. Maybe you have 3 forums you want to share your photo with. It's better to upload it once, then share it in all 3. It's the same as if you had 10 family members you wanted to share a photo with. You could email it to all 10 people--which uses up a lot of bandwidth and email storage space. OR, a better alternative is to upload the photo once into a photo sharing service, then send the photo URL to each of your 10 family members.
You don't have to use Picasa. There are many popular and good photo sharing services. I'm not an expert on the subject, but I know these are popular. Pick one of these (or something else), create an account, and upload some photos.
- Smugmug
Smugmug is operated by the same folks that bring you AdvRider--these guys understand photo hosting for sharing in forums. Excellent product.
- Flickr from Yahoo
- Picasa Web Albums
I use Picasa primarily because I love the Windows software that comes with it--makes it super easy to get photos online into your albums. However, the online interface is kind of clumsy--especially the part to create URLs to use in the forum.
- Photo Bucket
- Snapfish
- Tiny Pic
And finally, I have to admit, the overall process is more tedious than it should be. Technology does not work like the Apple and Microsoft commercials would have you think!
Here is another page that tries to explain how to embed photos in a forum post:
http://www.ehow.com/how_8566522_do-inse ... -post.html
I've been on quite a few poker runs back when I was acting like a Harley rider, but a porker run sounds much more exciting 
they love the horse world so I help them so I can be my Adventure rider on my weekends without getting in trouble for being a loner on my bike! 
actually I like it! 
