image posting guidelines

[Fabolous]

Well I just had a thought - this is a photo forum, meaning nearly every thread is going to be jam packed with photos. I think there should be rules, well guidelines, when posting pictures in threads for a couple of reasons. Firstly, for the speed of browsing and secondly to keep the forums "clean". E.g. huge images, 30 per post will just turn people off imo.

We could discuss the best rules or guidelines and make a sticky of them. Something like max 800x600 with link to full size if needed. That's just an example... yes? no?

[David]

Hey,

Thanks for your feedback :) what does everyone else think about this?

I'll discuss this with Talan and when we have come to a decision, will let you know.

We might do something like this, or perhaps just try to name posts with warnings saying [large images inside] or something similar.

We want to make the forum a good user experience for everyone, so this kind of feedback is much appreciated.

[talan]

Yup since everyone is a noob it will take a while to get used to the jist of things.

Will sit down with Dave to discuss but off the top of my head...


Users should:

Post images in the correct forum
Post images not exceeding ???? pixels x ???? pixels. (i'll see what size best practise)
Maybe limit the amount of images per thread so it makes it easy for people to critique and provide feedback.
Put a NSFW (not safe for work) link if their images are a bit questionable for work
Anything other suggestions?

Theres good reason to limit the number of photos per thread i.e. page load times, easy for others to critique, etc.

Thanks for the feedback mate!

[Haim]

the flickr default image size is pretty good.... 500 x 336 pixels

[weka2000]

POTN (photography-on-the.net) last year uped the size to 1024 at longest end but before that was 800 at widest end and 100k in size max of 2 photo per post.

Flicker size is to small. Think of those with 22" + size screens.

The owners of this site will need to think of data storage and backup times. The more photos that get posted the more HDD space and backup times increase.

Promote linked images rather than posted ones.

[David]

thanks, I'll take a look at the screen resolution usage of our forums tonight, but its still early days so may change as time progresses. Currently we have disabled uploading images to this site and all images are linked to from flickr, photobucket etc... i think its ok if there is one or two images in a thread but if you are going to link to more than 4 or 5 perhaps using links is the best method :confused:

[talan]

Hi thanks for the feedback. In the images posting guidelines i stated a maximum of 800x800. This will allow faster load times and so the image won't fill up the whole screen - especially when people are posting a set. If you must show a high res image then perhaps you can post the low res version and link to the high res version.

We have disabled the image attachment functionality for the time being. Dave and myself are paying for the hosting out of our own pocket so we want to keep the database as light as possible until we can justify upgrading our hosting plan.

Thanks for you suggestion weka2000. Very valuable indeed!

[cortisolman]

Just wondering if there is a way to attach images to a post. I know in some other forums there is this function. I think it would be handy, so we don't have to link photos all of the time.
Thanks.

[talan]

Just wondering if there is a way to attach images to a post. I know in some other forums there is this function. I think it would be handy, so we don't have to link photos all of the time.
Thanks.
We do have that functionality with our software, but as this forum is run with a relatively tight budget, we have to leave out attachments as they can put load on our server. We built this forum with the intent for user interaction instead of image hosting. Most of us have flickr accounts :). One day in the future we'll look to roll out attachment hosting :)

[cortisolman]

Fair point. I guess if it's going to cost extra but not provide any decent advantage there's no reason to use it. Thanks.

[fokker]

If you want people to actually look at the pictures and critique them or offer compliments/suggestions it is best to actually show the image in the thread (rather than just posting a link you have to click on), and generally any more than 3 or 4 images turns people off from making specific comments on individual photos.

I'm not sure how important it is, but another (overseas) photography forum I am a member of states that when posting a photo that doesn't belong to you, you can only link to it due to legal reasons.

[talan]

If you want people to actually look at the pictures and critique them or offer compliments/suggestions it is best to actually show the image in the thread (rather than just posting a link you have to click on), and generally any more than 3 or 4 images turns people off from making specific comments on individual photos.

I'm not sure how important it is, but another (overseas) photography forum I am a member of states that when posting a photo that doesn't belong to you, you can only link to it due to legal reasons.

Yeah definately. Make use of the image posting peoples!