Images in posts.

[COBOLdinosaur]

I have seen sites where threads get heavily bogged down by haveing a lorge nubmer of images posted in them.  If the images were just playing around it would be easy to say no images; but in the kind of site we are building images are sometimes important to working out a solution and need to be made available. There may be other heavy content with similar problems. So I propose this as a posted heavy content policy:

• Heavy content may only be posted when it is rellevant to the solution being worked on.
• Only content < 20k may be posted directly in the thread
• Content exceeding the 20k maximum will be uploaded to an attachment directory, and the link posted in the thread.
• Hotlinking to another site should be avoided whenever possible because perfromance and availablility on the other site will impact ERT performance.
• All copyrighted material that is posted or uploaded must retain the copyright notice, and the provisions of the copyright must permit its use on ERT.
• Text content which is < 20k should be put in either a quote or code tag, as we will be able through CSS to make those block scrollable for esier handling in the threads
• If there are a series of posts carrying small images the start to be a performance for the thread, an editor may upload the images and replace them with links as a corrective action.

I am open to ammendments if there are additional items that need to be added to this.

[CrYpTiC_MauleR]

no to images, except for certain cases where only a mod/admin can approve the image. Lets say if someone is having website layout issues and shows screenshot to help aid mentors in answering the question. Image will be deleted based in case after question is finalized.

[COBOLdinosaur]

Well the reason I would rather see it uploaded is so that it remains available for illustration of an article or tutorial that gets spun off of the thread.  I know in CSS we often have to look at a screenshot of a layout because the questioner is on a secure private network and cannot give us a link to the actual page.  Trying understand the solution with out being able to see the image get very confusing.  

In topic like web graphics, photoshop, flash, and game programming I would think it difficult to follow if the images got deleted.  We could perhaps have a regular cleanup daemon that runs through the old image storage area once a month and deletes anything not referenced in 6 months, but unless it starts eating up a large amount of storage, I think we can keep thing available.

[CrYpTiC_MauleR]

Migh I suggest the images is not to be displayed in the post but linked to in post so viewer can click to view full image. Possible a thumbnail if you want. Will help ease down page load especially for a mentor who will frequent the question often. Firefox and most browsers have settings to clear cache on browser close, and many people have cleanup programs that do the same, so having the images download needlessly whenever you go back would be impractical. I propose linking to fullsize image and optional thumbnail if you prefer.

Oh yeah, off course you might want to have feature where a member can report an inapropriate image. Would be hell for mods to check each and every image and have to wait to be emailed by a member on violation. A 'Report Innaproprite Image' link would make moderation so much easier.

[Huntress]

Having a limit on the size should be sufficient.  Images that are relevant to the question can be a quick and valuable tool.  Linking somewhere else takes away from the site in general and should be frowned upon.

[CrYpTiC_MauleR]

I am talking about a relative URL. All images will be uploaded to this site, so will not take away from site.

Having a limit on the size should be sufficient

Many images especially for graphics related questions will not be a desireable size if we put a size limit in place just for that reason. A 150kb limit should suffice for an image if not less. So image does not degrade, and do we really want to force people who are asking a graphics question lets says a poster design question to compress and degrade the picture while maintaining the proper look so mentor can answer question about color saturation etc. I think that is putting too much a burden on the asker. I stand by my proposal on linking to the full size image, to reduce page load for dial-up users and decrease bandwidth use for server.

[Huntress]

Fine.  Then I propose that in all areas EXCEPT graphics that links be disallowed and limited images be allowed.

[CrYpTiC_MauleR]

What about areas like CSS, Browser Issues, Windows problems?

CSS - User wants to show how layout is messed up and how it should look

Browser Issues - User installed Firefox extension and now toobar and icons all shifted and wants to know how to put them in so and so places.

Windows - user does not know what instant messaging spam is and takes a screenshot to show mentor, where mentor can then tell to disable the messenger service.

So many other possibilites in so many other areas too, just some random though up ones off the top of my head.

[COBOLdinosaur]

I have seen a report this post button on a lot of forums so there is probably a mod for it.  In any case it willto be added.  If there is porn or something else that does not belong we want to get to it quickly and get rid of it.  There should be a link or button on every post that sends out an alert to everyone with the permissions to fix it.

It is inevitable that there will be moron visit there is no way to stop stupidity, but youare right we need to be able to get to it immediately.

As for thumbnails, I was thinking just a link to the uploaded full image.

[nicholassolutions]

I think images can be really useful in a number of situations, and I would not toss out the ability to use them alltogether. What about having users get approved to use pics, agreeing to follow certain guidelines. If you have to email a request to be approved by a person and maybe one or two more hoops, I think you'll be relatively assured that most people won't bother, and that 14 year old jackasses won't have the attention span to cause much trouble.

At the end of each thread we decide to PAQ, mentors can go through and toss anything that doesn't seem useful.

Matt

[Anonymous]

Sometimes an image can be used to describe the exact issue. I think Mentors should have the ability to inject a picture into their responses.

Images being submitted MUST be directly appropriate to the problem. Mentors should have peer review of images and steps to remove/replace should be provided (mods only of course).

[Daydreams]

a link to the uploaded full image.

This would be best. Mods should be able to edit the image for size as I have seen some huge images at forums that are unecessary, and dialup users may just close the window and give up.

[nicholassolutions]

I agree -- that is best, especially since it will make the shock factor in postig inappropriate material somewhat diminished. I just think it's important to actually get the images on our server so that (a) we have permission to use them in the PAQ (assuming they're not copyrighted by a third party), and (b) so they don't get deleted off site and make the question useless (happens frequently on EE).

-Matt

[CrYpTiC_MauleR]

Also must give user option to delete image once question is answered if they want. Just in case the image is being made for a client and posting it online would be an issue if kept on server etc...

[Esopo]

I support the idea of allowing upload and posting a link to the uploaded file. I think the uploaded file should be around forever unless the asker has a good reason to request it be removed, and such cases should be handled by admin.

A lot of the threads at TOS are useless because they have links to non-existent stuff. If the link is useless, the thread usually is to.

There could be a file size limit of about 100k and admins should have the ability to accept bigger uploads for especial situations.

We can also have the image uploader request permission to perform optimization on the files being uploaded. I suppose many of the asker will not have a problem with their images being optimized, except they don't know how to do it themselves.