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Shutterfly (Thumbs down) Thbbbt!

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essen48183
Navigator

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USA
143 Posts

Initially Posted - 03/13/2009 : 14:05:25

To everyone who is posting picts with shutterfly.... The pictures get shrunk down to thumbnails after 1 year. Please use another service. While they look O.K. when you post it, they do not stay that way. I can tell from comments that the pictures were originally larger because there is discussion about details that are no longer intelligible, even zooming in...

When searching the forum to read about an issue, anyone who posts valuable knowledge where the description depends on the picture they included... your advice is unintelligible if it depends on a shutterfly pic. We are talking about posts that are less than a year old, too.

I wonder if it is possible to upload directly to the server hosting this site? To any web-admin-type-guru guys on here. Server memory is cheap nowadays. It is the norm to pay less than $10/month for unlimited size webhosts and unlimited size databases.... is this a holdover from when websites fees were upped depending on bandwith or sheer data size? Or is this a limitation of the "Snitz Forums 200" software? How can this be fixed?

Essen Davis
Trenton, MI

"Cornbread"
1995 Catalina 250, Water Ballast , Hull #161
http://gallery.me.com/essen#gallery

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 03/13/2009 : 14:11:45

Essen,
I think you're absolutely correct, I've gone back & "re-enlarged" some of my Shutterfly posts. I think they do it to shrink content space and agree that it's annoying.

My wife's been using Picassa, I might move to that.

Also, there was a motion (I think) to investigate being able to simply upload to the forum, pretty sure Paul (Britinusa) was taking that work item.

Paul?

Edited by - on

zebra50
Captain

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USA
408 Posts

Response Posted - 03/13/2009 : 14:51:30

Is this something that is only being done to or by shutterfly or is it from our web host to save space? If that were the case, then shrinking would happen no matter which site/program was being used.

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 03/13/2009 : 15:18:44

My only experience is with Shutterfly, so I can't say for other sites.

Edited by - on

piseas
Former Treasurer

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USA
2017 Posts

Response Posted - 03/13/2009 : 17:47:49

I found that out a long time ago about Shutterfly and that really burned me. I no longer use it, of course. I use Picassa now.

But good news down the road. With our new server, you will be able to post photos. Don't know what limitations will be re shrinkage. Paul, if you see this, maybe you could jump in.

Steve A

Edited by - on

Stu Jackson C34
Admiral

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844 Posts

Response Posted - 03/13/2009 : 18:13:50

Our Message Board allows picture insertion. It is adjustable: we started out with 50KB, upped to 75KB recently. We find it's really helpful.

In order to shrink picture file sizes down to fit the limitations, we found this: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3701.0.html

Here's a picture example: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,4669.0.html

It's so easy even I can do it - just post files directly from your own computer.

I find on this site that some posted pictures widen the screen so much it becomes very difficult to follow a thread, which is because of the linked pictures from other sites. Any way to keep the pictures from being too big without me having to go buy a 21 inch new computer wide screen would be really helpful.

Edited by - on

pastmember
Master Marine Consultant

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2402 Posts

Response Posted - 03/13/2009 : 19:13:43

I use Apple.com/mobileme and have never had any issues.

Edited by - on

Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
3159 Posts

Response Posted - 03/13/2009 : 19:53:28

I should have eavesdropped on that meeting! Are there any plans to allow uploading of files (ie. Excel spreadsheets, .kmz (google earth) files, etc.?

Edited by - on

johnsonp
Admiral

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USA
606 Posts

Response Posted - 03/13/2009 : 20:19:25

I use Picasa3 from Google and it's free.
After you have downloaded your pictures to this site you can magnify them....etc.

http://picasaweb.google.com/1dbpaul/BusRideToLake2009BoatShow?authkey=Gv1sRgCK7G9Yu50e-JDg#

paulj

Edited by - on

essen48183
Navigator

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USA
143 Posts

Response Posted - 03/13/2009 : 22:34:49

O.K. After poking around a bit, it seems that this forum software doesn't allow posting of photos... just posting of links to photos that display as a picture.

There is source code available online. Can someone tell me what version of snitz 2000 we are using.

Instead of posting pics somewhere else on the internet... on third party sites that can go belly up, can shrink your pictures, change their domain name thus ruining the link, etc. Why don't we put the pictures on here?

Even though this forum software doesn't support it, the source code is online. It seems like it wouldn't be too hard to change that picture button from something that merely types {IMG}{IMG} into a button that performed the following functions: opened a file chooser, converted the picture you choose from your hard drive to a screen width size photo to save space but still preserve detail, saved the file on this server in an annually named folder as a large random number.jpg, then linked to that picture and placed it in the img tag. I have a copy of visual studio. I am not proficient in ASP, but have done similar things in other languages and could figure it out pretty quickly.

Even more elegantly, maybe we could make a new Database named IMAGES that held the pics with each record having some metadata attached like a Unique ID, image blob data, description, username, and date?

Anyways, is there a limit on the size of that data that is available on this host? Is there a monthly bandwidth limit? Is there any reason why we can't do this. If one of the moderators would like me to look at the feasability of this and bang out some code for that button, please contact me.

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 03/14/2009 : 06:24:19

Sorry to jump in so late, I have been busy on a substantial project (news coming soon)

By the end of April we will be moving our site to a new server, everything will remain as it is now but we will be getting additional features.

Those features will be available on a 'members' site. You will be able to manage your own Association membership online (Sign up, Renew, Cancel, Edit your info).

Association Members will have access to an image management system.
There you will be able to do the following: (at least that's the plan!)
Upload images - They will be shrunk to a max width (probably ~550 pixels wide) to fit the forum on a 1024 pixel wide window,
List images - with options to delete, replace, or grab a link to paste into the forum.

On the management side (Association Officers) there will be an image review feature.
This is so that we can handle spammers that sign up for an account.
That will allow the review of all new images and deletion of them if they are found innapropriate.

We have yet to figure out the rules to apply if a member that has images discontinues membership.
An easy solution (stand by for a barrage of replies paul!) would be to make it a term of use that the pictures belong to the association, hence they would remain online after a membership expires.

The membership feature should be ready by the end of May.

Paul.

Edited by - on

essen48183
Navigator

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USA
143 Posts

Response Posted - 03/14/2009 : 08:22:31

Excellent!

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 03/14/2009 : 08:35:55

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by essen48183
 ...If one of the moderators would like me to look at the feasability of this and bang out some code for that button, please contact me.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Very nice offer, Essen! But as a lowly member (and software product manager in a past life), I'll offer the opinion that the association shouldn't have random people (pardon the expression) messing with the forum code. People are transient, in the association and in life, and we'll want to be able to take advantage of upgrades to Snitz. Paul is a better judge of this, but that's my take. It's probably why he's making an independent picture storage facility. I have no doubt you could do a great job, but who knows what happens next...

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 03/14/2009 08:38:08

dmpilc
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4593 Posts

Response Posted - 03/15/2009 : 17:28:36

How do boat pics get posted into the gallery? Could that feature be expanded? just thinking out loud.

Edited by - on

Stu Jackson C34
Admiral

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844 Posts

Response Posted - 03/16/2009 : 10:04:06

Perhaps I am misunderstanding, but limiting posting pictures to C25 members only could be counterproductive. You were so nice in providing "The Admirals" Forum for us to use, many of us who have moved on continue to use and learn and contribute to the other C25 forums, and I would like to be able to add pictures to help out. Picture posting should be open to all Forum registrants, not just C25IA members.

Edited by - on

essen48183
Navigator

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USA
143 Posts

Response Posted - 03/16/2009 : 18:57:55

Paul, Gotcha... makes sense. If upon the upgrade, the picture feature is not working, I'll post code to the Snitz site as an add on.

Stu, I agree.

Edited by - on

Mike013
1st Mate

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USA
64 Posts

Response Posted - 03/06/2010 : 17:04:23

Has there been any change to the method in which pictures are added to posts?

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 03/06/2010 : 18:32:56

just to claify, the picture upload feature that I'm working on will work like this.
a) Members (paid) will be able to upload pics to the members area, the pics will be resized to fit within a maximum size.
b) Members will be able to get the url code to include the pics in the forum posts.
c) Members pics will be able to be viewed directly in albums/slideshows.

I have done a lot of the development work on my commercial Business Directory Site mvbizx.com

Paul

Edited by - on

piseas
Former Treasurer

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USA
2017 Posts

Response Posted - 03/07/2010 : 11:42:11

Mike are you talking about adding photos to your posts? Are you having problems with shutterfly. I use them to post photos here and it does work. Go to this [url="http://www.catalina-capri-25s.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2623"]link[/url] for an explanation.
Let me know.
Steve A

Edited by - piseas on 03/07/2010 11:44:38

Mike013
1st Mate

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USA
64 Posts

Response Posted - 03/07/2010 : 22:20:32

I used the link but have never ben able to post pictures although I have been able to post the "blue peter" signal flag. I use Shutterfly.

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 03/07/2010 : 23:06:08

So was the idea to upload directly to the forum tabled? Reading through this thread, it seems like we started working on it, almost exactly a year ago, are we not going to do it?

Edited by - on

Nautiduck
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3704 Posts

Response Posted - 03/08/2010 : 08:06:27

I use Shutterfly for posting all of my photos.

Edited by - on

Mike013
1st Mate

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USA
64 Posts

Response Posted - 03/08/2010 : 22:14:50

Randy,

I use a Mac. Is there something different in the instructions that were posted a few years back?

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