Posting images in threads (and Rotation Problem Solved)

[Glenn MacGrady]

How do you control the display size of an inserted image? I've tried changing image pixel size and DPI and the image still gets posted at the same (full) size. I'd like to be able to control the dimensions of a displayed image. Or is there a default image display size and what is that default?

You don't need to resize images before posting them.

Xenforo will accept images up to 8000 KB. If the image is larger than that, it will be rejected. If the image is accepted, it will automatically be resized to a maximum of 950 x 950 pixels when it is inserted into a message. If the image is attached as a thumbnail, it will be resized to 150 pixels along its shortest edge.

If images are inserted at the maximum 950 x 950 pixels, the size can be reduced in two ways. First, as Alan has explained, clicking on the image will cause drag boxes to appear at the corners, which can be used to drag the image to any smaller size. Second, clicking on the image will also cause a small image tool menu to appear. One of the tools is an image resizer. I use the corner dragging method.

If inserted images are already less than 950 x 950 pixels, they will appear at their natural, smaller size. However, you can click on the picture and use the corner boxes to drag it to a larger size, up to 950 x 950. That will probably cause it to lose sharpness.

I generally just use copy-paste to upload images.

Never thought of doing that. Great suggestion!

If you are talking about copy-pasting an image from an internet source, including personal photo albums, I have consistently recommended against that because a copy-pasted image will not be on our server.

A copy-pasted image will disappear from this site once it disappears from the internet source. We already have hundreds of disappeared images that had been copy-pasted from the personal photo albums of many of our most prolific members in many of our most informative trip and build threads. That's because people don't stay with their photo album sites for a variety of reasons: price increases, mass moves of photos to another hosting site, loss of interest, or death.

If I can transition this site to a young administrator, the site will likely outlive many of us and the images will be preserved on our server for far longer than they will reside continuously on personal photo hosting sites.

It only takes a few seconds to download a picture from the internet and then upload it to our server.

 

[Dana]

I was speaking mainly of copy-pasting an image from my computer. But from the internet, if you copy-paste the image, it will then reside on this server. If you copy-paste the link, then yes, that link could break.

Rightclick on an image in Firefox and get:



But, if I copy-paste the link, I just get a link, not the image:

https://www.canoetripping.net/data/avatars/l/4/4461.jpg?1687452681

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I was speaking mainly of copy-pasting an image from my computer. But from the internet, if you copy-paste the image, it will then reside on this server. If you copy-paste the link, then yes, that link could break.

That seems to be correct. Thank you for the clarification, Dana.

What I meant to say relates to using the Insert Image tool (mountain icon). If you choose Upload Image option, the image will be uploaded to our server. If you instead choose the By URL option, the image will appear in the message but won't be on our server. As an example, I inserted the first image below using the Upload Image option from my computer, and the second image below using the By URL option. By opening each image in a new tab, you can check that the second is not sourced to our server but merely linked to its source URL.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

It only takes a few seconds to download a picture from the internet and then upload it to our server.

Well, I've been experimenting and, as @Dana has pointed out for internet pictures, you don't have to download and upload. You can just right click on an internet image in Firefox or Chrome, choose "Copy Image," and paste directly into the text box to get it on our server—all without using the Insert Image tool or the Attach Files tool. Sweet.

We already have hundreds of disappeared images that had been copy-pasted from the personal photo albums of many of our most prolific members in many of our most informative trip and build threads. That's because people don't stay with their photo album sites for a variety of reasons

All of these unfortunate situations that I've noticed relate to photos that were inserted when this site was running on the buggy vBulletin platform prior to our migration to Xenforo in August 2021. I don't recall the vBulletin's image insertion procedures, but they were far more primitive and evidently resulted in lots of photos that were merely linked URLs, some now broken.

 

[tketcham]

I was speaking mainly of copy-pasting an image from my computer.

That's what I'd assumed and according to you and Glenn, it also works with web images. Excellent!

 

[Dana]

I don't remember if it was an earlier version of Xenforo or another platform, but when inserting an internet image there was a checkbox to link in place or copy the and reference locally. Might be a feature that can be enabled? When storage was more expensive many admins preferred to reference remote files to save local space.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I don't remember if it was an earlier version of Xenforo or another platform, but when inserting an internet image there was a checkbox to link in place or copy the and reference locally. Might be a feature that can be enabled? When storage was more expensive many admins preferred to reference remote files to save local space.

I also don't recall precisely whether it was under vBulletin or an earlier release of Xenforo, or both, that copy-pasting an image from the internet only linked it to the source. I don't have controls to enable or disable copy-pasting, but our webhost assures me that we have more than sufficient storage capacity under our plan.

 

[Dana]

Probably not a big deal here; I imagine most people are posting their own images rather than from the web... unless it's in image in their own cloud storage.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

On many discussion forums, such as sports forums, preserving images is not important because those forums cater mainly to current banter. This forum is different. One of its prime purposes is to preserve our trip reports, our build/restore/repair threads, our gear threads, and many other threads for the benefit of future searchers and researchers. Thus, preserving images in these threads is of paramount importance to me—specifically, getting them on our server instead of just linked to a third party URL.

I'll pay for extra storage if and when that is necessary. It hasn't been for five years now.