Image on postings - how to replace?

[Derek Uzzell]

Try entering your Profile via the “Forums Control Panel” feature and then delete anything that’s in the “Photo URL” and “Profile image URL” boxes. Then click on the “Submit” button and leave the “Forums Control Panel” feature.

 

Next re-enter your Profile via the “Forums Control Panel” feature and see a) if there’s something in either/both of the URL boxes and b) if your original photo is being displayed in the “Images” section.

 

If your original photo is not now being displayed in the “Images” section, I doubt that you’ll be able to recover it via the “Images” method.

 

Although it’s evidently possible to add/replace profile/posting photos using the “URL” technique described above, there’s something very peculiar about the way the “images” technique is functioning.

 

(If you have your original photo stored somewhere, you should be able to place it on your Profile/postings using the URL technique.)

[colin]

I'm on phone at moment, I see that the replacement photo has gone, I had tried the delete button several times without luck, but seems there must be a. Delay, Will try and upload Leo when I get home.

[colin]

Once again with no input from me Leo has reappeared on my control panel page and the url is showing the same as before I started messing about trying to load a second photo, so I'll leave it for a day or to see if it updates on posts.

[Derek Uzzell]

What’s happening to me at present is this:

 

If I go into my Profile via the Forums Control Panel feature, there is this entry

 

/forums/profile/get-photo.asp?memberid=231&type=profile

 

in the "Profile image URL" box. There is also a photo of Phil the black dog in the “Images" section beneath the “Go” button on the "Upload profile image” section.

 

To get rid of the dog-photo from the Profile I can either delete what is in the "Profile image URL" box, or click on the “GO” button (which clears the "Profile image URL" box) and then click on the “Submit” button to update the Profile. Merely clicking on “Delete image” has no effect. If I now visit the forums and then go back into my Profile via the Forums Control Panel feature, everything has reset itself and the dog-photo has reappeared.

 

If you want your Leo photo as your avatar on your postings, just copy what is in your "Profile image URL" box into the "Photo URL" box and then click on the “Submit” button to update your Profile. You should then see your Leo photo in both of the Images sections.

 

Oddly, (for me at least) although clicking on “Delete image” beneath a photo relating to the "Upload profile image" half of the “Images" section has no obvious effect, clicking on “Delete image” beneath a photo relating to the "Upload personal photo" DOES remove the photo and also deletes what is in the "Photo URL" box.

 

In principle, using the “Images” technique (if it were working as I would anticipate it logically should!) ought to be preferable to using the URL technique as the images will be held ‘permanently’ at the Warners end. With the URL technique the images are held ‘externally’, not at the Warners end, and if, say, the TinyPic application is inaccessible or the image stored there is deleted, the image won’t show up on the O&AL forums. Largely academic though, as the URL technique works reliably and the Images technique seems not to.

[colin]

Well thats worked, but I'm sure before messing about the url was only in one of the boxes. Doesn't matter but odd.

[colin]

Is someone at MMM taking the piss?

My avatar is now randomly changing,

[colin]

Earlier today I decided to wipe out the url's and start again, just logged back on to find i've got Leo back, thinking of starting a book on how long it lasts.

[Derek Uzzell]

As you can see I have been able to change my avatar using the “Images” method, but it seems to be very hit-and-miss and I haven’t been able to identify a procedure that works reliably.

 

Looking back at years-old forum inquiries about adding avatars, the main problem in the past appears to have related to ‘shrinking’ the chosen file to a small enough size. But otherwise people seem to have managed OK and I assume most will have been using the “Images” method rather than copying in a genuine URL ‘link’ to where an image-file is held.

 

What this seems to boil down to is - if a person finds the “Images” method proving problematical for them - the best recourse is just to use the URL method and something like TinyPic to reduce the file-size if necessary.

 

[colin]

Well Leo disappeared sometime today, I've uploaded the photo again, will have to see how long it takes until it shows again.

[Derek Uzzell]

I had a long go this morning trying to add/replace an avatar using the “Images” method, but I STILL can’t do it properly/reliably and the procedure doesn’t operate as I would anticipate it should. There may be a ‘trick’ to doing it, but if there is, I don’t know what it is.

 

However, using TinyPic.com works fine for me.

 

http://tinypic.com/

 

Select “Avatar (100x75)” in the “Resize” box.

 

Choose the appropriate image-file from your computer and click on the “UPLOAD NOW” button.

 

Go through the security check (if you are asked to).

 

Four “Share This Image” boxes will be presented to you and the “Direct Link for Layouts” box is the one you’ll need.

 

Copy the information in the “Direct Link for Layouts” box into the "Profile image URL” box in your Control Panel screen’s “Edit your Profile” section, then click on the "Submit” button.

 

(If you want to replace the avatar you’ll probably need to go through the above procedure again.)

[Derek Uzzell]

I’ve finally cracked how to reliably replace the image that appears on postings via the “Images” method available within the Forums Control Panel.

 

1. Store on your computer the image that you want to appear on your postings. The file-extension doesn’t seem to be critical and .jpg. .jpeg, or .gif files all worked OK for me when I was experimenting. The pig-related .gif file I’m using at the moment (infuriating innit?) has a size of 45KB and transferred successfully, whereas a 53KB file produced a ‘file too large’ message at the transfer stage. So it looks like the maximum file-size may still be 50KB.

 

2. Click on the “Forums Control Panel” button and scroll down to the “Images” section.

 

3. In the “Upload profle image” box, click on the “Choose File” button and select the appropriate file from your computer. The file name (Let’s say I choose pig.jpeg) should now appear alongside the “Choose File” button and, after that has happened, click on the “Go” button.

 

4. If the image that now appears between “Existing Image” and “Delete Image” is not what you anticipated, a) do not be surprised as that’s very likely what will happen and b) do not be concerned as the next steps should sort it out!

 

5. If the image is wrong, go to the “Profile image URL” line in the “Edit your Profile” section of your Control Panel. The Profile image URL box should contain the following text string

 

/forums/profile/get-photo.asp?memberid=231&type=profile

 

where the number (231 in this example) will differ from forum-member to forum-member.

 

6. Add to the text-string

 

&file=

 

followed by the name of the file on your computer that you chose in the Images section.

 

So if the name of the file that was chosen was pig.jpeg the text-string in the "Profile image URL” box will need to have

 

&file=pig.jpeg

 

added to it so that (in this example’s case) it should read

 

/forums/profile/get-photo.asp?memberid=231&type=profile&file=pig.jpeg

 

7. Now click on the “Submit” button at the foot of the “Edit your profile” section and, when the “Profile updated successfully” message has appeared, the correct image should show in the “Images” section and appear on your postings.

 

This may sound like a complex and long-winded procedure, but it isn’t really. The "Upload profile Image” process does operate as one might reasonably expect, though the result seems to be unpredictable as to which image appears after the “Go” button has been pressed if you’ve uploaded a profile-image previously. The critical thing though is to make sure that the &file=file-name addition to the “Profile image URL” text-string identifies the correct file.

 

A similar procedure can be used to upload/replace a personal photo. If you click on the “PROFILE” button on this posting and then on the “This user has a photo available” line, you’ll see the effect.