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[FireFlower]

Seems like these days when I see a new post in technical guides it is always a question thread instead of being a guide. A lot unnecessary for moderators to move topics into right section and users get disappointed when there wasn't a new guide.

Another thing that I wish we could solve is the image storage... people use free image storage services but those services maybe hold your uploaded picture a year then it gets flushed and a guide loses its pictures.

[El Tel]

I post the images directly but only after shrinking and re-saving as JPG so the size is in KB and not MB...

I try to be judicious, aware of the fact that space is limited and someone has to pay for storage, if the admins/mods asked me to stop doing so, I would.

However... even with images uploaded directly we can't add them as inline images this way, only at the bottom of the post all together.. well, there is a way to add inline images AND store the images on the board, but it's a PITA.

[CrazyG]

Images within posts are usually 'called' from a hosting site where a
member has their photo's stored....the problem with that is members
sometimes move their photo's on the hosting site, or they delete them,
or stop paying to have them hosted so they are deleted !

Whenever I find images missing I email or PM the member/s who posted
them, with the hopes that they still have them or that they can 'find' them
and amend the link/s...OR...get them to send them to me so that I can
then add them to my 'collection' that I have hosted (that I pay for !).
Sometimes I have success...if not, then we are stuck.

As El Tel rightly says...the Forum can store images...but only at the end
of a post...not in the middle as JJ and I and others have when we have created
a Guide.  That is just how it works I'm afraid.
To store images 'inline' (as El Tel says) 'in' a similar way on here is something
even I have never managed to do !  I've even asked the guy who does our
'backroom tech support', and he hasn't been able to say 'Yes...it can be done'...
or 'Yes, it is possible' (or even tell me how...if he does know).

I'll maybe post a topic asking members to give serious thought before making
any changes etc to where and how they store photos that are part of the Forum..
but I have a feeling that it'll be forgotten over time, or ignored. Life eh ?

The Admin Team (aka me) cannot be held responsible for the actions or
decisions of any member in respect of their photo's/images. I really do wish
that it was possible for the Forum to store images once they have been posted,
but if we could I have a feeling there may be a need for extra bandwidth, and
that would cost money.  Thus far I've absorbed the cost without resorting to
asking for membership fees....I'd like to keep it that way. And before anyone
asks the question..opening up to advertising to help pay is not an option.

And YES Fireflower....keeping the Forum in 'order' and sorting through
or sifting out questions etc that are in the wrong place; like added to the end
of a Guide; takes time...time out of my private life...time that is not paid for,
but I do my best to keep it up to date and nice n neat as and when I do
somehow manage to FIND the time to do it.
If necessary I will split posts and create new topics if there is not already one
I can link/include it into, but as I've said...it takes time AND a lot of effort
trying to keep on top of it and find or remember IF we already have a topic
or a related topic.  it's not easy being Admin I can tell you..

Some of you may have noticed that I've 'elevated' mr singh to the
lofty heights of Global Moderator with a view to 'spreading' some of the
load that the Forum takes, as I can't be on it and 'patrolling' it 7 days a
week, 365 days a year, nor am I able to remember every bit or part of
the Forum, there's too much.  I do my best to ensure that this Forum is
THE best that there is for the ForFour.

[Ocracoke]

I'll make this offer now - I am happy to host your images now on the server I personally run here rather than have it all scattered across different image hosting sites like imgbb or the like if the host here isn't happy to.

[El Tel]

https://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3770

There may be some dependencies but the mod does what you'd expect - inline images - and is compatible with SMF 2.0.17.

[CrazyG]

El Tel....thanks for that link...I'll forward it to our 'backroom tech'
whose company hosts the Forum and see what he has to say or thinks
about it.   Personally I think it would be a worthwhile addition, although
if I read it correctly...this just allows posting inline...not hosting of images
or storing of images...or does it ?  (I'm tired and easily confused at the
moment...sorry.)

[El Tel]

You're welcome

From what I gather, this mod allows attachments added under 'additional options' to be placed anywhere in the post.

This is actually possible now by saving a post with attachments, and then re-editing it after it's saved and re-using the already uploaded image (right click, copy address) in a fresh IMG tag anywhere you want. However, it won't hide the original attachment, so in effect you'll see an IMG twice in the post: once inline, and again at the bottom (that's the PITA I was referring to).

This mod seems to take care of all that, allowing you to upload an attachment and then insert it with a dedicated tag before saving- apparently the screenshot shows only one appearance of the image, so it looks like it takes care of that too.

There may be caveats when your tech guys take a look at this mod - fair enough - I'll leave it to them to give you the feedback on the requirements and pain involved in making this possible.

[snookey]

To sidestep the cost factor there are plenty of free storage options available.  If you are an Amazon Prime member it comes with unlimited photo storage as one of its extra perks.  Otherwise there are free options from Google, Dropbox, Microsoft, Apple and many more.  There's no limit oin how many of these offers one may take up, so the total storage which can be acquired is substantial.  Additionally, since many of these services are long-established, it takes away the worry over photos disappearing in the future.  When members post pictures simply back them up to one of these services (eg, engine-related to Google Drive) and then if the member's hosting arrangement goes awry for any reason, select the photo from the cloud storage and replace it.   Here are some links to guides to the current options:

https://www.techradar.com/uk/best/best-free-cloud-storage-service

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/broadband-and-tv/free-online-storage/

https://hostingdata.co.uk/best-free-cloud-storage/

[FireFlower]

I do not think the storage would be much of a problem these days if you just limited the picture size to 1MB, allowed formats jpg (jpg, jpeg, JPG, JPEG) and png.

I find it a bit more shame the excellent guides just lose the pictures because those free hosting image sites really delete the images automatically when the image has not been used for sometime, aka it has not been requested. Then we have other services that won't delete image but limit bandwidth for users and show default premium advertisement thumbnail if the bandwidth limit has been reached.

[CrazyG]

ALL....
Much though the suggestions are appreciated and welcome, there is
an issue (of sorts) re the images that we already have that are
linked into posts in threads/topics on the Forum....in that if a decision
were made to then copy, or move, or whatever over to another storage
medium, that there would be the issue of the excessive amount of
time and effort required to actually do it as it would not be a simple
process. Each thread/topic would have to be gone thru and 'actioned'...
as well as the links in each post amended accordingly, one by one !

As an asside, the Forum itself is running on a platform that is by today's
standards antiquated (SMF 2.0.17 | SMF © 2006-2009, Simple Machines LLC)
and I am aware that there are far better ones around.
Once again, like the image hosting transfer as per above, it would not be
a simple case of 'flick a switch' and voila it would all be swapped over.

Personally I try NOT to think too much about all of that as it can be quite
depressing...what I do know and feel is what we currently have works fine.
THE ISSUE is; if I am totally blunt about it; is the images we show on
the Forum that members have posted is down to the members themselves,
and dare I say it is their 'responsibility' to the members of the Forum
to 'maintain' those images to be available for members whilst this Forum
is running/exists.
Hash words I know, but the only alternative that I can see is that we could
make it mandatory that any images used must have a copy sent to the
Admin for them to save to a specific storage, so that they can if necessary
be used to 'replace' any that can or may for whatever reason 'go missing'.
But even that would involve some considerable work by the Admin (me)
to copy it and keep it saved and updated...
Something I'd have to think further and hard about....if/when I get time !

Has anyone any other suggestions on all this...they're all welcome....

[El Tel]

First I'd do a storage dump and get all the images in a single archive, sorted by name.

Second I'd work out where to put them permanently. If not on the site, then it would probably would have to be paid-for online storage, but that's another question entirely.

Finally I'd do go digging in the database, find the tables entries which link the images to posts, (probably stored as markup) and run some SQL magic to replace the URL links encoded therein, with links to the moved images.

If you wanted to get all images no matter where they were stored (on or off site) then you'd want to do the database dump first, pull out all the links and then use a bit of scripting (easy enough with a Linux shell) to download them all using wget.
 
All of this would be backed up and saved before making any change at all to the DB, of course.

I know this because it's my day job for many years now, so I don't see anything too difficult, just time consuming work.
However if you don't have that experience, it can seem daunting.

[Problemchild]

All that sounds v complex and time consuming

And if someone who is hosting them takes umbridge (or as what happened on the BMW forum I’m on the Goater passed away suddenly) they then control all images on the site and all is lost

I think hosting on your own stable hosting platform and copying the link gets round most of the issues

I’m using imjur at the moment

I used google images too but it’s not quite so easy to use and I don’t back them all up very often

JJ