Tutorial: How to Post a Picture...
I was just asked how to make picture posts here and I thought that was good info to share with everyone, just in case there were other lurkers just itching to post but unsure how to do so...
And I'll use a picture from this week's theme to demonstrate with - Josh Duhamel in bed. :-)
So if you want to share pictures here, first you have to find an image host. If you don't have your own webspace (if you aren't sure... then you don't), you can use one of the free ones. On the main page there is a menu on the right, at the bottom of it there is a spot that says "Free Image Hosts" or something like that. I think there are links to the 2 biggies (Photobucket and ImageShack) as well as a link to a comprehensive list compiled by silverthoughts.
Pick one, sign up for an account and upload your pictures to it. Repeat as necessary. ;-)
If your picture is larger than 500px wide (or contains nudity), you will need to put it behind an LJ cut tag, so that it doesn't mess up people's friendslists. If you aren't sure... stick it behind one anyway. It's better to err on the side of caution than get 20 angry comments of "CUT TAG THIS!!" :-) If you aren't sure how to do a cut tag, LJ FAQs are your friend.
Read through the rules posted on our info page, be sure your picture(s) should be posted here. I ♥ me some David Beckham, but he doesn't belong here. Make sure what you want to post should be here. There is a whole RightClick family to ensure there is a community for whomever you want to post.
Then come back to LJ and select that you want to make a post in the community (same as making a post in your personal journal, except you select 'rightclickdrool' instead of your own journal). You have to be a member of the community, not just watching it - if you are, it should appear in your drop down list of places you have posting access. If you are not currently a member, join now!
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Now here comes the slightly tricky part if you are not html-savy. You have to enter html code into the post, to get it to show up in the browser. But it really is one of those things that sounds harder than it really is.
The basic image tag ->
replace 'full-url-to-image.jpg' with the proper url to wherever you uploaded it to.
So to show this week's Lick of the Week for example, I would put:
and it appears like this:
Now you can get a bit fancier, adding alt tags and height/width tags, etc... but that's the basic image tag. You can post just fine with that.
So here's an example of the fancier image tag (and a contribution for this week's theme), with all the extra info. I'm only doing it this way because I happen to know the image is pretty big (2100x1689) and I can't upload a smaller version right now (my ftp program is busy). And it shows what CAN be done. The and part is so that people can click on it to access the larger version. width and height info force it to appear a smaller size and the border=0 bit means that even though it is a link, it won't have an ugly blue border around it like an image link would default to.
When someone (like us) says 'no hotlinking' what they are referring to is taking something like "http://www.wickedelf.com/gallery/albums/actors_j_r/josh_duhamel/josh_duhamel01.jpg" from someone's site and sticking it in your own img src tag. So you are using them to host a picture for you to display, without permission. That's bandwidth theft, because they are essentially paying for you to display the picture... which I assure you was NOT their original intention. :-)
Anyway, the above text would appear like this:
**********************************************************************
Now the final "HOW TO" part is adding tags. Our organization is here is based around themes and tags... so they are a must.
When you are adding a post, there is a line that says "Tags" - fill it in. All actors should be listed as firstname lastname - all lowercase. If they are already in our tag database, it will automatically add them on to the post. Only myself and sexy_kinda06 can add tags into the database (to prevent multiple versions of the same name... you don't know how many ways we had Viggo Mortensen and Jake Gyllenhaal spelled in there before we limited it *g*). If you post someone who is NOT in there already, you can tap us on the shoulder here and tell us who needs to be added. If you forgot to do your tags, OR if you have too many actors for that text entry (it is limited), you can instead make your post and then select the option to "edit tags" (there is an option right after you make the post, but it is also going to be one of the little pictures next to your post in the main community view), and then just scroll down and select whatever names you need to (hold down the ctrl button to make multiple selections).
Special side note... if you really want me to love you, and your post contains actors not already tagged.... you'll include a little list of their names at the bottom of your post. There is nothing I love more than trying to either GUESS who some of these people are or having to keep scrolling up and down on the page to make sure I added them all. :-)
************************************************************************
Feel free to ask if you have any questions on this.
And I'll use a picture from this week's theme to demonstrate with - Josh Duhamel in bed. :-)
So if you want to share pictures here, first you have to find an image host. If you don't have your own webspace (if you aren't sure... then you don't), you can use one of the free ones. On the main page there is a menu on the right, at the bottom of it there is a spot that says "Free Image Hosts" or something like that. I think there are links to the 2 biggies (Photobucket and ImageShack) as well as a link to a comprehensive list compiled by silverthoughts.
Pick one, sign up for an account and upload your pictures to it. Repeat as necessary. ;-)
If your picture is larger than 500px wide (or contains nudity), you will need to put it behind an LJ cut tag, so that it doesn't mess up people's friendslists. If you aren't sure... stick it behind one anyway. It's better to err on the side of caution than get 20 angry comments of "CUT TAG THIS!!" :-) If you aren't sure how to do a cut tag, LJ FAQs are your friend.
Read through the rules posted on our info page, be sure your picture(s) should be posted here. I ♥ me some David Beckham, but he doesn't belong here. Make sure what you want to post should be here. There is a whole RightClick family to ensure there is a community for whomever you want to post.
Then come back to LJ and select that you want to make a post in the community (same as making a post in your personal journal, except you select 'rightclickdrool' instead of your own journal). You have to be a member of the community, not just watching it - if you are, it should appear in your drop down list of places you have posting access. If you are not currently a member, join now!
*********************************************************************
Now here comes the slightly tricky part if you are not html-savy. You have to enter html code into the post, to get it to show up in the browser. But it really is one of those things that sounds harder than it really is.
The basic image tag ->
replace 'full-url-to-image.jpg' with the proper url to wherever you uploaded it to.
So to show this week's Lick of the Week for example, I would put:
and it appears like this:
Now you can get a bit fancier, adding alt tags and height/width tags, etc... but that's the basic image tag. You can post just fine with that.
So here's an example of the fancier image tag (and a contribution for this week's theme), with all the extra info. I'm only doing it this way because I happen to know the image is pretty big (2100x1689) and I can't upload a smaller version right now (my ftp program is busy). And it shows what CAN be done. The and part is so that people can click on it to access the larger version. width and height info force it to appear a smaller size and the border=0 bit means that even though it is a link, it won't have an ugly blue border around it like an image link would default to.
When someone (like us) says 'no hotlinking' what they are referring to is taking something like "http://www.wickedelf.com/gallery/albums/actors_j_r/josh_duhamel/josh_duhamel01.jpg" from someone's site and sticking it in your own img src tag. So you are using them to host a picture for you to display, without permission. That's bandwidth theft, because they are essentially paying for you to display the picture... which I assure you was NOT their original intention. :-)
Anyway, the above text would appear like this:
**********************************************************************
Now the final "HOW TO" part is adding tags. Our organization is here is based around themes and tags... so they are a must.
When you are adding a post, there is a line that says "Tags" - fill it in. All actors should be listed as firstname lastname - all lowercase. If they are already in our tag database, it will automatically add them on to the post. Only myself and sexy_kinda06 can add tags into the database (to prevent multiple versions of the same name... you don't know how many ways we had Viggo Mortensen and Jake Gyllenhaal spelled in there before we limited it *g*). If you post someone who is NOT in there already, you can tap us on the shoulder here and tell us who needs to be added. If you forgot to do your tags, OR if you have too many actors for that text entry (it is limited), you can instead make your post and then select the option to "edit tags" (there is an option right after you make the post, but it is also going to be one of the little pictures next to your post in the main community view), and then just scroll down and select whatever names you need to (hold down the ctrl button to make multiple selections).
Special side note... if you really want me to love you, and your post contains actors not already tagged.... you'll include a little list of their names at the bottom of your post. There is nothing I love more than trying to either GUESS who some of these people are or having to keep scrolling up and down on the page to make sure I added them all. :-)
************************************************************************
Feel free to ask if you have any questions on this.