Week 3 schedule, New Mod, and Screencap Rule
Hi again, and all thanks to everyone who's been participating in the discussions and voting in the polls. It means a lot to me that you are having a good time, and that you appreciate the hosts' hard work! <3
First, let me announce our tag-tastic new Mod, chasingphantoms of the Sparkle Text! (Yes, that is official title. XD) Thanks, dear, for volunteering to put up with me!
The schedule for Week 3:
episode 13 - Monday, March 24 - lenainverse
episode 14 - Tuesday, March 25 - sagemuraken
episode 15 - Wednesday, March 26 - nenena
episode 16 - Thursday, March 27 - parsnip_chan
episode 17 - Friday, March 28 - sagemuraken
episode 18 - Saturday, March 29 - chasingphantoms
I know there's scheduled to be a content strike on Friday (the 21st) in response to LJ taking away ad-free accounts (see here and here for details). I'll leave it up to chasingphantoms as to what happens that day and if you want to wait until Saturday and we have 2 posts Saturday I'm okay with that.
Okay, for the Screencap Rule. Well, the poll closed with a final vote of 17 people to keep the full sized caps, and 16 people who requested that we do something else (minus double votes but still counting each individual, as I explained in the previous Mod post). This is far too close for me to say "so it seems like this one is the one we should go with."
However, sagemuraken (a dial-up user) made a great suggestion for a compromise. She noticed that converting Bitmap or PMG or whatever image files to JPEG files makes them a LOT smaller and easier for the DL time. I converted my caps to JPEG and my 1,600KB cap became 42KB. She suggested if we limit the size in pixels and require JPEG caps be used, we can still have a reasonable number of full-size caps in the post and it makes DL times a lot easier. It also lets us keep the most people happy, as half the people want full size pics, and I'm assuming that at least some of the people who wanted something else were doing so for reasons of DL/reload time. This helps with the DL problems as well as I can figure without removing the caps fully.
I know that converting files and resizing them is a pain and I want to make this as easy on posters as possible. So the rule will be the following:
Posters may post up to 35 caps in their post, provided that they are JPEG files and resized to no larger than 500 pixels in width. If the host has more than 35 caps or if they prefer not to convert/resize caps, they may use thumbnail caps or text links. Again, I remind you that this rule does not go into effect until Monday, since this week is already well underway and people have written their posts. If you have already written your post for a date after March 24 and can't recode due to time, just comment and let me know and we'll work something out.
Instructions on converting files and making thumbnails are below. I can't instruct on resizing because it depends what program you use, sorry.
Instructions for file conversion and thumbnails:
To convert files to JPEG, I found this free program that works quite well. The only thing with the "free" program is you have to keep clicking "no, I don't want to buy this" but near as I've found it doesn't limit any major functions that you'd need.
To make thumbnail caps:
If you have a file up on Photobucket (or whatever Image Host) the link to the picture will look something like this:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w74/lenainverse/KKM%2007%20rewatch/MAOH_VOL2-00000.jpg
And to make the image appear on LJ, the code looks like this:
img src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w74/lenainverse/KKM%2007%20rewatch/MAOH_VOL2-00000.jpg" alt="taxi" height="75%" width="75%" />
(you have to add "<" at the beginning, I couldn't get it to work with full code D:)
In any case, you make the image a thumbnail, you add "th_" before the photo name and remove any image resizing factors. For example, to make the above image a thumbnail, the code would look like:
img src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w74/lenainverse/KKM%2007%20rewatch/th_MAOH_VOL2-00000.jpg" alt="taxi" />
Notice the "th_" before "MAOH_VOL2-00000.jpg. (Again, you need to add a "<" before "img".)
To make the thumbnail a link to the fullsize pic, add the following at the beginning and end:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w74/lenainverse/KKM%2007%20rewatch/MAOH_VOL2-00000.jpg">img src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w74/lenainverse/KKM%2007%20rewatch/th_MAOH_VOL2-00000.jpg" alt="taxi" />
(Again, you need to add a "<" before "img".) So, essentially, you have: [regular link][link with "th_" modifier][close link]
The final linked thumbcap looks like this:
If you want to use this code to paste your own link, copy this code with the CAPS replaced with the photo-specific information:
alt="ALTTITLE" />
Notice that the first link address has no "th_" and the second link does. This lets you link to to fullsized image and show the thumbnail.
Questions about the code? I'm not sure I'm the person to answer, but post them here and hopefully you'll get them answered by someone. ^_^
And so there's the compromise. I hope people on both sides understand why I've come up with this. I'm not planning on changing the rule again, at least not drastically, because we need to move on, but if there are any huge complaints or I've overlooked something I do want to hear it.
First, let me announce our tag-tastic new Mod, chasingphantoms of the Sparkle Text! (Yes, that is official title. XD) Thanks, dear, for volunteering to put up with me!
The schedule for Week 3:
episode 13 - Monday, March 24 - lenainverse
episode 14 - Tuesday, March 25 - sagemuraken
episode 15 - Wednesday, March 26 - nenena
episode 16 - Thursday, March 27 - parsnip_chan
episode 17 - Friday, March 28 - sagemuraken
episode 18 - Saturday, March 29 - chasingphantoms
I know there's scheduled to be a content strike on Friday (the 21st) in response to LJ taking away ad-free accounts (see here and here for details). I'll leave it up to chasingphantoms as to what happens that day and if you want to wait until Saturday and we have 2 posts Saturday I'm okay with that.
Okay, for the Screencap Rule. Well, the poll closed with a final vote of 17 people to keep the full sized caps, and 16 people who requested that we do something else (minus double votes but still counting each individual, as I explained in the previous Mod post). This is far too close for me to say "so it seems like this one is the one we should go with."
However, sagemuraken (a dial-up user) made a great suggestion for a compromise. She noticed that converting Bitmap or PMG or whatever image files to JPEG files makes them a LOT smaller and easier for the DL time. I converted my caps to JPEG and my 1,600KB cap became 42KB. She suggested if we limit the size in pixels and require JPEG caps be used, we can still have a reasonable number of full-size caps in the post and it makes DL times a lot easier. It also lets us keep the most people happy, as half the people want full size pics, and I'm assuming that at least some of the people who wanted something else were doing so for reasons of DL/reload time. This helps with the DL problems as well as I can figure without removing the caps fully.
I know that converting files and resizing them is a pain and I want to make this as easy on posters as possible. So the rule will be the following:
Posters may post up to 35 caps in their post, provided that they are JPEG files and resized to no larger than 500 pixels in width. If the host has more than 35 caps or if they prefer not to convert/resize caps, they may use thumbnail caps or text links. Again, I remind you that this rule does not go into effect until Monday, since this week is already well underway and people have written their posts. If you have already written your post for a date after March 24 and can't recode due to time, just comment and let me know and we'll work something out.
Instructions on converting files and making thumbnails are below. I can't instruct on resizing because it depends what program you use, sorry.
Instructions for file conversion and thumbnails:
To convert files to JPEG, I found this free program that works quite well. The only thing with the "free" program is you have to keep clicking "no, I don't want to buy this" but near as I've found it doesn't limit any major functions that you'd need.
To make thumbnail caps:
If you have a file up on Photobucket (or whatever Image Host) the link to the picture will look something like this:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w74/lenainverse/KKM%2007%20rewatch/MAOH_VOL2-00000.jpg
And to make the image appear on LJ, the code looks like this:
img src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w74/lenainverse/KKM%2007%20rewatch/MAOH_VOL2-00000.jpg" alt="taxi" height="75%" width="75%" />
(you have to add "<" at the beginning, I couldn't get it to work with full code D:)
In any case, you make the image a thumbnail, you add "th_" before the photo name and remove any image resizing factors. For example, to make the above image a thumbnail, the code would look like:
img src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w74/lenainverse/KKM%2007%20rewatch/th_MAOH_VOL2-00000.jpg" alt="taxi" />
Notice the "th_" before "MAOH_VOL2-00000.jpg. (Again, you need to add a "<" before "img".)
To make the thumbnail a link to the fullsize pic, add the following at the beginning and end:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w74/lenainverse/KKM%2007%20rewatch/MAOH_VOL2-00000.jpg">img src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w74/lenainverse/KKM%2007%20rewatch/th_MAOH_VOL2-00000.jpg" alt="taxi" />
(Again, you need to add a "<" before "img".) So, essentially, you have: [regular link][link with "th_" modifier][close link]
The final linked thumbcap looks like this:
If you want to use this code to paste your own link, copy this code with the CAPS replaced with the photo-specific information:
alt="ALTTITLE" /> Notice that the first link address has no "th_" and the second link does. This lets you link to to fullsized image and show the thumbnail.
Questions about the code? I'm not sure I'm the person to answer, but post them here and hopefully you'll get them answered by someone. ^_^
And so there's the compromise. I hope people on both sides understand why I've come up with this. I'm not planning on changing the rule again, at least not drastically, because we need to move on, but if there are any huge complaints or I've overlooked something I do want to hear it.