WARNING: Don't clean out your image gallery!

[RavensFan]

One of the comments made during the unveiling of the new method for attaching images to posts was that by not having the image file as part of the message, we would run the risk of the images getting lost.  In the last couple days, we've seen a situation where this has happened.

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=BreakPoint&message.id=8676#M8676

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&view=by_date_ascending&message.id=442550#M442550

1.  If anyone has posted images to their gallery as a means to embed the image inside a message, DON'T CLEAN OUT YOUR IMAGE GALLERY!

2.  If you intend to embed images in your message that really only pertain to that message, don't use the new, easy method that places the images in the gallery.  Continue to use the old method where you attach the image file to your message.  Post the message.  Edit the message and embed the image using the 3rd tab on the dialog and where you enter the URL to the message based on its right click properties of the hyperlink.  Make sure you have actually submitted the message the first time and not just looking at the preview mode of the message.

And 3.  I haven't seen this as much lately, but don't use that Firefox means of pasting images into the editor.  It doesn't work!  All it does is paste a link that points to the temporary image file located in the temp folder of your hard drive.

The image gallery should really only be used for images that have a broader scope than a particular message.  For example, your icon, your signature, any common images you find you are posting over and over again.

All of that said, I still think it should be possible to have an easy method where in one click in embeds the image and attaches the image file to your message.  It would just need Lithium to do a little programming work on their end.

[Ray.R]

It appears that Mathan has cleaned out his image gallery.

I don't like that feature.  Lithium should revert to the good old way of doing things..  😉

[Mathan]

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Ray.R wrote:

It appears that Mathan has cleaned out his image gallery.

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Yes it happened unfortunately. Don't know how to get back. I hope its just 6 images are there at that time. Completely i was unconsious while doing that. Parallely i was checking my mail that time. So it happened just like that.

[Mathan]

Christian,

Did you cleaned your post.  Since its a blank post, i even can't able to quote your message.

Oh god, see this below. Viewed 1,3,0 times............ Forum is getting crazier

Mathan

Message Edited by Mathan on 09-23-2009 10:51 PM

Message Edited by Mathan on 09-23-2009 10:52 PM

[altenbach]

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Mathan wrote:

Did you cleaned your post.  Since its a blank post, i even can't able to quote your message.

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I don't know what happened. When I posted, my internet crashed. I guess we only got a partial message.

Here's what I wrote:

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The image gallery in its current form is completely disfunctional. That's why I am currently not even using it.
Images that are deleted from a gallery should just disappear from the gallery, but still be available from their original link, forever!

Message Edited by altenbach on 09-23-2009 10:11 PM

[Ray.R]

One feature that is missing from this forum is the ability to create polls.

I would run two polls: 

a)  Going back to the original editor  

which would render the 2nd poll useless

b) removing the image gallery feature

Having polls would send a clear message to Lithium that they certainly didn't improve the important parts of this forum:  the ability to write messages without annoyances.

[RavensFan]

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Madboy(Mathan) wrote:

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Ray.R wrote:

It appears that Mathan has cleaned out his image gallery.

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Yes it happened unfortunately. Don't know how to get back. I hope its just 6 images are there at that time. Completely i was unconsious while doing that. Parallely i was checking my mail that time. So it happened just like that.

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I just want you to know I'm not blaming you for doing something wrong, your posts just happened to be the first ones where I've seen this problem occur.  When the change first came out, there was speculation that there could be a problem.  I don't use the image gallery at all, either.  Other than for an icon and a few experiments when it first came out.

I would vote also, that the new image gallery be scaled back.  The primary option when embedding an image is to go put it in the gallery.  I think that should be disabled, or at least be made the non-default method.  I think Lithium should either fix the gallery or completely disable it.  The longer that the option is available, the more it will be used and images will be posted to it.  And the more likely this will occur again.

It's just not logical to be able to create a message that becomes permanent 10 minutes after you post it.  But you have such an easy way (and the default way) to link it to other things that are user editable and can ultimately break the links in the permanent posts.  (Of course posting a link to any third party website could have this problem.  And NI's own application engineers in the forums and in the knowledge base articles post links to ae.natinst. domain that nobody but them can get to.)  Most people using the new method (which is easier than the old) do not know what is going on in the background.  And even if they did and were careful, there is no way when looking at an image in the gallery to determine all the places where its link got used.

[Mathan]

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Ravens Fan wrote:

I just want you to know I'm not blaming you for doing something wrong, your posts just happened to be the first ones where I've seen this problem occur. 

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I understand. I know the mindset of all people here since am watching you all people here for last 2 years.

I like you all especially (Ok will post this little later.... )

Mathan

[Laura F.]

While I agree that the image gallery funcationality could (and should) be improved, I think the image uploader provides a large benefit to new forum users and ones that do not post that often.  Remember how often people could not figure out how to post their image?  The new image uploader allows them to upload and embed an image all in one step which is a large improvement over the old method.  I continue to tell Lithium that the way the image gallery was implemented does not work well for our community.  If we could just have the image uploader without the gallery...

Thanks for the feedback!

Laura
Web Support & Operations
National Instruments