Adding pictures

The board allows you to add pictures to your profile in several different areas. Here's a few tips on how to do it.

Avatars
An avatar is the picture that goes next to your name on each post you make,
<<<<< like this.

To add an avatar you can either:
a) add one yourself by visiting your control panel and choosing 'edit avatar' and then uploading a picture from your own computer. The quick link is here
or
b) attach a photo to an email and send it to me steve@cancuncare.com along with a note of your username and I'll add it for you.

The maximum size for an avatar is 120 pixels in the largest dimension. If you upload a photo yourself the software will resize it to this dimension for you. But bear in mind it will resize the whole of your photo so if your picture is a long shot you might be unreocognisable. The best thing to do is to crop your picture yourself to include only the portion of the picture you want to show first i.e. close ups of your faces if you want people to be able to recognise you.

The most common error in adding an avatar and then not being able to see it is because you added it as a profile picture rather than as an avatar.




Profile Pic
Your profile pic is the picture that appears on your profile page. To visit your or anybody elses profile then click their name next to one of their posts and then visit the 'View Public Profile' link.

To add your profile pic visit your control panel and choose the option 'edit profile picture'.

Profile pics can be larger than avatar pics, up to 250 pixels wide. Again to get the best picture cut out the part of the picture you want to display before uploading.


Adding Pictures to Your Posts
Attachments are not enabled on this forum due to possible database slowdowns and security vulnerabilities. To post a picture in your post you need to have it hosted somewhere on the Intrenet. A site such as photobucket works well. Photobucket will provide you the code you need to paste into your message for the picture to appear - you'll need to sue the 'IMG code'. For pictures hosted elsewhere then click the picture icon (yellow square with a mountain and paste the web address of the photo into the box.

Once uploaded go to an individual photo and you'll see some code you can copy and paste into your posts for the picture to show.


Personal photo storage and albums
Each member has a sizeable amount of personal photo storage. You can view other members photo's or create your own albums by visiting the community link and choosing view pictures and albums, or click here for the quick link.

Here you may create your own albums and upload photos from your own computer. Again the software will automatically resize the photos to the largest possible dimension. Because todays digital cameras produce such large pictures with large file sizes that are not suitable for internet viewing it may be necessary to reduce the size of the photos before uploading them.

If you receive a 'security token missing error' it means the files you are uploading are too large. To fix this you can either try to upload fewer photos at once, reduce the size of the photo before uploading or both.




Photo rules:
No nudity please, skimpy swimwear is fine but not see through or revealing any naughty bits.

Please don't upload pictures of people who you do not have permission from.

Please don't consider any photos as being a permanent fixture - especially the photo albums. Always keep a copy on your own system of your pictures. While I dont intend to delete or disable any photos I cannot say that they will be there forever and I may have to change things around in the future to ensure maximum forum performance.


Further info added by Donald:
Step by step for internal photo sharing

you don't need a photo bucket thingy.

#1 go to your User CP upper left hand corner on the home page
#2 on left half way down the page, click on Pictures and Albums
#3 Click on ADD Album
#4 Create your album(s) and upload pics
#5 To post pic....... Click on the picture in your file
#6 Copy the pic URL address under the pic after you open it
#7 Go back to the post you wanted to post on
#8 In the REPLY tho Thread box , click on yellow box with the mountain
#9 Paste your Address hear, (delete the http that is already in there, don't want it twice)

Sounds complicated but after you do it once its a breeze .


Further info added by Alberta Couple:

Easy way to post a pic:
Get a free account at a file hosting site like Photobucket: www.photobucket.com
you post your pictures in an album there, and when you click view your picture on photobucket, you'll see the "IMG" code (as seen in pic below)


just copy it and paste it in your message. voila! it shows up.