Gallery NOW OPEN - Share your in-game pics, photo mode images, photography and YouTube videos!

[Eudemon]

[headline]Gallery is NOW OPEN![/headline]

You have probably seen us on the blue team (aka staff) talking about things that cannot be talked about or mentioning stuff that is being worked on and this is one of them. This media gallery is in response to us hearing how you do like to share your media you have taken from games and real life, but that it's hard to do so on the community because of the break-up of titles and sections we have. And that's completely understandable and is something we have wanted to do something about for a long time but, there just wasn't an adequate solution for doing so. Until now and even though it has been a lot of work, I personally feel it was worth it and hope that you guys will too.

 

...oh yeah the link is up there ^ :D

 

On smaller devices the gallery is disabled. It is something we want to get working on and have done some tests in how to go about it but it's a big job and I wanted to get it on for the majority of our visitors.

 

Please note this is essentially in Beta and so you may experience the occasional bug or glitch. Should this happen please post in here the 'what, when and why' so we can investigate the issue, hopefully find it and squash it.

 

First and foremost: the gallery is for YOUR stuff. We want to encourage you to share your own photo mode shots, in-game captures, youtube videos and real life media with us. You can copy either the page link itself or the direct link and paste them in the forum to show your stuff in threads. (but not elsewhere as a hotlinking feature is in place)

 

1. The Basics

• Everyone can see the Gallery
  
• You need to be a registered member in order to interact with the Gallery - less than 10 posts* can like and comment but not post media
  
• Members start off with a 10 items limit and being active on the community is rewarded up to a maximum of 300**
  
• Speshul members start with a 50 items limit and again activity is rewarded up to a maximum of 500**
  

* a wait may be required when you reach 10 posts until the forum performs its hourly auto-promotions

** these limits may be raised after we see how performance goes

 

2. Gallery - Posting Media

• Select if you are posting an image or video
  
• If image
  
  • browse to the image file on your machine, only JP(E)G and PNG file types are allowed and make sure its dimensions are at LEAST: 640px width AND 480px height
    
  • choose the category that best fits your image's subject (check if there is a dedicated title option)
    
  • enter a meaningful title that describes your image (example if it's from DRIVECLUB have that in the title)
    
  • the description is where you can explain more about the image than what the title can and you also have the ability to use basic bbcodes such as bold, italic, underline, font, colour and smilies
    

   

  [*]If video

  • find the YouTube video you wish to post and locate the video ID at the end of the url. Usually it's after youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXXXX or the final youtu.be/XXXXXXXX and copy that section only and copy the video url either from the address bar or by right clicking on the video itself. [uPDATED: 28/9/16]
    
  • choose the category that best fits your video's subject (check if there is a dedicated title option)
    
  • enter a meaningful title that describes your image (example if it's from DRIVECLUB have that in the title)
    
  • the description is where you can explain more about the image than what the title can and you also have the ability to use basic bbcodes such as bold, italic, underline, font, colour and smilies.
    

   

  [*]Read the terms and if you are fine with them put a tick/check in the 'I Agree' box

  [*]Press Post Media - wait for media to process and that's you!

  [*]Depending on your status you will either have to wait for your update to be Approved or it will be auto-approved and be ready for viewing. [ADDED: 30/1016]

After posting there is a 60 second wait before you can upload another media item. This is in place while we judge the performance of this new feature on our system. And again it is something we will look at in time.

 

AAAAAHHH ERROR!!:

Should you receive any errors, take note of what they say as we have done our best to inform you as to what may have happened. If you get the 'unknown' message however, post in here so we can check on it. Also be aware that with videos, if the thumbnail can not be retrieved due to issues at YouTube's end (rare event I know) you will not be able to add your video.

 

Any questions, please be sure to ask and either myself or the blue team will do our best to answer. :nuts:

 

---

Updates

 

2016

 

UPDATE:// 17/12/16 – Filesize limit for images has been increased to 3MB.

UPDATE:// 30/10/16 – Updated Gallery to include Open Graph meta information on main parts and also changed lightbox to that used on forum to enable better functionality.

UPDATE:// 28/9/16 – Multiple-uploads, YouTube url support and auto-approval implemented. (see this post)

UPDATE:// 15/7/16 – Implemented a display of the latest 5 media items posted to the gallery on the main forum home for members in order to help boost the viewability of stuff that's posted.

UPDATE:// 15/7/16 – The blue team are now notified of media awaiting approval so this should help in the amount of waiting required. :)

[Eudemon]

Please bear with us while we put the relevant permissions in place.

 

:warnsaw:

 

//UPDATE: Permissions are a go and so now should be you! :nods:

[TIMELESS]

I posted a media! Haven't managed to break anything quite yet, but give me time. :evil:

[Andreas¹]

Ooh it looks purdy! It's very neatly organized and very intuitive to use thus far for me, will see what uploading is like once you fiddled with the permissions. I'm a bit confused though, it's not meant to replace photo threads on the forum, is it? I'm thinking of it more like a place where I can upload my favorite screenshots or photos, whereas in the forum I can post all of it. Or...?

[Eudemon]

Ooh it looks purdy! It's very neatly organized and very intuitive to use thus far for me

Thanks Anders, that is good to hear as I have been staring it for ages and have only had myself and the blue team to get feedback from. And despite their observations being ever so helpful, it is good hearing from someone who has only seen it now.

will see what uploading is like once you fiddled with the permissions

You're good to go now!

I'm a bit confused though, it's not meant to replace photo threads on the forum, is it? I'm thinking of it more like a place where I can upload my favorite screenshots or photos, whereas in the forum I can post all of it. Or...?

The main point of this is to give people what they have (seemingly) been wanting for a while - a place where they can post their pics and vids in an easy manner. For a while we have heard how people wanted to post things but found it annoying to do so due to the broken up sections, this takes care of that does it not?

 

And this is only part of what we have in mind for this place going forward. Just a bloody nuisance it's me that's gotta do it. :lol:

[Ryzza5]

Cool baked Beans Andy... seems much nicer than the other alternatives we discussed (ages ago). Will it integrate into the forums at all or do members have to remember to check the gallery on its own?

[CarMadMike]

Love the gallery :) I hope people appreciate just how much effort went into getting it live, it really should be an improvement over photo threads etc :)

[Eudemon]

Cool baked Beans Andy... seems much nicer than the other alternatives we discussed (ages ago). Will it integrate into the forums at all or do members have to remember to check the gallery on its own?

Thanks Ry. As most of it is down to myself to make happen it will be no quick thing and chances are I will probably break something else when going all mad scientist on it. :para:

 

@Mike: Thanks man.

[Camel]

I must say that it looks much better with proper pictures from people and not just 10 pictures of a scantily clad woman, an orange cat, a beach and some sort of ball.

 

Maybe we should start locking people in cupboards unless they use it?

[The Compensator]

Nice feature, D.

 

Possible to have some kind of slideshow going on on the main forum page? To "promote" the new photo gallery.

[Eudemon]

Possible to have some kind of slideshow going on on the main forum page? To "promote" the new photo gallery.

It's on the agenda for sure but it's me that needs to cobble it together and I am a moron. :derp:

[Ryzza5]

I have complete trust in Google you :D

[Eudemon]

UPDATE:// 15/7/16 – Implemented a display of the latest 5 media items posted to the gallery on the main forum home for members in order to help boost the viewability of stuff that's posted.

 

Don't forget, I'm an idiot, but I can tend to stitch things together at times for the greater :duck: good. :p

[Ryzza5]

UPDATE // 15/7/16: Implemented a display of the latest 5 media items posted to the gallery on the main forum home for members in order to help boost the viewability of stuff that's posted.

 

Don't forget, I'm an idiot, but I can tend to stitch things together at times for the greater :duck: good. :p

Cheers

 

I wonder if you can integrate new gallery postings into 'Your Crap' with a counter of new posts + comments. All the OCD members won't be able to stand having a number there and so will have to click it. :)

[TDUFREAK500]

You are incredibly evil Ryan. :evil:

[Eudemon]

I wonder if you can integrate new gallery postings into 'Your Crap' with a counter of new posts + comments.

Doubtful, but I like a challenge so it's no doubt something I will at some point have a look at.

[Eudemon]

UPDATE:// 15/7/16 – The blue team are now notified of media awaiting approval so this should help in the amount of waiting required. :)

[Ryzza5]

btw some feedback on posting videos - if I r/click a video and Copy Target Link it's a pain to have to copy that somewhere else and then only copy the ID because the field has a character limit. If you know the length and the preceding characters to the ID is it possible to accept the whole link (full or shortened) and work it out automagically?

 

 

i.e. some psuedocode

 

Input = [plain]

If Input.Contains("v=") Then

Position = Left(Input, Find("v=") + 2)

Output = Left(Input, Position, 11)

[/plain]

[CLR-GTR]

Worked fine the 2 times I've used it so far. Only notices I have are:

 

- in the future allow more images to be uploaded in one go? like up to 5 or something?

- please disable the description field to be mandatory? but maybe that's just me, using it as a quick dump for the forum posts :p

[Ryzza5]

rhaps anything we post to the forum provides an irrevocable licence for turboduck.net corporation to use said content + images however they wish (i..e for articles) and so they need a way to search through them all.

 

I mean, who else is going to search the gallery? :)

[Eudemon]

Multiple-uploads is on the agenda CLR. Again it is something I want to do because it makes sense but it's the how that I need to investigate. As for the description, it is to make it easier for your item to be found if someone does a search for a specific topic. If you title an item and it's funny but you don't have funny in the title then if someone searches for 'funny' (a common search) your image won't show.

 

But adding a simple: 'a funny incident that happened during an...' then your item will be included. :)

 

The fact of the matter is, the gallery is basic and anything you do to help your stuff be found when it drops off the first page or so of the main or category it's put in, the better. :cool:

 

Case in point: Search for 'BMW' and you get your old green one in the results but Camel's DRIVECLUB shots and cal's recent postings don't show.

[Ryzza5]

But who is it that is searching the gallery? :think:

 

Maybe anyone who wants to.

Why do they want to? I'm not saying it will never happen. But to stress the importance of tagging implies that there is an assumed reason and I'm curious to know what that might be.

[Ryzza5]

Can I suggest a horizontal scrollbar for narrow screens?

 

[Eudemon]

What resolution are you running where that happens?

 

UPDATE:// 20/7/16 – Reduced the width for the elements that hold the media.

[Ryzza5]

It's called Windows Snap I believe (2 side by side windows)

 

so uh, about 540px