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Post by onlymark on Jun 3, 2012 7:52:06 GMT
A thought I've been having recently is what does everyone else do with the photo reports they do? What I mean is they are compiled and then posted on here - but do you compile them on the fly as it were? Do you just write and post the relevant photos straight into the 'Post Message' box on here? Or do you compile them completely on your computer and then post them?
The reason I ask is that I wonder if you keep a folder or something on your computer with all your reports on or do you just lose them as they are posted so that the only way you can refer to them is by looking at your Any Port post? Another reason is I've noticed that some of my earlier reports now have the photos missing as something was re-arranged on my Photobucket account so that only the writing is left - i.e. the links don't work any more. This also causes the problem in that I compose usually a report on a Word document that includes just the same links - hence that is no good either.
I'm wondering if I should make up a website from one of the free ones and just post all the reports in one go so I don't lose them - using the actual photos rather than just the Photobucket links. I still have the original photos but obviously when a thread is made I don't use them all, thus if the links are lost I've got to try and remember which ones I posted.
What d'ya think? Is it worth making a website for me or trying to copy and paste the reports onto a computer document where the photos are shown rather than the links, either for safekeeping?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 3, 2012 16:49:18 GMT
A thought I've been having recently is what does everyone else do with the photo reports they do? What I mean is they are compiled and then posted on here - but do you compile them on the fly as it were? Do you just write and post the relevant photos straight into the 'Post Message' box on here? Or do you compile them completely on your computer and then post them? I use both methods. When it doesn't matter if comments get interspersed between the posts in the thread, I just compose, Preview, then Post. But if I want to set something up in a particular order and there are too many images to go in one post, I compose, Preview, then copy & paste into a Word document. I do that as many times as needed, then make the OP & quickly paste in the saved posts.The reason I ask is that I wonder if you keep a folder or something on your computer with all your reports on or do you just lose them as they are posted so that the only way you can refer to them is by looking at your Any Port post? There are some saved on my computer, but just because I never got around to deleting them after making the thread, so yeah -- they generally only exist on Any Port.Another reason is I've noticed that some of my earlier reports now have the photos missing as something was re-arranged on my Photobucket account so that only the writing is left - i.e. the links don't work any more. This also causes the problem in that I compose usually a report on a Word document that includes just the same links - hence that is no good either. I lost some pictures when MegaPics was killed in the pirate sites purge. Sometimes it's impossible to figure out what the missing picture was.I'm wondering if I should make up a website from one of the free ones and just post all the reports in one go so I don't lose them - using the actual photos rather than just the Photobucket links. I still have the original photos but obviously when a thread is made I don't use them all, thus if the links are lost I've got to try and remember which ones I posted. I'm probably missing something obvious, but how would you use the actual photos, rather than links? I thought all sites needed either hosted photos or hosted the pics themselves, as with facebook.What d'ya think? Is it worth making a website for me or trying to copy and paste the reports onto a computer document where the photos are shown rather than the links, either for safekeeping? My answer would be no, what's the point of the extra work? Anyport makes every effort to conform to TOS, so that it won't be shut down. (& of course I still have the question about how you'd save the actual pics)
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Post by onlymark on Jun 3, 2012 18:01:05 GMT
I'm probably missing something obvious, but how would you use the actual photos, rather than links? I thought all sites needed either hosted photos or hosted the pics themselves, as with facebook.Isn't it that if you use one of the free website hosters like Weebly ( www.weebly.com), they host your photos (like Facebook then?) such that you directly upload photos from your computer to them rather than relying on a forum like here that doesn't host the photos, just the links - which means that if Photobucket goes down all the photos linked to it on Anyport also disappear. But the photos uploaded to Weebly, as part of a trip report, stay there as they are not linked in any way to Photobucket. Isn't that how it works? i.e. if Photobucket hits the skids (never mind that you can't post a thread like trip report on there), all other websites that have photos where you input the link rather than the photo, also goes down the pan. But a website independent of that, that hosts your photos, isn't affected and the photos will stay there as part of a report up until that itself spits the dummy. What d'ya think? Is it worth making a website for me or trying to copy and paste the reports onto a computer document where the photos are shown rather than the links, either for safekeeping? My answer would be no, what's the point of the extra work? Anyport makes every effort to conform to TOS, so that it won't be shut down. (& of course I still have the question about how you'd save the actual pics)[/quote] What I want to avoid is the scenario as happened with the Refuge where the plug was pulled and anything of interest in the way of trip reports, was then also lost - unless an original was kept on your own computer. I want to ensure that - a) the reports existence is not at the whim of whichever forum 'owner(s)' in continuing that said forum. b) the report say intact in its entirety and isn't affected by someone like Photobucket pratting around with settings or something, such that the text remains but the photos have disappeared as the links have changed. Does all this make sense? I do have all my original photos backed up - I also want my reports 'backed up' without a reliance on just one Photobucket type hosting site that is linked to the individual photos throughout maybe multiple forums so that the photos within the report stay there.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2012 18:11:43 GMT
I have all my photo essays backed up on a 'practice' pro-boards forum that I have. I know it ain't going anywhere and it's under my own control, so won't be shut down either. It's the only way to ensure that your essays are safe. Anyone can have their own pro-boards forum and it can be used just for your own personal use, and like I said, is under your own control, and is totally free.
I know back on the refuge, I started writing about my USA trip and (thank heavens that I had it saved on my computer too) otherwise when the owner of that forum decided to shut it down, I would have lost all the story that I had painstakingly put together thus so far.
There are also paid sites that you can upload your essays/photos on, and they don't cost much at all.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 3, 2012 18:17:57 GMT
a website independent of that, that hosts your photos, isn't affected and the photos will stay there as part of a report Ahh ~~ okay, I see what you mean. In other words, it hosts photos on itself, just as fb does, so you could refer back to it if any of your p'bkt pictures went missing from posts.
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Post by onlymark on Jun 3, 2012 19:34:26 GMT
Yep.
I have a free and easily made website already and it was a thought about a Proboards thingy but I might just see about making another one so I can sleep easily at night.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2012 9:33:58 GMT
I learned the hard way not to move my Photobucket pictures around. Now I just make a new Photobucket copy of the same photo if I want to store it in a more logical place than "default album" for example.
However, it's quite true that a lot of us would be screwed if Photobucket suddenly went under or if an admin here (whoever they are) had a hissy fit and closed this board down. Like Bixa, I have not saved most of my texts either although when I know the report will be long, I have learned to write it on Word. I think most of us have experienced the accidental deletion curse that normally occurs here when you have completed 98% of your presentation -- or the bug that wipes it clear or freezes the computer just when you hit 'enter.'
I am sort of keeping an idea on the evolution of all of this "cloud" business for the future in terms of not just saving reports but one's entire hard drive in a safe place. And I see no reason why we could not also save a complete copy of this site in one of those places (with an automatic update if possible!). I know that things like Google and Bing are crawling through the sites at all times and recording everything already, but until they give us access to their copies, that's not of great help to us.
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Post by onlymark on Jun 4, 2012 16:07:20 GMT
After thinking about this for a while I went for a fairly easy and cheap (i.e. free) option and I've stuck them up on a website. onlymark-expat-trips.weebly.com/The advantage of this is that I can download the whole website as a zip file on my computer as backup.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 4, 2012 18:20:54 GMT
Looks good!
Forgot to mention earlier that many of my report pictures on in folders on my computer marked with the names of the threads in which they were used. I do this to make it easier to use Photobucket's bulk uploader.
With the folders, at least I have an idea of where to look for a missing picture.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 9, 2017 22:20:17 GMT
I just came across this thread pushed way down in Free Trade Zone and see that over five years ago Mark anticipated a problem that has come to pass. As far as I can tell, any of us who now have pictures missing on a thread because those pictures were hosted on photobucket have no option other than re-hosting the pictures and essentially re-making the thread. Almost all of the picture reports on anyport have no expiration date in terms of interest and information. Also, they serve as organized illustrated memory books for the individual thread-makers. That, combined with the crucial element of their comprising much of the meat of this forum, makes Mark's original query all the more pertinent.
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Post by onlyMark on Aug 10, 2017 11:44:09 GMT
It took a while, but it did come to pass. Initially I backed up a load of reports to this website - onlymark-expat-trips.weebly.com/But as time went on number of factors came into play. Firstly I had metered connection for some time and it wasn't viable to upload loads of photos. Then I had a pretty slow one and it would take ages, plus the format to organise a report with photos on that website is clunky to say the least. Then I couldn't be bothered because Photoidiots seemed stable enough and I mistakenly felt they would give plenty of warning to do what they did. So all in all, there are a lot but far from all of them there. I do have saved a word doc for every report, but it just has the Photobucket links on it for any photos. With a lot of time an effort I could recover the missing ones but that might be a rainy day thing to keep me occupied. Or rather a monsoon season or two because it's not something I'd look forward to and have little motivation for at the moment and there are many not there on that site. Not as many as K2 does by a long shot, but enough to give me pause. Life goes on and I think positively that a lesson has been learnt.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 10, 2017 11:48:27 GMT
I was just looking at your pancake report, with the fun personal pictures in the OP missing. Even more dramatically bad is the fact that the entire Zambia board consists of OnlyMark picture reports -- reports now filled with the ugly gray photobuckets squares.
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Post by onlyMark on Aug 10, 2017 13:37:32 GMT
For gawd's sake, don't check out the Jordan board either. There are a couple of others made posts but all mine have been decimated. However, a lot of them are still on the Weebly website, so that's a saving grace at least.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 10, 2017 14:08:29 GMT
Well, yeah ~ saving grace, but not for anyport. For anyone thinking about renovating their photobucket-trashed threads, here is some advice from other threads in Image Bank: For reclaiming your pictures from photobucket, look at #s 3 and 4 here: anyportinastorm.proboards.com/post/282433/threadGood hosting site: postimages.org/also: Here is a list of image hosters suggested by Proboards back in August of 2016. Note they are suggestions, not necessarily recommendations. I think the caveat is important since one on the list was ImageShack. I know nothing at all about any of these, nor if they are free or not. Fokti gives a "free trial" and Village.Photos says "register for free", so everyone will have to look and make up his/her mind about each of these: imgbb.com/nickpic.host/village.photos/www.fotki.com/and this: Important notice: A new feature has been added to anyport. In Reply (not in Quick Reply) you will see a box reading "Add image to post" in the upper right-hand corner. If you click on it, it will open a pop-up allowing you to upload an image to anyport directly from your computer. Caveats:This is not the magic solution we might have hoped. For one thing, it's slow. For another, your pictures will display fairly small -- 640 px wide. Once the pictures are posted, each one can be clicked on and a larger size viewed, but . There is a feature to resize the pictures, but be aware it's only resizing the click-on version -- the pictures that show up in your anyport post will still only be 640 wide. I have tested it both before and after registering with the site. Interestingly, when I registered the test pictures from before registering showed up in my account. Here is the site, if you wish to read terms of service, or to register: imgbb.com/cross-posted to the tech thread YAAAAAY ~ Now this feature is available in Quick Reply as well. It's at the bottom left under the message box, after Post Quick Reply and Spell Check.
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