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Pics in the test area count against pics everywhere

J

JohnKSa

Administrator
Sorry for the somewhat cryptic title.

I sometimes upload pics in the test area trying to get my pics straight. But then when I try to post them elsewhere on the board, it won't let me because it says I've already uploaded the picture.

BUT, the threads in the test area are deleted occasionally so they're not permanent--I don't want to link to them because they'll go away.

Shouldn't the pics uploaded in the test area NOT count when the board checks to see if you've uploaded the pic already? Otherwise I have to go back and delete them all before I can post them in another thread permanently.

If they're going to count against you when the board checks, then perhaps the testing area threads shouldn't be deleted occasionally. Then I could post there and get it right and then link to the pics in another thread on another sub-forum without worrying about when the pics in the test area are going away.

Just a thought.
 
C

Capt. Charlie

Moderator Emeritus
John, Your pictures are stored in a separate database at TFL, and where they're posted doesn't make any difference. If you go into your control panel, go all the way to the bottom, and you'll see a box titled "attachments". Open that, and all of your uploads will be there, along with what threads they were posted in. Simply right-click on the file you want, go down to properties, and copy the address (URL) to your clipboard. Then paste it into your new post the way you normally would.
 
M

Mal H

Staff
That's true, Charlie, but John brings up the point that a pic posted in the Test forum isn't permanent. That and the fact that the software doesn't allow attaching the same physical pic more than once presents the problem. I have run into the same problem and renaming the file doesn't help.

John, have you tried deleting the pic in the test thread after you see that it is ok and then re-attaching it in your permanent post? Does the sw still block the new attachment?
 
C

Capt. Charlie

Moderator Emeritus
Oops! My bad :eek: . I have no more business discussing computer problems than a boy scout does brain surgery :D .

I do have one idea though. You said re-naming the file doesn't work. How 'bout re-sizing the pic by just a couple of pixels and saving to a new name? That would change the file attributes, so that hopefully, the software won't recognize it. Or am I trying to do brain surgery here again :confused: :D .
 
J

JohnKSa

Administrator
Mal,

I haven't tried deleting and then re-uploading. I'll try that.

Capt. Charlie,

That will probably work. I do know that simply renaming the file isn't enough to fool the software. In fact, what I upload is usually a resized version of a high-res pic. I could just start from the high-res and do a slightly different downsize with a different name. I doubt the software would catch that.

Thanks for the ideas, guys,

John
 
M

Mal H

Staff
Please be sure to let us know what works or if neither idea worked. Like I said, I've seen the same problem and would like a solution.
 
J

JohnKSa

Administrator
Deleting and re-uploading definitely works.

When you delete, they come off your attachment list in the UserCP and at that point you can re-upload the same file to another post.

Resizing also works. I changed the size by one pixel, gave it a new name and re-uploaded it with no problem.

Good suggestions... ;)
 
T

tyme

Administrator
Resizing also works. I changed the size by one pixel, gave it a new name and re-uploaded it with no problem.
Click to expand...
Please don't do that. :)

The attachments already take up almost as much space (1.3GB) as the entire postings database/table (1.6GB). Not that TFL is hurting for disk space, but why duplicate something that doesn't need duplicating?

Also, making small changes to images and reposting them on the web without good reason clutters the internet. It irritates me a lot when sites take images, maybe reencode them to jpg from png (grrr!), and then add a site logo in a corner. If you didn't create the image, why mess with it unless you're doing something that has a clear purpose -- resizing to a thumbnail, or marking it up in some clear way.

Resizing by a few pixels is bad, very bad. At best, you end up destroying some information in the image. At worst, you introduce horrible, unwanted visual effects like aliasing or other nastiness.

If I find two images on the web that look the same, and one's a jpg and one's a png, I can't tell which is the original. If the png was created from the jpeg, I don't want to save the png 'cuz it's probably larger. If it's the other way around, I definitely want to keep the png version. If the two files are the same format, that's even worse. If 1.jpg looks like 2.jpg, I can't quickly figure out if 2.jpg was the result of a bunch of intermediate loss-introducing conversions.

Ideally, one would be able to take a file that's already in the attachments database, and attach it to a new post. Then when a post containing that attachment is deleted, vbulletin would check the reference count and only delete the attachment if no other posts use it.

Sadly, that's just a dream. :)

The best policy, IMO, is just to attach junk images if you're testing attachments. That way, you don't have to worry about deleting them yourself, because you won't ever want to attach them to other posts.
 
J

JohnKSa

Administrator
tyme,

I was doing that as a test at the request of Mal H. I deleted the duplicate image after the test. [edit]Well, I thought I had--they're both deleted now.[/edit]

Your points are taken.

John
 
T

TampaJim

New member
Test area pics count against pics everywhere: fixed?

Mal H,
Has this problem been remedied? I only ask because I tested a pic post yesterday morning (it's still in Test), and then posted the same pic in a thread. Seemed to work okay!

Jim
 
M

Mal H

Staff
Nope, nothing changed. Your pic is a link to a pic external to TFL; there's no problem with those. The problem discussed here is concerning attachments to TFL posts, i.e., pics physically uploaded to the TFL database.
 
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