All righty then, let's try this once more. ([IMG] code)

[Jragon]

Well “once more” is a guess, since I don’t think I’ve ever seen a thread on this, just talking in existing threads (most discussions being started by me).

I think that

code could be of benefit to the forums, now note I’m not talking about uploading images. The server cries enough as it is. But as I’ve heard explained the [img]

tags simply send a small piece of code to your browser telling it to display an image from a certain URL, not much more data than a link or pure text. (Most people probably know this, but this argument has been voiced before)

Now of course, we don’t have to enable it in every forum, and people could turn it off in settings. Here’s how I think each forum would benefit (or why it doesn’t matter):

ATMB: Meh. No reason here.

Comments on Cecil’s Columns: You could for the debates that pop up but, no reason.

Staff Reports: See above.

GQ: It could be useful for posting graphs and other evidence for the poster. Posters may also be encouraged to draw up diagrams. (Posters tend to create images when code is enabled, don’t ask me why - it’s not THAT much different)

GD: Mainly the same reasons as GQ, citations and the like.

Cafe Society: Here’s where it really begins to shine. Art threads can be posted with less hassle (put your drawings into the thread instead of making people click on a billion links to see your whole portfolio). Movie Reviews could also catch on, reviewers tend to like screenshots to illustrate their point, also useful for parodies.

Game Room: Picture based games (i.e. beat the above posted image), video game walkthroughs, Let’s Plays, parodies, and game reviews could be done. I suppose sports commentary could use this as well.

IMHO: Not as much here, it could be used to illustrate a point like in GD/GQ,.

MPSIMS: “Pix plx” and the like, especially inevitable with cat or baby threads. In fact, a good amount from that forum could use pics to aid it.

BBQ Pit: We’d have to be careful here about letting things get out of hand (moreso than other places). Debates break out on occasion, but mostly I think it would be used to, um, illustrate some of the more colorful points (hopefully not the ones involving various animal excretions).

We’d have to have some rules. Basically, don’t be a jerk follows as always, NSFW pics should be two click (except perhaps on explicitly NSFW threads, even then…), and the pit should have its own set of rules I can’t think up on the fly regarding roasting other posters with pictures (even the Pit has some boundaries, like comparing a poster to Goatse DO NOT GOOGLE THIS, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED may be inappropriate).

All in all, if nothing else I think at the very least Cafe Society, Game Room, and MPSIMS should have images, or at least subforums (i.e. an Art SubForum under CS or something) where IMG code is appropriate. But, of course, the community is probably (rightly) more argumentative with regards to splintering forums than even IMG code.

Thoughts? Comments? Out of my mind rants? Ain’t gonna happens?

[essell]

Well I agree with your principle here, but as we can post links already, I gotta say “Meh”

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

@Jragon

But as I’ve heard explained the tags simply send a small piece of code to your browser telling it to display an image from a certain URL, not much more data than a link or pure text.

Yes, but then your browser goes out and retrieves that whole image, which is often a very large file. Which will really slow down your browsing, especially for the majority of people on the web who use dial-up connections. And if that image is poorly coded, your browser will not show the page until it is downloaded, or will continue redrawing the page as images arrive.

You can prevent this by using a text-only browser, or by having pictures & graphics turned off in your browser, but very few people do that. It kind of loses a lot of the info on the internet.

I much prefer SDMB as it is now. When these are presented as links, I can choose whether to click on them or not. Often, I don’t. So I’d rather not have these threads slowed down by downloading a lot of images that I’m really not all that interested in.

[neutron_star]

@t-bonham@scc.net

You can prevent this by using a text-only browser, or by having pictures & graphics turned off in your browser, but very few people do that. It kind of loses a lot of the info on the internet.

There’s actually an option in the User CP that lets you turn off images. You could have images off for just this message board and still be able to view them on every other web site.

Unfortunately, it will never happen, though. People around here hate it for some reason. Maybe they think it’ll turn the place into 4chan. Even if they did want it, the administration can’t be bothered to update the board software more than once every five freaking years, so this is just something else they would promise and not get around to until 2015, if ever.

[Jragon]

@t-bonham@scc.net

Yes, but then your browser goes out and retrieves that whole image, which is often a very large file. Which will really slow down your browsing, especially for the majority of people on the web who use dial-up connections. And if that image is poorly coded, your browser will not show the page until it is downloaded, or will continue redrawing the page as images arrive.

You can prevent this by using a text-only browser, or by having pictures & graphics turned off in your browser, but very few people do that. It kind of loses a lot of the info on the internet.

I much prefer SDMB as it is now. When these are presented as links, I can choose whether to click on them or not. Often, I don’t. So I’d rather not have these threads slowed down by downloading a lot of images that I’m really not all that interested in.

1. I don’t think most people use 56k anymore, besides it’s customary to give a 56k warning in the titles when the thread will have more than one or two pics. To be honest, 56k shouldn’t be browsing with without option 2 distinctly off anyway.

2. The User CP gets a toggle to turn off images (as mentioned), hell, we could even have it off by default then you never have to worry about changing a thing.

3. Nope, not doin’ it. Not saying Hi, Opal… wait… DAMNIT!

@neutron star

There’s actually an option in the User CP that lets you turn off images. You could have images off for just this message board and still be able to view them on every other web site.

Unfortunately, it will never happen, though. People around here hate it for some reason. Maybe they think it’ll turn the place into 4chan. Even if they did want it, the administration can’t be bothered to update the board software more than once every five freaking years, so this is just something else they would promise and not get around to until 2015, if ever.

Yes, but I’m pretty sure [img] is a toggle, I’m thinking they could do it on a coffee break, updating the software can be a hassle (reapplying mods, and the board is so behind they’ll have to do it a billion times). Still no excuse, but one is still more involved than the other.

[TubaDiva]

While the past is not always a predictor of the future, once upon a time we did allow the use of the img command.

You can only be entertained so much by “goatse” and the like and the constant abuse of this function and the subsequent disgust left us no choice but to disable it.

In the time since then, I have to say, I don’t miss these images. I suspect most of our users don’t either.

No offense intended here – everyone makes their own choices and perceive things differently and you’re perhaps more visually oriented – but we have preferred to use our words. I see no reason to change this. If you need to show a graphic of some sort to prove your point, illustrate, there’s always links.

[GorillaMan]

@Jragon

1. I don’t think most people use 56k anymore

‘Global broadband penetration to hit 25% by 2012’ - http://www.uswitch.com/news/broadband/20080731/global-broadband-penetration-to-hit-25-by-2012.cmsx?ref=google_uk

‘Despite the fact that the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and France also have a higher broadband penetration ratios than the US, the EU is only at 20%, compared to the 22.1% rate set by America.’ - http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/broadband-news/2008/03/20/eu-sets-broadband-penetration-target/

[Jragon]

@GorillaMan

‘Global broadband penetration to hit 25% by 2012’ - http://www.uswitch.com/news/broadband/20080731/global-broadband-penetration-to-hit-25-by-2012.cmsx?ref=google_uk

‘Despite the fact that the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and France also have a higher broadband penetration ratios than the US, the EU is only at 20%, compared to the 22.1% rate set by America.’ - http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/broadband-news/2008/03/20/eu-sets-broadband-penetration-target/

That’s what I get for hanging out with gamers so much.

Ignorance fought on that front.

Still want images though… (Yes, I’m stubborn! :p)

[Jragon]

Missed Edit and missed Tuba’s post

@TubaDiva

While the past is not always a predictor of the future, once upon a time we did allow the use of the img command.

You can only be entertained so much by “goatse” and the like and the constant abuse of this function and the subsequent disgust left us no choice but to disable it.

In the time since then, I have to say, I don’t miss these images. I suspect most of our users don’t either.

No offense intended here – everyone makes their own choices and perceive things differently and you’re perhaps more visually oriented – but we have preferred to use our words. I see no reason to change this. If you need to show a graphic of some sort to prove your point, illustrate, there’s always links.

That strikes me as odd. Not saying I don’t believe you, the dope just never seemed like the kind of place where that abuse would be rampant or average. Or is it just a case of “a few bad eggs…”?

Eh, if you noticed my post was mostly lost on GQ and that, I still think Cafe and GR could benefit, even if it’s just an “arts” and “walkthrough/review” or “picture game” subforum (or a separate forum for pictures, but that would be a really disturbingly black sheep fragment forum), but adding new forums only causes more of the things that come with it, more to watch, more to have to move out of place threads to, so I can understand.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

That strikes me as odd. Not saying I don’t believe you, the dope just never seemed like the kind of place where that abuse would be rampant or average. Or is it just a case of “a few bad eggs…”?

Even one or two images of goatse or the like are more than enough. No matter how hard I try, I cannot unsee goatse. We also had people who could not or would not understand copyright. It was an enormous headache, and it didn’t help the board’s speed any, either.

I very much doubt we’ll ever implement the image tag again, unless we get a whole lot of moderators able to cover the board at all times.

[Mahna_Mahna]

You’d be surprised what measures some folks have put in to dissuade remote linking of their images.

As far as most people are concerned, it’s bandwidth theft, and most sites disapprove of this sort of behaviour. Some of them have been rather…ummm… creative in finding ways to express their disapproval, in fact.

So while you may be posting a link to a cute LOLcat you found somewhere on the Internets, there’s still a chance that everyone will see a flashing animated Goatse instead (this happened to me on another board that has the tag enabled… it was bad, especially since it took a little convincing to prove to the mods that I hadn’t intentionally posted that image).

IMO, best to leave the feature turned off, if just to avoid this sort of problem.

[Skywatcher]

@Mahna Mahna

So while you may be posting a link to a cute LOLcat you found somewhere on the Internets, there’s still a chance that everyone will see a flashing animated Goatse instead

Or worse.

[neutron_star]

@Mahna Mahna

You’d be surprised what measures some folks have put in to dissuade remote linking of their images.

As far as most people are concerned, it’s bandwidth theft, and most sites disapprove of this sort of behaviour. Some of them have been rather…ummm… creative in finding ways to express their disapproval, in fact.

So while you may be posting a link to a cute LOLcat you found somewhere on the Internets, there’s still a chance that everyone will see a flashing animated Goatse instead (this happened to me on another board that has the tag enabled… it was bad, especially since it took a little convincing to prove to the mods that I hadn’t intentionally posted that image).

IMO, best to leave the feature turned off, if just to avoid this sort of problem.

Actually most larger message boards discourage (Something Awful probates users for it) hotlinking like that. There are numerous free image hosting websites (like photobucket or imageshack) for this purpose.

[mhendo]

@neutron star

Actually most larger message boards discourage (Something Awful probates users for it) hotlinking like that.

While i agree that hotlinking is rather rude, if you own a website it’s also trivially easy to disable.

I’m a member of a few other message boards where embedded images are allowed, and a couple have rules that images be no larger than about 50 or 100k, in order to make things easier for people still on dial-up.

[Jragon]

@neutron star

Actually most larger message boards discourage (Something Awful probates users for it) hotlinking like that. There are numerous free image hosting websites (like photobucket or imageshack) for this purpose.

Yes, that’s actually a pretty common rule.

I think having an only free image hosting rule, as well as only in CS and GR could work. May also want a rule that only 56k marked threads are to have images, depending on how much anyone wants to limit it, if you don’t want images, don’t visit the few threads that have them.

Images just seem like a thing that wouldn’t detract from the forum too much. I can understand flashy avatars and sigs, but limited images are avoidable and I’ve rarely seen abuse of the system, and that’s with gamer forums that have unparalleled 1337 drivel.

However I see this is an uphill (approximately cliff-face level) battle and I guess I’ll withdraw unless I see a reply I really want to respond to.

[Justin_Bailey]

@GorillaMan

‘Global broadband penetration to hit 25% by 2012’ - http://www.uswitch.com/news/broadband/20080731/global-broadband-penetration-to-hit-25-by-2012.cmsx?ref=google_uk

‘Despite the fact that the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and France also have a higher broadband penetration ratios than the US, the EU is only at 20%, compared to the 22.1% rate set by America.’ - http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/broadband-news/2008/03/20/eu-sets-broadband-penetration-target/

I’m not sure how they found those numbers, but I’ve always seen broadband penetration rates at around 50% for the US in 2007/2008.

WebProNews

However, I still think embedded images are a terrible idea. Links are perfectly fine.

[neutron_star]

@Jragon

Images just seem like a thing that wouldn’t detract from the forum too much. I can understand flashy avatars and sigs, but limited images are avoidable and I’ve rarely seen abuse of the system, and that’s with gamer forums that have unparalleled 1337 drivel.

Yeah, I read an IMHO funny picture thread a while back and it was just sooo tedious compared to other message boards. Open Link in New Tab
Open Link in New Tab
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Open Link in New Tab
Repeat 100x

Tuba talks about goatse and whatnot in the old days, but the Internet was a different place in 1998-99 or whatever. I don’t think you’d see that kind of thing very much in 2008 on a site like this.

The biggest problem, I think, is this board’s slavish devotion to a very conservative interpretation of copyright law. Their skittish, obsessively-CYA attitudes on the subject would prevent practically anything from getting posted.

[Rhythmdvl]

@neutron star

Tuba talks about goatse and whatnot in the old days, but the Internet was a different place in 1998-99 or whatever. I don’t think you’d see that kind of thing very much in 2008 on a site like this.

Yes, the Internet is a much different place. See, for example, the high art that is 2 girls 1 cup.

[neutron_star]

Well, yeah, there’s that, but back then you were going to get some of that kinda thing almost everywhere online. Nowadays, I mean I’ve heard of 2g1c and I know what it is, but I’ve never actually seen it and never seen someone even link to it.

[Rhythmdvl]

@neutron star

Well, yeah, there’s that, but back then you were going to get some of that kinda thing almost everywhere online. Nowadays, I mean I’ve heard of 2g1c and I know what it is, but I’ve never actually seen it and never seen someone even link to it.

Oh, I’m sorry, did I say 2G1C? I meant Rickrolling
On a side note, TubaD mentioned that we did have IMG tags on for a while. When? I seem to recall in my first forays here (early '99 or so) that HTML tags were just shut off, but don’t remember seeing their effects. Was this an AOL thing?