Welcome to Gaia! ::

Here you will find a basic tutorial on how to post your pictures in threads. You can get really fancy with posting pictures but this is just a basic how-to-get-photos-from-my-comp-to-a-thread tutorial.

STEP 1: The Host

Unlike email and other places on the internet you cannot click a button and attach a photo to Gaia. You will need to find a site that does that for you. Here are some with brief explanations.

Photobucket ~ Photobucket is used the most on Gaia. Photobucket is free to use but you have to sign up with an account to use the site. Once you sign up you have many options with the photos you upload. You can even create separate folders for separate types of photos, set a password to make your albums private, and even resize your photos.

TinyPic ~ TinyPic is a free hosting site as well. You may sign up for an account but it isn't necessary. You can upload your pictures right on the first page and even resize them as you upload them. The draw of a TinyPic upload is that the URL for a picture there is much shorter than it would be elsewhere (we'll get into that later). TinyPic is also in the Photobucket family.

ImageShack ~ ImageShack is another free host site that allows you to sign up for an account but doesn't require it. You can upload your pictures on the first page and resize them. The added draw of ImageShack is that it allows you to post a thumbnail of the picture. That is a smaller version of a large picture that when clicked on leads the viewer to the full sized version. This is handy if your picture has intricate detail that would be lost if the picture was resized.


STEP 2: The Post

You found a site you like NOW WHAT? First: calm down. Second: read on.

Every site has a button marked "choose file" or some equivalent. Click it. A box will pop up that lets you choose files from your computer. Use the drop down menu to choose the file you have your pictures saved in. Click the picture you want to upload. Click upload. Your picture will show up on a new screen with a lot of little boxes filled with code. Don't panic. I got you.

You will need a code to post your picture on Gaia. It is marked "forum code" and looks like this:




Sometimes it is longer or shorter or includes a link and looks more complicated. ImageShack is bad for that. Their code looks like this:



Select the code for your uploaded picture that starts with [ IMG ] and right click and copy.

STEP 3: THE PAYOFF
In your post paste your [ img ] code and submit your post like you would otherwise.



TROUBLESHOOTING

Problem - My picture is too close to my words.



Solution - Give your picture some room! Try posting the code on a separate line than your words.

Problem - My picture doesn't show up; instead I get a code thing.



Solution: You didn't copy all the code. Try right clicking the code and choosing 'Select All' before you click copy. This will make sure you get the whole code.

Problem - My picture takes up the whole page, stretches the thread and makes everyone's computer lag load.

[ No example here - I won't stretch the page ]

Solution: When uploading the picture choose "resize" to change the specifications to something smaller than 500x500 for best viewing on Gaia forums. They vary by site but on TinyPic that is "Website/Email 320x240". NOTE: Choosing to resize a picture can distort the picture. If you are worried about distorting the picture you may go with the ImageShack option of thumbnail. Simply copy the code labeled "Forum Thumbnail".


If in doubt feel free to ask Captains or a Crew member who will be happy to help you.