News:

Welcome to the Golf Club Atlas Discussion Group!

Each user is approved by the Golf Club Atlas editorial staff. For any new inquiries, please contact us.


PCCraig

  • Karma: +0/-0
Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« on: October 23, 2024, 09:52:44 AM »
If I wanted to share photos on GCA these days, what is the best way to do it?


Used to be Photobucket I believe but I think that doesn't work now if I remember correctly?
H.P.S.

Erik J. Barzeski

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2024, 09:59:17 AM »
If I wanted to share photos on GCA these days, what is the best way to do it?


Used to be Photobucket I believe but I think that doesn't work now if I remember correctly?
There's no single best way. I use Zight and upload files there all the time, and embed them with the URL. But GCA is so outdated in terms of its software that a large image will force horizontal scrolling (it won't show the picture at 80% max window width or something like on most sites since, I don't know, 2004 have done…).


So, essentially:
  • Find a place where you can upload a JPEG or whatever.
  • Paste the link into the site. I like to link to the image and sometimes embed it, but don't do the latter as much when it's really big. Easier to just click the link and see it in a new window where it'll be sized to fit.





The left one embeds the image. The right one embeds the link: Link to that tiny image
Erik J. Barzeski @iacas
Author, Lowest Score Wins, Instructor/Coach, and Lifetime Student of the Game.

I generally ignore Rob, Tim, Garland, and Chris.

Ben Hollerbach

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2024, 11:56:09 AM »
If I wanted to share photos on GCA these days, what is the best way to do it?


Used to be Photobucket I believe but I think that doesn't work now if I remember correctly?
I use Google Photos and this handy site: Embed Google Photos in your Website and Emails to create the appropriate image link, which you can use for the insert image function here.

Then I toggle the view and adjust the image width by adjusting the "img" code to "img width=800", which helps make the image more suitable for the native view size.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2024, 12:02:24 PM by Ben Hollerbach »

Tommy Williamsen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2024, 12:32:16 PM »
I still use Photobucket, but you have to pay for it.

Where there is no love, put love; there you will find love.
St. John of the Cross

"Deep within your soul-space is a magnificent cathedral where you are sweet beyond telling." Rumi

Charlie Goerges

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2024, 01:01:18 PM »
The easiest one now appears to be flickr. But the free version of that limits how many photos you can upload and how fast you can upload them. But if you're uploading a few at a time and only occasionally, it should be fine. It allows you to choose a size and output the BB code/img code links which can be pasted directly into the body of the message...no need to use the little Mona Lisa button.




I noticed recently, a bunch of my images which had been shared from microsoft onedrive have disappeared, which sucks, but I don't really want to figure out how to repost those. But if someone is using it, I'd love to hear what is now required to make it work.


Ben's google photos tip works fine, but is a couple of extra steps over what's required for Flickr, but if all your photos are already there, it's easier to do that than move them to another site.
Severally on the occasion of everything that thou doest, pause and ask thyself, if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives thee of this. - Marcus Aurelius

Stewart Abramson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2024, 02:23:23 PM »
The easiest one now appears to be flickr. But the free version of that limits how many photos you can upload and how fast you can upload them. But if you're uploading a few at a time and only occasionally, it should be fine. It allows you to choose a size and output the BB code/img code links which can be pasted directly into the body of the message...no need to use the little Mona Lisa button.



This^   

Flickr is pretty easy after you do it a couple of times. Once you have the photo(s) you want to add to your GCA post  loaded onto your Fickr page, here are the steps:

Posting Photos from Flickr for Dummies

1. Open the photo on Flickr

2. to the right of the lower, right corner of the photo, you will see 4 icons, the second of which is a curved arrow pointing right. If you hover your cursor over that arrow icon it says "share photo". Click on that arrow

3. When you click on the arrow, it opens a box that has four option at the top of the box. The fourth option is "BB Code" - Click on "BB Code"

4. In the middle of the box are two rectangular fields. The lower rectangle is where you will select the size you'd like to make the photo that you share. The best size to select for GCA is "Medium 800 x 600". That size will fit the photo on a post on GCA without being so big as to necessitate scrolling to see the entire photo

5. A code will appear in the middle rectangular field that will start with   "[  url=https://flic.kr/ ..."  Highlight that entire code and copy it

6. Open the post on GCA into which you want to post the photo and place your cursor where you want to insert the photo. Right click your mouse and paste the code that you copied from Flickr. It will look like letters and numbers when you paste it, but when you post your message... Voila,  the code will appear as your photo.



Matt Schoolfield

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2024, 02:55:59 PM »
I think the main problem here is that it's just difficult to use best practices because the software running this website does not use best practices.

What we do here is called hotlinking (or inline-linking) and it's considered a bad practice in general. Some websites have resorted to some hostile behavior to prevent it, as it costs these third-party websites real money in bandwidth terms. Thankfully, since demand for hotlinking is so high, there are multiple site who have hotlinking as their business model. The most predominate website to do this, by far, is Imgur. Self-hosted sites like google photos, flickr, and others are probably fine, but you'll want to actually check their terms of service to make sure you're allowed to hotlink to your own photos.

The sizing of photos is another deeply frustrating aspect of the software used here. I've spent some time developing a browser extension that fixes this (among other issues) that I link to in my signature. Some of the benefits to the extension is that images are 100% width sized if they are too big to fit, and quoted images are shrunk to a very small size so they keep quotations compact.

The browsers supported are just Firefox and Chrome, I would implore anyone not using one of those browsers to switch, unless you're using, say, Brave or some other technical use browser.
GCA Browser Addon v2.0.1: Firefox/Chrome

My stuff:

Wayne_Kozun

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2024, 03:05:42 PM »
Most modern forum software also allows you to just paste an image in the editing box, which is way easier to do. It would be nice to get this software updated, and that will likely have to happen sooner or later as the current version will become unsupported some day. 

Stewart Abramson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #8 on: October 23, 2024, 03:16:04 PM »


Self-hosted sites like google photos, flickr, and others are probably fine, but you'll want to actually check their terms of service to make sure you're allowed to hotlink to your own photos.

The sizing of photos is another deeply frustrating aspect of the software used here.


Flickr allows you to link your photos


On Flickr, selecting the Medium 800 x 600 size fixes the problem on a laptop or monitor, but is still too large, requiring scrolling  if viewing on a phone

Matt Schoolfield

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2024, 03:19:11 PM »
Most modern forum software also allows you to just paste an image in the editing box, which is way easier to do. It would be nice to get this software updated, and that will likely have to happen sooner or later as the current version will become unsupported some day.
Your point here is well taken, but for technical reasons, I'll add that, well, for this to be supported, the site would have to store those images on it's own database. That would require a hardware change in addition to a software change.
GCA Browser Addon v2.0.1: Firefox/Chrome

My stuff:

Joe Bausch

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2024, 05:56:25 PM »
You can post a photo larger than 800 pixels wide and have it show without the blue slider bar and be clickable to a larger size. See, for example, one of my posts on my most recent photos tour thread. Do a reply, then look at how I make that work with the image tags.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2024, 07:54:03 PM by Joe Bausch »
@jwbausch (for new photo albums)
The site for the Cobb's Creek project:  https://cobbscreek.org/
Nearly all Delaware Valley golf courses in photo albums: Bausch Collection

Buck Wolter

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2024, 06:00:12 PM »
Post pictures on Instagram and the put a link to your IG post? I think one of the biggest losses on GCA is all the broken link photo threads from the past. I can't imagine IG is going to ever delete a photo.


Even Ran posts his photos on IG rather than here
Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience -- CS Lewis

Matt Schoolfield

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2024, 07:04:15 PM »
Post pictures on Instagram and the put a link to your IG post? I think one of the biggest losses on GCA is all the broken link photo threads from the past. I can't imagine IG is going to ever delete a photo.


Even Ran posts his photos on IG rather than here


Again, hotlinking from and established player is still hotlinking, any you’ll need to follow TOS, use an embed link, which will likely not display the image here.


All the host site has to do is change their image hosting urls and every hotlink will be broken forever.
GCA Browser Addon v2.0.1: Firefox/Chrome

My stuff:

PCCraig

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #13 on: October 24, 2024, 08:34:36 PM »
Thanks for everyone's help!


H.P.S.

Wayne_Kozun

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2024, 09:31:57 AM »
Your point here is well taken, but for technical reasons, I'll add that, well, for this to be supported, the site would have to store those images on it's own database. That would require a hardware change in addition to a software change.
Very true, but sooner or later that has to happen or the site goes away.  To put this in an OS context, this site is running on Windows 95. There are already a bunch of things that don't work (at the bottom of every thread I get "An Error Has Occurred! Call to undefined function theme_linktree()").  And things will keep breaking until the whole thing falls apart.  But that is maybe a different conversation for Ran and the powers that be.  But it might make sense to try to figure out a future path, assuming that there is a desire to preserve the database of threads on this site.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2024, 09:33:57 AM by Wayne_Kozun »

Matt Schoolfield

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #15 on: October 25, 2024, 12:05:22 PM »
Your point here is well taken, but for technical reasons, I'll add that, well, for this to be supported, the site would have to store those images on it's own database. That would require a hardware change in addition to a software change.
Very true, but sooner or later that has to happen or the site goes away.  To put this in an OS context, this site is running on Windows 95. There are already a bunch of things that don't work (at the bottom of every thread I get "An Error Has Occurred! Call to undefined function theme_linktree()").  And things will keep breaking until the whole thing falls apart.  But that is maybe a different conversation for Ran and the powers that be.  But it might make sense to try to figure out a future path, assuming that there is a desire to preserve the database of threads on this site.
I'm available if Ran (et al) needs someone to take some time to look at how to do an update.
GCA Browser Addon v2.0.1: Firefox/Chrome

My stuff:

Wayne_Kozun

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #16 on: October 25, 2024, 06:14:38 PM »
I'm available if Ran (et al) needs someone to take some time to look at how to do an update.
Do you agree with my assessment or am I being too pessimistic?

Erik J. Barzeski

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #17 on: October 25, 2024, 06:59:37 PM »
Very true, but sooner or later that has to happen or the site goes away.  To put this in an OS context, this site is running on Windows 95. There are already a bunch of things that don't work (at the bottom of every thread I get "An Error Has Occurred! Call to undefined function theme_linktree()").  And things will keep breaking until the whole thing falls apart.  But that is maybe a different conversation for Ran and the powers that be.  But it might make sense to try to figure out a future path, assuming that there is a desire to preserve the database of threads on this site.
Not necessarily. Change nothing and… the site will continue to go on until something changes.

You can just keep running the same outdated forum software on the same outdated hardware (replacing some things as needed) running the same outdated OS.

We have customers of Analyzr that still run version 1.x and 2.x on their "appliance" Macs. They don't update to the latest OS or their copy of Analyzr would stop working, and since that's the sole purpose of that Mac… they are free to keep using it as long as it keeps working.

That time period is often longer for simple server/software setups like this is probably running. On an infinite time scale, yes, it will stop working with no updates. Then again, it could probably be virtualized onto a tiny piece of hardware with 100 TB of storage and the OS/etc. embedded on it or something in a few years, too. :P
Erik J. Barzeski @iacas
Author, Lowest Score Wins, Instructor/Coach, and Lifetime Student of the Game.

I generally ignore Rob, Tim, Garland, and Chris.

Matt Schoolfield

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #18 on: October 25, 2024, 07:58:34 PM »
I'm available if Ran (et al) needs someone to take some time to look at how to do an update.
Do you agree with my assessment or am I being too pessimistic?
The site runs Simple Machines Forum version 2.0.19, which seem to still be in active development as of Dec 21, 2021. This is a very optimistic sign, and given it is open source and collaboratively maintained effectively free software, I don't actually think then are really any long term issues (notably security issues) even if it is quite clunky. Worst case scenario, we'd need to update to the 2.1.x version if version 2.0.x is abandoned.

I think a lot of the clunky bits are probably due to improper or archaic setup or settings, or possibly running the setting of the previous versions 1.1.x or even 1.0.x, but who knows. Anyone could easily dramatically improve this site if they had access to the admin console, and had familiarized themselves with SMF and whatever database stack (probably MySQL) is running behind the scenes.

While a modern framework would probably be nicer, I honestly don't think there is anything wrong with SMF on it's own, despite it's dated appearance here. Again, most of the improvement can be done with a simple browser extension, which is why I developed one to improve the site as best as I can, though only about 15 people actually use the extension.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2024, 08:07:16 PM by Matt Schoolfield »
GCA Browser Addon v2.0.1: Firefox/Chrome

My stuff:

Stephen Britton

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #19 on: October 26, 2024, 08:00:31 AM »
As others have mentioned, posting photos on this site is it's weakest link.
It’s really frustrating to see so many great photos disappear from older threads. As a golf course superintendent, I rely on this site for research—looking up specific courses or architectural features to get ideas and insights. But too often, I’ll find an old thread, and the photos are no longer available, which is a huge letdown.
Just think of how many amazing photos have been lost over the years when this could’ve been an incredible photo archive for everyone in the field. It would be great if the site could find a way to host images long-term, so these resources don’t keep disappearing.
"The chief object of every golf architect or greenkeeper worth his salt is to imitate the beauties of nature so closely as to make his work indistinguishable from nature itself" Alister MacKenzie...

Stewart Abramson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #20 on: October 26, 2024, 11:00:25 AM »
As others have mentioned, posting photos on this site is it's weakest link.
It’s really frustrating to see so many great photos disappear from older threads. As a golf course superintendent, I rely on this site for research—looking up specific courses or architectural features to get ideas and insights. But too often, I’ll find an old thread, and the photos are no longer available, which is a huge letdown.
Just think of how many amazing photos have been lost over the years when this could’ve been an incredible photo archive for everyone in the field. It would be great if the site could find a way to host images long-term, so these resources don’t keep disappearing.


Until photos can be hosted here, here are links to photo archives of GCA posters that you may find useful:




https://www.flickr.com/photos/golfcoursepix/albums  Stew A


https://myphillygolf.com/gallery.asp  Joe Bausch


https://www.flickr.com/photos/152135786@N05/albums Sean Arble


https://www.flickr.com/photos/24952137@N00/albums/  Mark Kiely


https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmarkham/albums  Kevin Markham


https://www.flickr.com/photos/eko_gfl/albums  Ed Oden






Links to other Golf Course Photo Archives:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigeagl29/albums   Keith B


https://www.flickr.com/photos/35925794@N00/albums/ Dennis Collet


https://www.flickr.com/photos/auld-plo-golftrotter/albums/  Old PL


https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevindiss/albums/  Kevin D


https://www.flickr.com/photos/rbglasson/albums  Russ Glasson


https://www.flickr.com/photos/golf_pictures/albums Dan Perry


https://www.flickr.com/photos/erova/albums/ Chris Avore


https://www.flickr.com/photos/golftripscom/albums  Brian W


https://www.flickr.com/photos/20494162@N06/albums/


https://www.flickr.com/photos/mauigolfreview/albums/ John Byrne


Please add others. I couldn't find Frank Pont's photo archive. I think it was golfarchitecture pictures.com but that didn't work for me today.

Wayne_Kozun

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #21 on: October 26, 2024, 06:03:09 PM »
Hosting photos here would be great.  Flickr is good for now, but who knows if it goes away in the future or puts in place a different economic model, just like a few other photo sharing sites.

Erik J. Barzeski

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #22 on: October 26, 2024, 07:04:13 PM »
Hosting photos here would be great.  Flickr is good for now, but who knows if it goes away in the future or puts in place a different economic model, just like a few other photo sharing sites.
Text is a lot smaller than images. Storage is cheap, sure, but I doubt Ran plans to store images any time soon. Never has, has he? I don't think so.
Erik J. Barzeski @iacas
Author, Lowest Score Wins, Instructor/Coach, and Lifetime Student of the Game.

I generally ignore Rob, Tim, Garland, and Chris.

Wayne_Kozun

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #23 on: October 26, 2024, 10:12:57 PM »
Hosting photos here would be great.  Flickr is good for now, but who knows if it goes away in the future or puts in place a different economic model, just like a few other photo sharing sites.
Text is a lot smaller than images. Storage is cheap, sure, but I doubt Ran plans to store images any time soon. Never has, has he? I don't think so.
Images, haven't been stored here, but I don't think that means that they shouldn't be.  This site is a repository for information on Golf Course Architecture - that has generally been text based information, but why shouldn't it also include images and video?
« Last Edit: October 27, 2024, 12:53:17 PM by Wayne_Kozun »

Erik J. Barzeski

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Best practices on sharing pictures on GCA, today?
« Reply #24 on: October 27, 2024, 11:25:03 AM »
Images, haven't been stored here, but I don't think that means that they shouldn't be.  This site is a repository for information on Golf Course Architecture - that has generally been test based information, but whey shouldn't it also include images and video?
I didn't argue that they "shouldn't."
Erik J. Barzeski @iacas
Author, Lowest Score Wins, Instructor/Coach, and Lifetime Student of the Game.

I generally ignore Rob, Tim, Garland, and Chris.

Tags:
Tags:

An Error Has Occurred!

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()
Back