Using Our Gallery?

[Ted S]

While ScubaBoard's gallery has grown to over 4,000 photos I've noticed that a good deal of our regular u/w photgraphers in this forum use other websites and other services to host their photos. Aside from those of you with your own websites, why or what causes you to use another site versus our own? I know in the past there have been some concerns with usability, even Dee our moderator had a good deal of problems accessing the gallery, but we've made some changes and things seem to work well now. The goal of the gallery system is to provide a free place for all types of u/w photographers to post their photos while on the road or at home in a single site and to let others look at those photos and give their feedback so if there are any problems with the system or any reasons why you choose not to use it we would like to know. Thank you.

 

[PapaBob]

I would like to start using the gallery. Can you point me to some quick instructions on how to set up, upload, size restrictions, etc.

---Bob

 

[Ted S]

Your account is created automatically when you signed up with ScubaBoard so there is no forms to fill out and no process to go through. To get started simply head on over to http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/.

As a new gallery user you have two main choices for your initial action, you can either start uploading right away by clicking "Upload Photos" in the second navigation bar (right hand side) or you can create your own sub-albums in the "Album Admin" located on the left side of the navigation bar.

As the names imply, upload photos will take you right to a page with a short form to upload your photo. Here you can select one photo along with a title and description or you can upload a zip archive containing upto 1000kb of photos in a single upload (each account gets 50,000kb or about 50MB of space with more avaliable upon request). Our software is designed to capture data directly from your camera with all of the technical specs if your camera is set to save it to the image.

The album admin allows you to create your own specially named albums for your own categorization or for public viewing by other users. The benefit of albums (beyond organization) is that you can create private areas to store photos that you don't want the whole world to see (remember, the TOS applies to all content so this is meant for privacy, not devious acts).

A final feature is the profile page which you can also reach from the second navigation bar. This page tells you your photo history, space used, space remaining and lets you view some other basic stats about your account. You can also click on "My Gallery" to view your own photos which you may edit, title or delete as you like.

If you have any questions about the gallery, uploading, space or other issues please let me know here, in site support or via a private message.

 

[justleesa]

Works great! I was always a bit jealous that the others can post their images in there post and I have to attach....This way is much cooler. Thanks

 

[Ted S]

Works great! I was always a bit jealous that the others can post their images in there post and I have to attach....This way is much cooler. Thanks

Ideally I would like to see every picture post in this forum referance our gallery but more likely some users will use their own systems or another site, still one can hope!

Also, for those of you who are really serious about posting your photos online I can offer you a much larger account with 100, 200 or even 500 megs of space if you need it, just drop me a PM with your current gallery and I'll set that up for you! Also remember, while we all want to see your photos you can create private galleries for your own vieiwng or storage on a trip or what not.

 

[fpoole]

Whoops, some how I had the impression that it was a pretty limited gallery in posting a few certainly not 50mb.. heheh.. very, very generous..

I'll try to get a few more up there..
Also would be nice, realizing that modifying menus CAN be a hassel, to post a menu link up with the others..
Maybe next to Active Topics or something. Admittedly I forgot there was a gallery even though I have only 3 posted there...

Not much help, but will post some more...
thanx for the generous offer... 50mb whew.. lol.. now that's kewl...

 

[Ted S]

fpoole,
By all means, any and all suggestions are welcome. I have a feeling that many users don't realize there are galleries any more so any ideas you may have for better integrating them are welcomed.

I have also changed the gallery settings so users of the public group Photographers get 100,000KB of space and a 200KB max file limit.

 

[boydski]

Ideally I would like to see every picture post in this forum referance our gallery but more likely some users will use their own systems or another site, still one can hope!

Interesting. I mistakenly thought you would prefer the opposite so you wouldn't eat up a bunch of disk space.

I've always put photos on my own web site so they don't get resized (and mangled in the process), and so I have an idea of how many people actually viewed the image (from the logs). In theory (if not in practice), it also gives me a bit more control over where and how the images are used.

The galleries do look very nice though, and are a wonderful service to provide.

 

[fpoole]

I see you're using vbull... with the Random Pic Hack on the front?

Don''t know if it can be done, but maybe something, maybe a single Random hack in the header of vbull... or menu area to remind people that there is a gallery??
I say that, cause once the initial member has signed in and starts subscribing to the threads or just responding to the notifications, they don't see the gallery, links or pics or?? Since the site is huge, with many people, it's easy to get focused just within one area... so maybe the hack in the banner area or one on each side of the Ads by Goolge banner? or ... ??? something to remind them and say "Hey, check it out..." or something like that... I run the www.mossbaydiveclub.org and snapnshoot sites but we're using portals and have the same problem, so put one over in the side margins - heheh well I think I did anyway? Don't know if it helps or not. but it'might...

Hope that helps...
ps. Not sure of the web link policy,but using it just for a reference so feel free to delete after you're done with it. if you want...

 

[cornfed]

I don't do much underwater photography but I do a bit of land based. I experiemented with a few free public galleries but finally decided to set up my own site. I like the ability to customize and control my own site. It gives it a more personal touch. Since most of the pictures are posted for friends and family this is important to me. I still post a few things publically but only when I want a critique or other feed back.