Courtesy of Thom Hartmann, a new photo album website for forum users as a community service:

http://LiberalPhotos.com/

Anyone can view images, but only registered users can upload. Each user has a 5MB allocation, which means there is enough room on the server for 2000 users. You can create as many albums as you want.

After registering, log in and click on "Create / order my albums". Create a new album in the resulting window. Once the album exists you can upload pictures. The size limit is about 1 megabyte per file but this needs to be determined empirically.

When your upload is finished, in the following page add the image to your album and then it will be publicly viewable. You can upload almost any kind of file, including audio files. Whether or not they will play in your browser is unknown, and there may be a filesize limit. Uploaded *.zip files will be downloaded automatically.

You can link to your pictures from forum posts too. To do this copy the actual URL of the image file, a URL ending in "jpg" or "png". You can upload avatar files too, for use in the forums. If you do this, please assign your uploads a keyword like "Avatar", so others can find them with a keyword search. Any files that fit into a special category (like "Political") should be given a meaningful keyword so they can be searchable.

In case of questions, requests, spam attacks, libelous images, copyright violations or bug reports post here (disclaimer - public servants are not eligible for libel protection).

Power users and technogeeks can enjoy the software documentation here.

Hope everyone finds the site useful.

Hi, Gnarly-

I followed the link to the photo album feature. It has some interesting images already uploaded. Congrats on what looks like a complex and creative process!

I like to include graphics in some of the things I say at Thom's. Google images is a treasure trove in that regard.

Is the conception and design of this new section, for original artwork and photography?

Kate

Looks good, Gnarli!

If you are uploading pictures to use as avatars for here, folks, please try and shrink then down to 48 x 48 pixels first. Whilst the software here can shrink them down on the fly for you, it doesn't do it perfectly so you can end up looking at a large blank area at the bottom of a page where the text was before the picture got shrunk.

Hey Sue-

What's the plan, or the hopes, for this new feature?

Kate

Hi Kate,

It's Gnarlie's

Hi Kate. Anyone can register and use it as online storage for pictures, preferably pictures of interest to users of this forum.

You can direct people to your one of your own albums like this:

http://LiberalPhotos.com/thumbnails.php?album=9

The software makes 3 sizes of your picture, you can insert a small size picture in the page like this:



Or you can link to a huge version like this:
http://LiberalPhotos.com/albums/userpics/10002/BiodieselTrain.jpg

How you get these URLs in your browser is an exercise for the user.

Note that these are extra large photos, but any normal size will allow you many more. And the space allocated can always be increased, we will need to see how popular the site is.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Gnarlodious,

Thanks Gnarly, Sue-

Here's the deal. I've got a collection of images I've culled from the internet using google images. They aren't my original work, and I'm wondering if it would be a good or bad use of the new photo album feature to collect some of the "greatest hit" (IMHO) there, with appropriate attribution and a live link to the originating site and all that.

I personally enjoy photography and could share images I've personally created, but I am limited in that regard by my reticence about sharing a whole bunch of personal information on the wide-open internet.

In other words, what you are doing is no different from what Google does. They steal images from webpages and post them on another page with a link to the original while making money from it.

Truth be told, I think this whole "copyright" brouhaha is parochial. All images on the internet should be assumed to have no copyright UNLESS the copyright symbol is visible on the image. People who want to share are living in fear of copyright infringement, it's the new tyranny.

My suggestion would be to ignore the copyright threat, We are very small fish in a great big ocean. Just don't upload copyrighted music files.

As to your second concern, there should be a way to create a password protected album. I'll look into it.

steal is a strong word.

I've always been conscious of the idea of "fair use" when I share these "ideas"

You know you have an uptight (or hopeful Harriet Alvaretta) image producer, when they've rigged their sites up to not allow the image to transfer, sometimes with harsh words.

The use I saw for this album section was more of an historical record of the images that had an impact on my ideas, which I freely share, without copyright, and with the understanding they may be quoted or read on the radio, or reprinted in Thom's books and other materials.

On this point,

quote:

My suggestion would be to ignore the copyright threat, We are very small fish in a great big ocean. Just don't upload copyrighted music files.

I kinda favor excess of caution, because Individuals are legally responsible for their views, and I think that would include decisions to upload images to this sister site.

At any rate, thanks for the reply, Gnarly.

Yes, it's true. You can set a password for individual albums and set a password hint for your guests.

Okay, Gnarly-

I tried to sign up, but I'm not sure what the process is. Haven't gotten an email with sign-on instructions, and can't access the site with what I enrolled with. I get a prompt that tells me "user does not exist." And then when I try signing up with the same data I used the first time, I get a prompt that tells me "signon already taken" ... or some such thing.

Try again, Kate. I turned of email verification for the time being, and deleted you as user. You should be able to reregister and log in immediately.

http://liberalphotos.com/thumbnails.php?album=10

Take a look. Let me know what you think, Gnarly, Sue.

I've got a mirror site, apparently; still figuring it out, but it's kinda fun.

Is it a ?

Sue,

Look closely: it's a horse's ... and in the background is a slightly nuanced image of a mule.

Put the two images together, and you've got it.

Got a nice picture of a hole?

< humming Bernard Cribben's "Hole in the Ground" >

lol.

I'll be on the look out for one of those.

Here's the best I could do, on the fly, Sue.

Come on horse, you can do it!

I think it's a donkey

***

... and, well, ... the search terms for the bulls eye are terms I don't want on my 'puter, which I share with a pre-teen.

I beg it's pardon. I need new specs!

"pay per view" ... my all-time favorite image.

Hi guys! I like the feature of switching over to the new site, spending lots and lots of time there, and then when I get back to the original site my OLD GOALS ARE MORE DISTANT.

Except, remember that it's hard and boring to advocate political impeachments.