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All photos will need to be stored at your own location or
some other source on the web. Usually your internet provider gives you
some storage space. The
picture must be available on the internet.
If you have saved your photo to your storage location,
then go into VCCA Chat and begin your posting. You have two ways that you
can display your photo. If you are experienced and have done this before
you can skip down to Task #2 or #3. If not read on and it will explain how
to store your photograph on the web.
The following paragraphs
explain what you must have in order to post pictures, and then shows you
how to show your picture inside of a VCCA Chat posting.
The following explanation is long, but the process isn't really very
complicated after you understand what you are doing. It's less work than
setting the valves on your Stovebolt, takes less time (barely), and isn't
as messy.
What Do I Need?
Before you can post a picture, the picture
must be "somewhere" on the internet. Unfortunately, the VCCA chat site
does not currently allow members to post pictures directly to the site, so
you have to find "space" somewhere else to put it.
Where Do I Find "Space"?
Most people that have an internet
connection in their home use a Internet Service Provider (ISP) that allows
their customers to post personal web pages. This "space" is actually hard
disk memory on one of the ISP's computers. Your ISP has help pages that
explain how to take advantage of this service. You can learn more by
visiting your ISP's web page and searching for "personal web page" or
something similar. The ISP will also provide you a web-based interface to
upload your photographs with, and possibly even provide instructions for
using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to do the uploading.
What if my ISP doesn't offer web space?
If your ISP doesn't
offer web space, you need to find other options. There are many "free" web
hosting services, and there are web sites that offer members free space to
post their own photographs. Finding and using a free web hosting service,
or using one of the free photo hosting services is beyond the scope of
this article, You can investigate them on your own using your favorite
search engine.
OK, I know where I can put my photograph, Now how do I do it?
There are two basic tasks you must accomplish. Once you know the
procedure, it will only take a few minutes every time you want to show a
picture.
Task 1. Upload your picture to your web space:
Option A: I'm going to use the web interface offered by my ISP
.
The web-based interfaces offered by ISP's will vary, but
essentially you will have to log-in to you account and load your picture
up to one of your personal web pages. If you don't have a personal web
page already started, you will have to start one. Your web page doesn't
have to be pretty, it just needs to hold the picture you want to post.
Option B: I'm going to use FTP:
You'll need a program called an FTP client. If you don't have one, you
can download free or trial versions from many different sources, The most
commonly used one's are CuteFTP and WinSock FTP. The FTP program will look
a lot like two Windows Explorer file windows placed side by side. One of
the windows will contain the contents of your web space, the other will
point to the computer on your desk top. You can find the photos you want
to upload through this desk top window, then drag and drop the file into
the web space. It's a good idea to create a directory ("folder") in your web space
for photos so you can keep things organized. You do NOT need to
build a personal web page, all you need to do is get your photo uploaded
to the server. Note that the directory you upload your file to must be
accessible to the public, so it must be INSIDE of the directory that
contains your web pages!
After you've uploaded your picture, try to find it using your internet
browser. You will need the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) when you make
your posting on the VCCA chat site. Great, now you can go on to Task #2 or
#3. If you use Mindspring, this URL will
look something like:
http://home.yourhostname.com/~youremailname/yourphotodirectory/photofilename.jpg
Task 2. Write your VCCA Chat post and display your photo
inside your post:
NOTE: This may slow down the loading
of the thread discussion. Please limit your photo size to 500x500 or
smaller. This is probably fine under most circumstances.
Go to http://vccachat.org/
- Click
on ENTER THE CHEVY CHATTER FORUM
- You may
need to enter your password.
- Find or
create the topic you want to post under.
- Type
the text you want in the post.
- In the
location that you want to put the picture, click the "IMAGE" button
under "Instant UBB Code".
- Follow
the instructions in the window that pops up. This is where you will
enter the URL where your photo resides.
- Click
on the "preview post" button. Your post and picture will show as it will
look when visiting your post.
- Close
the preview screen and click "post message".
- Your
post and your picture should be on the chat site!
Task 3. Write your VCCA Chat post and link to your
photograph:
Go to http://vccachat.org/
- Click
on ENTER THE CHEVY CHATTER FORUM
- You may
need to enter your password.
- Find or
create the topic you want to post under.
- Type
the text you want in the post.
- In the
location that you want to put the link, click the "URL" button
under "Instant UBB Code".
- Follow
the instructions in the window that pops up. This is where you will
enter the URL where your photo resides.
- Click
on the "preview post" button. Your post will show the link to your picture
as it will
look when viewing your post.
- Close
the preview screen and click "post message".
- Your
post and the link to your picture should be on the chat site!
Troubleshooting:
I've followed your instructions but I'm still having
trouble...
I don't see a picture when I preview my posting.
The most
likely cause of this problem is that you have mistyped the URL of the
photograph. Either correct your typing, or find the picture through your
browser and use the Windows cut-and-paste feature to copy the exact URL to
the dialog window.
My photo takes forever to load/download.
The most likely cause
of slow upload or downloads is excessive file size. The file containing
your photo should be less than 65Kb, and is likely to be a jpg
format. Your photo should be 500 x 500 pixels or less, any larger is
really not necessary on the web. You can either set your camera to take
smaller photos, or shrink them down using image processing software.
My posting worked once before, but now it's gone!
If you move
or delete your picture from your web space, the Chat site won't be able to
find it anymore. If you deleted it, you can repost it, but you MUST USE
THE SAME URL! You cannot go back and edit the post after 1 hour, so the
only way the old posting will know where to find your picture is to put it
back at the same URL.
Editor's Note: Thanks to Lenn Riddle and Jim Martoza
for composing this help section!! | 
