Helpful forum tips

If you have a photo or video that you want to post, please consider first whether you could say it in words instead (although videos don't count against our allowed resources, as photos do, a lot of people don't watch them). When posting a photo or video, ask yourself whether it seems likely that this photo or video is likely to result in a discussion, and if you determine that it could form the basis for a discussion, take it upon yourself to promote this discussion with words of your own. However, if you are posting it just for people to look at and move on with their lives, consider not making it a thread of its own, but including it in one of the several threads we already have for photos and videos.
 
@Ken Anderson
I’m the only Aussie here ….I think …..still hanging ….around after all these years :):)

so when I’ve thought about posting a photo , like I did on the crafty forum yesterday …..I added a short story about the 3 children that went missing from that exact area 60 years ago, it’s still one of South Australia’s greatest unsolved mysteries ( it was the area where we stayed 4 days went home ..went back for another 6 days ) …..cost us $00.00..even our petrol was paid for

Sadly South Australia has a bit of a label as a murder capital of Aust….. due to the number of children / young that have simply vanished or been murdered , but it’s been proved ,it’s not even close to the crimes in other parts of the world ……think it’s a stain on SA due to the gruesomeness of the murders such as Snowtown and “The Family murders “

So in saying that, Any photo of Australia I post usually have some sort of info ….other wise it’s just like posting a banner on a public wall somewhere ….people just skip over it and dont even look at it ….


www.abc.net.au

Why can't Adelaide bury the 'murder capital' myth?

Adelaide has seen its fair share of grisly killings over the years, but its reputation as the nation's murder capital comes down to a number of factors.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au
 
When you post a video or link to somewhere else, it helps if you include a summary of what it's about or why someone might be interesting in viewing it because more people will click on it if you do that, thus contributing to the usefulness of the forum.
 
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Every cute photo or YouTube video you come across doesn't need to be in its own thread, as we have threads for photos and YouTube videos. If you are placing them in a separate thread in order to gain more visibility to them, take the time to discuss them when you post them in a YouTube or photo thread, and more people will engage. These things should be in their own thread only if you have reason to believe they will result in a discussion beyond emoticons or brief acknowledgments.
 
I don't know how the rest of you use the forum, but I usually go to "Alerts" first to see what's new in topics I have participated in recently. Too often, however, I stop there, and that deprives me of new threads that I might be interested in. The shortcut to finding those is to click "What's new" for new threads or new posts in threads I'm not already involved in. Of course, on the home page, any forum with new topics is in bold, so you can also find new stuff that way. Another thing that I find helpful, and I may have brought this up in a thread of its own, which I use when I've read or participated in everything that I think I might be interested in, but there's just so much other stuff there that it would take too long for me to go through it all, is to reset everything by clicking "Mark all forums read." That unbolds all the forums I don't think I'll have time for, and then only bolds things posted since the reset. I use that a lot. After reading everything that I think I want to read, I'll click that before leaving to do whatever else I might do.

Changing subjects somewhat, I often come into the forum to find a half dozen or more members logged in, seemingly looking for something interesting. If you aren't finding anything, think of a topic for a new thread or consider whether you might have something to add to an old one. New posts encourage new posts, making everything livelier.

There are probably smarter ways to use the forum, so please feel free to post your own tips or suggestions.
 
When I login I click NEW POSTS .. That shows whats new on every base I have access to since my last visit :) (IF YOU REMEMBER TO CLICK "MARK ALL READ" BEFORE YOU LOGOUT ('Database thread tracking' is enabled here))


EDIT:

I just noticed I posted almost the same thing Beth did :)
 
Here's a tip that I discovered recently. It seems like when I insert an image into a post, it is ALWAYS huge no matter what size it actually is. It seems like the forum software is forcing the image size. Anyway... I found that after I insert the image, if I click on it, little blue boxes will appear on the corners of the image. I can click on one little square and drag them to RESIZE the image.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
Here's a tip that I discovered recently. It seems like when I insert an image into a post, it is ALWAYS huge no matter what size it actually is. It seems like the forum software is forcing the image size. Anyway... I found that after I insert the image, if I click on it, little blue boxes will appear on the corners of the image. I can click on one little square and drag them to RESIZE the image.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. I just went back and resized a pic I linked from Amazon...those are always comically huge. So you can change the size in Edit mode, too.
 
Yes, the software will resize the appearance of an image, except the really small ones, to fit whatever screen size you’re viewing it in, but although it might visually reduce the size of a large image, it’s still taking up the amount of space of a large image.
 
John Walker said:
Actually the photos are blown up so they're about two times the height of my 27" monitor screen.
That's way too much. A normal height would be better, but not changing them at all would probably be best.
Click to expand...
There are lots of variables here. The Amazon pics I post look like something from The Land of the Giants on my display. But I have my browser magnification for this website set to 170%, since I'm old and I sit far pretty away from the monitor and everything I want fits. (Ergonomic standards say to sit one arm's length away, and I'm about double that.)

For those who don't know this, you can change the magnification level of each website with browser these settings.

Hold down the CTRL key and tap the + key to incrementally zoom in.
Hold down the CTRL key and tap the - key to incrementally zoom out.
Hold down the CTRL key and tap the number 0 key once to reset to 100%.

Your browser will automatically remember the most recent magnification level you set for each website and retain it until you change it, even after you close/reopen yur browser. That magnification level is applied to every page on the website. I have a magnification level set for most of my regular websites. My email is set to a magnification level where everything I want still fits on the screen and the stuff I don't use all the time is shoved off-screen (but I can still scroll over to it when needed.)

So it's easy enough to zoom out on-the-fly to get a pic to fit your screen, or to zoom in for tiny text, then hit CTRL 0 to go back to 100%.
 
@Ken Anderson regarding photos:

1. I stopped uploading cute stuff from the net to the appropriate threads awhile back because I can’t always tell what is AI and what is real. I hate the fake stuff.

I really wish this forum software would permit uploading of member photos directly from their Cloud albums. It is a PITA for me to use an online software, I’m doing twice the work and if I get a screen freeze I am doing more than twice. No WiFi where I live, so I bounce off a cell tower and have to pick a quiet time of day to upload, if I even succeed.

2. I have mentioned in the past that a care emoji would be great as the love emoji is not always appropriate. It would eliminate making a post when a post really wouldn’t be necessary.

2.1. We also have a checkmark for “helpful” on the horse forum for the same reason. Good information but no need to take up room with a post ✔️
 
Connie Bennett said:
@Ken Anderson regarding photos:

1. I stopped uploading cute stuff from the net to the appropriate threads awhile back because I can’t always tell what is AI and what is real. I hate the fake stuff.

I really wish this forum software would permit uploading of member photos directly from their Cloud albums. It is a PITA for me to use an online software, I’m doing twice the work and if I get a screen freeze I am doing more than twice. No WiFi where I live, so I bounce off a cell tower and have to pick a quiet time of day to upload, if I even succeed.

2. I have mentioned in the past that a care emoji would be great as the love emoji is not always appropriate. It would eliminate making a post when a post really wouldn’t be necessary.

2.1. We also have a checkmark for “helpful” on the horse forum for the same reason. Good information but no need to take up room with a post ✔️
Click to expand...

I'm on a large forum that doesn't even have a Like button. I assume most comments get read, but very few get acknowledged. If someone quotes/replies to one of my comments, without quoting/replying back, I have no way to acknowledge that I even saw the reply. It's the only forum I've ween like that. You get used to it.
 
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