05-28-2014, 07:47 PM
There has been a fair bit of confusion regarding the use of attachments here lately. From what I understand, at some point in the past, their use was forbidden for unknown reasons (I'd love to know if someone can enlighten me though). Up until recently, attachments were outright disabled and after enabling them not long ago, even when inserted into posts, were only displaying as links, making them of questionable use at best. This has all changed and they now display as full images instead.
First and foremost, attachments are now allowed in all sections of the forum. If anyone tells you otherwise, you can point them at this thread. Dazz has updated the Universal Rules thread to include the fact that they are allowed but I want to take it a step further and encourage their use.
By uploading attachments directly, you cut out the risks involved with using a third party. A site like imgur, realistically, isn't going to go down but it still requires links to another domain. When they're uploaded here, they are guaranteed to be here as long as the site exists (and the uploader doesn't delete them). There is no quality loss, no resizing (besides the lossless resizing that happens when an image is too large), and a generous file size limit (I can't quite remember what it is at the moment). So, while I don't intend to ban the use of third party image hosts, I encourage you all to use the attachment feature unless there is some specific reason not to.
Here's an example, for those interested:
As you can see, that image is included directly in the post but hosted here, as an attachment. The screenshot is of the post editor so you can even see how to use it if you're unsure. Basically, choose a file and click "Add Attachment". When it's done uploading, click where you want it to appear and then just click the "Insert Into Post" button to add it in-line and you're done!
First and foremost, attachments are now allowed in all sections of the forum. If anyone tells you otherwise, you can point them at this thread. Dazz has updated the Universal Rules thread to include the fact that they are allowed but I want to take it a step further and encourage their use.
By uploading attachments directly, you cut out the risks involved with using a third party. A site like imgur, realistically, isn't going to go down but it still requires links to another domain. When they're uploaded here, they are guaranteed to be here as long as the site exists (and the uploader doesn't delete them). There is no quality loss, no resizing (besides the lossless resizing that happens when an image is too large), and a generous file size limit (I can't quite remember what it is at the moment). So, while I don't intend to ban the use of third party image hosts, I encourage you all to use the attachment feature unless there is some specific reason not to.
Here's an example, for those interested:
As you can see, that image is included directly in the post but hosted here, as an attachment. The screenshot is of the post editor so you can even see how to use it if you're unsure. Basically, choose a file and click "Add Attachment". When it's done uploading, click where you want it to appear and then just click the "Insert Into Post" button to add it in-line and you're done!