how do i export my picture file to the avatar? (solved)

[Try'n 2 Learn]

and without uploading it somewhere else first. i keep getting invalid URL location when i try to copy&paste it in from the firefox browser.

[kukamuumuka]

You need to make a link.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/ucp.php?i=p ... ode=avatar

avatar.png

[Try'n 2 Learn]

ok, so the photo must come from an external site, meaning other than my picture file on my computer? here are a couple examples; [url]file:///media/mint/USB%20Stick/avy.jpg[/url] another example,[url]file:///home/mint/Pictures/avy.jpg[/url]. i think i am misunderstanding the proper use of a URL-link? if this is the case, how can i generate, or can i generate a URL from my computer?

[karlchen]

Hello, Try'n 2 Learn.

The address of your avatar file inside your forums profile cannot point to your local harddisk. The forums software has got no access to your local harddisk.

When defining an avatar for your user forums profile you have got two choices:

• Either select one from the forums gallery by clicking on the [Display Gallery] button.
• Or you type or paste a valid address to an image file into the edit box labelled "Link off-site".
  This is what you try do to. - In this case, however, you have to first upload the avatar image to a free image hoster beforehand.
  Cf. screenshot below as an example.
  
  
  (Click screenshot to enlarge. Press <alt><cursor_left> to return here)

1. Upload the desired later avatar image file from your local harddisk to a free image hoster. - The exact steps may vary between image hosters.
2. Once the upload is complete, the image hoster webpage will display the direct address to your uploaded image file. Copy this address into the clipboard.
3. Go to your forums profile ("User control panel" => Tab "Profile" => "Edit Avatar") Paste the address into the edit box labelled "Link off-site".
4. Click [Submit].

HTH,
Karl

[Try'n 2 Learn]

many thanks Karl & kung-fu bird (lol), a image host site did the deed. just could not understand the middle-man idea.

[karlchen]

Hello, Try'n 2 Learn.

Yes, I was confused a bit, too, when I noticed that unlike other forums this forum does not seem to offer a way of uploading the avatar file from the local disk to the forums server disk directly. Maybe this option is not present in order to reduce the disk space which else would be occupied by all the avatar files.

Cheers,
Karl

[kukamuumuka]

Yes, I was confused a bit, too, when I noticed that unlike other forums this forum does not seem to offer a way of uploading the avatar file from the local disk to the forums server disk directly.

The upload option can be set via phpBB´s settings.
http://pc-freak.net/blog/how-to-enable- ... -disabled/

[flybynight]

I tried karlchen's advice, but I keep getting: "The URL you specified is invalid."

[Try'n 2 Learn]

well.... you can test your link apart from the forum here and see if it indeed works. in the end you may need to find another host for this particular effort here.

[phd21]

Hi flybynight, and anyone else,

I just tried updating my Avatar image to an "off-site" image myself and I had a couple issues doing that too.

Here is what worked for me: The "Link off-site" "url" address for your Avatar's image location must be in the typical "https://" format like "https://s5.postimg.org/hd7ulfcuf/Dog.gif" as already posted by user "karlchen"'s image in their post. I use a really good website called "postimages.org" to upload & store some of my pics and tutorial videos for this forum and it works really well. After uploading an image to their website, you will automatically be presented with various super convenient and nice "link" options to your image, see screen shot below. I had to try the various "link" url and "html" formats offered, but the only one that worked in this forum for the Avatar section is called "Direct Link" in the typical "http//" url format which this site makes super easy to copy the image's location with a "copy to clipboard" button, click that, then you can right click and "paste" your image's "off-site" location into this forum's "Link off-site" section of your profile; and, I also had to reduce my Avatar image's dimensions from 255 pixels x 250 pixels to this forum's Avatar max. image size limit of 120 x 120 pixels; which this Mint forum made that easy enough to do by entering your "Avatar (image) dimensions" just below the "Link off-site" url, which in my case I used 120 x 115 pixels, and it worked great. (You can always use the default max. Avatar dimension limit of 120px x 120px) FYI: There are also numerous free image converters and image resize programs available online (ex: ezgif.com) and offline (ex: Gimp, Gwenview) to adjust your image size to the smaller size required by most forums for the use of Avatars, if for some reason entering in this forum's Avatar Dimensions does not work for you. And, obviously, you can use an animated ".gif" image for your Avatar image, if you so desire (ex: see my Avatar) ...

Avatar_PostImageOrg.jpg

PS-1: I went through the free, very easy, and quick, registration process on the "postimage.org" website first before uploading anything, so that my image will stay available, and their site knows that this image is part of my images, not someone elses.

PostImage.org website
http://postimages.org/

PS-2: For those of you that might be interested in creating, or using, an animated "gif" image for your Avatar, or for whatever, the really cool website "www.ezgif.com" will help you do this, see link below. Of course, you can always search for "animated gif images" in your browser and use one of those too. Remember, that for some purposes, like Avatars, you may need to resize (shrink) the ".gif" image which "ezgif.com" can help you to easily do that as well.

EZgif.com - animated gifs made easy
http://ezgif.com/


Note: (updated 09-14-2015) If you are comfortable with using the console terminal command line, you can also use the incredible "imagemagick" program to create animated ".gif" files as well. It is available in your Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM). "imagemagick" can also easily combine regular still images and multiple animated ".gif" images into one animated ".gif" image which I used to create my current Avatar. If you are combining "gif" images, and or other images, it helps to first resize each image file to the same dimensions of your largest or smallest image (you can use ezgif.com). The command I used to create and combine images and animated ".gif" images into one animated ".gif" image is below. First, I created a folder to put the images I wanted to use for this and copied those images into it, I renamed the images in the order I wanted them to show up in (1,2,3, etc...) then I brought up my console terminal prompt and switched into that folder to run the command below, ex folder: "/home/phil/Pictures/Avatar":

(Tip1: If you are in your system's "file manager" to create this project's folder, move your images into it, and rename them, and you are now in that folder for this project, you can right click, select "actions", select "open terminal here", and your console terminal prompt will already be in this folder, ready for you to type in, or copy & paste, the create "gif" command below).

convert -delay 21 1.gif -delay 400 2.gif -delay 76 3.gif -loop 0 phd21.gif

Tip2: I used 3 ".gif" images to create one final animated "gif" image for my Avatar (phd21.gif), but you can use as many as you want. The "delay" command above is in 1/100 milliseconds, so if you want a delay between an image and the next image that shows up to be 4 seconds, then use "-delay 400". You might have to experiment with the command to see what works best for you. The "-loop 0" command near the end of the command line means that you want the animation to repeat itself, a continuous animation. You can type "convert --help" for more "imagemagick"'s "Convert" command line options. There are also numerous online articles that you can search for on creating "animated gif files in Linux".

Tip3: I found that the really great program "Gwenview" to be very useful for all kinds of image related stuff, including viewing animated ".gif" files without using your web browser, viewing image details (dimensions), resizing still images, etc... too see if the results were what I wanted before & after running the create animated ".gif" command, and or uploading the image to the off-site image hosting website, or for whatever you are doing with images.


Hope this helps ..

[MtnDewManiac]

Hi flybynight, and anyone else,

I just want to know how you got an avatar that's larger than the maximum specification mentioned in the User Control Panel - and an animated .GIF, at that - to work. Is that a benefit of donating? That's something that I, unfortunately, am not able to do at this time. But, if it IS a benefit from doing so, it might be worth it for the developers and staff to advertise the fact (or to do so more prominently, if they already mention it... somewhere).

Regards,
MDM

[phd21]

Hi MtnDewManiac,

I just went through the detailed steps I mentioned in my previous post in this thread. There are numerous free online websites for hosting your image, or an animated ".gif" image, that are not on this forum's website (off site) where you are only providing a web link that this forum's website uses for your Avatar. I did tell this website in the user's Control Panel under the Avatar settings to limit the size (dimensions) of the Avatar image to their maximum limit of 120 x 120 or less, even though my image was a little larger than that.

Believe me I would love to make a donation to this the wonderful Linux Mint community including this incredibly useful forum, but as of right now, I cannot do that either.

Hope this helps ...

[MtnDewManiac]

Ah, I see. I never realized that animated .GIFs were allowed here to the general membership. I was thinking I tried one of mine, once, and failed. But it was probably over the (file) size limitations.

Believe me I would love to make a donation to this the wonderful Linux Mint community including this incredibly useful forum, but as of right now, I cannot do that either.

I understand and am in the same leaky boat. It's funny. Way back when, I used to be less than happy about having to pay for whichever Microsoft OS just got released. These days, I get less than happy about not being able to pay for linux Mint (which is FREE). It's ironic, getting a better value for no money than I used to get for $100 (et cetera).

It's the wrong thread, but... I just read a post that mentioned only around 1.5% of the population (I assume the computer-using population) uses linux. I must be slow because it just occurred to me: It's a bell curve. Not everyone is smart, lol.

Regards,
MDM

[kukamuumuka]

It's the wrong thread, but... I just read a post that mentioned only around 1.5% of the population (I assume the computer-using population) uses linux. I must be slow because it just occurred to me: It's a bell curve. Not everyone is smart, lol.

[leonicolas]

I tried to use a gravatar.com image (https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/9c3261b ... b79d?s=120) but the URL was classified as invalide. Why?

[Moem]

I have no idea, but I know that http://httpsimage.com/ works well.

[MtnDewManiac]

I tried to use a gravatar.com image (https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/9c3261b ... b79d?s=120) but the URL was classified as invalide. Why?

Is 120x120 resolution (and 5.45 K) within the size rules for avatars on this web-forum? If so, my guess is that the forum software is confused by the fact that your link does not end in ".jpg" (et cetera). Or maybe it's just a bug - I see that the forum now looks like it has jumped several versions into the past since the big SNAFU (or, having observed how people tend to want to screw things up and call it an improvement, I suppose it could conceivably be a newer version instead of an older one and just be a general step back in look/function/usability... IDK), so maybe the staff/admin will be jumping to (what passes for?) a decent version of phpBB in the near future and you will then have no avatar issues. Who knows?

EDIT: If all else fails, shave and try again . Just kidding, lol.

Regards,
MDM

[Moem]

I see that the forum now looks like it has jumped several versions into the past since the big SNAFU (or, having observed how people tend to want to screw things up and call it an improvement, I suppose it could conceivably be a newer version instead of an older one and just be a general step back in look/function/usability... IDK),

Wow, that is pretty uncharitable. It's a newer version, indeed. And I'm not seeing any steps back in function... just a simple, default theme.

No one 'wanted to screw things up and call it an improvement'. The forum was updated to be more secure against breaches.

[MtnDewManiac]

Wow, that is pretty uncharitable.

Rest assured that if the developer of phpBB knocks on my door, starving, that I will feed him from my own limited pantry. That's charity. I will also take the time to let him know how much his software reminds me of the thing that a friend of mine wrote when I was thirteen or so, only faster to load pages (as we only has 300 bps modems that we'd "adjusted" to manage ~550 BPS) and somewhat more frustrating to use. That is neither charitable nor uncharitable - it is merely honesty.

It's a newer version, indeed.

Oh. That makes me... sad. I was hoping that it was an old, old version and that we'd return to the previous level of... whatever you wish to call it.

And I'm not seeing any steps back in function...

Admittedly, part of my reaction was because of glaring shortcomings (including some basic web-forum functionality/usability that is missing) that were already there and which are still present - which helped cause me to think that, since the software changed, it much have changed to an older version instead of a newer one, since one reasonably expects improvements with newer versions. I have already mentioned those shortcomings a few times, so I will not bother to do so in this thread.

OtOH, the goofball (new ) notification thing is a step back and gives me the impression that it was designed in haste and tacked on because someone felt that they ought to do something to warrant releasing a new version of the software. <SHRUGS> This seems to be an attitude that is shared by both software developers and manufacturers, that "any change is a GOOD change." I suppose, for the latter, it is a way to get the same people who purchased your product last year to do so again this year, regardless of whether or not they actually have a need to do so; but I cannot understand why software developers do it. The "Quick Links" menu is a step back, both in that it now forces people to take an extra step to get to the items that were right there in plain sight before and in that, even though it hid those items... it also appears that the change has caused the "meat" of the forum to have moved further down every page from where it started before. I do have (more or less ) full control of my faculties, so having to scroll down that extra bit (again, on EVERY page) is more of an annoyance than a handicap - but adding more annoyances does not strike me as being a good thing to shoot for when one "improves" one's product.

There are other things I have noticed as well, but this is not the thread for listing them, lol. I was only suggesting that the OP's issue might go away if/when the forum software jumped versions. As you have informed me that this actually IS a newer version, I realize that is not likely to be the case. So - again, assuming that the OP's image fits this website's requirements - I'll again state that it might be because OP's link is not a standard image one (IOW, that ends with an image filename/extension).

I could, of course, be wrong about that, too .

No one 'wanted to screw things up and call it an improvement'.

I am not a member of the "politically correct" subspecies, so I may not have been able to figure out the correct "touchy feely, warm and fuzzy, let's all give each other hugs" nonsense to phrase that in. I'm sure there's a way to put it that still conveys my point, but when one adds modifiers such as "they tried really hard," it sort of diminishes that point. I can work all day long, but if I do shoddy work, I do not personally feel that I have accomplished anything. I also feel that someone should do me the favor of letting me know, and if someone feels that person to be uncharitable, that doesn't bother me. I prefer honesty, even if it's honest criticism. Otherwise, well... I might actually end up thinking that I did a good job instead of a poor one.

Regards,
MDM

[Moem]

I am not a member of the "politically correct" subspecies, so I may not have been able to figure out the correct "touchy feely, warm and fuzzy, let's all give each other hugs" nonsense to phrase that in.

I don't care about political correctness, and you don't have to like the current version of phpBB, or in fact any version at all. But you seem to be missing the point: the admins switched to this version because it's more secure. In my eyes, that's a big and important improvement, and one that matters a lot more than whether or not we can upload avatars here.
Sure, feel free to go ahead and say that they wanted to screw things up... doesn't make it so.