Post technical questions and issues here. Yes, the layout is slightly different!

I have a new batch of Star Wars emojis ready to go anytime! I do not have TFN server access, though, so @Grimby would have to upload them.

 

Yeah, I don't have access either. You could ask @Grahame nicely if @Grimby doesn't reply.

 

I was suggested to post this question here. It's simply about posting pictures directly from my computer or phone. I used to do that with Tapatalk, but I can't use that any more for some reason. But that's a whole different issue.

I just don't want to have to use imgur or some other image upload site as a middleman. I have a Google Drive and tried using that, but the URL doesn't have .jpg or anything, so doesn't seem to work. An example, a picture of my family.

What I see is a broken img link.

How can I post pics directly from my device?

 

Simply put, you can't. The image has to exist somewhere on the internet publicly accessible in order to show on the forums, and that somewhere can't be easily changed to prevent cheating around edit time limits (which rules out things like your personal Google Drive).

In order to allow images to be posted directly without a third-party middleman, you would have to upload the image to TFN's servers, which would then have to store the file forever. The file could never be deleted, moved, or archived without breaking the post you included it in. Whereas a text post like this takes up probably a couple of kilobytes in space in the database (maybe less if it's compressed), image files are often several megabytes in size. On a message board of this scale, if direct image uploads were enabled, they would rapidly eat up storage space until TFN runs out of space, and a relatively small operation (compared to Imgur or Google) like this can't afford the amount of servers that would be needed to handle it.

Plus, someone will inevitably abuse it by uploading porn or something else X-rated, and it's easier to just edit out an image link in a post than it is to go into the image server and delete the image.

 

OK, so, why can't I use my Google Drive? I've tried before with no success. The "url" I get doesn't have a standard picture format.

Code:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_CZliW1lMM6B9R461pOTzUlnoInTTW_8/view?usp=drivesdk

 

I'm not sure if you can get a raw *.jpg direct link from google drive any more. I used to know a link editing workaround but google 'fixed' it. There might be a new way, your best bet is to search google drive support forums.

 

Ugh. I like that you said "fixed" in quotes.

 

Ugh, I've posted about this several times, but I keep having threads I have marked as "watched". (including this very thread), have updates without notifying me.

 

I always use Imgur. Quick and painless.

 

OK seriously, I've been posting about the watched thread issue since November (go back and check previous pages), and no one has *anything* to say about it? Anything at all?

 

I don't watch threads so I'm of no help. However, if you are supposed to get emails for watched threads, check that they aren't going to your spam folder.

 

Has the site slowed way down today? I can't navigate the site barely at all. I cannot like posts. I'm trying to figure out if this is my computer or if the site slowed down today.

double post. I edited the lower post and it instead edits the above post. That seems like a technical error I've experienced before.

 

Seems to be alright to me. I've checked the server error log and our host site's status page and both are OK. Might be your PC or net connection. Have you had problems on other sites?

 

So far, I've been able to post in story threads/conversations and like others' posts.

 

If you're on a Windows PC, maybe it's trying to check for updates? I know when mine does it can slow right down.

 

I had to use this Windows laptop heavily yesterday. I think the computer started slowing down from all the multi-tasking I was doing yesterday.

 

If it still seems slow you could do a virus and malware scan - see if that picks anything up.

 

It seems to have sped up and returned to normal today. I think something inside my laptop got tired and needed a rest. A tech person actually did a full health check about two days before it slowed down.

 

If you've turned it off/on since the slowness that might have reset whatever was wrong.

 

I ventured into the Games forum today, and it said I have “insufficient privileges to reply here.” What’s up with that?

 

Games has now merged with Community - the old board is just there for people who want threads pulled over. Go into Community and select the 'Gaming' tag to see what was moved. If there's something you want moved over PM The2ndQuest - he was in charge of selecting threads. The old forum will probably be moved to the Community Archive sometime this week.

 

Did something get changed in the look of the forums?

 

Games category has been removed. The old Games forum has been archived in the Community Archive. (Games forum was the only one in the category).

 

No I meant to say that the actual fonts look different. I kept wondering if I hit some key by accident or something.