Introducing the new UPLOAD FILE button

[Tommy]

All, we are excited to roll this out on the board - it's truly a game changer in regards to posting photos on RTH.

By now you may have seen the new "Upload File" button when you click to create a new thread or reply to a thread.


For the first time ever, Proboards is sanctioning the integration of a 3rd party photo host into the structure of the Proboards forum. The functionality of the program has been brought to us in the way of a plug-in created by a Proboards admin.

In order to use this exciting new program, each member will need to visit the Cloudinary website and sign up for an account. From signing up an account on Cloudinary, you will receive two pieces of information you must enter in your RTH profile settings; your Cloudinary Cloud Name and Cloudinary Upload Preset, both of which are automatically assigned by Cloudinary when you sign up.

Please read more about it here on the tutorial page, and we can discuss it, including requests for help getting it set up.


Ps. We are aware that the new Upload File button is not showing up when posting via the "Quote" screen. I have brought this to the attention of the plug-in creator on the Proboards support site and hope they resolve this in a timely manner.

[mohs]

see if I can add some heart to this cloud business...mostly

[goatgrinder]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Tommy]

aaaaand... here is dinner uploaded directly from my phone well a picture of dinner anyway haha

[aDave]

Other than the size difference of what you see in the post (comparing Cloudinary vs attachments), the ability to use attachments costs the forum money. Cloudinary does not, and the limits are exceedingly generous.

[woodman]

took several tries but looks like it will work.

[Jugglerguy]

Hey Tommy, where does this leave the RockShow site? Will that be shut down?

[Tommy]

Jul 30, 2018 21:57:51 GMT -5 Jugglerguy said:

Hey Tommy, where does this leave the RockShow site? Will that be shut down?

Thanks Rob, RockShow is having some update difficulties but there is definitely no plan to voluntarily shut it down. RockShow is not costing the forum a penny (as opposed to the expensive attachments monthly subscription) so as long as I can get the updates figured out and it doesn't break, or my host force me to shut it off - it will continue indefinitely.

When I took over steering the ship last year our number one issue was, and has continued to be, the difficulty posting photos on the forum. I've tried to attack it from several angles and RockShow and activating the attachments program were both a step in the right direction but we've never had a Proboards integration solution and still we see folks posting almost every day about having trouble posting photos. This new Proboards plug-in seems at face value to be the ONE ring to rule them all (haha) and I don't see ANY 3rd party host competing with it including Rockshow. It's a potential solution that we might all be able to uniformly point newcomers to and say 'do-this' if that makes any sense.

[rockjunquie]

Test picture. Works if you are NOT logged into Cloudinary, too. That's what I was checking. 

Someone wanna try a video? I don't have one suitable for uploading, but it should support video.   Yay!

[woodman]

this video seems to upload just fine

[woodman]

this is pulled from my web page, still have to go there and copy address so not much gain over the old way.

[woodman]

This video was pulled from my web site, I think the upload to this site is faster this way.

[rockjunquie]

I'm having issues with your first video and following image while loading, but my connection sometimes lags. Is anyone else having a problem? Even the video is running slow. 

[rockjunquie]

Just checked a couple other links and it appears to be me. 

[woodman]

One more test post!!




love this, before, I had to upload my photo to my website, then get the link and then post on here. This is direct and eal simple once you get it set up.  Tommy's instructions worked real good for me once I eneterented the correct information.

[Jugglerguy]

Jul 31, 2018 9:12:52 GMT -5 woodman said:

this video seems to upload just fine

I’ve never seen a saw like that. I had to look to see if there was a lumberjack on each end,

[aDave]

Jul 31, 2018 7:29:13 GMT -5 rockjunquie said:

Someone wanna try a video? I don't have one suitable for uploading, but it should support video.   Yay!

IMHO, I'd be real hesitant to use this service as a means to post vids on the forum, as I think it's (potentially) a real quick way to eat up the monthly bandwidth allocation of 20 gigabytes (GB). If that's eaten up, then one is looking to get into the paid levels.

While I'm no math wiz by any stretch, here's my example which leads to my reasoning. If I'm wrong with my basic calculations, please correct me.

Monthly bandwidth views is set at 20 GB. There are 20,000 megabytes (MB) in one GB. So, basically, you are allocated 400,000 MB of bandwidth views in one month.

Let's say a 100 MB video is uploaded and then put into a forum post. Based upon some internet searches, a 100 MB may be "average" size for a five minute video, though many variables come into play.

With that size video being viewed through Cloudinary, you need 4000 people to view it on the forum in 30 days, and you've maxed out your monthly allocation under the free plan. If you only have one 100 MB video up, it probably won't be too much of an issue, and you're probably pretty safe. However, start cutting that number of viewers needed if you have multiple videos on the platform that you've loaded into the forum and/or the vids are longer than five minutes. Now add all of your photos to the mix. Considering the number of members we have, and the number of just visitors, I'd suggest (IMHO) just using Cloudinary for your photos.

Most members use YouTube or Vimeo and embed links with that. I think that's still the way to go. That's just me, and maybe I worry too much.

[rockpickerforever]

I don't totally understand what I just did, but let's see how it goes...

Took me a while to get it working.  When attempting to upload, I kept getting message "Upload failed: Upload preset not found."

But I think I got it now. 

Just like with PB, your free account will take longer to fill up if you make the photo files smaller before upload.  I also first thing deleted all the samples, except the three dogs. They're kinda cute! (32 OP's images taking up space!).

Another reason not to upload videos - The amount of space they take up will quickly fill up the allotted space in a free account.

ETA - I wasn't even taking number of views of a video into consideration!  What aDave said, Vimeo and YouTube better places for videos.

[rockjunquie]

I use handbrake to compress my own videos. Works great and it's FREE.    handbrake.fr/

[rockpickerforever]

I already have Photoshop Elements 9. Very simple procedure to "save for web." Reduces size to whatever you wish.