New Features: Express Yourself

This thread is for comments on the article "New Features: Express Yourself

The core of Trailspace is our community of users who gather here to review, discuss, and debate outdoor gear. To help you better express your own unique personalities, we’re launching a number of new features today:...

Full article at http://www.trailspace.com/blog/2008/10/16/new-features-express-yourself.html

Ok, so I uploaded a photo to serve as an avatar. I will probably change it later, but this one will do for now.

Question - I see the code for embedding images, with the one for external links looking like the easiest to use. The other seems to be for uploaded images, but other than the avatar, I didn't see how to upload an image. I would assume that the upload route would be for the occasional image, with the URL route being for a group of images elsewhere (to save storage space on Trailspace itself).

Looking good! Antarctica or Denali?

Right now we only have upload capability for your profile photo/avatar. Both img tags are for external images. Well, they'd work for uploaded images too, but we don't yet have a way for you to do that. The second example just shows how you can change the size of an image (h = height in pixels, w = width in pixels)

The avatar is Antarctica, between Vinson Base and Low Camp. By the way, there is a new "Normal" route on Vinson that goes directly up to the summit plateau from Low Camp, rather than via the glacier and ice fall. This was established this last season, due to increased slides in the upper glacier area. There is a new "High Camp" (referred to as the "Repeater Camp", since a radio repeater has been placed close by). The former "High Camp" is now referred to as "Shinn Camp", since it lies below Mt. Shinn. I will have to go back, both to do the new route and complete the summit (anyone want to donate toward my expenses?)

Okay, I'm having trouble uploading a photo, I have the same photo at Flickr and on my computer, after hitting the browse button and opening the file from my computer and hitting the "Save" button, I get a blank page without being redirected back to Trailspace. Still no picture.
Same thing when I try to type in the URL from Flickr. I could not get the URL from Flickr to paste in the address field.
File size is 352 KB, is that too big?
What am I doing wrong?

BTW, this is a great addition, and the new profile page rivals any I've seen.

Thanks

Thanks, trouthunter!

You may be running into a file size limit, although in that case you should get an informative error message. Could you email me the image you're trying to use so I can do a little troubleshooting?

I really like the new features. BTW, I'm the one on the right.

I changed my pic. I'm now the one in the middle!

Love the new features!!!! Nice work Trailspace!

Is there a file size limit? My pic would not load either...... and no error message. I'll try shrinking it.

If you look real close.....

Just a test actually, I'm trying a different file type.

yes, a smaller file size worked.

Thanks, jeffrey, for the confirmation, and trouthunter, for sending the image. It does appear to be a file size issue that's triggering a bug. We should have a fix in place soon.

One other issue I'm working on: some people's states are not displaying after they enter them. The workaround for the time being is to make sure you select your country before entering your state.

Dave, what is the file size limit for the avatar? I can't load a pic and suspect that is the issue.

On further investigation it looks like the problem is actually related to the image's pixel dimensions, not the file size. I'm looking for a robust fix, but in the meantime I've adjusted a couple settings here so it should work better for most photo files (though it may still be a little flaky).

Tom, could you give it another try and report back here?

My photo was a 1MB JPEG, full frame from a DX digicam (Eiichi took it and sent it to me, so I don't know which camera he used. Hmmm, I guess I could look at the EXIF tag and find out). Anyway, since the image was pretty large, I don't think that was the issue. It took a while to load, but it loaded ok on first try.

I'm not sure what size my original picture was, but I shrank it to 2000 pixels by 1500 pixels and it loaded just fine. Cool!

I was offered several choices of file size by my photo software, I chose "E-mail/Thumbnail" that's about all I know.
The original file was 352 KB & 3560 x 2384 and would not load.

The actual size of the avatars, as they appear here, is 75X75 pixels.

Well, obviously I got it to work. I used a smaller image I made from a larger file size. This one is about 600kb or so I think. Sometimes I have problems uploading files and that may have been the problem, not the file size itself.

Things should be working a bit better now. The site will accept JPEG images up to 4000x3000 pixels (e.g. a shot from a 12 megapixel camera), although there's not yet a warning message if you go over that limit.

Love the new avatar feature!

Big Smoke, where was that picture of you taken?
I see you live in Virginia, that's not any part of Virginia I've seen.

Hey trouthunter. Thats is the summit of Mt Whitney. Check out the trip report.

http://www.trailspace.com/forums/trip-reports/topics/47999.html

lots of pictures on the link but well worth the wait.

COOL BEANS!

Cool! The only thing is I noticed when the thumbnail is generated, instead of (in addition to?) scaling down the image, it truncates part of it (e.g. my thumbnail has part of my head clipped off).

I experienced the same thing. My photo had a lot more sky above my head when it was shot. If your photo was shot with little space above your head, you may get scalped.

BTW, shorts and snowshoes...Nice!

To get the avatar images into a standard size (75x75 pixels), the system crops each image down to a square. So if you upload a tall image (portrait orientation), a little bit will get trimmed off the top and bottom. For a wide/landscape image, you'll lose a bit from the left and right sides.

OK, thanks for the tip Dave.

f_klock, yep, that was in May in Lassen NP - when the sun was shining, it was very warm. In fact the only reason I was wearing that jacket was that I reached a ridge where there was a cold wind. Then the next day it was probably 70 degrees or better, yet I was on snowshoes. It was pretty neat :).

Just a quick update: the "missing state" problem I mentioned earlier has been fixed (I think). I just sent an e-mail to those of you who appear to have been affected. For everyone else, it may also be worth double-checking that your location (city, state/province, and country) is entered in your profile the way you intended. You can do that here.

Just a quick hello, new to the site, really like it. Found it while reviewing used gear to buy. Avatar is a gorge in Wilson Creek Wilderness Area, right off the BRP near Linville, NC. Took it 2 weekends ago.

Welcome, hoover37! Nice picture.

We're glad to hear you found Trailspace and are enjoying it. Feel free to jump into any of the discussions on the forums.

Nice work, ladies and gents!!! :D :D

nice avatars. I think i should be uploading mine later too. Just new to the site also. See you soon guys.

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