Easier way to insert block images in forum

[Whitestar]

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Update 2013-07-18: Terraforming blocks from Canyon, Stadium and Valley are now available.

Examples:

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[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216/Whitestar27/TM2/TM2CT5.jpg[/img]

Terraforming 5 ----- Canyon

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[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216/Whitestar27/TM2/TM2ST1.jpg[/img]

Terraforming 1 ----- Stadium

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[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216/Whitestar27/TM2/TM2VT6.jpg[/img]

Terraforming 6 ----- Valley

Also, the items (objects) from Valley are available. Example:

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[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216/Whitestar27/TM2/TM2VI1-3.jpg[/img]

Item 1-3
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Update 2013-07-05: Block icons from all environments - Canyon, Stadium and Valley - are now available.

Examples:

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[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216/Whitestar27/TM2/TM2C6-2-1.jpg[/img]

6-2-1 ----- Canyon

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[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216/Whitestar27/TM2/TM2S5-5-1.jpg[/img]

5-5-1 ----- Stadium

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[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216/Whitestar27/TM2/TM2V6-2-2.jpg[/img]

6-2-2 ----- Valley

Enjoy!

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ORIGINAL OP

While I was making an overview of the TM2 Stadium blocks I thought of another way that would make it much easier for forum users to display and talk about different blocks.

Unless I'm missing something we now have to insert or own images into the posts.

But what if we could have a system where blocks are saved in an image hosting site by block number, and then just pull out the number we need?

I have made a small collection (the 1-1-x blocks) in Photobucket as an example. I used Photobucket because it's free and allows direct linking of images. Since some blocks are similar it's important to always name them by number. So here are a few examples of formats we could use:

1-1-

Or maybe like this:

1-3-8

You can try this yourselves by using the Img button in the "Post a new topic" window, and then inserting the following URL between the img tags:

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http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216/Whitestar27/TM2/TM2Sx-x-x.jpg

, where x is the number of the block. Bear in mind that I have only saved blocks 1-1-1 to 1-1-7 for now.

For example:

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[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216/Whitestar27/TM2/TM2S1-1-6.jpg[/img]

will yield this image:

So here are the links you can try (and remember to not use space before or after "img" and "/img". I'm only using it here to be able to show the code instead of the image):
[ img ]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216 ... S1-1-1.jpg[ /img ]
[ img ]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216 ... S1-1-2.jpg[ /img ]
[ img ]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216 ... S1-1-3.jpg[ /img ]
[ img ]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216 ... S1-1-4.jpg[ /img ]
[ img ]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216 ... S1-1-5.jpg[ /img ]
[ img ]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216 ... S1-1-6.jpg[ /img ]
[ img ]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216 ... S1-1-7.jpg[ /img ]

Give it a try and let me know if this is something you would find useful. If so I will save the rest of the Stadium blocks and also Canyon and Valley when they become available. I will use the following naming convention:
TM2Sx-x-x for Trackmania 2 Stadium
TM2Cx-x-x for Trackmania 2 Canyon
TM2Vx-x-x for Trackmania 2 Valley

So basically you would just need to save this path (again, without the <>) <http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t216 ... 27/TM2/TM2> and then just add S1-1-1.jpg if you want the first road block from Stadium, or C3-1-2 if you want the floating concrete block from Canyon, and then enclose the path with the img tags.

Let me know if this is something you would find useful. Ideally this forum should have this functionality itself (TMarc? ). But this would be good as a secondary solution.

Of course, those who insert the images will still have to use the block overviews themselves so that they know what they are inserting.
Here are Stadium blocks by me: http://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic. ... 66&t=20664
And Canyon blocks by YonCan: http://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic. ... 66&t=19305

Now go ahead, try to insert some of the blocks in this thread yourself.

[Omnixor]

awesome idea

[phil13hebert]

awesome idea

I totally agree with you !

And this post must be a sticky

[TMarc]

Really cool idea, this would help a lot for block description or block placement issues threads
Unfortunately I'm not given with Administrator rights, nor can I change anything to this forum, this is Cerovans duty

You know that there is a "half official" TrackMania image storage? ImagePark
The only thing is, it modifies the filenames at the end, as you already noticed that PhotoBucket does not do.

So there instead we could need a translation table for something like [block=TMS]1-1-1[/block] into the actual image link.
Nothing that should not be feasible
Or you provide a thread with all blocks, and people can link the block images from there at least.

[Whitestar]

Or you provide a thread with all blocks, and people can link the block images from there at least.

You mean post them on Images Park and link to all of them in one thread, and then people can just right click on the desired block in the thread, copy the path, and use it in their own IMG link? I tried Images Park just now. It took an awful lot of time to upload just one image. I'll try again tomorrow just to be sure, but for now I think I'll stick to Photobucket.

I'm not completely sure about Photobucket either, because I created a new account and uploaded some images. They were given different names. But for some reason that doesn't happen when I use my own personal (old) account. So I'm just going to continue to use Photobucket for now and trust that in my old account the files keep their names when uploaded.

The best thing would probably be to host them on some personal domain/homepage, but Photobucket will have to do for now.

Do let me know if you think of other cleverer/easier ways of doing it.

[TMarc]

Until the officials react, we have to do it on our own.

Imagepark is fast for temporary images, but they persist only 2 weeks.
Permanent images take more time, why I don't know.
Another possibility would be to use Dropbox or so, there you can upload all images at once,
and link later.

[Whitestar]

DropBox didn't work well either. When linking in this forum I got a message that it could not determine the size of the images. Oh well.

I'll start saving into Photobucket tonight. Should be able to finish both Canyon and Stadium by tomorrow. I can also make a new thread containing all the block images, so people can just copy and link. That way it's easy to see if something goes wrong with my Photobucket account, and if so I can just upload somewhere else.

Of course, if something goes wrong with my PB account that will mean that the images in all threads that have linked to my thread will also disappear, so people will have to update their own threads to make sure the images are visible. I'll stop talking now.

[steeffeen]

DropBox didn't work well either. When linking in this forum I got a message that it could not determine the size of the images. Oh well.

you just used the wrong link..

simply use the "share link" url and change "www" to "dl"

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http://www.dropbox.com/s/9ruhfdhyptslkqy/icon_rolleyes.gif
http://dl.dropbox.com/s/9ruhfdhyptslkqy/icon_rolleyes.gif

and there you got the image
[]



otherwise you just link to a html site which display the image, with the "dl" link you get a direct link to the image

[Whitestar]

Ah, thanks for that.
You think I should use DropBox instead of Photobucket? Have to make a decision soon.

[TMarc]

use
a) a service which is easy to use (DropBox you only need the client and can "upload" just by copying files into a local DropBox synchronisation folder)
b) everyone else can reach without need to register for download
c) that allows to link directly to the images
d) handle some load without cost increase

One thing will remain, unless you use an own server: the linking to the images, because is lot of work if you're using Dropbox or any system where you have first to upload files, and then get the link.

A own server might be a better solution, but with the disadvantage of issues due to high traffic (higher costs or lower bandwith).