Exactly.
I can't tell you how many times I've had a great thread that someone put together as a record of their project or even a tutorial for others to use, but they used images hosted on flikr or photobucket etc. Then 6 months later a members is reading through it and posts asking if they can get the images because they are all broken links! We also create articles based on member threads, and if the images are uploaded to our site, based on our site Terms and Conditions we have the legal right to use them in one of our articles. If they are hosted elsewhere it's less clear, though our members will almost always grant us permission sometimes we can't get in touch with them.
The vast majority of "Gallery" systems out there treat images as a totally separate kind of content, with it's own ratings system, voting system, comment system etc. Personally, unless you are a photography or other graphic media site where it IS all about the images that's pretty much a dead end. The vB system of having all images stove piped in buried user profiles is a total waste as well, and lacks any real value added for the member, the community or the site.
User uploaded images can be a hugely valuable resource that help your members tell their story, but so can other files like spreadsheets, .pdf, .fpf, .cad, dwg etc... What we need is a full featured system that makes all uploaded files sortable, searchable and REUSABLE. Attached files are a wasted opportunity, often a very large one, for valuable user generated content.
What we implemented in our system is galleries that are parallel name/structure wise with the forums. The forum and it's associated gallery are linked via configuration in the ACP so that if you comment on an image in a given gallery, it creates a thread in the associated forum with the image set that the image is part of showing in the GARS module at the top of the thread. Members can add "Notes" about parts of an image which grabs a part of the image and shows it at the beginning of a post in that image set's thread. This lets people comment or ask questions about a specific part of an image.
Take a look at the thread
http://www.ikeafans.com/forums/ikea...ain-wire-assembly-instructions-annotated.html specifically the 3rd/4th posts for an example of what I'm talking about.
Anyway, I'm totally aware that Galleries aren't intended to be part of the initial release of XF, and that makes sense. I just wanted to put in a word before they start building a "Gallery" product to hopefully inform some of the decisions before they get started on that project. Images and other files are just as much a part of modern online interaction as text, and it's time that Forums catch on to that fact and start treating treating uploaded files as the valuable User Generated Content that they often are. They should be fully intertwined WITH the forums, to enhance the forums system, not be a separate parallel system that happens to share an authentication and templating system.
'K. Sorry about the soapbox bit... I just hate to see lost opportunity in community building,
And I have hope that with this fresh new start, we might see some change in this arena as well.
