Is the Media Gallery add-on redundant?

ForumFan

ForumFan

Well-known member
My forum's topic tends to include a lot of sharing via photos, most often in the context of a discussion thread.

However, I have a sub-forum titled "Gallery." Of course, posts there are in the same format (threads) as the other sub-forums.

My question is: Have you found adding the XenForo Media Gallery as a forum feature to be useful / popular? What advantages does it offer over simply sharing photos in a traditional thread?

Thanks!
 
  • All photos in your forum are in one place with mirroring.
  • And conversely photos posted in the gallery can easily be embedded in posts.
  • They can be commented on, noted.
  • They can be categorized.
  • You can apply keywords.
  • Members can have their own albums (which can be used to motivate account upgrades).
  • In terms of SEO, they are very easily indexable with a title and a description.
🤷‍♂️
 
My gallery is dead. i haven't had a new upload to it in literally years.

if i was to start today, i wouldn't buy it.

your community may vary, but inline hosting of attachments has, yes, as you mentioned, made it redundant.
 
The feature of mirroring photos from messages can save galleries: it's another way to browse the forum, you can at a glance come across a photo that inspires you and in two clicks browse the related discussion, a discussion you might not have found otherwise. So it's the messages that fill the gallery and it's interesting in that sense.

A simple gallery used classically, unless you have a forum dedicated to the image, may not be of much use. The personal albums I don't think they have a great success.
 
I see a lot of usage of the Media Gallery, but I also have a fairly large artist community and have actively pushed to foster them. We also have art-based contests that anyone can join, and will get a lot of submissions.

I also increased usage a lot by using this add-on I commissioned from @Ozzy47 and @Painbaker. It mirrors attachments from threads (first post with option for all additional attachments from replies) or any of Bobs add-ons (with the option to mirror both the content type, comments and the linked thread and replies). I make sure to link any "Share x picture", any art/attachment heavy thread, and any announcements with cover images and attachments.

I do feel that Media Gallery suffers in the same way that most non-thread content types suffer which is that there is no easy way to integrate them into the normal flow of the forum. Threads are always the foremost content of the forum, and there is very little integration into the node structure for added content types (new content types of XF are an exception).
 
I disabled mine for a month and no one noticed. I mentioned it a month after in a post, and one moderator said he noticed but didn't say anything. 🤷‍♂️😂

I will be using attachment mirroring soon, but I am waiting to see if MG comments ever get the attachment functionality, so those replying can also upload pics. For some reason they have removed it from the comment editor there. So in essence, in Gallery, one member might say "Hey look at my 69 Camaro!" And someone who replies might post "This is mine!" with a pic. Unfortunately right now, attachment ability is missing there. And I mean, let's not suggest Photobucket please. 🤣
 
nicodak said:
The feature of mirroring photos from messages can save galleries: it's another way to browse the forum, you can at a glance come across a photo that inspires you and in two clicks browse the related discussion
Click to expand...

Can you explain what this "mirroring" is? Is it a feature that can be enabled to automatically create a duplicate photo of any photo posted in a regular thread?
 
It's like on FB when you make a post with a pic in it, but go to your photos area and they are in a gallery format. It's not a duplicate it's the same image. However a new thumb is stored.
 
PatriotGB said:
Can you explain what this "mirroring" is? Is it a feature that can be enabled to automatically create a duplicate photo of any photo posted in a regular thread?
Click to expand...
There is an option that can be activated for each forum. The photos that are published in such or such forum can be automatically published in such or such category of the gallery, you can create as many categories as forums if necessary. Sports photos from your sports forum can be automatically published in the sports category of your gallery, and so on...

And, it's important to clarify, you can delete the mirrored photos from the gallery if they are not relevant, it does not delete them from the corresponding message. ;)
 
nicodak said:
And, it's important to clarify, you can delete the mirrored photos from the gallery if they are not relevant, it does not delete them from the corresponding message. ;)
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, I was just trying to figure out today if I could delete a load of unnecessary linked ones or not 😁
 
Don't forget the XFMG is also a great place to put videos, music, and podcasts if you have some related to your forum. For example I have convention panels and my "soundtrack" for my RPG in mine.
 
StarArmy said:
Don't forget the XFMG is also a great place to put videos, music, and podcasts if you have some related to your forum. For example I have convention panels and my "soundtrack" for my RPG in mine.
Click to expand...

I haven't enabled video uploads to my forum, yet. My understanding is that it will greatly increase the amount of storage / bandwidth, and I'd likely have to upgrade my hosting service. Right? Since I'm footing the entire bill on my forum at this point, I want to keep the expenses down. If it grows to the point of having sponsors, ads, premium membership, etc... Then I may enable video uploads.
 
It's interesting how some addons work in a community and some don't.
I've tried the popular Showcase addon in two different forums and it's been ignored on both.
Maybe it's how the addon is implemented on your specific forum that also makes a difference?
 
Discovery. Would like a better feed more like social media where a user uploads to gallery but it appears as a post with an image in the feed mixed with forum posts, profile posts, resources, etc. And no, not the Latest Activity link I really don't like that layout/language for titles, plus, no read marking.
 
nicodak said:
I especially hope that 2.3 will bring support for thumbnails of discussions, it is absolutely necessary that our content be identifiable by images.
Click to expand...
I'm definitely in the same expectation for 2.3. At first xenforo mobile view will improve a lot. Then media gallery plugin thumbnail support
 
PatriotGB said:
haven't enabled video uploads to my forum, yet. My understanding is that it will greatly increase the amount of storage / bandwidth, and I'd likely have to upgrade my hosting service. Right?
Click to expand...
Correct. Youtube and other companies do this much better, embedding is the best solution.

I stopped using media galleries years ago. They're just a waste of time and resources. Attached embedding and such in posts is used all the time though, where when I had media galleries, it was barely used because there was no real purpose for it.
 
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