MG 2.0 Photo Uploads & Embedding In Posts

[420]

This one seems to have our entire community in an uproar, as people are leaving in droves, due to the extensive addition of steps in the phot upload process.

We migrated from VBulletin/Photopost/Tapatalk and since then, have increased the number of steps members have to go through, tenfold.

This is what one member outlined about the upload process, which is more than cumbersome.

This is how I do it from my phone.

1. Go to the gallery section in the menu.
2. Click on “new media”.
3. Click on “add media”
4. Chose “create personal album”. I could have alternatively uploaded to an already created album instead.
5. Click “upload file” and select “photo library” and then select the images I want to upload.
6. Then name each uploaded image and add a description and tags.
7. Name the album and put in a description.
8. Change the default permissions to allow other people to be able to see the images.
9. Find the thread I want to post images in.
10. Start typing until I get to the spot I want the images to be inserted.
11. Press the camera icon.
12. Close the site “hamburger” menu because it always slides out from the left the first time I press the camera button.
13. Press the camera button again.
14. Select the images I want to insert. About 25% of the time have to close and reopen the gallery because it’s not able to be scrolled.
15. Scroll down and press the “continue” button.
16. Submit post.

Our number one most used feature are photo uploads and embedding into posts.

How do we minimize this process, before we lose everyone?

Thank you.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Why not just do something simpler.

Either drag and drop the image to the post directlty, or upload to the media gallery (euther a category or album) and then embed?

Why is this user making things complicated by saying (for example) they have to click on "new media" because they don't.

 

[420]

Thanks Mr Lucky.

I have "create new albums" turned off, because I thought it was creating extra steps for them.

Is that part of the problem?

 

[420]

Can you drag and drop from mobile? Is that a setting to enable?

 

[Russ]

Any reason why they don't just upload the image directly to the post itself and skip the gallery?

If the intention is to always have those photos in the gallery and let users embed them into posts maybe a suggestion could be made to have that happen at the upload step in the post:

 

[420]

Any reason why they don't just upload the image directly to the post itself and skip the gallery?

If the intention is to always have those photos in the gallery and let users embed them into posts maybe a suggestion could be made to have that happen at the upload step in the post:

View attachment 171415

I have no idea Russ, that is what I'm trying to figure out. I've got a permissions rabbit hole nightmare going on, kind of like that watermark permission rabbit hole we still haven't figured out. I've got all of the settings giving registered and established the access to upload to members gallery, but they are not seeing the option for some reason. Iv'e spent 3 days trying to figure it out and I'm going crazy and getting stressed out and screwing things up worse as a result.

Your suggestion sounds logical, what's involved? Asking Xenforo and waiting or is it a current setting?

Meanwhile, I need to get something sorted ASAP so they can upload faster than 16 steps, because members are getting frustrated and our traffic is dropping in half again from all these confusing issues.

 

[420]

Currently, they are claiming, or at least one staff member is, that they cannot access uploading to the members galleries at all now.

I guess they were uploading to categories that I disabled uploads for over the weekend, but that is an assumption.

 

[420]

We are getting somewhere...

I had the option to create albums and upload to them off, thinking it would stop members from uploading to multiple albums and restrict them to their own respective member galleries. Unfortunately, this stopped them from being able to upload there whatsoever. My logic was to stop them from uploading photos, embedding them in a post, then moving the photos to another album, effectively removing them from the embedded post, due to the source location change. This is how it worked with Photopost, so i was just working from that mindset.

Now we have them active again and members can upload to their own galleries once again.

Now we still have way too many steps in the process of uploading/embedding...

Before we go any further, how do we disable the ability to "create personal album", because I think this part is confusing the members with not only too many options, but it also opens up a can of worms because we don't want to allow anyone to have private forums or galleries here, due to the risk of using our website for illegal trading, which can implicate us in federal crimes and can have us shut down and me thrown in prison.

If we could just disable their ability to make it private, we might entertain leaving it as an option.

Thank you for your support, I am truly grateful, this has been no fun at all.

 

[420]

It now appears that every time you upload a photo, you need to create a new album for it.

Had no idea I was this dense, until working with these gallery issues.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Can you drag and drop from mobile? Is that a setting to enable?

Not that I know of as phones don’t generally have a desktop area for dragging files. But the process is very straightforward: click on the photo icon, then either drag and drop (desktop only) OR click on the upload area which should browse directly to the phone’s photo library. Click on the desired image and it is then embedded in the post. that is it.

 

[Mr Lucky]

My logic was to stop them from uploading photos, embedding them in a post, then moving the photos to another album, effectively removing them from the embedded post, due to the source location change.

I think if moved the embed link will still work.

Before we go any further, how do we disable the ability to "create personal album",

You do that in permissions for the main registerd user group. Then nobody can create an album and they can only upload media to categories. You create the categeries and you give those categories whatever permissions you want.

I don't think it's possible to allow members to create an album without the ability to make it a privtae album, so if you don't want them having private media, then just use categories and disallow albums.

I must say I'm very confused by how complicated your user seems to think it is in the OP.

I also can't see the reason you don't just allow them to embed media directly in the post, although obviously if you need all maedia also in a gallery then that would be a reason.

 

[420]

Any reason why they don't just upload the image directly to the post itself and skip the gallery?

I assume you mean by using attachments, which would be great, however we have been advised against them for fear of viruses/trojans, and we want the photos saved in each member's own gallery. Just like with Facebook, etc.

If the intention is to always have those photos in the gallery and let users embed them into posts maybe a suggestion could be made to have that happen at the upload step in the post:

View attachment 171415

I'm sorry that screenshot doesn't look like our style on mobile, so I'm not 100% on the same page yet.

Are you suggesting to add attachments to the gallery? If so, that sounds really good.

Is that possibly the missing link between this gallery and what Tapatalk does?

 

[Mr Lucky]

I assume you mean by using attachments, which would be great, however we have been advised against them for fear of viruses/trojans, and we want the photos saved in each member's own gallery. Just like with Facebook, etc.

I didn't know viruses were uploaded in image attachments, however if they then why would the gallery be less immune than a post??

 

[420]

I didn't know viruses were uploaded in image attachments, however if they then why would the gallery be less immune than a post??

Going by what my systems admin told me, apparently they are different systems. I guess it has to do with the process, the upload strips things, whereas attachments just post. If it's ever been known to happen, we don't want to fool with it. We take our site and member security very seriously, because the nature of our website is based on legal issues and sensitive subjects. We get attacked by spambots, trolls and hackers daily, so everything makes a difference for us. 25 years of big board forum management has taught us a thing or two along the way, yet we still learn something new every day.

 

[Joe Link]

Any reason why they don't just upload the image directly to the post itself and skip the gallery?

If the intention is to always have those photos in the gallery and let users embed them into posts maybe a suggestion could be made to have that happen at the upload step in the post:

View attachment 171415

Hey @Russ, where'd that Add to gallery button come from?

 

[Russ]

Hey @Russ, where'd that Add to gallery button come from?

Chrome inspector (created just to show an idea for a suggestion)

 

[Joe Link]

No wonder I couldn't find it

 

[AlBundy]

Hi,
i upload a picture in my Gallery-Album, but i don`t see the camera icon.
Maybe i must edit a Group-Permission?

Many thanks!

 

[Paul B]

You configure/add it in the BB code button manager.