How to post images - not a tutorial! :)

TMF Jeff · May 3, 2001

Hi everyone,

One of the problems we seem to encounter with some regularity is that of where to put content online so that it can be posted to the TMF.

AOL, which a lot of people use, gives every screen name 3 megabytes of storage online that can be used anyway you want. Spread out over seven screen names, that is 21 megs which could be used to host pictures and video clips for linking in the Forums.

In my experience most or all Internet Providers give similar free space for a personal webpage as part of your signup package. This space can also be used to host images and video clips.

(I should mention that I'm not talking about free hosting companies like geocities or Tripod.com. Those guys are pulling out of the free hosting business as fast as they can. I'm talking about the company that you actually pay in order to get internet access)

I have the feeling that what we need is not more locations like honesty.com for hosting, but a greater understanding of the ones we already have.

Id like to see us get together as a community and educate each other about these available tools. For example, uploading to AOL is a little tricky and not everyone is going to easily understand the steps involved. Someone who does know how and can explain it clearly would be doing a lot of people a big favor.

Also, those who are using AOL but dont have content to share could probably host images for friends who do.

My point, and I do have one, is that we have a lot more tools at our disposal than we think, and if we put our heads together we can probably knock this problem out with very little effort.

What I'd like to find out is if anyone knows what some other ISP's policies are about personal webspace. I'm pretty sure TIAC and Earthlink both give away 10-15 megs with every account, for example.

Also maybe some people could post some easy to follow instructions for the various ISP's that they use.

Once we have enough information gathered, I'll assemble it into an easy-to-read document of some kind, and that should be the end of a large part of our hosting concerns.

Psycho4048 · May 3, 2001

Jeff brings up a great point. Most of us already have free space available to us that would work fine for hosting images and small clips to post to the forum. I'm very familiar with how to do this on AOL, so here are the simple steps:

1. Click on AOL Keyword and type in: "ftp"
2. A box will pop up, click on the button
that says: "Go to FTP"
3. A third box will pop up, click on: "other site"
4. Yet another box will pop up where you can type
in your ftp account. This is very easy and is the
same for all aol users except the last part. Type
in this: "members.aol.com/yourscreename"
Then hit enter.
5. Another box will pop up showing you how much room you currently have available. The max per screename is 2mb. Click on: "okay"
6. The main fpt box will pop up. To upload a file click on: "upload". Then type in the name of the file, including the extension. So if the file was named "tickle.jpg" then that is exactly what you would type in. Then click on "continue" and a box will pop up allowing you to select that file from your hardrive. Do this and hit enter. The file will upload.
7. Then all you have to do is figure out what the url is. That is simple. It is always:
http://members.aol.com/yourusername/nameoffile

Basically thats it and remember that AOL users are allowed up to seven screenames. That is 14mb worth of storage space available to you and you can fit a hell of a lot of pics up on 14 mb. Just remember that no files can be larger than 2mb.

Hope this helps 🙂

Psycho

ktickler · May 3, 2001

Good Idea but. . .

Hi there:

When you guys were thinking about options, I thought precisely of that. However, I found a flaw in the logic and that's why I did not suggest it in the first place.

At least in my case, the account I pay for (for which I get about 2-10 MB of storage for a web site depending on the monthly fee) is not my "tickling" account. It is used for personal mail and is sometimes shared with other members of the family.

That right there puts me out of business. 🙁

If the account you pay for is the account you use for your tickling stuff, or if you have already "come out of the closet" and can use your personal account, then you already have space to provide images/videos with.

Take care,

Knight Tickler

Psycho4048 · May 4, 2001

Hey KnightTickler, I dont' think this would be a problem unless the family members you live with know how to access the FTP account. I'm just speaking from my experience, but if my brothers or sisters or even parents were over they would have no clue how to access an FTP account. Anyway, just putting that out there as well. Good point though KT.

Psycho