Technical problems

[Kate]

I tried to change my avatar (icon) today. I uploaded a new one on photobucket, but when I put the direct link to the avatar in right place in my forum profile, I failed - the new avatar was not visible. I uploaded it on imageshack and the direct link from imageshack works! Photobucket works perfect today, but the forum script does not read photobucket links to fresh avatars, which is quite strange, because my former avatar was uploaded on photobucket also and it was visible. Thankfully there's not such a problem with posting images from photobucket, but I'd like to use photobucket links to my avatars too. 
Is there some way to make it happen? Or maybe it's just a momentary failure? 

[Martina]

Steffi has the same problem. I browsed through the support forum already but nobody of the users there has the same trouble with photobucket graphics.
I will soon start my own thread in the support forum and ask for help.

[samulli]

Why would you bother to save the avatar anywhere on the net and then link it from there anyway? You can upload it directly from your computer. That's one step less and it works perfectly fine.
With the avatars there's no need to involve outside storage options at all. Which is probably why there's nothing about that problem in the SMF support forums. Saving images to Photobucket or other sites is only necessary for signature banners or images you want to include in a post.

FYI; I just tried linking to an avatar from Photobucket and it works fine for me. Maybe you have switched on some privacy options or something that doesn't play well with the forum software?

[Kate]

FYI; I just tried linking to an avatar from Photobucket and it works fine for me. Maybe you have switched on some privacy options or something that doesn't play well with the forum software?

Nothing has been changed on my Photobucket account since the beggining and almost all my former avatars on this forum were uploaded before from this account without any problems.
I tried to use Photobucket link today again - without success. I have no idea why it does not work with my account.
Is that possible the link to the file is too long for the forum script? The imageshack link is shorter and it works. It would be quite absurd though.

[Martina]

I've started now a thread in the support forum because of the Photobucket problem.
Maybe somebody will give a helpful answer there.

[Kate]

Thank you, Martina!
I'll try to repeat experiments with Photobucket links for next few days, maybe it's temporary (but mysterious) problem with my account.

[Martina]

Steffi wrote me that Photobucket has changed the web site layout recently. Maybe they have changed some settings at once, which are now responsible for the link problems?
Maybe you both have to alter some of your private settings there?

Or can it have to do with the traffic limit? Is your monthly traffic perhaps exceeded?

[Kate]

I checked out my account settings, nothing has been changed. I used 0% of my Photobucket monthly bandwidth limit. The Photobucket direct link to my icon works perfectly on my Polish forum (it's phbBB type). Still no changes here.

[samulli]

Could you post the link to the picture you want to use? Maybe I can figure out what the problem with that specific picture is and if it works for me (I've tried using several different icons I have in my PB folders and they all worked, so it's definitely not an issue with PB per sé, but I suspect rather something to do with the picture itself).

Have you tried renaming the picture? Or resizing it? Or re-uploading it with a different name?

That said, I still don't understand why you want to use PB for an avatar anyway and not just upload it directly from your computer. 

[Kate]

Samulli, I do understand I can use some other ways to upload my icon. I think though that if there is a range of options for this particular action, then all options should work. I "solved" the problem by uploading the icon from another image hosting, obviously, so there's no need to fight with Photobucket right now. But the option for uploading the icon from external source should work with at least the most popular image hostings' accounts of all members, so my problem with direct links from PB is a signal that something is wrong.

The problem with PB is that I can't upload not only that one particular fresh icon, but I can't upload all my old icons from PB and they were uploaded from my PB account here before without any problems until last week.
There's no problem with direct PB links on my another forum, as I posted it before.

You asked for link. There's one for fresh icon (I reuploaded it on PB, still not working) :

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/zakretka/fan%20art/f.jpg

and for my previous two icons used here:

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/zakretka/fan%20art/7077166.gif
http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/zakretka/fan%20art/dr_bill01.jpg

I repeat once more - absolutely nothing has been changed on my account settings or files. The problem is general - all direct PB links don't work on my WF Forum account settings, they work only in posts or with BBCode, so I can post pictures and this is the most important thing.

You really shouldn't be bothered so much by the way I upload my stuff. I'm sorry, but I do it as I like to do it. I know you want to help and I'm grateful, but I won't fix the problem only by skipping it.

On the other hand no harm done as long as there are other options to change my forum account settings, so maybe we should leave the PB mystery unsolved. Maybe it's only a matter of time.

[samulli]

Ok, I figured out what the problem is. It's not your pictures, it's the fact that the folder you have them in has a name that includes a blank space. The folder is called "fan art", which when you copy & paste the link in from PB is automatically translated into "fan%20art". The forum software doesn't recognize that and can't find the picture. (Which is actually kind of stupid, because it obviously can deal with it in posts, but nobody ever said that software has to be logical.)

The solution to this is either rename the folder to something that's one word without spaces (underscore instead of a blank space should work as well), or after you pasted in the link manually delete the %20 and put a blank space in there again. In both cases the picture will show up just fine.

I have no idea if this %20 substitution thing is new to PB or if the fact that the forum software doesn't recognizes it for avatars is what changed from the last version, but it seems to be a general quirk of the SMF software, because it doesn't work in my own forum either.

[Kate]

You are right! Thank you! 

Photobucket still allows to put a blank space in the name of the album, I had no problems with direct links in my phpBB forum, so it must be something with SMF software: "%20" is not allowed in direct link to the file, unless you post it or use with BBCode.

Thanks again.