Photos gone from old threads

[aczlan]

I was hopeful that there might be a simple resolution (that was a WAG on my part, as I don't know computers well) after I had goofed, inadvertently changing pretty much all the photo links in my posts.
So, if there's no admin resolution in the offing, I guess I have 3 choices, add a post to the "dismembered" thread, inviting anyone who would like the photos to contact me directly (easy enough, and that's what I've done). Not so effective though, I know I would not make the effort to contact a poster for photos unless there was a truly compelling reason. Second choice is to leave the threads as they are - not very useful without photos - nothing new, there are lots of frustrating threads out there. And finally, I could start a whole r'nuther thread - more effort required and adds meaningless redundancy to the database - not a good option.
Absent some procedure allowing the original poster to edit photo links, I see no good, viable workaround.
bumper

Actually, TBN is better than most forums in keeping old pictures alive. As for the problems, some of the problems have been fixed (ie: the /forums/attachments/yanmar/ vs /forums/files/yanmar/ that Muhammad replied to). I sent Muhammad a PM about the one Xfaxman reported which appears to be related.

Absent some procedure allowing the original poster to edit photo links, I see no good, viable workaround.
bumper

The problem that has been seen with lengthening the edit time is that some people abuse it to change what they said after the fact in contentious threads.
Yes you can see that they edited it, but it causes problems.

Here's a 2011 thread with pictures missing.
Looking at Page Source I don't see a link to pictures (hosted anywhere), but the replies indicate there were pictures in the first post.

That one threw me for a loop, I bet what happened is that the pictures were attached (just attached to the post like Xfaxman's picture below, not linked inline), but the poster deleted them for some reason.

Aaron Z

 

[Xfaxman]

Just to be clear, all of mine that have disappeared where from a previous post that I made. Then later I did a copy of the text and pictures, and pasted to a new post. That worked fine until some forum changes were made and the pasted pictures are gone. The pasted text is still there.

The pictures are still in the original thread.

 

[California]

Quote Originally Posted by California
Here's a 2011 thread with pictures missing.
Looking at Page Source I don't see a link to pictures (hosted anywhere), but the replies indicate there were pictures in the first post.

That one threw me for a loop, I bet what happened is that the pictures were attached (just attached to the post like Xfaxman's picture below, not linked inline), but the poster deleted them for some reason.

Aaron Z

Yes but ... even if the poster deleted his photos the page we see today would still contain a link, that now goes to nowhere - no?

Assuming you have Firefox: Looking at that referenced 2011 post, click on Tools/Web Developer/Page Source. Search (Ctl F) on wink. The first instance of wink should be just before a Division referencing a [now-missing] photo. But there isn't such a Division.

That thread's Division referencing a photo should look somewhat like the following code, which appears in the Source of this page we are looking at now: go to Page Source, search for Aaron. Unlike the 2011 post, 'Aaron' [post #21] is followed by a Division (of the class "Attachments") that says 'display a thumbnail'.

<div class="attachments">
							<fieldset class="postcontent">
								<legend><img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/images/styles/tractor/misc/paperclip.png" class="inlineimg" alt="Attached Thumbnails" /> Attached Thumbnails</legend>
								
<a href="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/news-feedback/382280d1404964591-photos-gone-old-threads-326913d1373569336-grappling-fun-picture-thread" 
rel="Lightbox_3829307" id="attachment382280"
><img class="thumbnail" src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/news-feedback/382280d1373569336t-photos-gone-old-threads-326913d1373569336-grappling-fun-picture-thread" 
alt="-326913d1373569336-grappling-fun-picture-thread"/></a>
 
							</fieldset>

						</div>

There is nothing like this Division within the Source of that 2011 thread.

 

[California]

The problem that has been seen with lengthening the edit time is that some people abuse it to change what they said after the fact in contentious threads.
Yes you can see that they edited it, but it causes problems.

And on this issue, I agree completely. I learned from experience in 'Friendly Politics' and similar political forums elsewhere, and even some technical discussions here, that it is essential to quote someone you are responding to. If you don't, there are 'Master Debaters':laughing: who will subsequently change their post that you responded to, to make you appear to be tilting at windmills. Quoting, and the 24 hour revision deadline, are controls to limit the amount of nonsense in a thread.

 

[bumperm]

Yup, that's an approach I hadn't considered.

Downside would be in trying to correlate the pictures to the previous copy if the pictures had no accompanying copy. Having to add copy or labeling each picture again would, in effect, be about the same as doing the original post over, what I was trying to avoid*. (The posts were of mods and were presented in a "how to" format, so a fair amount of copy went with many of the pics.)

*Not 'cause I'm lazy :c), but rather because some of my posts were in response to posts by others, and without their posts in sequence . . . oh well, for now I'm giving up.

bumper

 

[aczlan]

Yes but ... even if the poster deleted his photos the page we see today would still contain a link, that now goes to nowhere - no?

Not if it is just attached to the post (rather than being an inline link).
I just went to my attachments settings (http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/profile.php?do=editattachments) and deleted that attachment.
Now its gone from my post and the post does not say that it was edited.

Aaron Z

 

[California]

Not if it is just attached to the post (rather than being an inline link).
I just went to my attachments settings (http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/profile.php?do=editattachments) and deleted that attachment.
Now its gone from my post and the post does not say that it was edited.

You're right. I'm surprised to see that the Page Source for this present page now has no Attachments division. The code I quoted above (post # 23) disappeared along with your photo.

I wonder if a future release of VB could include something like 'Last edited by [poster]; Photo removed, [date] at 11:48 PM.'

 

[California]

Here's another disappeared photo. I don't think the problem is fixed yet.

In this post I included a photo after:

tractor like this.

Without the photo, my post doesn't make a lot of sense.

Page Source for that post includes

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/yanmar/296878d1357630390-almost-stuck-mud-p1360233rdigstump.jpg" border="0" alt="" />

Replace the word 'attachments' with the word 'files' in that code and the photo appears.

And the photo remains visible in the post where I first used it. (to see it, follow the link in the second paragraph of my 'disappeared photo' post).