README FIRST: uploading images - search - login problems - banner - change user name

[Jan]

How do I post images in my post
Unfortunately it isn't possible to upload images along with your post. In order to post images, they must be located somewhere and then linked to in your post. There are a number of web sites where you can host your image and use the link in your post:

• http://www.imageshack.us
• http://www.tinypic.com
• http://www.pictiger.com
• http://www.theimagehosting.com
• http://www.image-upload.net
• http://www.coolimagehosting.com

...or find more free image hosts here.

Also, most Internet Service Providers (ISP) offer some web space to upload your images to. You can upload images by using and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program like this one. Contact your ISP for details about your internet space. More info on uploading images using FTP can be found here.

Go here to find out how to include these hosted images in your post. (This is the page where you can find info on all post markup tags by the way.)

How can I change my user name
You cannot. Changing a user name requires the database to run through every post and change the name, which given our size is an extremely long and server intensive process. Also, your user name is tied into the database we use for voting on the daily banner and guess the city, and all those need to be changed as well. As I get around 5 requests per day, spending one hour of my time every day on changing names is not my idea of a good time. If you have an urgent reasons to change the name, you can send me a request to delete your profile so you can create a new account.

How can I send in my banner
Go here.

I have problems logging into the forums
After registration, you should have received a confirmation e-mail and click the link in that mail to do so. If you think you have not received your email or something appeared to have gone wrong. send me an email. Please include your username for you'd be amazed how many people send me an e-mail just saying 'Why can't I log in?' and expect me to come up with their details. Also, make sure the e-mail address you send me the e-mail with is the same as the one you registrated with. Do not expect me to sign up for any of your spam repellent scripts first in order for any of our mails to come through.

For those properly registrated and who have problems logging in or to stay logged in; in general, if you are using a firewall or anything else that restricts the use of cookies or sessions, see if you can adjust some of these settings until it does work for you. Also check the settings of your browser, make sure this site is not being restricted to the maxiumum.

The forums keep logging me out
Most of these are cookie related. Delete your cookies manually. To do this in IE 6.0: Tools -> Internet Options -> Temporary Internet Files -> Settings -> View Files Then search for the individual cookies for your domain and delete them all. The name should be in the form of: Cookie:username@skyscrapercity.com and Cookie:username@www.skyscrapercity.com. Delete these. After this, restart IE.

It seems the forums just don't exist
...in which case your wouldn't be reading this. (j/k) But if you have this problem with one pc and not for another, the problem must be at your end, possibly your provider. At times the DNS servers haven't properly resolved the IP and domain addresses of these forums, in which case you have to wait untill these DNS servers get updated again. Wanadoo has a history of doing this by the way. This might take a couple of days to a week maximum. You also might want to try the following:

Go to this directory on your PC: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\etc\HOSTS. Click 'hosts' and open this document with some notepad program add these lines:

66.249.128.84 skyscrapercity.com
66.249.128.84 www.skyscrapercity.com

DO NOT DO THE ABOVE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! IF YOU HAVE DONE THIS, REMOVE THE LINES FROM THE HOSTS FILE!

Problems registrating/validating
Most problems are being caused by people not supplying a proper email address, an inbox that has reached its limit, or having a very tight spam control program running or your provider running anti spam programs and thinking we're one. Again, don't expect me or the forums to fill out a request to be approved by your email inbox. People registrating with a Yahoo account must check their spam box as Yahoo threats mail from our servers as such.

Embedding YouTube video's
You can embed YouTube videos! All you need is the video code which is the part after the equals sign (=) Example: [youtube ]-dcmDscwEcI[/youtube ] comes from the URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dcmDscwEcI

Anything else
You can contact me at ssc@skyscrapercity.com. Since my spam filter is quite strict (me myself scanning for spam), make sure to have a decent title in your email. When contacting me about some account that doesn't work, add your user name. Really, you'd be amazed how many people send me mails like 'account no work plz fix' and that's it. Don't contact me in case you got banned while recently having fiercely participated in some religious or political argument. Also keep in mind we're all in here for the fun, me and all staff included.

If everything else fails...
...go here for alternative solutions.

[cmoonflyer]

Great advice and reminding ! Many thanks !

[Marcanadian]

Nice work. I get sick of the threads people make about these topics everyday.

[Effer]

Great work Jan, now we won't have so many FAQ's!

[urban_phx]

how do you post a poll?

[pawelsz]

[IMG][img=http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/8830/beztytuu6an.png][/IMG]

...

[TalB]

I take it then I am not the only who will be getting a message saying that I am not logged in if I don't post for a while, while still having my account active.

[JAB323]

good advice, all the newbs waste threads asking people.

[JAB323]

[JAB323]

WTF? My Bad.

[Sinjin P.]

Does anyone have an idea where I can upload .tif/.tiff images?

[coth]

for what? convert it to jpeg.

[Sinjin P.]

Originally Posted by Jan

...

66.250.111.178 skyscrapercity.com
66.250.111.178 www.skyscrapercity.com

Jan, is the above IP address correct or should it be 66.249.139.178 ?

[SimonTheSoundMan]

I'm using 66.249.139.179.

[anjanesh]

Is it legal to hotlink images (our own) directly from flickr, picasaweb ?

webshots seems to be a good one like imageshack.

[coth]

of course. even if you not own.

[anjanesh]

Not according to Flickr's TOS.

[SE9]

^huh?? all it says is:

Link back to Flickr when you post your photos elsewhere
The Flickr service makes it possible to post images hosted on Flickr to outside websites. However, pages on other websites that display images hosted on flickr.com must provide a link back to Flickr from each photo to its photo page on Flickr.

[coth]

i don't know how in usa, but in russia tos is not the law.

as of hotlinking - if they technically allow hotlinking then you can use it, if they technically does not allow hotlinking then you cannot use it.

[anjanesh]

Alright. It also mentions somewhere that you should not use it as image hosting, which was the reason for my question in the first place. I guess that came up in Flickr API terms.

Originally Posted by coth

i don't know how in usa, but in russia tos is not the law.

as of hotlinking - if they technically allow hotlinking then you can use it, if they technically does not allow hotlinking then you cannot use it.

Lol ! Russian law is excellent !

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