New forum features (heh, animated gifs, upload images)
Jan 31, 2022 9:41:57 GMT -5
Post by 40oz on Jan 31, 2022 9:41:57 GMT -5
There are some new forum features you may or may not have noticed, but I wanted to bring them up so forum users might be more aware of them. These are a few features that I thought would help make the forum a little more "fun" though I will remove them or put stipulations on them in the event that users use them irresponsibly (e.g. to bully others and make them feel unwelcome here.)
heh
Instead of formerly "liking" posts, when you see a post that made you laugh and you want to acknowledge that you thought it was funny, you can heh, by clicking the "heh" button. So now posts are rewarded by making your posts fun to read.
Insert GIF by Giphy
There is now an animated gif reaction button supported by Giphy. By clicking on the GIF icon you can search for a tag and Giphy will send you an animated gif that fits that search term. You can click the shuffle button to cycle through gifs to pick from. When you see one you like, you can click insert GIF and img BBcode will populate at your cursor to hotlink it in your post.
Uploading images to posts
Although you could always use "add attachment" to upload images, these are temporary and are removed over time due to the low storage capacity on this forum. You can still use any image hosting service you prefer, but now the forum has a dedicated plugin supported by a new image hosting service called vgy.me that streamlines the image upload process right through the forum. The first time you use it, you will first be prompted with a dialog to provide a User Key. To get your user key, you'll need to create an account with vgy.me so you can go into the settings and generate your user key. Once generated, you can copy and paste your created key to the user key field. After that, you will be able to select the upload image button, select your image, and in a few seconds, the image will be uploaded to vgy.me and hotlinked in your post.
NOTE: If you have provided a User Key and are having trouble uploading images (the icon spins forever and image is never uploaded) this is most likely due to a bad user key. Once you have provided the user key the first time, you will want to avoid "regenerating" a new user key once submitted or this will cause the error and you'll need to provide it again. The system will not know if your user key is bad or not, so it will spin forever. The User Key is stored locally in your browser, so to remove the old User Key and put in your new one, you'll either need to clear your cache, delete all cookies, or go into your web browser's console and enter the below command so that you can enter a new user key again.
heh
Instead of formerly "liking" posts, when you see a post that made you laugh and you want to acknowledge that you thought it was funny, you can heh, by clicking the "heh" button. So now posts are rewarded by making your posts fun to read.
Insert GIF by Giphy
There is now an animated gif reaction button supported by Giphy. By clicking on the GIF icon you can search for a tag and Giphy will send you an animated gif that fits that search term. You can click the shuffle button to cycle through gifs to pick from. When you see one you like, you can click insert GIF and img BBcode will populate at your cursor to hotlink it in your post.
Uploading images to posts
Although you could always use "add attachment" to upload images, these are temporary and are removed over time due to the low storage capacity on this forum. You can still use any image hosting service you prefer, but now the forum has a dedicated plugin supported by a new image hosting service called vgy.me that streamlines the image upload process right through the forum. The first time you use it, you will first be prompted with a dialog to provide a User Key. To get your user key, you'll need to create an account with vgy.me so you can go into the settings and generate your user key. Once generated, you can copy and paste your created key to the user key field. After that, you will be able to select the upload image button, select your image, and in a few seconds, the image will be uploaded to vgy.me and hotlinked in your post.
NOTE: If you have provided a User Key and are having trouble uploading images (the icon spins forever and image is never uploaded) this is most likely due to a bad user key. Once you have provided the user key the first time, you will want to avoid "regenerating" a new user key once submitted or this will cause the error and you'll need to provide it again. The system will not know if your user key is bad or not, so it will spin forever. The User Key is stored locally in your browser, so to remove the old User Key and put in your new one, you'll either need to clear your cache, delete all cookies, or go into your web browser's console and enter the below command so that you can enter a new user key again.
localStorage.removeItem("vgy_user_key")
