I've lost my extrenal linked smileys

[DynoDave]

Hello everyone. I need a little help with this...I'm ProBoards LEAST technical person. So I don't really know how this works, or why it's broken.

For starters...my forum.

wichargerguy.proboards.com/

When I inherited the forum (previous owner passed away unexpectedly, and I was co-admin), there were no smileys. I managed to fumble around and found out how to activate the default ProBoards smileys. Success!

Later, I managed to fumble my way into finding the spot where you can add more smileys. As the forum at one time had tons, I wanted to add some back. And I did. They worked for a year or so with no issues.

But as of a few months ago, they no longer function. The site they come from still exists, and has not modified their addresses. I can actually go into the missing smileys, click the LINK, open it in a new tab, and it works fine.

So I'm at a bit of a loss. Is there a new ProBoards policy that is blocking these? Something has changed, and I can't figure it out.

Your help is much appreciated.

[Night]

Hi DynoDave !

I'm guessing this is happening because Proboards transitioned to HTTPS, meaning that all image links on the forum will need to come from a host that uses HTTPS. The best way to check is to look at one of the links to the current smileys and see what the start of the url is. If it is HTTP, then it will not load.

See if this is the issue and let us know!

Edit: Once we know what the problem is we can help find a solution!

[DynoDave]

Thank you for the reply Night.

That makes sense. It is unsecured.

If you want a trip down old emoticon lane, check it out!

SHERV LINK

If there's a more modern option that you know of, I'd be willing to switch. Would just liek to present me members with a few more options that "stock".

[Night]

If you have the images for the smileys you want on your computer, then you just need to find an image host.  You can find some options at this thread. Just scroll down to Image Hosts.

If you don't want an Image Host, you can upload smileys to a theme through the Theme's Images section. In that same section you can link to images from an Image Host as well.

If you need more information or anything, leave a response.

[DynoDave]

So you are saying if I have the .jpeg files let's say, then I can host those on my Flickr account, and then use that URL in place of the sherv.net URL?

[Night]

I do not use Flickr, so I do not know if their images are served over HTTPS, but yes.  Once you get that link you can proceed to the forum theme images and add the urls there to either overwrite the default PB ones, or add more (within the file size limit of a theme, this is only if you upload directly to the theme, though there may be a limit on total smileys).

Edit: If you are using this method you might need to check what Flickr's hotlinking policy is and whether you can use hosted images this way through their service (since these images will be loaded into the theme rather than simply linked in a single post).

[DynoDave]

Well that worked. It probably should have occurred to me to try hosing them elsewhere, but it did not. Thank you so much for your help with this!

Mind if I ask about 10 other questions? :-) LOL

[Night]

If you have any more questions, it would be best to make another thread since this problem has been solved.  Depending on what you are needing answered, be sure to post in the correct boards for the issue.

I'm glad this worked for you!

[Kami]

DynoDave - Please note that using Flickr as a content delivery service (CDN) as you would be doing by hosting and linking those images to be used repeatedly by your forum is against their TOS.

Specifically under Community:

Don't host web graphics
Flickr is not a place to host generic graphic elements of web page designs, logos, banners, icons, and other non-photographic elements.

Hosting smilies is 100% for sure included in this and doing so puts your flickr account at risk. I would instead look over to the External Resources thread and select from one of the recommended image hosts. Unfortunately, while flickr is an image host, they do not allow their services to be used as a CDN.

[DynoDave]

Thank you Kami. That's good to know. And thank you again for the link to recommended image hosts. I'll take care of that this week.