Managing attachments / storage

[cottonmc]

Forum URL: cottonownersclub.proboards.com/

The Forum is run on behalf of a small motorcycle club with very limited resources. Currently we have used 25MB of our 200MB on the Free Attachment Plan. Quite a lot of space at the moment but we are going to hold a 'Virtual Rally' on the forum whereby members can upload pictures of their bike - an alternative to the Real Rally that has had to be cancelled.

Image size is already limited to 1MB but it is possible we will get close/exceed our free storage limit so I'm looking at what we can do.
1) We could pay for more storage but we have very little money. Can we increase the storage for one month only? ie. Pay $3 for the month of the Virtual Rally then delete all the pictures, stop the payment and revert to the Free plan?

2)We could use URLs to link pictures but some of our members may find this difficult. Is it possible for me, as Admin, to download their picture and save it to a third party file storage site then edit the member's post to insert the image as a URL link?

3) Any other suggestions?!

Thank you

[Retread]

Jul 4, 2020 3:22:17 GMT -8 cottonmc said:

1) We could pay for more storage but we have very little money. Can we increase the storage for one month only? ie. Pay $3 for the month of the Virtual Rally then delete all the pictures, stop the payment and revert to the Free plan?

Yes. As long as you cancel your subscription before the scheduled payment for the second month, you would only pay $3.

However, this means your members would have taken the trouble to upload their pictures and they would only be available for a short time. I reckon that would not be very popular with your membership.

Jul 4, 2020 3:22:17 GMT -8 cottonmc said:

2)We could use URLs to link pictures but some of our members may find this difficult. Is it possible for me, as Admin, to download their picture and save it to a third party file storage site then edit the member's post to insert the image as a URL link?

Yes. This is possible and would likely be much more popular with your membership. However, it would require a number of actions on your part for each image that is originally uploaded as an attachment.

Jul 4, 2020 3:22:17 GMT -8 cottonmc said:

3) Any other suggestions?!

Yes, I have one. If you go to this post: support.proboards.com/post/7231321/thread, Chris has linked to a dropbox file for plugin he wrote named: Chevereto for Proboards.

You could download that, then from your Admin panel, navigate:
Admin Home> Plugins> Forum Plugins> Manage

Click the Import Plugin button. A popup will appear.
Click the Choose Plugin File button on the popup. A dialog window will appear.

Use the dialogue window to navigate to the folder where you have the .pbp file you downloaded. Select the file named chevereto For Proboards.pbp, then click Save on the dialog window. The dialog window will disappear.

After the file is imported to your forum, the button on the popup will indicate Finished. Click that and the installation process is complete.

---

You'll now see a new button on the Posting Page (and Quick Reply, if you use that on your forum), which is marked: Upload images. Give that a try and upload an image or two to a post, to test it. I think it will be rather easy for you to explain the usage to your membership.

If you choose this path, please let us know if this achieves your goals.

[cottonmc]

Thank you for the suggestion - it looks pretty useful; I have a couple of queries if you don't mind.
For confirmation, Chevereto is a third party free image hosting site? .... and the free limit is 5GB?

I've installed the plug in - very easy! 
I then uploaded an image - very easy too!
Scrolling down from the image I see that it is auto deleted after 1 day and that I need to sign in/register. Is that something that each person uploading an image will have to do individually or is it a 'blanket' sign in from the forum that I do once?

[Retread]

Jul 6, 2020 1:11:55 GMT -8 cottonmc said:

Thank you for the suggestion - it looks pretty useful; I have a couple of queries if you don't mind.
For confirmation, Chevereto is a third party free image hosting site? .... and the free limit is 5GB?

Yes, it's a third-party site. To the best of my knowledge the 5GB limit is for anonymous (not logged into a Chevretto account) uploads from a specific IP.

Jul 6, 2020 1:11:55 GMT -8 cottonmc said:

I've installed the plug in - very easy! 
I then uploaded an image - very easy too!
Scrolling down from the image I see that it is auto deleted after 1 day and that I need to sign in/register. Is that something that each person uploading an image will have to do individually or is it a 'blanket' sign in from the forum that I do once?

Each member would create their own account, if so desired. But I'm not aware of anonymously uploaded images being auto-deleted after 1 day. Where are you reading that?

[cottonmc]

Having uploaded the image I noticed the edit/delete options on it so clicked on edit to see what was there; it was here that I noticed the auto delete after one day. By signing in/registering I could apparently change the auto delete option.
I haven't registered/signed in yet as I want to see if my image is deleted tomorrow.

Assuming it is auto deleted, then, as you say, each person uploading would need to create an account. Have I got this right?

Thanks for your help.

[Retread]

Jul 6, 2020 5:19:51 GMT -8 cottonmc said:

Having uploaded the image I noticed the edit/delete options on it so clicked on edit to see what was there; it was here that I noticed the auto delete after one day. By signing in/registering I could apparently change the auto delete option.
I haven't registered/signed in yet as I want to see if my image is deleted tomorrow.

Assuming it is auto deleted, then, as you say, each person uploading would need to create an account. Have I got this right?

Thanks for your help.

Ah, I see now. I hadn't noticed that before. That seems a bit troubling even if your image is still there tomorrow. I don't think I'd recommend doing anonymous uploads to this service now. Seems safer for your members to each create an account.

[cottonmc]

Well, it's not deleted but you're right, it seems a bit risky to cross fingers and hope!
Thanks for your help 

[Chris]

Update

It appears chevereto has added official support for Proboard's wysiwyg

The server software responsible for the actual uploading has upgraded since the plugin was created for it in 2018 (now v3, was v2 back then) and the terms of service has also changed so this does indeed require some sort of reevaluation of the plugin which only has provision for the input of a single account's information (the server does appear to allow cookie based logins in the popup window though).
I do recall a clause in the old the terms of service indicating that an anonymously uploaded image that goes unrequested (i.e. nobody views it for a period of time) will eventually be auto-deleted to make room for newer images (uploads tied to an account remained undisturbed).

[bigballofyarn]

Jul 7, 2020 4:54:43 GMT -8 cottonmc said:

Well, it's not deleted but you're right, it seems a bit risky to cross fingers and hope!
Thanks for your help 

I tested this out on my forum. I added the plugin on July 6th at 9:42AM my time.  It is now July 8th at 10:32AM.  All images that people posted on the 6th have disappeared.  Maybe they are automatically deleted within 48 hours. The images were still there last night.