Being fairly new to the orchard and forum-related internet I stumble upon new things that I know and can't figure out how they work.

For instance: what's an avatar? How does it work, what does it mean and how can I do that. Also: how do I attach a file like an mp3, I see them appear as a link to some site, but I really don't know how to do that.

I'm probably not the only one with little computer-intelligence, so maybe we can help each other. Maybe this way we can all get the most out of this orchard.

I, for sure, would like to become a better gardener.....

André

You are right, you are not the only one with little computer knowledge. I do not know what an avatar is either, although I did try to find out by looking it up in the dictionary; but there was no explanation of what it means related to computer usage.

Here is something kind of funny: I posted the picture of a painted turtle that comes up when I post something, but now I cannot change it. Hmmm. In the Fall Photos section I mentioned that, having just bought my first digital camera, I did not know how to post photos where people also have the text. Some kind souls with far more computer intelligence typed back that part of the process of posting digital photos in the text section involves first sending those pictures to a website elsewhere, such as Photobucket.

I have a Kodak camera, and one of the reasons I bought it was because of the Easyshare feature. Easy share - *cough* hahaha...not so easy at all! I cannot even post my pictures at Kodak's own Easyshare site. It is kind of disappointing after spending several hundreds of dollars on their camera, which takes beautiful pictures.

So, Andre, thank you for being brave and starting this topic. You are not alone in not knowing where to find these things out.

Well, although I can't help you with posting your photos to flicker or photobucket, I can explain what an Avatar is and how to get one.


First if you click on the My Controls bar in the upper right hand corner of the page, you will be taken to your control panel, where you can alter your personal settings. Next scroll down the left side until you find Edit Avatar Settings.

Your avatar is a picture that appears everytime you make a post -- kind of a visual representation of you, here in the Orchard.

There are several ways to load an avatar, but the easiest being to upload a file from your computer (gif, jpeg, jpg, and png all will work.) You can browse your hardrive by scanning all the way to the bottom of the page where it says Upload an image from your computer --- Browse.

just a reminder -- avatars can be no larger than 30 KB of memory or 100 pixels by 100 pixels.

if you need anymore help, feel free to pm me or even The Drew™ as I am sure he would be willing to help.

is flicker a feature used for posting pictures to the text, not avatar, section?

*realizes self to be one of the founding members of Orchard for Dummies...*

no flicker is another website, like photobucket where you can post your images online

Thanks a lot! I'll think about an avatar now I know what it is... Thanks to taliendo for offering help. I'll surely pm you when I stumble on to things I can't figure out.

Good to know I'm not the only one having trouble with this kind of stuff. My head just spins wildly when I hear kids just a few years younger (like to refer to them as kids for my own sake!!!) talk about this.

I'm glad I brought it up. Clarifies what seemed to be eternally blurry...

André

With regards and gratitude to Taliendo, I'd like you to meet my avatar!

cute avatar, multidorst!

Looking for comments on this: when I look at the digital photos that I have in my computer, all of them are bigger than the limits here. How does one get around that? Also, I see that sometimes people post "thumbnails" - smaller pictures that can be made bigger (but not as avatars). How do you access that feature?

Once I figure out how to get pictures posted to another website like Photobucket (since Kodak's Easyshare doesn't seem to work with my puter properly) ....where do you go in the OtR site to post them in the text, not avatar section?

(I managed to get my pictures at the Kodak Easyshare site, but apparently I have to share an entire album at a time, not an individual picture.)

Apologies if these questions don't belong here! I need to find out where to go for help with digital photography and don't know the steps to use to get help. suggestions welcome! In the local newspaper here there is a bartering section, so I thought maybe I could post something to barter for digital camera help..hmmm

PTG,
Have you checked out Flickr ? It's free.
After you sign up there are basic instructions on the site and a place that automatically displays your photos in different sizes with a URL (address) that you can copy and paste into the IMG tab on the reply page here. Medium size fits nicely.
It's very handy.

I have accounts with both Flickr & Photobucket. (It's come in handy, since I exceeded my Flickr upload allowance for the month with all the Canal Street pictures.) Flickr is nice because it does offer your picture in 3 different sizes, and like Trudes, I like the medium size. With PhotoBucket, most likely you'll need to hit the edit button and resize to half-size before linking to it with the [IMG] url.

If you upload a picture directly from your hard drive to the Orchard , it will automatically show up as a thumbnail, but The Drew™ prefers us not to do that, because it takes up a lot of server space.

If you upload an image to Flickr, you can download it as either a square (75x75) or a thumbnail (100x75) you can use to upload as an avatar here.

thanks Trudes and Jeanne, I truly appreciate your taking the time to help! Flickr had some good instructions, and i managed to upload my first one and post it also.

Nice! glad you could make it work.