Allow image links in posts to be used as-is

Referring to the conversation about images, and the fact that they have to be stored in reduced size, perhaps there should be a way for remote images to be loaded like with the old IMG tag; in this way, the forum could store a small version, but when the user clicks it, the external image would be loaded from wherever it is stored. This would mean that subjects requiring high resolution need not be compromised. Just a thought.

I've given this some thought, so apologies for the longer reply but I think it's all worth covering!

Posting images from external sources
You can already link to off-site images using the Paste URL option in the image uploader. This will display images of any size from external sources, just as you're suggesting. (See the screenshot below for where to paste the URL.)

That said, I'd caution against relying on off-site hosting. External images can cause noticeable delays, the larger the image, the longer it takes to load and not everyone here has a fast connection. I've already seen images from services like imgbb either loading very slowly or failing to appear altogether, showing a broken image icon. Sometimes a page refresh helps, but it's not ideal.

Image size and quality
For on-site uploads, 1000px wide (landscape) or 800px tall (portrait) is the sweet spot. At those dimensions, images look excellent on screens up to 5K and load quickly on mobile too. Files typically come in around 1MB each, which is a good balance of quality and performance. If you resize in a dedicated graphics program such as PaintShop Pro before uploading, you'll get better results than letting the site resize automatically.

Larger files are really only necessary for printing or poster-sized enlargements, neither of which is what the site is designed for.

Small text on images
I know a few of us struggled to read the text in your recent picture. The best solution is to paste that text into a text block beneath the image, where it's fully readable at any screen size. Scaling the image up just to make embedded text legible tends to create more problems than it solves.

Coming soon, improved lightbox
I'm planning to update the lightbox so that clicking an image displays it at close to full screen size. That should help in cases where a bit more detail is needed at a glance.

Hope that all makes sense — happy to answer any questions!

Thanks ST, that is helpful. I have been trying to switch away from text (above or below the image) as speech bubble captions, but I do see your point for really long ones.

The problem is also that some of my images contain a lot of detail that a lot of people might want to enjoy by clicking the 'magnify' option. What I often do if I see a big image on my phone is leave it for when I get home so I can look on the monitor; but sadly, there are many people who only use a phone, even for things like this.

I accept this is a forum that you have to pay for hosting so understand why you want to keep costs down and that and things need to be mobile friendly; but as you know, I cater to a wider audience, most of whom also have access to large monitors and big screens.

It is already a pain, when posting on multiple forums, to reformat long documents for the JSON system which is (a) buggy and (b) no other forum uses; I can't just paste in BBCode (like TDF and the other one) nor just paste in the final article in rich text (like LDN); having to build up the post fragment by fragment, like a little baby learning to walk, is helpful to non computer folks, but actively obstructs tech savvy people; this is why I don't use an Apple computer.

I hate having to do multiple mouse clicks, when code means I could work by just typing most of the time and MLDC is the only forum that forces it on me. Even on BBCode forums with helpful buttons for things like bold and italic, I'm a "stream of conciousness" typist and it's quicker to just type the codes directly. Heck, I once wrote to the developer of LCC-Win32 (a C compiler) and asked him for an option to turn off intelligent code parsing while you type, as it was getting in my way 🤣

I guess what I'm saying is that MLDC is best for bite sized posts, kinda like a bigger version of a social media site. Sadly that excludes a lot of my stuff; LDN aims at mobile friendly too, but also supports huge / long works of art as well. The people here are nice so I'm not quitting or anything; however, some of my stuff may have to be left out of MLDC, or grossly simplified so that the forum can handle it. Not sure yet, I will have to give it some thought.

This forum is still BCC code based and should except code from other forums the same as any other. Try pasting a post from one of your other sites and see if it works. I can't see why it wouldn't except that images won't work as they need to be used in image boxes. Their urls can be pasted into the image box and then push the add button. A little more work but nothing too bad.

This reply window seems to be the most stable atm, I am going to look at the new post page again as it does have one or two problems.

The idea of the JSON system is to make inputting pictures and video more stable as we were having a lot of troubles with them before, especially the videos! If you're just doing text, then you don't need multiple text boxs, text works perfectly well in just one text box with paragraphs.