Poll: Site Supporters, should we spend $89 on photo gallery software?

[Joe Link]

This poll is for site supporters only, as it's their money that'll be spent on this software.

I've been testing various photo gallery software for the site for the past month, looking for the most robust option for the site. Most of the free packages I tried either didn't integrate well, had major bugs, or were very basic. It seems the top photo gallery software for integrating into vBulletin is PhotoPost, and it's $89. I'm thinking yes, but I want to get some feedback from you guys.

You can see what the software would look like here:

http://www.fordf150.net/photos/

<broken link removed>

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[Jaybo]

I think that photo's are alright, however, I also don't think it should be the responsibility of the "host" to cover the charges associated with the storage or the software to deal with a LOT of photos. I think a small amount of space to save a couple photos is nice, but some sites go a little overboard. I think a lot of pictures get posted, then forgot about... wasting space and bandwidth.

If someone wants to post a photo, then post it, but leave the bulk storage and "software" responsibility to the members on their own systems. Take that money and keep this site up and running. If someone has a serious need to having photo's here, there are lots of free sites, like Photobucket they can use to share those. I would rather see some freebies tossed out. (oooohhh... a nice Mosin!)

Just my .02 cents.

 

[sweetbeard]

looks like a solid investment...

 

[JumpWing]

Is there a way to put a limit on the space used in a gallery? Like 5mb per person or something?

 

[Hack]

I don't see the point. It's going to eat up space and cause the wonderful shared hosting to get worse. It looks like it's gallery for the sake of a gallery, we're a forum. It's far more useful to have photo's attached to a forum post and have explanations then have it segregated in a gallery, and if you're just going to link gallery pictures in a post you might as well not bother with a gallery and use one of the many different free image hosting sites and not have the responsibility of hosting it here.

Maybe a NWFA flickr pool would be better?

 

[Weebs]

Going along with Hack here... There's probably a flickr mod for vB. I know there was a gallery mod for vB back in the day that worked awesome!

 

[Weebs]

Also... If my assistance would be used to make one of the free ones work I'd be more than willing to donate my *cough*expertise*cough*

 

[wichaka]

Why do this to begin with? What's the point of it?

Posting pics the way we've been doing so far, isn't working?

 

[PhysicsGuy]

I could think of better investments of $89 for the site. Like buying all supporters beer!

Well on a serious note, so far posting pictures using the user's choice of image hosting has been working fine, and not taking up our space, so I really don't see the point of a gallery. Unless people really want dedicated albums of themselves.

 

[PosterGuy]

I use an image hosting site to post all of my pics, so I wouldn't even use the gallery.

Nathan

 

[Sun195]

I don't really need a service like this as I use another hosting service. I think you should spend the money elsewhere, on other features.

 

[Joe Link]

My thought was it would be another nice 'feature' of the site, for members to share their pics, comment on others, etc. I do agree that $89 is a large chunk of our reserves right now though, and with the help of the other nerds here I'm sure we could come up with a similar solution for free

 

[PhysicsGuy]

It looks like its deadlocked right now.

 

[RockKrawler]

I have a large gallery from another board i am a mod on,so when i need to host pics i just use that one.
Worry about hosting pictures later...
Save the $$$ for now,and get a real chat 1st

 

[sweetbeard]

get a real chat 1st

Ya one without java so I can get it at work.. I would add some $$$ for that

 

[Sun195]

My thought was it would be another nice 'feature' of the site, for members to share their pics, comment on others, etc.

At this point, the kind of people who are joining are probably doing it to support a new NW Pro-2A site, rather than doing it for the the features. If your objective is to grow membership, I think you'd be wise to spend the money reaching out to those people (through advertising or gun show booths) instead of on features.

It's probably out of your way to come up for a Washington Arms Collectors show, but they have a great newsletter that they send out to members every month. You might think about advertising in there - I can send you contact info if you're interested. Not sure about pricing; maybe they'll cut you a deal.

 

[Joe Link]

I agree, and this plan is shelved (at least for the time being).

I'd love if you'd PM me the advertising info, never hurts to ask. We're also planning on attending the Puyallup show sometime soon

 

[ZeroRing]

I agree, and this plan is shelved (at least for the time being).

I'd love if you'd PM me the advertising info, never hurts to ask. We're also planning on attending the Puyallup show sometime soon

It's probably the best chance to put a face to some of us folks who live further north than the PDX crowd.

The only time I make it down south is when I'm headed to the dunes.

(and yeah, I say nix the gallery idea for now)