Below are some instructions for bloggers at this site on how to add images to posts to make them work properly as thumbnails and in the new frontpage design. It’s pretty easy. It’s also 100% necessary for everyone to do – not optional, in other words, if we want this to work. If you absolutely don’t want any image attached to your post, okay. But it will not stand out as much as the others.
First off, if you are going to have your image “wrapped” with text (which is the default setting) please make sure to edit it to 300 pixels wide. If we keep this fairly uniform, everything will look lovely.
If you want to place it above the text, spanning the top of a post (which you will have to set manually) please makes sure the image is 650 – 660 pixels wide.
To add an image to a post – after you edit it to the proper dimensions which must be done before uploading:
1) Upload your image normally, but instead of inserting it into the post, find the link to the image in the upload screen (see below.) Copy that link.
2) Now scroll down and see where it says, just below the edit box “Post Image.” Simply paste the image link into that box. Do not paste anything into the thumbnail box. The thumbnail will auto-generate.
3) That’s all you have to do unless you are adding a larger post that you don’t want “wrapped.” If that’s the case you need to change the selection to “centered (no wrap).”
4) Hotlinking will not work. For whatever reason, if you hotlink the image will show up full size below, rather than as a thumbnail. Which will destroy the front page.
Adding “read more” tags.
In order for the new design to work properly, and in order to avoid using the auto-truncate feature which kills links, etc. we need to add the “more” tag after just a few lines. One or two paragraphs only. I assume everyone knows how to add the more tag already.
Any questions? Also, feel free to keep sounding off about the redesign in this thread as well.
I envision agonizing for hours over the just-right picture choice.
Please, please, please… let us keep Off The Cuff.
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We’ll keep it for now…Report
I don’t really understand Off the Cuff. Everything shows up in my Reader the exact same way. What’s the difference?Report
Ryan—and everybody—I like Off The Cuff. One original idea or weird news item to trigger discussion—not a thesis that you have to defend with everybody biting your ass on every sentence, phrase or word. [Feel me on that part.]
Here, I’ll do one now, re Facebook, which I been thinking on for us the past few days. I got no great conclusion, I don’t even give a damn, but it’s Main Street LoOG.Report
This is s stupid question, but how do we do it if we are uploading pictures from the computer and not from the internet?Report
It will always be from your computer now. Download the image file onto your hard-drive. In the post, click on the add media button and upload it. Then, in the upload box (you can see the image in the above gallery) you’ll see the link – it will be an ordinary-gentlemen.com/ link.Report
Oh dear god, I finally got the lightbox working…Report
Oh man, totally failing at this. Where is the “Post Image” box that I’m dropping the link into?Report
It is directly below the editing box.Report
Wow. Go out of town for a weekend and the name and format of the place changes. Plus I miss a chance to go on and on about why I thought Limbaugh’s apology was utterly insincere. Darn!Report
Please, feel free to trash Limbaugh anywhere you like on this site. It’s open season.Report
I did manage to make a couple of comments on Tod’s other thread. Let’s just say that I’m happy his sponsors are pulling their support and hope he’s exiled to the same Internet purgatory as Beck. Haven’t heard much of anything about that guy since he and Fox parted ways and the world has been much better for his relative absence.Report
I’ll echo my earlier remarks here — of them, I think the most important is to have a reinforcement (or a stronger establishment) of the bowler hat iconography. That will keep a degree of linkage between the format we’re moving to and the identity we’ve already established.
And yay! for the light box.
And I suspect we’re all going to get a little tired of the Game of Thrones trailer real soon.Report
The trailer is a place holder.
I’ve switched the name back to the old one – for now.
I agree entirely about more bowler hats.Report
Um… what is the light box?Report
Click on one of the images in the gallery above.Report
that is so coolReport
Isn’t it grand?Report
Yay for the light box!Report
How strictly would you like like these instructions adhered to for the sub-blogs?Report
Not nearly as important since the formatting there is different. The more uniform we are the better, but nothing super strict at all.Report
Thanks.Report
E.D. thanks for all the work you’ve been putting in to give a new shine to this place, and for being so interested in and receptive to feedback. If only all editors were so engaged!Report
Thanks, Elias.Report
Oh, and a thought — where the game of thrones vid currently is, we could maybe have a nice-sized picture of the bowler hat…and perhaps some positive blurbs about the League from bloggers/journos of note?
Just throwing it out there.Report
Just a few suggestions from a designer’s standpoint: The title now is not distinct enough in comparison to the rest of the page. It gets lost as it is in the same font and isn’t distinct enough in comparison to other text to attract any attention especially with the addition of images. The original look of the blog title was better.
I encourage you to bring back the bowler hat image as it is far more visually appealing and dynamic than the hunched over old guy and will contrast better with other imagery. It also feels like without it you are losing a of bit what I think of as branding for you guys.
Have you considered color or a different font text of the title to emphasize “The League” as opposed to the entire title? Honestly, the full title never bothered me or enticed me as a woman but I’m thinking if you are considering branding yourselves as “The League” this would emphasize the part of the title you want to encourage, but to keep the full name as well.Report
Thanks. Will take all this into consideration.Report
The Banner needs to be rolling off the tongue of a Monty-Python-esc black and white cut out of a guy’s head wearing a bowler hat.
And by needs, I mean that’s one possibilty.
Also, am I the only person that feels like “Gifts of Gab” next to “Off the Cuff” feels a little crowded?Report
A quibble / concern about adding pictures: I know someone (not me, of course) who sometimes reads this blog at work, and he (or she) sometimes cuts and pastes the blog posts onto a word document to make it seem like he (or she) is doing actual work instead of reading a blog. With pictures on the blog posts, it’s harder for him (or her) to cut and paste.
That’s just something this person wanted me to put out there, not that it’s that big of a deal for him (or her).Report
Pierre,
LOL – I do the same thing but I do it so they can make a trip to the restroom with me. Then I leave them behind for my coworkers. It’s my little daily gift of high-culture.Report