Some of you may already have seen that, on 1st March Imageshack is going to delete a lot of pictures.
For example, when I go to "my images" on the site, I get this:

So it is time to replace imageshack by some local image hosting on IMCDb's server.
This will be done in 3 phases:
- Rewriting the picture upload code, this is what I did this weekend. You may see that the picture upload page has slightly changed; more details here below.
- Adding a picture hosting service for replacing imageshack: a part of that is done, it will be finished in the next days finished: ready to use! So at least the future uploads will already be safe.
- Copying all the imageshack pictures to the local server and updating the comments... this will take time, I hope that I'll be able to do that before the end of the month. Of course I will not do that manually But I have to write a small program which will process all the comments, like what I was doing for backuping imageshack pictures. Script written, currently copying pictures, as I said it will take time...


That new picture upload thing will be only for IMCDb members, and only for posting in comments on the site: any pic not used in comment will be deleted shortly, and if there is an abuse of that service the user will be lose the right to use it.

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So here the changes on the picture upload page:

The "resize/recompress" option has been replaced by an "automatic resize/recompress" option. By default it is checked, as in most of the cases it is not a problem:
- if the picture fits the limits, it will be simply uploaded like before, without recompression
- if the picture is too big, it will be automatically resized to the maximum allowed width or height
- if the picture is too heavy or in PNG, it will be recompressed to 85% JPEG

If the picture is recompressed, the message saying "Picture has been sent successfully" will be followed by "(picture was recompressed)". So you know if it was changed or just copied like before.
If you really do not want that (I was thinking to G-MANN when I added that possibility), or if you prefer to see the error message of why it had to be resized/recompressed, you can simply uncheck the option and it will work like the old page. It will even remember in the cookies the state of the option so you do not have to uncheck it again the next time.

Please report any bug or unusual behaviour that you notice on the site since this change.

Also, while doing changes to comments formatting, I disabled the ability to post HTML code, mostly for security reason.
This also allows to handle in a more cleaner way all the special characters, for those who remember the problems we had with photobucket links (I hope that I didn't break anything )
So for imageshack, photobuckets and others, now you can only use BBCode/forum tags, i.e. those with codes between [ ] and not between < >
Old comments are still displayed with old "rules", after the imageshack conversion I'll see how many html links are still existing, and I'll maybe also convert all of these.

I'm glad you pointed this out. I saw a similar message a few days ago, and was worried about my comment pictures getting deleted. I was getting ready to move my images to multiple free imageshack accounts or another website. I had about 2,000 images in my imageshack account, and over the past few days moved about 200 to a new imageshack account and edited my comments with new image links.

In addition, imagehost.org has closed and is not accepting any new images. Existing images are still being hosted, but for how long is unknown. I used imagehost when I first started posting on IMCDb, but quickly switched to imageshack.

I haven't read much about the new limits online, except for a few posts in other forums. I know this isn't exactly like megaupload getting shut down, but I thought the limits would be a bigger deal with lots of people posting about it online.

The picture upload service for IMCDb is now available, I hope there aren't too many bugs in it
http://www.imcdb.org/upload.php
The link is also available above the comment box
It does not look good, it uses mostly the same code as the vehicle-picture upload.
What is mainly missing (at least for me) is a multiple-picture upload. I'll see if I can easily add that, but I'll first try to focus on backuping all the imageshack stuff.
The link that it gives is special for IMCDb (to discourage from using it for other purposes), in the following form:

this code will be replaced by a clickable thumbnail
If you upload a picture that you previously uploaded, it will detect it and give you the same link
If you upload another picture with the same name, it will see that it is not the same one and add a number at the end of the name (I haven't tested that very much btw, let me know if it does not work )
There is also a link with "fullpic" instead of "pic" which directly displays the full picture instead of a clickable thumbnail, but this is to be used only for small pictures, e.g. title screens if you reduce them like I do.

Uh, oh! I've got a lot of suppelemental images on Imageshack that I've posted without even signing up with them. What can we do with those?

I have no idea of what will happen to the pictures which are not linked to a user account (I sent an e-mail to ask them, at the same time I asked if there was a way to backup all my pictures)

Ah yes I forgot to mention that: you have to log-off and login again on the site

Thanks. It works. Very useful. Congratulations.

....but I see we can upload only one picture, is it possible to add the gadget to allow upload several pictures in one go? For instance, 4 maximum and, later, if the user wants to upload more he will can do it but, from 5th or more, pic per pic.

Yes, as I said:

it is not very hard to do I think, but I'll leave that for next month, as there is more important

OK. Very useful gadget, I repeat.

That's a great system. Great job.
Antp, if you find the system to replace all Imageshack pics, will you be able to replace automatically all the old pictures uploaded with the other hosting sites (I used Imagebam, for example), too? Just in case these sites decide to follow Imageshack example or even to close (see what Geting.se did)

imagebam no: I can't easily backup it because the link to big picture can't be found from the thumbnail URL, so for the same reason I can't make an automatic script to convert these pictures.
But I plan to do that for other sites like photobucket.
I'll be able to automatically replace dead geting.se pictures from those that I backuped long time ago. Some are lost forever, but a lot will still be recoverable.

@vilero > for the movie poster on http://www.imcdb.org/movie.php?id=889573 you could use the "fullpic" link instead of "pic" (just replace pic by fullpic in the code), as that image is not so big and the 2.35 thumbnail does not work very well for that kind of picture

Perfect! Easier and faster to operate than the external ones

I agree! A job well done (and ahead of schedule )

Well, not so ahead: this didn't especially have to be done before March, we could have used another image service in the meantime. What has to be done before end of month is still to be done

Just tried it out, it works very well. Thanks Antp

Awesome work Antp. Tried it out and it works very well.

Thanks, I see what you mean but the 'fullpic' option leaves the picture too big and takes a very large space in the comment. For posters I think I'll should use ImageShack...since actually I only have 109 pictures uploaded on my account. I don't know what will happen with, probably, several hundreds I have uploaded as free user.