A suggestion....

[arwmommy]

Hey guys--- I have a suggestion for your FAQ section.

I would LOVE it if the FAQ had links to previously posted (and well-answered questions) so newbies could check there and *maybe* not ask the same questions that have been answered a zillion times before. Even if you are using the search feature (as a responsible newbie!) and want to know about "when to put your chicks in with older hens", for instance, if you search for "chicks" and "hens" you will get every question ever asked! I am just thinking maybe something like this:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Commonly posted questions with great answers!

What size coop do I need for ______ number of hens?
****link to thread(s)*****


How long until my eggs hatch?
***link to thread(s)****


Should I use medicated feed or not?
***link to thread(s)***


How old until I can tell if it is male or female?
***link to thread(s)***


How do I start selling eggs?
***link to thread(s)****


.........and on and on. That way you don't have to write it all, or feel like you are giving an "official BYC opinion" when there are many ways to do the same thing. It would also be nice for those who don't know about some great thread that happened 5 months ago on the topic and is back on page 18 of Raising Baby Chicks Section!!!

Just a thought!

Thanks for all you do to make this place awesome-- you ROCK!

 

[arwmommy]

OK, duh--- just noticed that the FAQ does have 2 of the questions I had listed, but not an extensive list---- mostly "how do I navigate BYC"-type issues. I would love to see like the 15 most asked questions, with links!

You guys are way ahead of me!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Leanna, great suggestion. We'd love to get some help with submissions to the FAQ section and feel it could definitely be a lot more robust.

I've unlocked the FAQ thread here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=204

Feel free to add to it.

 

[arwmommy]

Got it Nifty! That was subtle!

Take care! Again, thanks for all you do!

 

[Yonaton]

I'd like to also suggest something in the FAQ for people wanting to post pictures.

Most folk don't know how to 'compress' their digital pics, thus when someone on dial-up gets to a page that has pics on it, it can take a seriously long time to load them (I can only afford dial-up myself and can't get cable or DSL out here in the woods anyway).

I found an app (program) for microsoft users that will do this. It's called XNVIEW, found here:

<http://perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enfeatures.html>

If someone looks at the pictures they want to put on the website and see the file size of the picture, try to see if it will compress.

For example...many digital cameras take only png format pictures. Say it takes a picture with a resolution size of 800x600 and its file size might be 300kb or larger.
Well, open up xnview, resize the picture to something more manageble for uploading (say 640x480 or maybe a little smaller), and compress it at 60% or 70%. Now the pic will probably be closer to 75kb file size, and not take anywhere near as long to upload or load on the page. Xnview will even convert if necessary...a png to a jpg or vice versa. The original picture remains on the persons computer, but an easier to manage picture is now available for viewing on the website for dial-up users.

By the way, I don't work for xnview or anything, but being a dialup user myself and yesterday having sat here for almost 5 minutes waiting for 3 pictures to load that someone uploaded here, was a PITA, heh heh. I just think this will be helpful to many folk who are still on dial-up for whatever reason. I don't use xnview myself because I already have an app that works on my linux system.
Oh...xnview is free for non-commercial users!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Yonaton, totally agree.. many pictures posted are too big for the forum. Most users post pictures at places like photobucket which have resizing tools... people just have to use them.

Personally I use irfanview to resize my pics.

Another option is one of the many online places: Visit: http://www.shrinkpictures.com

 

[Yonaton]

How about something that checks the file size of a pic being uploaded. If the picture is larger than, say, 300kb, a message pops up and informs the person their picture needs to be compressed some more? I just watched a big picture load on a page here that was 387.6kb. I saved it to disk and compressed it at 60% and got it down to 205kb...that much makes a *huge* difference in the time it takes to load a picture to see it on a page, and it could have been cropped and the size (both resolution and file size) would have been even smaller. A 640x480 pic need *never* be larger than 80kb, and a 1024x768 need never be larger than 140kb.

Oh, along with a pop-up message, give the user some kind of info, like 'Please download Irfanview and use it to compress your pictures you wish to put on the website', letting them know too that compressing at 60 or 70% should do the trick.

I'll probably be called rude or whatever, but it's rude to not read the rules, and rude and inconsiderate to not follow them if they have been read.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Definitely not rude.... there's not really any reason why pictures on a forum should be bigger than 800x600 pixels or bigger than 200 kb.

Unfortunately the pictures aren't uploaded to this site so we can't control how big they are. The only thing we can do is encourage members to be mindful of those with slower internet connections. Also keep in mind that many of our users aren't very tech savvy and don't know that they should / can resize images. Even more reason to kindly suggest that they edit / resize their pictures or simply link to the picture instead of posting it as an image.

 

[Gracefulspice]

I use photobucket for my picture posting. I didn't realize I could resize in there. I will look into how I can do it next time I'm in there. I always posted huge pictures and felt it was way too large. So I'm a guilty one.

But promise to try to resize before I post pics.

I just hope it's rather easy to do.

 

[Yonaton]

Unfortunately the pictures aren't uploaded to this site so we can't control how big they are.

Actually, if one downloads and installs something like 'Irfanview' or 'Xnview', the pictures that the person gets from the camera and is on the computer *before* it's uploaded to something like Photobucket (or whatever), *can* control how big they are. Do it something like this:

Just download the pic from your camera.

For the heck of it, make a copy of the pic(s) in another folder. (make the folder, for instance, named 'fixed' or 'copies', etc)

Open (for instance) Irfanview.

Open the pic you just got from your camera with Irfanview.

Crop/set to size (640x480 or 800x600).

Compress at 60% or 70%.

Save the new 'fixed' pic.

Upload 'fixed' pic to Photobucket (or whatever place one uses).

Then do like normal and post that image here on this site.

Once you're done uploading the 'fixed' pics to Photobucket, you can delete the 'fixed' pics from the spare copy folder (to get space back on ones hard drive), and you'll be ready for the next batch of pics that you might want to 'fix' for one reason or another.

I'd not mind at all trying to help folk learn how to do many things on their computers they're most often not aware they can do, but since I use Linux and haven't touched a microshaft...erm....microsoft computer in 6 years (can ya tell I hate microsoft? heh heh), I'd only be fumbling around and guessing anymore...my apologies.​