How to Shrink and Post images...

Gamethreads are fun for everybody, and one of the more fun aspects of them are the pictures that we post.  But pictures can cause problems, mainly slowing down the SBNation servers.  Ways to keep this lag to a minimum is to control thread size (overflows) and to keep those picture sizes to a minimum.

This is a tutorial on the simplest way to shrink your photo's down and help keep gamethreads (and other threads) operating at peak performance.

Shrinking Images:

First off, you are going to need a Photobucket account.  There are other sites available, but I personally use this one.

Next open this picture in another tab/window on your internet browser.  This is the pic that will serve as our example.  Personally I'm thinking that Carlos fell apart during this play.

• First, go back to Photobucket, make sure you're logged in, and click the "My Home" tab at the top.  You should now see something within your screen that looks like this.

• Next, highlight the "More Upload Tools" bar and select "From the Web."  Your screen should now show this:

• The next step is to go to our example photo and copy the URL from the address bar at the top of your browser.  It's worth noting that this image was found using a standard Google Image Search meaning that this method works with basically all images found with Google.
• Paste the URL where it says "Paste URL to an image" and than click "Start Uploading."  After this you may see a little loading icon of some sort.  After the image is done being uploaded, you'll be taken to this screen:

• In this screen there are a few optional things you can do such as adding a title.  For now I'm going to skip that so just click the "Save" button at the bottom.  After doing such you'll see the next screen:

• Here you'll see all the pictures in the album you uploaded too.  Since I didn't select an alternative album, Photobucket uploaded directly to my default album.  But now we move on to shrinking the picture.  Above the picture you just uploaded, select the little link that says "edit."  Next you'll be directed to Photobuckets built in photo editor/manipulator.

• After a loading screen, you should now see these various photo editing tools available somewhere on the screen.  Click the icon that says "Resize."  You should now see a new menu.

• You'll see several options now available.  To make things easy Photobucket has some preset sizes that work very nicely.  Highlight the bar that says "Preset Sizes:" and pick an option.  Typically "Medium" serves as the best option.  I don't really find it necessary to make a picture any bigger or render it any smaller than that.
• After clicking "Medium," Photobucket will offer a preview below the toolbar.  Once satisfied, click "Apply" and than click "Replace Original" at the bottom of the screen.  Your image has now been resized and should look like this:

Posting an Image(s) within a comment: 

After selecting the image you want to post, you should be able to see this box somewhere on the left hand side of your screen.

• My preferred method of posting photos is to just click the text to the right of "HTML Code" until it highlights and than copy and paste the text into a comment box on SBNation.  Than just click "Post" on the comment box and you're all set.
• Another, slightly more complicated method is to copy the text next to "Direct link" and than go to the SBNation comment box and click the tree icon under the subject line that is with all the other tools.  After clicking it a box should pop up.

• Paste the text you copied right into that box and than click "OK."  Some script should now show up in the comment box and after hitting "Post" you should be able to see a picture.

Alternative Shrinking Method

If for some reason you don't like using the internet for your shrinking needs, programs exist for such needs that can be used offline.  Heres a quick tutorial for this method:

• First download and install The GIMP.  It's a photo editor/manipulator that is free and basically as powerful as some of it's pricier counterparts.

• Next save our sample image to your computer by right clicking it and selecting "Save Image As" making sure to put it in an easy to find location on your computer.

• Open GIMP and open our sample image by going File>Open>[image location].

• Once the image loads, go to Image>Scale Image.  Inside this new box you can pretty much resize to whatever size you want.  Just mess around with the numbers til you get what you're looking for.