New Media Software

We have new media upload software The move to the new machine was done in concert with an upgrade to the software this site uses (geeklog). At the same time we experienced more problems with the media upload software we were using initially (inmemoriam plugin for geeklog) and decided to try another package. When I first put the forum site together I had looked at a plugin called Mediagallery. At that time the package was not nearly as mature as it is today, and I'm impressed with it. We've now switched over to it (in the process, losing some of the already problematic uploads to inmemoriam - see the note about it here.)

As you may notice, I've created a non-admin account for myself (rick-pitt) and used it to make sure that the member album setup is working. I just used the "JUPLOAD" option from the "Options" drop-down menu to upload 100 pictures in one go - worked like a charm. The software also shows the "EXIF" information from inside the pictures so you can see what the settings were when the picture was taken.

As soon as we get the new Hancock Wildlife TV web site up, we'll be moving the albums over to it.

The new software includes comments and ratings - so you can show your appreciation for all the time and effort that has gone into some of the compilations and captures. Of course if you find something that is not on topic or simply should not be there, please let us know at webmaster@hancockhouse.com

Please comment here on your experiences with this new software.

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Read on for hits and tips as we figure them out...
Frequently Asked Questions about the new Media Gallery

I'm a new member, how do I create my album?
Member albums must be created under the top-level album "Member Albums". If you browse to Member Albums you should see a drop-down menu with the word "Options" showing in it. Click on the arrow to the right of the word and the rest of the menu should appear - including "Create Album". Note you must be logged in for this to work.

I can't see the extended menu when I'm in my album
Are you logged in?. If so, have you visited the "MG User Options" item in Account Settings (righthand menu) and clicked the "submit" button to set your default settings?
Once you do these things you should re-visit the album and see if the drop-down menu contains the full set of options: Search, Add Media, JUPLOAD Media, XP Publishing, Edit Album, Create Album, Batch Caption, Static Sort Media, Manage Media, Resize Images, Rebuild Thumbs

How do I delete (or change title or key words, etc?)
The Manage Media option allows you to see many of your submissions at once and change various things about them - from rotating the image to deleting it to changing the text and keywords, etc.
Note: the "select" button to the left of each item determines if the action is going to be done to the item.
Example: If you want to rotate only a couple of items, select them then select the "batch" button after setting its selection to rotate left or right.

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Some requests - policies in development

First, note that the member albums have been moved into a main album "Member Albums"

Please put an album cover on your album - upload a graphic that represents your work, not a picture of yourself (I'm going to remove mine and put something else)

Please try to put a thumbnail on your videos - one of the frames from the video is best

Please don't "deep link" to your content from other sites just yet - things will be moving to another URL and the links will get broken. In fact, deep linking is not really a good idea in any case as things can get moved around within the database and break the URLs. You might try linking to a search (do the search and grab the URL from the bar and use it to link to) and put something unique into your titles or keywords that get you the image or images you want.