I am having a problem posting to the forum discussions. I can put some text in an entry box, but when I click a button to preview or post the content, the system never completes the requested task. Can you repeat my problem, and maybe diagnose it?

Guten Tag, Anoree. When I ran across a film recently, I thought of you because of your work with computers.

Everybody has heard of "watching porn," but how many people have heard about "porning a watch"?

Advance to the 11-minute mark in the YouTube video here and enjoy. Who says the 18th century was backward?

Maybe Danielle can do a video in which she dresses as a naughty, increasingly naked, cuckoo-clock bird? (This sounds like a natural for Chromakey tech.) For inspiration, have her listen to the suggestive song here!

If the cause is a simple timeout loading the pictue(s), a simple page reload might do the same trick. (Already loaded pictures should be displayed from the browser cache.)
Identifying the cause of a timeout might be tricky. It could be the server that holds the picture, the Internet line or the local system.
I'd try to see what the browser's diagnostic features, also called developer tools, tell about the page loading times.

Thanks for your rapid and thoughtful reply.

Yes, I see the problem on the same computer with the same browser, no updates in between.

I just tried to look again and found something interesting. When I first load a post as part of a thread, I see three of the four images embedded within it. Then when I click on a link to look at the post as stand-alone, I see all four images! This starts to make me think that perhaps the missing images are the product of some sort of rendering time-out.

Many Content Managment Systems (CMSs) will use a rectangular placeholder for unrendered images, so that if the HTML file loads there will always be evidence that an image failed to load. If I am right about the time-out, it would seem vBulletin does not do this.

Different displays being logged in? Hmm...
Are you seeing that behavior on the same computer with the same web browser? No updates installed in between?
I ask because I know that my favorite browser, Firefox, had quite a few updates in the last months, partly affecting the page display.

Your post today seems to work with the embedded external picture again, the style you originally used.

It could also be a strange bug in our version of the Bulletin Board System, though. As Danielle is working hard on her website overhaul, which will include an update of the BBS software, if she followed my suggestion, I would wait for that to launch before taking drastic actions. (I couldn't change or update the BBS on my own anyway.)

Thank you for replying to my complaint.
Alas, I still see a problem, EVEN IF I AM LOGGED IN UNDER MY ACCOUNT!

I had updated my posts so that they use NEW uploaded images for each re-edited post.
But when I log in today and examine them, these images are NO LONGER embedded within the post
(although their thumbnails remain present at the post footer.)

Let me say this another way, for absolute clarity.
One day I log in and edit a post so that it appears exactly as I want it to be.
Then on a later day, I log in and find the post appears DIFFERENTLY than before!

Surely such behavior is PATHOLOGICAL.

Perhaps you will indulge me by trying the experiment yourself.
Create a dummy post with four embedded images, then look at it again in a few weeks and see whether or not it looks the same.
Thank you for any attention you can give this serious problem!

"It's not a bug, it's a feature!"

Our vBulletin is indeed set to show this behavior.

Attachments and / from the personal albums are only shown to logged in users.
This way pictures which might contain personal / private / copyright protected content, won't "spill out" to the public by robots and data harvesters.

Additionally, it was thought that more people would join the Forum when they see more logged in.

Your embedded pictures can be seen by anybody who is logged in to the Forum.

I don't know what happened to your usual way to embed external pictures to your posts. I don't know of any change to the settings of the Forum.

Hi Anoree,

I find that when I look at some of my forum posts without logging in under my username, the images embedded in them ARE NOT present! However, after logging in, I find they ARE present.

Is this a characteristic feature of the vBulletin content management system?

If you do not know, please look at the post that I made here, and tell me whether or not you see the four images embedded within the main text, both when logged in and when not logged. Thanks!

I would hope that people who read my posts can see the important embedded images, and even if they are not logged in under my account!

Many thanks,
Ron

I finally commented on Danielle's page. (Sorry that it took this long.) Thank you for the suggestion.

Hi Anoree,

Do please read the last Visitor Message I sent Dani, located here, and share your thoughts on the idea with her.