Greeting's, once again, from the fOtofair team. We've been busy putting together the criteria for this years fair, and today, we're also going to delve into the wonderful world of fOto-hosting sites.

Before we get started, thanks again for all the responses to the Launch Diary and for your votes and volunteering...we will be in touch.

As you can see, the date selected was October 28-29, with a submission deadline of 21 October for those needing help with creating diaries...more on that later, but props to all!

Please stand on the moving yellow line...and repeat after me...

Submission Requirements:

    All submittals must be:

    ORIGINAL work

    B&W, colour, and manipulated, ie: photoshopped, images    
        are included

    NO VIDEOS

    Maximum photos per diary: 10. HTML Primers are below and  
        Posting templates and details will be in the next
        communique.

Simple, eh? Thought so...Now the fun stuff...

fOtohosting Sites:

Photobucket:

The first, most popular, and, in the not so humble opinion of some fOtofair team members, best site. Easy to use, lots of storage: 1G, multiple image uploading, easy editing, creates thumbnails [more on that next time], excellent privacy controls, and lots of good tutorials and forums for assistance. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Flickr:

The second place finisher, has lots going for it. Easy to use, automatically resizes photos, good privacy controls...the works. Requires a Yahoo ID but, it has a fairly restrictive upload requirement...20Mb/month...very easy to burn thru.

ImageShack:

Very similiar to photobucket with the notable exception of some difficulties with the thumbnail links, and their attendant ads, which cause some browsers to crash, most noticeably, Mac OSX2.8/Safari. We have been unable to test it w/ later V's such as OSX3.9 or 4, and would appreciate any input re: it's efficacy with those.

A fourth site, kind of the new kid on the block, is Zooomr. Very similiar to Flickr, with more bells and whistles, and lots more storage. But, very buggy on Macs, again, OSX2.8...so if you've tried it, or try it, w/ a later version of OSX, please chime in as it looks very promising.

And, just for FYI purposes, here's a list, not inclusive, of other hosting sites that we've id'd. Again, any insight you might have regarding these or others, is encouraged:

    Picturetrail

    Alternatives

That's all we got for now, the next installment will be devoted to HTML, How to do Thumbnails, and the template for posting your fOto diaries. For those of you wishing to read ahead for extra credit, RenaRF's excellent HTML 101 @ MLW is Highly Recommended. [Hope that's ok MSOC, and all the wingers are invited to participate!] as is Superscalar's outstanding: How'd Boo do that?

Questions, comments and all input is encouraged and requested.

Please Recommend this diary so it may reach everyone who may be interested

Thanks, we will be back.