It's great to see all the updates during this exciting part of the year, but just one side issue - I assume you've all noticed that the three pics near the top of the home page have been blank (with red crosses( for the last few days. Having a look at the html code, I found that's because they were pics from the LTA site and the LTA seems to have changed where all the files are during its recent site revamp. I have no idea were those pictures are now.
I had a quick look at the other pics in the Pictures directory, but the only pics we have in there of the players who had been in those three LTA pics were all Getty photos (or other copyrighted images), which we really shouldn't be putting up there if Sheddie doesn't want to risk getting a lawyer's letter one day.
I commented out the relevant section of the code to create a blank space where the pics used to be, which looks marginally less weird than the three red crosses, but it would be good to put some non-copyrighted images there, e.g. I have pics of Bloomers, Wardy and Andy that I took at Queen's or I'd be happy to put up images others on here have taken if they are uploaded to the Pictures directory or I am given the picture URLs to use. What do you think?
For discussion: Would people generally be in favour of using the Pictures directory to store pictures we have taken ourselves for general use, erhaps named in some standard format (player name first) that makes it easy for people to find a pic of a player for a news report) and of clearing out all the copyrighted pics in there that it is becoming more and more risky to use?
I know that Drew's banners use copyrighted images/logos too, but I'd hope that the creative way they are done with only parts of images mixed and matched together would be enough to discourage even the most hardened killjoy from taking offence to that ...
-- Edited by steven at 10:09, 2008-06-18
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
I would definitely be in favour of removing copyrighted images from the pictures directory, ie not using them for the news articles. I'd also be happy to add my meager selection of photos to the mix though I don't know how to upload them myself, perhaps someone could pm me a set of instructions?!
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To look at a thing is quite different from seeing a thing and one does not see anything until one sees its beauty
Sounds like a very logical idea Steven! I have quite a small collection of photographs but would be willing to upload them for BT.net use.
Also, on a different topic, I am approaching my final day at university and will hence forth have barrels of free time so I will be able to contribute much more to the upkeep of the main page; if anyone could PM details of how to do so and any other info needed it would be gratefully received!
I'll leave it a few days for people to comment before I zap all of the old, apparently copyrighted pictures, but if people want to upload new ones, that would be great - preferably already cut to the kind of size that's used in the reports, though that's not essential.
Uploading pics - file names (request)
In order to make it a nice easy archive for report-writers to use, to make it clear to me which pictures aren't copyrighted and to ensure that one person doesn't overwrite another person's pics with the same name, would it be possible for people to name them as follows before uploading?
player name (with initial after if more than one player with the same name)-your nickname or part of it-year in yy format-tournament & number (if more than one of the same player/year/tournament) - of course you can add fuirther descrition at the end if it's a pic showing something special.
e.g. if I uploaded two pics of Wardy from Queen's, the second would be named (it currently isn't, but I'll rectify that!):
wardj-steven-08-queens2.jpg
The nickname stops overwrites and effectively means it's obvious that it's your pic (since you retain copyright even if you are uploading them for us to use) and the rest puts the players in alphabetical order and makes it easy for someone to find a recent (08) pic of Wardy playing on grass (Queens), when needed. 2007 and older pics are of course great for players we don't have many pics of!
I don't want to sound like I'm laying down the law on this (and none of it is essential) but it just strikes me that a naming convention like this would make life easier for people wanting to find a pic to use.
-- Edited by steven at 12:50, 2008-06-18
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
It would make sense to have some kind of structure for the naming of images to make them easier to find and so we know image we are putting on the site.
And I'm sure it wouldn't take too long to rename all the pictures that we have anyway before uploading them.
Probably best not to use copyrighted images, as even though I don't suspect anyone would want to sue us, it's better to be safe and not use them if we can avoid it (no copyrighted pictures of Robert Dee should be used if we don't want to get in trouble with his father...)
I suppose that would be another way of doing it, i.e. if the pics were put on there instead of or as well as uploading them to the Pictures directory, people could go and look at the pics available and then use right-click/properties to work out what URL to put within the img tags when they are writing a report.
The main question is which method of storing pics is going to make uploading them, finding the right one to use and then incorporating it into a report the simplest ... and the important thing is that we all manage to agree onthe same way of doing it, else it'll be as much of a mess as it is now.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
I just wanted to say a massive thanks for whoever is keeping bt.net updated.
Now that I can't spend as much time on the messageboard and keep an eye on all the threads, having the bt.net updates is fantastic for keeping me up to date.
I've got it as an RSS feed into my Google desktop news feed, and so I get to see it pretty soon after each update.
Tomorrow I'll be back home for a few days so I'll be able to recap everything from this week and keep it updated for a few days, but can't really do the proper daily stuff while I haven't got the internet in the house in Eastbourne yet (but hopefully it will be installed by the middle of the next week when I get back and I can go back to updating it each day)
Could David C, Pocktastic, Peter or one of the other correspondants who update the womens threads perhaps post a mid-week update on each event ? I would then post it on bt.net if that would make it easier.