Minecraft Forums

From time to time, I see newbies make mistakes in posting screenshots, such as not putting the link in IMG tags, or using a file path from their own computer as the link. Or someone will simply come out and ask how to post screenshots. The Show Your Creation > Screenshots section particularly depends on screenshots and expects them for original posts, so I think it would be a good idea to add a sticky thread to the Screenshots section that explains how to post screenshots. The post might outline steps, something like this:

1. Take the screenshots in Minecraft. (If you want your hotbar and held item out of the picture, press the F1 key to hide them. When you're done taking snapshots, press F1 again to show items again.) To capture a screenshot, press F2. The picture will be saved to the screenshots folder of your Minecraft AppData folder. For example, on a Windows 7 machine you'll find them at C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\screenshots
2. Make sure you're able to host them on the World Wide Web. Many websites, such as imgur.com and photobucket.com, offer free image hosting. Create an account on one of these sites if you don't already have one.
3. Upload your screenshots. Do this by logging in to your image hosting account, going to where you can upload images, and selecting the files you want from your Minecraft screenshots folder (see Step 1). Stay logged in to the image hosting site to get links for the next step. Open the spoiler below to see a handy pictorial guide to uploading pictures to imgur.com:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/kZr45.jpg[/img]
4. For each picture you want to show, copy the link that your image hosting site provides for that picture, paste it in your forum post, and put [img] tags around it, if it doesn't already have them. The result looks something like this:

[img]http://imagehost.example.com/myalbum/picture.png[/img]



5. If you're putting many pictures in one post, you may want to conserve load times and scroll effort by putting your additional pictures in a spoiler, like this:

[img]http://imagehost.example.com/myalbum/MainPicture.png[/img]

More pictures:
[spoiler]
[img]http://imagehost.example.com/myalbum/ExtraPicture1.png[/img]
[img]http://imagehost.example.com/myalbum/ExtraPicture2.png[/img]
[img]http://imagehost.example.com/myalbum/ExtraPicture3.png[/img]
[img]http://imagehost.example.com/myalbum/ExtraPicture4.png[/img]
[/spoiler]

I know that all of this is basic forum stuff, but Minecraft attracts a lot of young people and others who may not have frequented forums before. So I think this would be beneficial. What do you think?

Quote from justproud2b

The stickied topic "Share your Minecraft pictures here" has a link in the first post to this image made by Opeth

I could however see the need for a more clearly titled sticky (with instructions). Either way you do have a reference to link to if you need to.

Thanks, Just. Opeth's image uploading guide is really helpful; I'll include it as a spoiler in my draft post to help those who choose to host through imgur.

Yeah, I'm glad the "Share your Minecraft Pictures here!" sticky thread has a link to the guide, but as you said, a separate sticky with instructions would make it more obvious where to look for help.

You know what else the screenshots section could use? An official "Community Critique" subforum, similar to the "Texture Discussion" subforum, where people post their work with the mindset of improvement and critique, rather than just "Look at this cool thing I made, tell me I'm pretty!"

Quote from xRILLIANx

You know what else the screenshots section could use? An official "Community Critique" subforum, similar to the "Texture Discussion" subforum, where people post their work with the mindset of improvement and critique, rather than just "Look at this cool thing I made, tell me I'm pretty!"

I don't believe the distinction would be as useful for screenshots as it is for texture packs. Let me explain with an analogy:

• The Texture Packs section is like a marketplace. Customers come in to find things they like, take them home, and use them. They might tell the merchants what they think of their wares while they're there, but that's not why they came. Customers would consider booths displaying unfinished work for critique to be a waste of time and space, because those things aren't ready for market.
• Hence the Texture Discussion section. It's like a workshop, where craftsmen gather to discuss improving their craft. This is the place for looking at unfinished work to figure out how to best finish it. If non-craftsmen wish to give their opinions, that's helpful as well: they know what sort of handiwork they'd like to own.
• Screenshots don't have value as a take-home-and-use product in the same way that texture packs do; they're more art than craft. The Screenshots section is like an art gallery. You can fully enjoy a piece of art whether or not you buy a print to take home with you. When people see art, they like to talk about what they think of it (if not with the artist, just with whoever's with them). Some artists are more interested in having their work critiqued than others are. Art is subjective, so viewers will disagree on whether in-progress art is advanced enough for enjoyable viewing. But in my opinion, unfinished builds start looking good in screenshots at a much earlier stage of development than unfinished texture packs look good when applied.

The point I mean to make is that with texture packs, there's a line between consumer and critic, between finished and unfinished. Those lines are blurry or nonexistent with screenshots, due of the nature of the medium itself.

I do hope that mods see your idea and think it over; it may well have merit even though I personally don't see it. I also hope that they'll give some thought to the "How to Post Screenshots" sticky thread idea. I'd like for this topic to stay alive until a mod either implements it or explains to us why they won't.