Picture Problems

[KhalZhavvorsa]

So..for some reason whenever I or others post pictures on the site, the pictures never work. Ever. The coding breaks no matter how a picture is inserted. 


What would be the problem? Or how do I fix it? (I'm not the only one having this issue.)

 

[Dusky]

The image database is rebuilding itself and images are slowly being repaired. This should be the last time we have to do something like this for a long time!

 

[King Ad Rock]

The image database is rebuilding itself and images are slowly being repaired. This should be the last time we have to do something like this for a long time!

Will linked images come back? Like those where the URL was just copy and pasted into the text box?

 

[Dusky]

They should, yeah.

 

[KhalZhavvorsa]

Is there any way to avoid or recover a broken image?

 

[SirBlazeALot]

They should, yeah.

Do you know if the images are done rebuilding yet?

 

[InsanEleven]

Is there any way to avoid or recover a broken image?

You can recover a broken image by right clicking, selecting 'open image in new tab' and then looking at the URL


You will then see the following or very similar to it:


https://www.rpnation.com/applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://i.imgur.com/owsJ54W.jpg&key=cbda07d93e057127d51c27120671454be397fe06265e82c7b0dd058e617bf2a8


Now this might appear like garbled mess, but you see that part between the 'img=' and '&key'? Yep, that's your original URL


Copy just that, and you should see the image just fine. Then you can easily reupload your image to Imgur, copy the new link and put that in stead of the original. Your original image will be back with a new link now.


However, they tend to disappear after a while (a few days to a week usually, sometimes images even go missing on one PC while still there for others), so you'll have to go through the process again. When the database finishes rebuilding this should be fixed though.


Addition:


If for some reason you tend to see a very garbled link that has / in it or :, these are a / and a : respectively.


When you cut out the original link it'll then look something like this "http://i.imgur.com/owsJ54W.jpg" but, you can recover this link too. It's not lost merely transcribed, and now you know what is what, you can easily replace the / with a / and the : with a : and then the link is back up. The rest of the process works the same as before.

 

[InsanEleven]

My theorem on why some images show up and some don't:


The &key= 'number' part refers to a place in a database. The key is needed to find the image in the database. 


Imagine it something like a big room full of filing cabinets, thousands of them: each drawer contains a picture, and on each drawer is a number. What a site does when it opens up the page and sees the image URL is then to look for the picture in those drawers. But it needs to know where it is, so for that it has this 'key', which only matches to one drawer. The site finds your drawer, and if everything goes well takes out your picture and sticks it on the site.


But what if there are two, or even three rooms with drawers (multiple lists in a database)? Sometimes not even in the same building (a different server for example, so multiple databases). Then things go wrong: the site tries to find your picture, but it looks in the wrong room. So there is no drawer with the right key. The site however never 'thinks' to look in the other buildings, it simply assumes your picture isn't there. Sites are a bit lazy in that regard, so they just stamp 'picture missing' on the site and moves on with finding other things to slap on the page.


This is why sometimes one PC shows images a c and e, while others show b d and f, when you want a b c d e f on all computers.


Right now RPN is in the middle of 'merging offices'. But while merging offices, some of the pictures are moved to drawer rooms the site can't access. That's when the original picture goes missing. Of course when the big drawer room opens everything is in one place and can be found, but not right now.


@Kaerri @Anomaly might be able to say if this is a correct visualisation of the problem

 

[cupidcreep]

My theorem on why some images show up and some don't:


The &key= 'number' part refers to a place in a database. The key is needed to find the image in the database. 


Imagine it something like a big room full of filing cabinets, thousands of them: each drawer contains a picture, and on each drawer is a number. What a site does when it opens up the page and sees the image URL is then to look for the picture in those drawers. But it needs to know where it is, so for that it has this 'key', which only matches to one drawer. The site finds your drawer, and if everything goes well takes out your picture and sticks it on the site.


But what if there are two, or even three rooms with drawers (multiple lists in a database)? Sometimes not even in the same building (a different server for example, so multiple databases). Then things go wrong: the site tries to find your picture, but it looks in the wrong room. So there is no drawer with the right key. The site however never 'thinks' to look in the other buildings, it simply assumes your picture isn't there. Sites are a bit lazy in that regard, so they just stamp 'picture missing' on the site and moves on with finding other things to slap on the page.


This is why sometimes one PC shows images a c and e, while others show b d and f, when you want a b c d e f on all computers.


Right now RPN is in the middle of 'merging offices'. But while merging offices, some of the pictures are moved to drawer rooms the site can't access. That's when the original picture goes missing. Of course when the big drawer room opens everything is in one place and can be found, but right now.


@Kaerri @Anomaly might be able to say if this is a correct visualisation of the problem

wow you are so smart o-o thanks for that!

 

[InsanEleven]

wow you are so smart o-o thanks for that!

Thank you, but I am still not sure if it is actually fully correct. I'm no expert on websites nor databases so I might have misinterpreted that completely, but it simply offers a possible explanation of what is going on. It could be something completely different still.


At the very least I should have helped those that are looking for a way to recover their images, even if temporarily. 

 

[Kaerri]

I have no idea, not being a techie-type, but that sounds plausible to me! Great help with decoding the picture URLs, too.

 

[SirBlazeALot]

I have no idea, not being a techie-type, but that sounds plausible to me! Great help with decoding the picture URLs, too.

Do you know if the images are done rebuilding yet?