How to post pictures, embed videos, change avatars, turn off Tapatalk signature, and more

(To serve as a reference for the five "How do avatars work?" threads we have every week)

Most posters on 2+2 have an avatar. That's the little picture under everyone's name. And now you can have one, too!

Find a good picture, then click here to ...

It says there that you have two options:

That's a damn dirty lie. "Option 1 - Enter the URL to the Image on Another Website" doesn't work. I don't know why. No one does. But it doesn't. You have to use "Option 2 - Upload Image From Your Computer".

Illustration:

There are two constraints on the file: It must be 80 by 80 pixels or smaller, and the file size must be less than 250 kb. Your file can be a .jpeg or .gif. If you meet those constraints, it should work. Go post "wat" in bbv4life and see it for yourself!

It didn't work! What do I do? Have no fear! It's probably one of these problems.

PROBLEM 1 - The picture is too big:

It's too big! You need to shrink the picture to 80 by 80 pixels. For non-moving images, you can do this in Microsoft Paint pretty easily. Open the file, and click on "Image" and then "Attributes" to get the dimensions of the picture. Then click on "Image" and "Stretch/Skew" to stretch the image. (Keep the two stretch factors equivalent to keep the picture from getting "squished.") Keep messing with it until it's 80 by 80 pixels or smaller. Then save it to your hard drive, and try again.

For animated .gif images, it's tougher. You can use a program like Adobe Imageready which costs money but works well or try some online tool like this one that is free but doesn't work that well.

PROBLEM 2 - The file is too large:

Your filesize is too big. Assuming it's within the 80 by 80 pixel limit, this pretty much means you have an animated .gif that is too long. You'll have to cut frames out. I don't know of any way to do this without a .gif editor like Imageready, which costs money. If you send me a nice PM, I'll try to help you out, though.

PROBLEM 3 - "Upload failed due to failure writing temporary file":

You tried to use "Option 1 - Enter the URL to the Image on Another Website!" I told you, it doesn't work. Go find the image you want, right-click on it, and select "Save image as". Save it to your hard drive, then try again using "Option 2 - Upload Image From Your Computer".

PROBLEM - Something else:

Sometimes it just doesn't want to play nice. You do everything right, but no go. Sorry. If the file's small enough and the right size, and it still won't work, that's when you post in ATF. We'll try to help.