Loaches Online Forum

FIRST MALE DOJO: "Have you finished your picket sign yet?"

SECOND MALE DOJO: "Putting the finishing touches on it, right now. It's challenging when your fins have no fingers. I've been learning to paint with my barbels ..."

FEMALE DOJO: "Yeah, show-off! Your letters are all wobbly!"

THIRD MALE DOJO: "MY sign looks better!"

FOURTH MALE DOJO: "Well, mine has the largest message: "NO O-NIPS -- NO DOJOS !!!"

FEMALE DOJO: "You know, I don't think our Mama intended to run out of O-Nips. Maybe she just forgot to order more."

FIRST MALE DOJO: "Then we'll all be reminding her, won't we!"

FEMALE DOJO: "Is going on strike REALLY necessary?"

SECOND MALE DOJO: "It isn't just the O-Nips. She took out all our loose plants and replaced them with potted ones buried in the gravel. Now, we can't enjoy the fun of uprooting them! Watching Mama trying to replace them when we dug them up was a hoot!"

FEMALE DOJO: "But look! We now have a bunch more plants and a lot more hidey holes. We have plenty of shade and lots of light when we need it. Look at those huge crags she's put in here for us! All those deep holes and channels for us to rest in. We've got it pretty darn good, if you ask ME!"

THIRD MALE DOJO: "But we're not getting anymore O-Nips, and I WANT MY O-NIPS !!!"

FIRST MALE DOJO: "So, the plan is?"

SECOND MALE DOJO: "We've been over this a dozen times! We hide inside the hidey holes or bury ourselves in the gravel, and we stick our signs out so she can read them. We stay there until we our demands are met."

FEMALE DOJO: "Well, I'm not going to strike! I think you guys are being childish."

THIRD MALE DOJO: "What? You're going to cross our picket line???"

FEMALE DOJO: "That's my right, you know."

(Male dojos circle around her with threatening looks on their faces. She blows them off.)

FEMALE DOJO: "We get plenty of good stuff to eat."

FIRST MALE DOJO: "Wait! Here she comes! Places, everyone!"

(The four male dojos scurry into hiding, displaying their strike signs in open water. Only the female remains visible.)

DOJOSMAMA: "Looky here, little ones! Look what Mama got you!"

FEMALE DOJO: "Oh, Boy!"

DOJOSMAMA: "Say, what's this? What's with all the signs? And where are your tankmates?"

DOJOSMAMA: (reading signs: "O-NIPS OR BUST!!!", "NO O-NIPS -- NO DOJOS !!!")

FEMALE DOJO: "Hey, knuckleheads! You can come out, now! Mama's brought us new O-Nips!"

(In a sudden flurry of activity, signs go floating to the surface as a blur of elongated bodies gather around the little brown protein tablets, barbels flicking furiously as hungry mouths devour them.)

DOJOSMAMA: "My goodness! What little hogs you are!"

ALL FIVE DOJOS IN UNISON: "Yeah, but we're HAPPY little hogs!"

FEMALE DOJO: "More like spoiled brats! Yum-yum!"

(Dojosmama nets out the floating picket signs and confiscates the dojos' Sharpies. "No more of this nonsense, now!".)

MALE DOJOS GRUMBLE: "She's not even impressed that we can write!"

FEMALE DOJO: "Since we can talk, I assume she takes it for granted."

THIRD MALE DOJO: "Who cares? EAT !!!"

(AND, SO, THEY DO, CONTENTED ONCE MORE.)

LOL

Any chance of a picture of their updated tank?

Wish I could, but still haven't been able to figure out how to upload pics to this forum! I need a simple method with simple and precise steps expressed in clear english, since I am not a computer whiz. Photobucket is confusing and hard to navigate; I might possibly be able to do it via flickr. Any other suggestions? Remember, I am technologically challenged, so keep it clear, precise and in plain english, NOT computerese...

I'd love to upload pics here -- but simply can't figure out how ...

--Dojosmama

o oooo. I can help with simple picture thingy uploading instructions in easy English.

1. Go here: http://img.acianetmedia.com/ (although it doesn't seem to work with my firefox browser, so maybe try Internet Explorer or Chrome or something else)

2. On that site, hit the Select Files option. --> find your image(s) that you want to show the world.

3. Select the Image Resizing option and go with 1024 pixels or maybe 1400, but not much more. Too many pixels wide and the images will need to be scrolled across lower resoltion monitors.

4. Hit the Upload button. (it'll take a few moments to upload)

(a new page will now load with links to your picture that is now stored on the internet somewhere)

5. Go to your Thread Reply in Loaches Online Forum (ie, here)

6. Go back to the Image Upload website and take the BBCode text and copy that text. Include the parts with the Square brackets and IMG text.

7. Paste that text where ever you want your image to appear in your Loaches post.

Hit Preview and it should now have your image available for all the world to see.

Here is my Red collared cross Rainbow lorikeet:

Thanks, but you lost me at take the BBCode text and copy that text. I have no idea what that is or how to use it to copy anything. In fact, I've never even heard of it. I also have no idea what this IMG text is that I'm supposed to include. As I've stated, I'm not fluent in computerese. These technical terms mean nothing to me.

I'm also a little confused as to why text is even involved when I'm only trying to post a picture -- unless "text" means something else, here, other than printed words.

Thanks for trying to help.

It would be a whole lot simpler if a "manage attachments" option were included with this forum. I am familiar with posting pictures through that, directly from my computer where they're stored. Or, I should say, I'm familiar with the "manage attachments" function on a couple other fish forums I use. There are probably different forms of that, too, so who knows?

In any event, I've gotten ahead of myself. I first have to take pictures of the new aquascape and then store them on my computer before I can post them online. It's really a new scape, so I haven't gotten around to photographing it, yet.

Sorry to be such a pain...

--Dojosmama

If you follow the steps, then at step 4 there is a new page that appears once you finish uploading the image.
In that new page you will see your uploaded image. And BELOW that image will be other information about how to use that image in other locations. One of those is titled "BBCode" beside a text-box. Trust me, it is easy to see and there should be no confusion about finding it.

Just scroll below the picture and see the area that says "Show Directly this image". There will be a little section for each of Viewer, Direct Link, HTML image and BBCode. BBCode is what this forum uses.

In my example above, this is what you would have seen. You will see the BBCode section. I just copied that entire text and pasted it straight into my reply here.

Okay, I get that much. Now, about "copy that text" -- what exactly do you mean? Would I highlight the text in that box and go to my tool bar and click on "edit" and "copy", and then click on "edit" and "paste" in my forum reply window? What exactly are the steps for copying and pasting that text? Are they different than I've described here? Would I copy the text into my browser strip, first? (I use Internet Explorer 8 for my browser.)

Thanks again. Still have to take the picture, though, which I will do today.

-- Dojosmama

To copy text:
Move the mouse cursor to the beginning of the square IMG brackets "[IMG']".
Click and hold and drag the mouse cursor from here across to the end of the text in the box to the final "[/IMG]".
Using your mouse (or the touchpad on your laptop), RIGHT CLICK on the highlighted text. The right click option reveals a few short-cuts. (Left click doesn't have these special options).
Select the COPY option in the popup mouse options menu.
Now go to the Loaches.com page
move the mouse cursor to where you type in your message reply
Right click on the text. Select the PASTE option.

This should have now copied the text and pasted it where you need it to be.

And yes, you could also do it your way by going up to the Edit menu and selecting Copy and then later selecting Paste. But that takes longer. You could go even faster with other computer keyboard shortcuts: 'Ctrl + C' at the same time is COPY, and 'Ctrl + V' at the same time is Paste. But that is probably just confusing you .

I assume the reason we can't insert images directly via the forum is that photos take up lots and lots of storage space. This space would only get bigger and bigger with more and more images. Storage space on webservers costs lots of money, and this is a free forum without much in the way of advertising (or no advertising). So to cover the costs of hosting all those images this forum would need to charge us users, or get lots of advertising.

Personally, I would be happy to be a paying user of this forum just so that I could post images. That way my images of loaches will never be lost, and if managed properly we could tag the images with species 'tags' and make them available in a huge gallery for future use.

Thank you millions! I am saving these instructions for when I have a picture ready to post.

You have been most helpful -- and tolerant.

I could probably use some computer classes to get familiar with more ways to achieve things, but right now I'm no a tight budget.

Thanks again.

-- Dojosmama

Now you need to post a picture. His instructions are step by step. You can do it. We would like to see your babies.

I just have one more question: I would have to split my screen in order to access both the upload page and the loaches online page. How would I split the screen so that both pages appear side-by-side during the uploading and copy-paste processes?

Or, could I minus out the one page while I bring up the other, then click back and forth from the task bar to bring each page up separately as I need to access it?

Thanks again -- stay tuned -- a picture is coming (hopefully).

--Dojosmama

Okay, here goes:

Well, that was EASY!

And, I've answered my own question about separately accessing the upload and loaches pages.

Hope you enjoy this -- it's an earlier picture of a previous aquascape. I'll post the latest one when I get a CD made of my most recent pics. I currently don't have the apparatus necessary for storing pics directly from the memory card into the computer.

Meanwhile, I'll be posting more dojo pics from my currently stored files...

Let me know what you think of my spoiled babies ...

Thanks again for all your help! I'VE LEARNED SOMETHING.

-- Dojosmama

Here's another image of a very happy dojo in his 65-gallon tank: