Posting Pictures on the Front Porch
by Dave (Felt) Feltenberger

"How do I post a picture on the Front Porch?"

About once a month, I see a post like this.  Predictably, the webmaster answers by telling the user to publish it somewhere and send Rural Heritage (RH) the link. Given the link, RH can share the picture with the world. The webmaster always presents this case in a polite tone, explaining that there is not enough space on her server to publish everything that every “rockin' chair engine” on the porch gets an itch to share with the world. While she is always more polite and tactful than I am, there are two things wrong with the standard answer:

First of all, telling most folks to publish their picture and send us a link is a little like giving a bus ticket to a bear. The bear would be out of his element.

Second, while RH provides the site as a service to its readers, the Front Porch is not the primary business of RH magazine.

To get your picture displayed on the web, it helps to understand a few things:

• How things live on the web
• How to capture an image
• How to put an image on your computer
• How to put an image on the World Wide Web
• How to put an image on the Front Porch

I have tried to set this up so if you already understand one or the other topic, you do not have to plow through it all just to get to the good stuff. In doing so, I have tried to present a description of the framework of the web and how you can relate to it.  More specifically, I tried to show you how stuff is stored out there and how you can refer to it. If you are still confused and need a little assistance, please drop me an and tell me what is unclear.  I will try to help you, if I can. Until then, I will see you from the side of the road and behind a team. Felt