How to handle images is the most complicated thing to solve. There are several options and each has different tradeoffs:
- first-class images attached to the bottom (or maybe top depending on the design) to the forum post
- arbitrary inline images uploaded and embedded into the post content
- Half and half; first class image attachments and inline uploaded images
- Half and half; first class image attachments, and allow for inline external links if needed
I want to say I got this idea from github, but I don't think that's quite right.. maybe MediaWiki/Wikipedia? anyway..
Footnote-style referencing of image attachments.
So the images you upload are shown with a number next to them, and you can embed that with something like
[img#1]
. If referencing images from a specific reply is necessary, then this syntax could be extended to eg
[img#5.1]
. It might also be useful to provide thumbnail embedding
[thumb#1]
as this cooperates better with a body of text, particularly when you really only need to see *which* image is being referenced, rather than specific details of the image. Clicking on a thumbnail could pop it out (turn it into the regular fullsize image) and then you would be able to zoom it as usual.
IMO this solves a few problems:
* References can be more direct, which helps beyond the point of about 3 images IME.
* Images can be grouped at the bottom of the post but still used wherever in your post.
* Simplifies the 'thumbnail selection' problem slightly, at least for prototyping (just enter a number, graphical selector not required)
I agree with eishiya that we should probably disallow embedding of external images, to protect from thread-rot.
My timing for writing this was not great, so I'll just say that generally I like this new design, for now.