Putting a Picture in Your Profile

Basic Info
Finding a Profile Pic
Making a Profile Pic
Hosting Your Own Profile Pic
Putting a Pic in Your Profile

If you wish, you can put a picture in your profile for others to see. Some members use pictures of themselves, many use pictures of Buffy actors, some use pictures of other actors or celebrities they like, and others use something else (photography, cartoon drawings, etc.).

Other users will see your profile pic when they view your profile. Also, many users choose to display profile pics alongside all posts (click here for details on this display setting). Users who do this will see your profile pic to the left of all your posts.

Picture Info (Caption)
If you have a profile picture, you can enter a brief description of it (such as the name of the celebrity, etc.). This will appear when anyone hovers their cursor over your pic, and it will appear below your picture in your profile.

If you'd like a picture of a Buffy or Angel character/actor to put in your profile, check the BuffyGuide Profile Pic Site — there are over 800 pics ready and waiting to be placed in your profile. Also, a few members have set up sites with pictures specifically designed as profile pics and ready to be placed in your profile (Buffy pics, celebrity pics, etc.). Please view this page to find links to these sites. Note: On these sites and only these sites (sites designated as Profile Pic Sites), you are welcome to help yourself. Just find a picture you like and place it in your profile as instructed below; there's no need to ask permission or make a request for it.

You can also find pictures all over the web. Check our Image Galleries, or check the image galleries of other sites. However, once you find one you like, do not link directly to it in your profile. Instead, please make a request for help in the Profile Request forum. Just let us know the entire URL of the picture (such as http://www.buffyguide.com/gallery.php3?img=images/cast/alexis/alexis02.jpg - instructions for copying the URL are here) and we'll take care of it for you. We'll fix it, upload it to a server we have reserved for this purpose, and put it in your profile for you. There are a few reasons why you aren't allowed to link to a picture you find on our site or another site:

1. If it's someone else's site, you'll be stealing their bandwidth every time someone views your picture. We don't like other sites doing this to us, and we won't allow it to be done to them.
2. Even on our own site, the images on the main site (such as those in the Image Galleries) are hosted on the main server. The profile pics in the Profile Pic Site are hosted on a separate server, to save on bandwidth costs.
3. The picture could move, be renamed, or be deleted at any time, which would leave a broken image in your profile.
4. Profile pics should be no larger than 5K - 10K in file size — images you find on the internet are likely to be much larger than this.
5. Profile pics are displayed at 85 x 100 pixels. Any image you find on the internet is not going to be this size, and is highly unlikely to be proportional to these dimensions. In other words: You find an image. It looks nice. You put it in your profile. It looks distorted and ugly.

If you have a picture of yourself and can scan it into your computer, or if you have a picture of an actor or celebrity you like, you can make a profile pic out of it. You'll want to use a graphics program such as Paint Shop Pro to crop the image to 85 x 100 pixels (85 wide, 100 tall), and make sure you save it as a JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg). GIF format will work, but photographs are generally better suited to the JPEG format. Also, note that your picture should be no larger in file size than 5K - 10K, possibly smaller.

If you think you can handle making your own profile pic, but you just need a little help, please read the Tutorial on Creating a Profile Pic.

If you've made your own picture appropriate for placing in your profile, you'll need to get it on the web. If you have your own website, you can upload it there, and enter the URL in the appropriate place when editing your profile. See below for details on hosting your own profile pic(s) on your own website.

If this is all gibberish to you, or if you don't have the necessary equipment or software for it, we can make a profile pic for you (you just have to decide what picture you want). If the picture you want is on the web, please make a request for help in the Profile Request Forum. Just let us know the URL of the picture and we'll take care of it for you. We'll fix it, upload it to a server we have reserved for this purpose, and put it in your profile for you.

If the picture you want to use is on your computer, you need to upload it as an attachment with a post in the Profile Request Forum. Go to the forum and click "Post New" as usual. Type your post as usual, mention that you're attaching a picture, make sure you tick the box that says "I want to preview my post and/or attach a file", and click "Continue." You'll see a preview of your post — just below that (and just above the "Submit Post" button) you'll see the field for attaching your picture. Click the "Browse" button. A dialog box will open wherein you can browse your computer's contents until you find the desired picture. Click on the desired picture's file name, and click the "Open" button. The location of your picture will now appear in that field. Click "Submit Post." (If you need to make changes to your post, do that as normal before choosing your picture — scroll down, make the changes, make sure the Preview box is checked, and click "Continue" again. Do this until you're satisfied, and then attach the picture as instructed, and click "Submit Post.")

If you've made a profile pic for yourself, or maybe a lot of profile pics, you might want to get your own website and host the picture(s) yourself, so that you don't need to make a request every time you want a new picture. The trick is finding a host that allows direct linking, also known as remote linking or hotlinking. (That is, including an image hosted on one site — e.g. SomeFreeHost.com — in a page that's hosted on another site — e.g. BuffyGuide.com.) Most free web hosts will NOT allow this, and will display their company logo instead of your profile pic (or just a broken image icon). Hosts known to do this include: Angelfire, Bravenet/Bravepages, Brinkster, Envy, FortuneCity, Freeservers, FreeWebSpace.com, Netfirms (free accounts), 0Catch, PSend, Sphosting, Tripod, Virtue, and Xoom, and Yahoo! Geocities (free accounts) [--] so don't use any of them for hosting profile pics! Generally speaking, an all-purpose free host that does not actively point out that they do allow direct linking probably does not. You will have better luck with sites that specialize in free image hosting. Here are a few free hosts that will (as of this writing) allow direct linking to images: Village Photos - Photobucket.com - FileHigh - ImageCave - ImageShack - ImageHosting.us - PicsPlace.to - MyOnlineImages.com.

Note that paid web hosts do not block direct linking, so if you're willing to spend a few dollars a month, you'll have an easier time hosting your pics. This will also typically get you more disk space, more bandwidth, the ability to FTP to your site, the ability to host a complete web site, email service, possibly your own domain name, the ability to direct link to your own images from another site, and more) You might want to try DreamHost (from $7.95/month) or Netfirms (from $4.95/month). [More hosting recommendations here.]

Once you've got an account set up with a web host, you can upload your picture(s) to your site. Then, you'll just need to copy the image URL into your profile (see below for details).

If you've found a picture at the BuffyGuide Profile Pic Site or another Profile Pic Site, or you have one hosted on a website of your own, you just need to place the URL of the picture in the appropriate spot in your profile. How to do this:

1. You'll first need to copy the URL of the picture (for example, http://www.watchersdiary.com/w3t/picsite/images/nick20.jpg) —
   • In Internet Explorer, right-click on the picture and choose "Properties," then highlight the URL with your cursor, right-click on it, and choose "Copy."
   • In Netscape, right-click on the picture and choose "Copy Image Location."
2. Once you've copied the image URL, go to your Control Panel — go to the forums, login by clicking the "Login" link at the top (if you're not already logged in), and click the "Control Panel" link at the top.
3. From your Control Panel, click on "Edit Basic Profile."
4. Scroll down to the field for entering a picture URL (titled "Your Picture"). Paste the full URL in (right-click in the text field and choose "Paste"), and click "Submit."
5. If everything went smoothly, your new picture should show up in your Control Panel and in your profile.

If you've found an image on elsewhere BuffyGuide.com or another site, do not place it directly in your profile. (See above for reasons why.) Instead, make a request for help in the Profile Request forum. Just let us know the URL of the picture and we'll take care of it for you. We'll fix it, upload it to a server we have reserved for this purpose, and put it in your profile for you.

Note: On sites specifically designated as Profile Pic Sites, you are welcome to help yourself. Just find a picture you like and place it in your profile as instructed above; there's no need to ask permission or make a request for it. You need to make a request when the image you want is not already on a designated Profile Pic Site (for example, if it's in the BuffyGuide Image Galleries, or on some other website).

Other notes:

• You cannot link to a web page (such as http://www.blah.com/blah.html), or to an image on your computer. It must be the URL of the picture itself (such as http://www.blah.com/blah.jpg), it must be in JPEG or GIF format, and it must be uploaded onto the web.
  
  
• You'll need to use the full URL of the image, such as: http://www.watchersdiary.com/w3t/picsite/images/amber22.jpg. Note that the URL must be exactly correct, and is CaSE SeNSitiVE.
  
  
• Make sure that http:// appears at the beginning of the URL - but only once.
  
  
• When you are done adding or changing a pic, you should definitely view your Control Panel or your own profile in order to make sure it worked correctly and looks right.

If you need to make a request in the Profile Request forum for help with a profile pic, you'll need to provide the entire URL of the image. Remember: On sites specifically designated as Profile Pic Sites, you should help yourself. Just find a picture you like and place it in your profile as instructed above; there's no need to ask permission or make a request for it.

If you're viewing the image on a page that contains just the single desired image: (Example One and Example Two)

Just copy the URL from your browser's address bar (the field, usually at the top of your browser, where you type in the addresses of sites you visit). See example one and example two. Use your mouse to highlight the ENTIRE URL, then right-click over it (while it's still highlighted) and choose "Copy."

If you're viewing the image on a page that contains multiple images: (Example One and Example Two)

If the page has multiple images on it, don't get the URL for that page. See if the images on the page are clickable links — if you can click on your desired picture, that will probably take you to an isolated page containing just that picture. Follow the instructions above to get the URL of this image. If the images are not clickable links, you'll need to do the following:

• In Internet Explorer, right-click on the picture you want and choose "Properties," then highlight the URL with your cursor, right-click on it, and choose "Copy."
• In Netscape, right-click on the picture you want and choose "Copy Image Location."

Once you've copied the image URL, go to the Profile Request forum and make a post request. Paste the URL into your post (right-click within the post area - where you type your post - and choose "Paste"). Submit your post and wait patiently.

Remember that you can request a profile pic no more than once every 3 weeks. If your last picture request is still on the board, do not make another request. (If you want to change your pic more often, you can change it yourself by finding pictures at the various profile pic sites, or by making your own profile pics and getting a website to host them on (details above).