Geof has said avsim cant have images of commercial products in the FSX forum, and since nearly every add on is a commercial product does that mean no more screenshots here? Only of freeware?I don't understand all the politics at this forum, and in fact I think the politics here are extremely lame and cut into the fun factor here.

I think it is that commercial vendors are not supposed to use forums to advertise their products so as to have an unfair advantage thru the forums. As an end user, you can post shots of commercial products that you own but they should go in the the screen shot forum.Strictly speaking screen shots are supposed to go in the screen-shot forum, and the only screenshots here are supposed to be related to illustrating a problem described in a post, or clarifying information to a post. Therfore the shot could be a commercial product or not.It is a little grey I know, and if I don't have it just right another mod can correct. In this case however-we wanted to be sure that these shots would not be viewed as a case of a commercial vendor taking advantage of the system. I wrote Dean first of the concerns and he agreed. http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

Posted without editorial comment:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...34781&mode=fullI find the posts with the screenshots to be some of the most informative (even if it does result in a bit of free advertising for the developers).Keeps me coming back to AVSIM, rather than AVSIMs competitors!

Geofa,Please let me know if I broke any avsim rule when posting some pictures in the thread that fsxmissionguy refers to. It wasn't my intention to breake any rule and I'm in no way associated with the company that produced the aircraft. The only relation I have with them is as customer.Ulf B :-)

It is just common sense. If the post is just to throw a bunch of screenshots of a product you like, put it in the screenshot forum.If you are adding to the conversation and a screencap or image helps that, then sure, put it in the thread, just make sure they follow the same size rules as the screenshot forum.If you are a commercial vendor and you think that posting pictures of your products will help promote it, don't do it.

Ulf,I was more pointing out the comment of the 3rd post in that thread by an AVSIM moderator, praiseful of the posting of the shots and adding his comment of what a good job PDMG has done with the aircraft (which, hey, I agree) rather than your posting of the screenies in the first place.Like I said ... I'm FOR posting of screenies. It's informative in ways words can't be. I can certainly see where someone could abuse the situation. But, I haven't seen too much of that (just my view).I'd just hate to see a policy develop where screenies are frowned upon. I think all that would do is reduce the readership and page views the advertisers here depend on.Adding this as an aside: Take a look at the page count for posts with screenshots in them. It's usually 10x what text-only posts get. That's GOOD for AVSIM and good for AVSIMs advertisers in general.

Ulf,Not at all :--)We are also here to share our enthousiasm and Geof has explained kindly and clearly what is the "ethics" of the forums here.BTW your screens are awesome!Best regards,

I personally enjoy screenshots also, and have also posted some in this forum.Keep in mind that many avsim users are on dial up and not cable/dsl-I was until 5-6 years ago despite living in a major metro area.This is one of the reasons for the screensize/byte size restriction.Though most of us with cable have forgotten about slow loads-those who still use dial up have not. When scouring a what is expected to be a generally text based forum, they may still find this a problem-especially if paying by the hour...http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

Here's how I have been posting...If we had a problem with something, we could post in the FSX forum (duuhh, the forum about FSX in general), and also, if there happens to be a pic along with it so be it... some devs don't have forums and I'm willing to bet a lot of people here also have the same product and can offer their advice. If we cannot do that anymore that's ridiculous!

The only person who implied that it could not be done any more is the op.....http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

It's still a dial-up world out there. I do have some tricks to offer to make screenshots manageable:Reduce the size of the image! Usually, we don't need to see the whole screen resolution. If a high-res image is needed, then crop the stuff we don't need to see! I set up an automated Action in Photoshop to automatically resize all of my pics to 800 x 600. I see no need to go beyond that for AVSIM.If you can, save to a Medium-quality .JPG. If you have Photoshop, then don't save it any higher than 7, and lower if it will still look good (use the Preview function, it is your friend!). 12 is just overkill, and you won't see the extra detail on 72dpi screens anyway. With larger files, how you save your image is critically important, but the goal is to make your images as small as possible. With smaller files, I would say .JPG is the way to go.If you can, reduce the colours. Often, a 16-bit image will show quite well as compared to a 24-bit image. 32-bit is overkill.I don't use any images in my signature. I'm not usually impressed by illustrated sigs, and although I am fully capable of making one, I'd rather keep the bandwidth free for stuff like my Pearls Of Wisdom. Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

fsxmissionguy,No problem. I felt a bit concerned by the original post, and I appreciate your post and that you refered to PMDG-shots topic.Ulf B :-)

Sounds like pretty much common sense stuff (and ethical too). And I don't see any politics to it, it's just AvSim trying to make sure that the forum isn't abused as an advertising base, while being considerate to the modulatin'-demodulatin' dial-uppers... Posted a screenie in a thread here last night and it hasn't been taken down yet...of course it does look cool anyway....but plenty of other pix'r scattered around....no big, mon....altho would hate to give up my siggie since I think it does add an air of grace and sofistification to the place...