np, diane .. i appreciate the feedback .. i just worry about boring the socks off others .. for those of us involved in this conversation, i worry about beating a dead horse .. but here goes one more attempt at getting this another step down the road
the issue you've raised regarding not being able to "see" an image at the time of a REPLY is one i had never even considered before .. as i said, it had just become an accepted "feature" to me .. so, once again it seems, we appear to be talking about the same thing, but somehow misfiring on communication
it seems clear to me now that we have three places an image can occur:
1) IMAGE ATTACHED as a .jpg or .png file to the original post associated with the poll question
2) IMAGE EMBEDDED WITHIN POLL QUESTION itself as i have done with this problem
3) IMAGE EMBEDDED WITHIN ORIGINAL POST , as you, diane, have apparently done below (which, btw, i just discovered)
other than using HTML coding, which stog says we cannot do, i can't think of any other way to display the board image .. so, let's look at the three above in some detail
we have traditionaly resorted to 1) IMAGE ATTACHED for most problems and forum matches ,, more often than not, this has been the only way an image has been made avaialbe .. i objected to it because of having to scroll down through posts (often without spoilers) because i see posts in LIFO order, a different order than you and apparently most others
additionally, the step of enlarging the attached image so i could actually read it is almost always required .. on occassion that step can take up to two minutes on my machine .. i have no clue why it takes so long, but on occasion it does .. most images enlarge in place almost immediately when i double click them, but some require opening MS Photo Editor and then the file itself .. two minutes is an eternity when i just want to see the damn board to answer the poll question .. thus, my continuing frustration with 1)
on the plus side for 3), is that the file is permanently attached to the post and resident on the FIBS server .. that image will never disappear
the workaround i continuously have proposed is 2) which is clearly demonstrated in this problem .. IMO, it greatly enhances readibility .. yes, it takes a little extra effort on the part of the creator of the poll, but it is, i assert, doable and worth the effort to learn and use .. a drawback to 2) is that it requires a web based server like flckr, which i use .. thus, the image is subject to being temporarily unavailable or even lost .. it is the latter reason why i have consistently also attached a JPG to the original post .. thus, in the past i have used 1) and 2) together
now, with 3) and your example of embedding the board image in the original post itself we have a third option with its own limitations, ie. it requires scrolling down through more recent posts (now in a LIFO order for everyone) to see when composing a reply .. welcome to my world stog -- your comments below are indicative of the problem i have had since day one looking for the attached image in an original post .. 3) also requires access to a web based image server which means it has the same disadvantages as 2)
hopefully i have sumarized the three situations correctly .. it is apparent to me that NONE ARE BETTER THAN THE OTHERS .. nor do any stand ALONE .. some are simpler, some more elegant, but all are limited
so, why not compromise and give up the search for a perfect solution, as it appears there is none?
WHY NOT USE ALL THREE?
USING ALL THREE BOARD IMAGES is my suggestion or endorsement
when i create my next problem post (soon), i will actually do it to see how it looks
