Icons...

[rian_aphasia]

So when I first created my Dreamwidth account, I uploaded 6 icons, which I was planning to use here. Then, when I imported my lj to my Dreamwidth account, it brought my other 9 icons over too. I knew that 9 of my icons were going to be put down as Inactive, but had no clue which ones; I assumed it would be the ones that were imported.

Turns out, only one of my icons, my default, is one I'd put up here to use on a regular basis; the other 5 are very old. Is there a way to change my Inactive ones? I know the ability to do it multiple times would just give us a regular way to cheat the 6 icon rule, I'm not saying I want that. What I mean is a one-time thing to "fix" which icons we now have access to without deleting them completely. Because I'd prefer my old icons to actually show up on my old (ancient) posts and not change over to my default.

Comments

[smilingslightly]

I'm interested in the answer to this, too.

[tablesaw]

I don't think you can do anything about it without moving to a paid account, for a month, then gaming the system to make sure that the right icons get picked.

That gaming could be difficult, because the method for selecting inactive icons seems to be glitchy right now. I asked about it at dw_news, and you can see what happened. This behavior will probably change, though, because of teh bugz.

[smilingslightly]

the method for selecting inactive icons seems to be glitchy right now

Yeah, definitely. The icons chosen for me were my default plus the five I had most recently uploaded, half of which I'd, at that time, yet to use even once on any journal. ::shrug::

Thanks for the info!

[matgb]

Assuming the method for selecting pics is the same as on LJ, they're selected by looking at the most used in posts over the last X months (I forget the period), so if you've imported then it'll select the icons used totally, and recent uploads are less likely to be selected.

It's not an ideal system, but it works.

FWIW, I'd also like to be able to chose my icons, it's annoying seeing some of my favourite "use in comments only" pics greyed out when some of the others are only ever used for occasional posts on specific subjects.

[rian_aphasia]

Yeah, none of my Active icons are any of my most used from even the last year, let alone month, except for my default.

[chrismm]

I've wondered (and this is pure speculation--I really have wondered and have no clue)--what happens if you delete the ones you hadn't planned on using? Do the others become active if the number of icons you have active is less than you're allowed?

[rian_aphasia]

I believe so, but the problem is (if it goes the same way it does on LJ) that once you delete them, they are no longer present in your old posts. So if you have a specific older icon you rarely use anymore and can stand to have as one of your inactives, but is important to keep in your journal because it signals that a older post is from a particular fandom, not safe for work, meta, etc., the icon will be stripped from your journal and the space will be taken over by your current default.

[rian_aphasia]

And apparently it doesn't matter because all my old entries have had their posting icons stripped and been replaced by my default icon. ::sighs::

[barondave]

I have a paid account, but have been utterly unable to upload usericons. I know they're good -- they're the same ones as I use on LJ. I didn't import, I just used the Upload feature, which simply doesn't work for me. I've tried several time and several pics.

Suggestions?

[red_trillium]

I'll start this by saying I have no connection with the support side of DW, I've been around a couple of weeks myself & am not good at these kinds of things, but maybe "2 heads are better than one"?

Are you getting an error or is just timing out & not uploading? What kind of system/browser are you using (not that I'd know what to do in that case but if someone else reads your question they might)?

Also, if you don't get any other replies maybe do an individual post to this comm to see if people more in the know about your problem respond.

[barondave]

Thanks. Mac G5/Dual 2.5G/OS10.5.6.

As near as I can figure out, the file isn't uploading. I select the file and fill in the fields for keywords etc. There's no button for "upload", only a "Proceed" button that takes me to the next page (which is supposed to allow for cropping into an icon). When I try to upload two pictures, it won't let me because you can only upload one picture that needs cropping at the same time.

Again, I've tried several different pictures, including 100x100 pixel crops I made for LJ and larger one used for Facebook.

Maybe I'm just missing a button, or maybe I should just import the pictures from my LJ, but that doesn't seem right.

Any help would be appreciated.

[sakana17]

Also not a volunteer or whiz-kid about stuff like this :( but another possible variable -- are the filesizes of your icons over 100KB?

When I first tried uploading an icon, I got an error message that it had to be under 100KB in size. I tweaked it so it was smaller and it was fine. When I tried to upload another icon that was slightly over 100KB (Finder had said it was 100KB), I didn't get that error message, but the Upload button never activated.
(edited to clarify: this was during closed beta)

Good luck! Hope you get an answer/solution soon!

[red_trillium]

Hmmmm....not sure in this case because it sounds like you are doing things right. I did poke around in the bugzilla thingie (don't ask me what exactly it is but I know it's the open problems) and there is an open bug that sounds like the problem you are having with the ones outside the 100X100 side. threaded description from people here

A few thoughts/suggestions, take them or leave them.

- I copied a few of your LJ userpicts and was able to upload them to my DW (I've deleted them, don't worry!). If you are having problems uploading your originals, what about saving (right click on PC, not sure Mac?) the icons from your LJ to your desktop and upload to DW from those?

-It is possible to import your journal from LJ and your icons come over, but if you don't want to import your whole journal that's probably not ideal.

-Last thought is post a new question here in Getting Started explaining your problems and see if anyone else has other ideas or can help or log it in DW support page. I do notice there is something in there about "The userpic factory is currently not working. This means that if you upload an icon that doesn't meet our technical guidelines (up to 100x100 pixels, 40kb or smaller) you will receive an error message, rather than being asked to resize your icon. We'll be fixing this as soon as possible." (When I was testing for yours I tried to upload something outside 100x100 I found the same problem but yours might be different if you are also having problems for this size).

Sorry I couldn't actually help with anything. I hope you get it resolved.

[barondave]

Well, I succeeded the long way around: I right-clicked (yes, that works on a Mac) an LJ userpic to a new tab, copied the url and uploaded the picture via the url field.

That's a kludge, but I have 200 userpic slots, not that I'm going to fill them all, and don't want to limit myself to only LJ userpics. At some point, LJ and DW must diverge or else I'll only use LJ. DW has to work before I take it seriously.

[keptwench]

DW *is* in beta. Give 'em time.

[zarhooie]

Was browsing through comments here trying to track down a related bug and I saw your comment. You are *more* than welcome to come do support on Dreamwidth. I think that you'd be a really valuable asset to the site, and to the boards. If you've got any further questions, feel free to PM me and I'll help you out.

Best,
Kat
Dreamwidth Support

[red_trillium]

Kia Ora Kat, thank you for the invite! I might PM you in a couple days. We've been away for 2 weeks and I'm trying to juggle housework, email, photo back-ups and Journal catchups.

[zarhooie]

Take your time. I'm ready when you are. :)