**Forum update - Members "avatars" **

[Jim Allen]

Hi All

POZ.com have been updating the forums recently to be more secure, one move was to change protocol from HTTP to HTTPS.

One of the changes from this means it may impact forum members with avatars referencing non-secure links (e.g. HTTP instead of HTTPS). POZ.com had to make some further changes to the site to allow the personal avatar references to be HTTPS and that is now in place. So please check that your personal avatar is indeed a HTTPS link and if not or you are having problems seeing your avatar  than you will also need to set it up again using a HTTPS link.

To help people who do not know how to get a HTTPS link for a profile photo I have worked out the steps below as example. If you do get stuck please let me know I can give you a hand.

This example uses: https://postimage.io/
(Recommend you do "sign up" for best results and picture management)

1) On the main page you will see a box with the text "Do not resize my image" this is a drop-down list, from that list select "100X75 (Avatar)"

2) No expiration (Leave as is or select whatever shorter timeframe best suits you)

3) Next select "choose image", this opens a window so you can select the image from your computer.

4) Once you have located and selected the image it will be uploaded

5) In the next window you will be shown a preview and a number of link options.

6) Copy the "direct link" address. This should look a bit like this: "https://s24.postimg.org/mh5jsy1jp/Bean.jpg"

Back on the forum

1) Click on "Profile"
 
2) Click on "Forum Profile Information" under "Modify Profile" in the left-side menu box.

3) Select "Specify avatar by URL" and enter the HTTPS direct URL in the field provided

4) Select "Change profile at the bottom of the page to save the change.

Ill add for the non-technical readers that in short HTTP is the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and a website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted adding an additional security layer.

Jim

[J.R.E.]

Hi Jim,...


I just want to add,  that any photo's that may have been posted to the site through Photo-bucket , are no longer able to be viewed as well.

As far as I can tell,  Photo-bucket, does not use  an HTTPS for their photo urls. Perhaps sometime in the future they will


Ray

[DANIELtakashi]

Moderators,

   Thank you for your work.   Always.

[J.R.E.]

Hi Jim,...


I just want to add,  that any photo's that may have been posted to the site through Photo-bucket , are no longer able to be viewed as well.

As far as I can tell,  Photo-bucket, does not use  an HTTPS for their photo urls. Perhaps sometime in the future they will


Ray

CORRECTION

Pictures from photo bucket are being blocked by Firefox version: 51.0.1.  They can still be viewed through internet explorer.  I haven't tried EDGE browser.

I should have checked first with another browser, as a result, I deleted a lot of pictures from Photobucket, that I had posted here.  Oh Well !! 

[Jim Allen]

Hi Ray,

Well spotted and called out, so yeah correct some browsers will not display any unsure content over a secured connection, others are more selective for the moment however not sure how long that will last.

No need to bin/remove the content from photobucket however if your sharing here HTTPS links for photo's will show "correctly" (pinch of salt moment) for all. vs. http will not. 

https://postimage.io/ does do HTTPS I am sure over the next few days we an find a few more hosting sites that do offer HTTPS support.

Jim