Video Gallery Instructions
As you may have seen we have had a video gallery built for the forum. This a is a full video hosting feature. It works similar to our image gallery but is a bit more advanced and modern. I will take you through how to use this feature in detail. Its not difficult to use at all, but like everything new you will have to get used to the process.
The video gallery will allow you to upload videos to our servers and embed them easily into posts. The gallery also allows comments. This is version 1, its been a huge project and has taken a long time to get where it is. We will of course be moving forward into newer versions in the future.
Gallery Creation
In order to upload videos you will first need a gallery. You can create as many galleries as you like. To create a gallery you need to go to your "User Control Panel". This can be found by clicking your name at the top of the screen. Once you are taken to your UCP page you will need to click the "Vblog" tab. On this page you will see a "Galleries" button. Once clicked you will see an "Add" button, create your first gallery. On this page you can create as many galleries and edit them as you like.
The "Cover" field is there for you to post a image link, ones from the forum or elsewhere will work, this will be the image that appears on your gallery cover.
Quick route: User control panel - Vblog - Galleries - Add.
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Upload Videos
Now you have a gallery you need to fill it with some beautiful plant videos. Uploading videos is done in your "User Control Panel". Go to your UCP by clicking your name top right, on the next page click the "Vblog" tab. You will now see a "Upload" tab, please click it.
Our upload feature supports MP4, OGV, OGG, WEBM and .MOV video files. This will cover most formats, if you have a different format there are apps available for Android and Apple.
You have 2 options for your videos. You can set it to private or not private. Private videos will be displayed in your galleries, posts etc but not in the main video gallery. Videos that are not set to private will be in the main video gallery found at the top of the page. This is completely up to you. This is a video hosting site of its own in a way. If you want people to be able to comment and view on these videos in the main gallery you will need to set as not private.
The page you now see has a few options to upload your video how you want to. I'll go through them:
Category: These are the categories available in the main gallery, these are not your personal albums. You can upload to these if you are setting your videos as non private. Its a way to organise the main gallery page into sections that l hope in time will give you all endless hours of grow rooms, podcasts and much more.
Private video: As mentioned above. Private videos will not appear in the main gallery, only in your galleries.
Enable comments: We have opted to allow you as members to decide if you want comments enabled. This works similar to forum posting. You can comment and reply to videos.
Comments: Here you can set the amount of comments you wish to allow for your videos. Leaving it as "0" means unlimited.
Gallery: This is where you select which of your galleries your video will be uploaded to.
Description: Here you can write out a description for your video.
Once you are done click submit and your video will be uploaded. We have set a 5gb file limit for now, this may go up or down in the future. You can only upload 1 video at a time.
Quick route: User control panel - Vblog - Upload.
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Posting videos on the forum
To post your videos to the forum you have a couple of options. The first and easiest is to click the "Embed your own videos" button on post boxes. Once clicked a pop up will appear with your videos/galleries. Click the clipboard of the video you want to post and it will auto embed that video.
Quick route: Post box - Click "embed your own videos" - video will auto embed.
Underneath each video in your gallery there are 2 links. You can copy and paste these, 1 leads to your main video page where you can comment, like, subscribe etc. The other is an auto embed code for the forum.
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Finding your videos
You can find your videos in a few different ways. If your videos are not set to private you can find them in the main video gallery in the video or galleries section.
You can also find your videos in your user control panel.
On your profiles there is a video button that will take you to your videos.
When you click your name top right there is a "Vblog" button that will take you to your videos.
Next to your name in posts there is also a video button that will take you to your videos.
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Like, comment and subscribe
On each main video page you have the ability to like, comment and subscribe to videos. You can customise your notifications in your "user control panel" found top right of the forum by clicking your name.
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Summary
This is a new feature so we may hit some bumps in the road. We will be upgrading and improving it as we move forward. The above instructions are detailed but its actually very easy to use and similar to what you know with the image gallery. I hope you all enjoy it.
Atm some ultra HD videos may experience some lag upon playing. We are working on this atm.