Damn, just lost a long reply because my browser crashed
The reason why I mentionned vbportals is simply because it already comes with a category system that could also be used to classify the images uploaded via the board.
It'd be great to have a search engine that would be able to search for these images according to artist, category, popularity, size and resolution.
I definitely think you've got something good cooking over there Overgrow, that image hack of yours is a good step towards making this hack reality.
I realize this thumbnail business is getting in the way. I've been searching the web for any type of script that would do the job without having to install anything complicated on the server, but I don't think it's not possible to bypass that requirement
Most scripts i've run into require either GD or some other app pre-installed for the thumbnail generator to work.
And you were definitely right about one thing, if this hack would require users to install an external application on the server, it'd most certainly cause a lot of problems and confusion, if not make it impossible for a lot of them to install it in the first place. In case something went wrong in the installation and no support was to be provided, people would be left with a mess and in this case it'd be pretty damn difficult to help them out in the first place since it's not only a question of a few lines of code...
In the other
thread discussing this same idea, floleb7 suggested that people would send their own thumbnails. I don't think that's such a good idea, but it'd definitely solve the problem. I just don't know how many people are honestly willing to go through the trouble of making a screenshot of an image, when the server could be doing all the work for them?
I've been contacting the webmasters of all major digital art sites asking them what script they use to generate their thumbnails, so I'll let you know as soon as I hear from them.
This hack would be awesome if it could be made and I know it'd pull a lot of people towards vBulletin since it would be the first discussion software to have this type of feature
Anyways, all the luck in developing this! I'll post as soon as I get some answers concerning the thumbnail generators...
Pe<|ce.
PS. Overgrow, your site is amazing.

Nice design, good work man. I imagine this hack would be perfect for it too