Media Gallery What is the Media Gallery, and why do we have it?

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

The Media Gallery is CookingBites’ central image library.
Instead of uploading the same photo repeatedly across different posts, the Media Gallery lets you upload an image once, store it in one place, and reuse it anywhere on the forum.
Think of it like this:

• Attach files = photocopying the same picture every time you post it
• Media Gallery = keeping one original photo and inserting it wherever you need it

Both look the same in a post, but behind the scenes, they are very different.

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Why we want members to use the Media Gallery.
If you upload the same image three times using the Attach files button, the forum stores three separate copies of that file.
That means:

• More disk space is used, increasing the running costs of the site
• more backups required
• more bandwidth every time someone views it

If you upload the image to the Media Gallery once and insert it using the camera icon, the forum stores a single copy, regardless of how many times you use it/link to it in threads.

• Same image. Same appearance.
• Far less storage and bandwidth, hence lower running costs for longer.

That difference matters. It’s how we keep the forum fast, affordable, and sustainable without ads or aggressive limits. So to encourage the use of the Media Gallery, the file size limits are larger in the MG than when using the Attach files button.

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How I envisage the Media Gallery being used on CookingBites.

The Media Gallery works best when images are likely to be reused.
Good examples:

• Recipe step-by-step photos
• Images you’ll reference in more than one thread
• When you require more than 6 images in a single post (you can have 20 Media Gallery images in a single post)
• “What did you cook/eat today?” photos
• Technique demonstrations
• Comparison shots
• Personal food photography you post regularly

If an image will only ever appear once, attaching it directly is fine.
If an image might appear twice or more, the Media Gallery is the better tool.

That’s the guiding rule.

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How the Media Gallery is organised here.
To make this easier, the Media Gallery mirrors the forum structure.
You can:

• create an album per recipe or thread, or
• use your personal albums as a general image collection area

Both are visible to other members. Both work with the gallery embed button.
Nothing is locked away or hidden — the goal is organisation, not restriction.

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What using the Media Gallery gives you (as a member)?
Using the Media Gallery isn’t just about saving server space. It also gives you:

• one place to find all your images
• larger file sizes and upload limits than the attach files button
• the ability to reuse images without re-uploading
• image titles and descriptions that travel with the image
• EXIF data visibility (where available)
• comments and ratings on images
• better long-term organisation of your content

Once an image is in the Media Gallery, it becomes part of your toolkit rather than something you have to keep re-uploading.

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What comes next?
The following sections will cover:

• Viewing Images in the Media Gallery
• Getting started with the Media Gallery
• How to add a Media Gallery Image to a post
• How to remove a media gallery image from a post.
• Moving an album
• Moving an image from one album to another
• Deleting an image from an album
• How to change the title of a media image
• Cropping an Image in the Media Gallery
• Commenting on or rating albums or images
• Image Metadata
• Finding that one image from a while ago can be difficult
• Ended up with an empty album?
• How much space do I have, and how much have I used?

For now, the key idea is simple:

Upload once. Use more than once.

That’s the Media Gallery’s job.