Image Hosting via Google

[RefSteel]

So, with multiple already-annoying image-hosting services deciding they don't actually want or need a user base anymore, it's getting difficult to find decent third-party image hosting options.  Several people have asked, so I figured I'd at least let you know what seems to be working for me, especially as I not only suspect the company that does it won't cut off third-party hosting options in the foreseeable future ... but you almost certainly already have an account with them!  There are probably official ways to do this that may or may not be more straightforward, but this is the method I've been using, in probably-unnecessary detail:

1) Go to Blogger.com (This is Google's blog-hosting site.)  Click on "Sign in" in the upper right-hand corner.  Google will ask you to log in to your account or confirm your password if you don't have a blog with them already.

2) That should get you to a page that looks something like this:

I mean, you can create a Google+ profile if you want, or use an existing one or whatever, but the point is that you don't have to.  The only thing you need to create a Blogger profile is a screen name.  It doesn't even have to be unique.

3) So we'll need a place to host your images.  With this klugey work-around, that means creating a blog!  Fortunately this is super easy and does not require you to actually do any blogging.

For purposes of pure image hosting, it doesn't matter what your blog is called or what "theme" it uses.  It needs a unique url (@blogspot.com) but the URL you choose doesn't really matter either since you'll probably just go there from your blogger dashboard in the future.

4) In case you're hosting secret pictures for your spoiler thread or your Epic or Imperium report and you don't want people to stumble on them accidentally, you might want to change a couple of your blog's settings:  Choose Settings from the left-hand sidebar, and then on the Basic settings screen, under Privacy, click "Edit" and tell Google not to add your blog to its listings, nor to let search engines find it, and save the changes.

Then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Basic settings page, and under "Blog Readers," click "Edit" and set the blog to be readable by authors (i.e. you) only, and save those changes.  This will not prevent the pictures from being seen by random strangers when you post them here at RB; it just prevents people from viewing the blog itself.  (This step is probably unnecessary, but I like to be thorough.)

[RefSteel]

That's all you need to set up a blog!  Now, here's how to use it to host pictures:

1) Sign into blogger (you've already done this if you just set up your blog; in that case, just click on Posts at the top of the left-hand sidebar).  Signing in just means going to blogger.com while you're signed into your gmail account (or clicking on "Sign in" and logging in from there) since you already have a blog now.

2) Create a "new post" via the button at the top of the screen.

3) Add pictures to your new post (you don't have to give it a name or add any text or anything unless you want to for organizing purposes or something.)

4) Click on the "Choose Files" button near the upper left-hand corner of the screen, and select all the images you want to upload from a given folder on your computer (shift-clicking and/or ctrl-clicking to select and upload several pictures at once works fine).

The pictures will be uploaded, and the progress for each will be displayed as they go.

5) Make sure all the pictures are highlighted (outlined in blue; Blogger has a bad habit of forgetting to highlight the last picture you selected in step 4, so you usually have to click on that one manually) and then click on the blue "Add Selected" button in the lower left-hand corner.

6) Click on "Publish" - the orange button near the upper right.

This creates a blog post made of the pictures you just uploaded, and takes you back to the dashboard screen.  From there...

7) Click on "View Blog" near the upper left.

Okay, so there's your blog post with all the pictures, only they're smallish and the whole point was to post the full-sized ones on RB!  Fortunately, that's easy to do.

8) Right-click on the image you want to post over on RB, and select "Copy link address" (not the image address!)

9) Alt-Tab or Ctrl-Tab or whatever over to the window/tab where you have Realms Beyond open, and paste the URL for your picture into image tags in your report!

Then of course you just alt-tab back and forth to get all the pictures posted, the same way you used to with other image hosting services.  I feel like this set-up is a little clunky, but it seems to work!