Newbie introduction & questions

Hi everyone. I am a newbie here. This forum was recommended to me by a person who has owned more than one Prius.

I just got a new 2012 Prius Plug-in (base model, Clearwater Blue Metallic). This is the second Prius that I've owned.

I have a couple of questions about using this forum.

First, I have tried several times to add a profile photo to my profile, but each time I try to upload it I cannot do so. I read about the requirement to make the photos no larger than 150 x 100 pixels, and no more than 62k in size, and I did that. The upload seems to be a two step process. First I need to browse to find the photo and upload it once, which I do successfully. I can see it. Then, at the bottom of that screen I click the button to update my profile, but a message appears saying that the update failed. The photo does not show up on my next sent message. Does anyone have any idea as to what I am doing wrong.

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Second, I tried to post a photo of my car in the newbie car photos section. I used the attach (paperclip) button, which gives me an opportunity to search for and upload photos to attach. Then, by positioning the cursor and clicking the paperclip button again, I am given the opportunity to "Manage attachments." I saw the filename of my uploaded photo displayed, but the file size had become very small (80k) relative to the size of the original photo. Nevertheless, I clicked on that link. Doing so added some attachment code (the word ATTACH, in square brackets, in front of and after a five digit number). to where I had positioned my cursor. Unfortunately, what got posted was a thumbnail of my car photo, which you can probably see here:



Some of the other member's posted photos were much larger. Again, does anyone have any idea what I am doing wrong?

Thank you for your help and your patience with this newbie.

 

Thank you for your help. I did not realize that the picture under the user name is called an avatar. I thought it was called a profile picture.

 

I just brightened my avatar a bit. The letters were too dark relative to the car color (Clearwater Blue Metallic).