Dropbox Usage

Dropbox is a free “cloud” based information storage system that will allow our members to share images and videos. This is especially useful to the Penwicle editor, the Calendar-meister, the Web Master, and the President. These folks deal with images that they share with the club in their various roles.  In order to use our shared Dropbox space, you’ll need to email the club’s Dropbox Manager requesting an invitation. When the Dropbox manager invites you to join the PWC folder, Dropbox will email you instructions on how to join and log in to the folder. Upon joining Dropbox, you will be given the opportunity to install the Dropbox client software on your computer -THIS IS OPTIONAL – but really the easiest way to use Dropbox. The Dropbox client software installs a folder on your computer you can drop images into. If you would rather not install software on your computer, you can still use the Dropbox web interface and add your pictures through there, but that is outside the scope of these instructions. Email the Dropbox manager if you need help.

Copying images or files into the PWC folder (it will be inside your Dropbox folder, once you accept an invitation to join the shared “PWC” folder) will allow you to share images with all club officers (and anyone else sharing the folder). It will also give you access to all club images and videos in that folder.

Folder Naming Convention:
Within the “PWC” folder are sub-folders labeled by month, such as “2018-03”, which is the March 2018 folder. Please contribute your images, videos of club trips, and trip reports (in Word, PPT, or PDF) into a folder named with the following naming convention:

2017-04-15-Mt Townsend-John Doe.MP4 or 2018-07-30-Mt Angeles-Jane Doe.PDF or 2016-08-08-General Meeting-JD.PPT

Naming the folder this way gives everyone an idea of who, when and what the images are about. The date is offset with hyphens to make it easier to read. It is the date of the trip you are sending images of. Next is a brief identification of the trip followed by your name or initials. All entries in the folder will, as a result, be grouped by date and person. Look at the files in “PWC” when you first open it. Copy a few to your computer to see how things work (do not “move” the file to your computer – leave it in the Dropbox). Dropbox file transfers are not fast. This is deliberately done so that your computer processor is not dominated by the download and you can continue to use your computer. Be patient, especially with video and other large files.

When you copy images or other files to the “PWC” folder, please do some preliminary weaning-out of the poorer images to save file space. We only have about one terabyte of space to share between all of us, so please consider limiting how many images you share, particularity if your camera takes pictures with large file sizes. On the subject of large file sizes, there are plenty of free programs you can use to shrink the file size of your images. This is outside the scope of these instructions, but if you email the Dropbox Manager, he may have some suggestions for shrinking your images down.

Please be especially aware of what you are doing when you move images and make sure you are moving a SECONDARY COPY and not your one and only copy. We’d hate for you to lose your precious pictures.

The Dropbox Manager will remove files after a few months, generally after they have had a chance to be shown during a meeting and have been uploaded to the website for archival purposes. See the photo albums we have created from all the Dropbox uploads by clicking the Photo Albums link in the menu above.

Please don’t delete any of the files in the PWC folder. Leave that to the Dropbox Manager. The Dropbox Manager graciously volunteers his time for this and undoing deleted files is time consuming. The first time you delete files you will be issued a warning. Second time you’ll have your access suspended. If you are running into a space issue on your computer due to the Dropbox folder, please contact the Dropbox Manager to discuss options before deleting files. It is much appreciated.

Sharing on Dropbox is beneficial to the club as a whole. The Web Master can embed your videos on the web site, after uploading them to YouTube or Vimeo, so they are accessible to all regardless of video format (if requested, and at the webmaster’s discretion) – likewise your trip reports, photos, and slideshows. The Penwicle Editor can use your images to help create the newsletter. The President will have access to images and video for use during our General Meetings. Everyone can access the club’s collected images.

Giving Credit. Please be respectful of the club members who contribute images or content by always referencing their name, or otherwise attributing creation of their material to them when you use these files. Always ask permission before sharing any images to the public that do not belong to you. Be aware that there is always a chance someone might break this rule and share your work outside the confines of PWC use.