I want to give back. How do I start?

I've been enjoying taking advantage of some of the quality content posted on this forum for a while now, and I want to start contributing. I have tons of stuff to upload, but I'm still a novice when it comes to posting material. It would be really helpful if some of the veteran posters could explain how to do it most efficiently.

How do you quickly upload multiple files to Rapidshare?
What's the best program for creating preview pics?
Given the massive amount of stuff that's been posted over the years, how can I be sure that I'm not duplicating someone else's effort?
What are some "tricks of the trade" that would be helpful to know if I want o become a consistent poster?

Thanks to all who have contributed their posts; you've made this forum a great place. I'd like to chip in and do my part, so any advice would be appreciated.

read the stickies

start here

https://www.forumophilia.com/topic8025.html

Good advice nudge96 and there's a lot of stuff there. But (hopefully not repeating what is there) just a couple of quick points.

Multiple uploads to RS have a max limit of 100Mb a time. There is a facility to do this at RS on the upload page. But it does take time to upload a lot - about an hour for 100Mb for me.

Repeating someone else's stuff? The best you can do is to use the search facility here with key words like the performers names, the video title etc. But you can only do so much searching. And if it has been posted before with a rs.de link then check it still works as many people have transferred to rs.com and the rs.de links no longer work.

To be a consistent poster? Simple answer - keep posting. But there are a couple of things I would say. If you have something that fits into a relatively current topic (not one that had it's last post in 1995 etc.) e.g. a particular model or theme thread, then post it there - the followers of that model/theme will appreciate you for that. For other things then create your own thread as others have done and post there. A new thread for each video or set of pics isn't appreciated and soon gets forgotten. With your own thread (as it grows) new people will look back at previous posts and find things to download which they didn't know of - great for your RS premium account if you have one.

In the end don't be too hasty to upload and post. There is a lot posted here everyday and no-one can download the lot. Post 10 movies in one go and people will chose one or two to look at. Post one a day and they will probably download more and appreciate you for the daily trickle.

Just a final thought - preview pics are really important as you no doubt know.

I look forward to seeing what you have to offer.

Albi

Good post. Perhaps some of it should be added to the sticky.

Thanks, guys. I've finally gotten the preview pic stuff sorted out. Now if only my upload speed were faster.