Seems to be a big gap here - I put togehter a write-up, with diagrams and pictures, in a PDF the other day and was not able to upload it - the web site does not allow PDF’s to be uploaded. Why is this?
The forum is currently ony configured to support images. The members download area hosts curated PDF files and is managed by the Club’s technical team.
What write up were you hoping to upload?
PDF files can contain viruses and other malware, which may be why you cannot upload them.
There should be some mechanism put in place, though, for users to be able to send a PDF to an admin who could check it for malware before publishing it.
Maybe, this is the first time in at least 10 years that someone has queried the inability to upload PDF.
1 Like
Thanks.
That surprises me a bit - a PDF is an ideal way to post a write-up of a particular procedure.
It particularly doesn’t run the risk of all the images being removed when a photo hosting site (like PhotoBucket) decides to change its business model - I’ve lost count of how many technical topics on various forums have been rendered useless because the photographs have been removed or obscured. 
Yes that has been an issue in the past, we host any images uploaded ourselves removing that particular problem.
This is the first site I have come across that doesn’t allow uploads of PDF in preference to, say, JPG since PDF is - or used to be - recognised as a safe format, more safe than jpg which at one time had quite a reputation for passing virus’ and trojan horses.
PDF has never been safe. The first security vulnerabilities were published in around 2001, and there have been many, many since then - Locklizrd has a reasonable, if not complete, list.
Using JPG as a vector for malware (which mostly relies on misformed EXIF data forcing a connection to a back-end server to host the actual malware) is, by comparison, very rare.
Thanks for that Philip - I stand corrected. You live and learn a little every day don’t you! Fortunate I’m in the habit of using a virus checker on docs/piccies before uploading (and when downloading), though of course that doesn’t protect against files being infected between my PC and the target.
I have used Avast Pro for as long as I can recall.
It did not even like PDFs from of all sources a secure Scot-Gov server.
Not that there was a thing wrong with them of course as you’d expect.
I can use them ( new-incoming) but only after anti V screening.