A guide to posting a craft in the Spacecraft Exchange [PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING]

[Dman979]

In a game that revolves around spacecraft, the Spacecraft Exchange is arguably one of the important and significant sections of the Kerbal Space Program Forums. However, while it is straightforward and easy to learn via looking at a few threads, it's somewhat different from the other Forum sections and a few things need to be taken into account especially when posting a ship, making a thread for all your ships, and commenting on the work of others.

This guide is by no means supposed to dictate how one must post about his crafts. With that said, let's move on to the tutorial!

1. Before uploading a ship

The Kerbal Space Program Forum has a set of rules along with a few threads made by both moderators and players alike to assist one in using the forums and giving one an insight on how things work. I'd suggest you read them along with a few ship threads in the Spacecraft Exchange to get a feel of what the forum is like.

Check this New Member Guide by Gargamel to learn how things work around the forums as well as some rules and etiquette to follow.

This guide by Mad Rocket Scientist gives a nice insight to how the forums work.

And the Good Conduct guide is especially important when replying to others' ships.

After reading those, and a few threads on the Spacecraft Exchange, you should be good to go.

 

2. Uploading a ship

The way you can post a craft varies a lot, but most follow a certain format of images, descriptions, stats and other info. 

NOTE: "No pics, no clicks."  Images are not necessarily required, but highly encouraged and good etiquette. Photos (taken in daylight if possible) are essential for people to see what your creation looks like. You can take screenshots using F1 and accessing them in the KSP screenshot folder in its directory. 

If it is a modded ship, list the mods you used. If it is a replica, it's a good idea to include or name it after what you are replicating. Instructions if necessary on how to use the ship are also useful. 

Making a thread and uploading images for your ship

To make a ship thread, go to the Spacecraft Exchange section. There you will find threads such as the Open Source Construction Techniques thread and others -- Click on the "Start New Topic" thread.

From there, you have a canvas to make your thread.

Uploading and embedding images can be done by going to imgur.com, clicking on "upload images",

selecting your screenshots and drag-and-dropping them into the webpage (if you upload multiple, you'll have an option to make an Imgur album. We will cover this in a bit.) 

From there, you should see either this:

Or this. Depending if you have one image or an album of images.

Now, you have two options:

-Copy and paste the link under "BBCode (Forums)", and remove the [ img ] and [ / img ] part, then press enter. The forum should load the image onto the thread automatically. 

-Copy the link under "Direct Link", select "Insert other media" in the forum editor and paste the link. 

Note that you can use other image hosting sites like Flickr, but Imgur is generally the most popular option.  

Uploading the .craft file proper

To actually make sure those viewing your thread can download and use the ship you upload, you have to upload it outside this website as the forum can't host its own files. You can use a file-hosting website; a generally popular site to do so would be Mediafire. However, the prevailing option is to use a website called KerbalX.com. KerbalX is its own stand-alone website and sharing platform for KSP ships, and it can host your craft files for you, as well as show the list of mods needed for the craft to function, part count and other important stats. It makes things very convenient and is a platform from which you can find other ships all on its own, and if you are at all interested in looking for KSP ships to download or upload, you should check it out. 

Also, they have their own craft organization mod, which is really neat. 

 

Ship specifications

Try to list the part count, length and width of your ship, as well as its capabilities. Most of these can be found in the Engineer's report in the editor. 

Now that you have these set in stone, most people usually follow a certain format of:

1.  A description of the ship or an overview of the replicated ship if replica
2.  Images/an album
3. Performance notes
4. Part count, etc. Etc.

So with that in mind, here's a sample replica ship's post thread (which is pretty common by the way) for a Space Shuttle. Make your thread as colorful as you'd like it to be, just be mindful to include info you believe is necessary.

 

 

But it may vary. It's up to you how the thread looks. Just remember to add images, a description and a craft file at least. Once you're done, press the "Submit topic" button.

Post-release

You've gotten your first ship uploaded! It will now appear at the top of the Spacecraft Exchange, and maybe get replies, or be overtaken by other threads.

Now, there are still a few things to take in mind: The Spacecraft Exchange is pretty crowded. There's a very large chance that your first ship may not do well in terms of attention, garnering few to no replies. This is pretty normal here and not something to be discouraged by. There are things you can do like improve the visuals on your thread or titles, but other than that it's mostly left to chance. 

It's alright to "bump" your thread for an update on the ship, or something such as asking for feedback, but be careful not to do it so much that it's distracting.

 

Constructive criticism

In any social media or forum post, you may be told something that's meant to help you but you might take it the wrong way. However, it's important to be sure to be able to separate what is merely trying to be helpful and what actually intends to attack. It's easy to take things like criticism the wrong way, but it happens and may just be intended to help you improve something with your ship. If you really feel that a post is merely slanderous, attacking or overall pointless, report it to the moderators -- It will get removed if it is deemed to violate the forum rules. At the same time, try to be constructive when commenting on the ships of others.

 

Other important links

[will be added as more KSP2-specific things are posted]

 

A big thank you to @Columbia for posting this thread. We've basically copy/pasted it here, and instead of giving me reputation go like their thread instead.

[Initar]

This post should be edited to include KSP2 specific information:

.craft files aren't a thing anymore, there's a .json ,  a .meta file and a thumbnail per craft now. I include all three in a zip for my downloads but no idea what is mandatory and what isn't.

KerbalX doesn't seem to support KSP2 as of now.

Also I don't know why you say to remove the [ img ] and [ / img ] part, it is very much necessary for the image to be displayed in the post.

Edited March 4, 2023 by Initar

[GOOMH]

On 3/4/2023 at 8:17 AM, Initar said:

.craft files aren't a thing anymore, there's a .json ,  a .meta file and a thumbnail per craft now. I include all three in a zip for my downloads but no idea what is mandatory and what isn't.

So just the .json is required to share a craft but with just a json, you get no craft image preview in the selection menu. I usually include all three just to be safe

[Astroneer08]

Quick question: where should I put the craft file on my game?

[Astroneer08]

ksp2 btw

[Vanamonde]

20 hours ago, Astroneer08 said:

Quick question: where should I put the craft file on my game?

Sorry, what do you mean? Where to copy the file so you can use the craft in your game? You know, I haven't tried this yet. 

[DerkyJerkyWreaksHavoc]

Spoiler

the fact that there are capital letters on the title just shows us how passionate the KSP team is about keeping our forums stress free and clutter free from nonsensical posts

 

[Astroneer08]

3 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

Sorry, what do you mean? Where to copy the file so you can use the craft in your game? You know, I haven't tried this yet. 

Yes, sorry if I wasn't clear. I found a cool ship on a thread in this section, and would like to try it.

[Fizzlebop Smith]

I am having difficulty with managing to get an image to preview on a post.

I followed the  above guide, but do not have the same set of options under the menu [dots].

The options afforded me do not include a 'BBC Code' option .

Those that I do have don't seem to work. 

 

Link (Does no Differentiate Between Direct Link)

Embedded link (Does not Resemble Examples)

Edit Post

Make Post Hidden

 

I feel like a complete noob.. or idiot. Please assist

[Vanamonde]

Are you using Imgur? 

[Fizzlebop Smith]

Yes.
Imgur on PC
Tried..  Edge and Chrome

Both provide the exact same website interface 
I only have 4 choices and the 'skin' of the site looks nothing like that for me

This is what the file hosting site looks like for me

This was the result of copying the URL of a generic site which worked.. but trying to post a craft i couldnt get it to work for imgur. Im so confused and going to try again.

I dont know why i dont get the option to share BBC link or direct link anymore

Edited January 16 by Fizzlebop Smith

[Fizzlebop Smith]

There is a work around ceci664 provided that allows me to post. It differs from instructions provided so I wanted to provide this info for anyone having the same problem.

 

Up Load image to Imgur

Select Image (long press / right click)

"Open in New Tab"

The URL in the New tab will work if copy and pasted into the "insert image from website"