Concerning Pictures Thread

[nats2playoffs]

Is there some way to reduce the size of each page ONLY for the Pictures thread under General Discussion?  That last page is an enormous memory drain.  It renders the computer almost unusable, even for every other application.  I can't even scroll up and down that page without the  B - E - L - L  being  d - i - s - p - l - a - y - e - d and waiting to digest it.  Same problem at home (dial-up) or work (T1).

Spy vs. Spy (PC vs Apple):
 

[Kenz aFan]

The only way to get that thread to load fast is to turn off allowing pics to load automatically before entering the thread, but if you do that, you wont be able to see the images at all. Because that thread is so slow, I'm sure I'm not the only one who never goes into it to view the pics.

I have an extremely fast connection (equal to about 3.5 times a T1 connection), 4 gigs of ram, and no complaints, UNTIL I try entering that thread. If you want to view the images, enter the thread when you have something else you can do while the pages load.

[2k6nats]

Really?  That thread works fine for me.

[The Chief]

I think that thread is slow because SOMEBODY linked a bunch of un-resized multi-megapixel spring training pictures into it

The image resizer built into the forum only html-resizes hotlinked images, it doesn't actually decrease the picture file size, so most of the pics in that particular part of the thread are a couple MB apiece.

[tomterp]

Yeah, it used to work fine until NOTLD put his ST pictures in there.  Problem is, I want to see those pictures.   Not easy to reduce file size, is it?

[Kenz aFan]

What the Forum needs is a place that pictures can be stored, similar to Photobucket, where members can add albums... Maybe even a Yahoo WNFF group or something? In those groups members can create albums.

[The Chief]

Well the forum has an attachment feature that allows people to post pics in a thread with only thumbnails showing up in the thread itself, but nobody has been *using* that feature...

[tomterp]

Well the forum has an attachment feature that allows people to post pics in a thread with only thumbnails showing up in the thread itself, but nobody has been *using* that feature...

Because it's practically impossible to reduce the file size below the minimum threshold permitted.  I spent a half-hour trying every possible option I had on a picture I wanted to attach, and gave up in frustration because I just couldn't make it any lighter.

[Kenz aFan]

Try using a program called FotoSizer, (you can find it here: http://www.fotosizer.com/) It will take one or more images or a folder or folders (the loading process is not fast, but it's acceptable). The % option works best for mixed images (portrait and landscape).

For example, the 32 (5 megapixel) images uploaded to the forum's picture thread by NOTLD, which add up to a whopping 57 megs were reduced to 2.2 megs total for the 32 images, with the largest being 113Kb instead of a largest of 3Mb before the conversion. From and average of 1,836KB each, to an average of 71KB per image, and all I did was reduce them to 31% of their original size (31% was closest to 800x600 in size).

It may not be the greatest resizing program out there, but it's pretty much the easiest and most straight forward, and if all your images are either all portrait or all landscape, you can specify the dimensions.

[The Chief]

Because it's practically impossible to reduce the file size below the minimum threshold permitted.  I spent a half-hour trying every possible option I had on a picture I wanted to attach, and gave up in frustration because I just couldn't make it any lighter.

The main reason for that is because most people don't have very fast upstream bandwidth from their ISPs, so if I were to allow huge pictures, the time needed to submit them would be quite long, especially when multiple unresized photos were submitted.  This would likely cause most users to grow impatient and cancel as there is no progress indicator and they would probably thing the page had hung.

[tomterp]

Try using a program called FotoSizer, (you can find it here: http://www.fotosizer.com/) It will take one or more images or a folder or folders (the loading process is not fast, but it's acceptable). The % option works best for mixed images (portrait and landscape).

Thanks Ken, this is the sort of utility I was looking for.  I won't be able to try it out for a couple of weeks but will circle back and give it a try. 

[The Chief]

I also raised the limit per attachment to 512k and the total for each post to 2 MB.

[Senators2005]

Everytime I try to view page 3 of the picture thread it says...

Error 500
internal server error, please try again later.

[Nat of the Living Dead]

You know, I did resize my pics and that is how they came out on Page 3, a lot bigger than what I have them at on my comp in my files.  My apologies for the screw up.  I will never post ST pics again. 

[tomterp]

You know, I did resize my pics and that is how they came out on Page 3, a lot bigger than what I have them at on my comp in my files.  My apologies for the screw up.  I will never post ST pics again. 

Don't take it personal.  Nobody's struggled more with how to upload pictures  or link them here than I have.  We're not saying you're a bad person, just that the pictures tanked system performance.  I think this is a constructive discussion in which everyone is trying to figure out the best way forward, for the very reason that we all want to be able to see pictures such as yours.

[The Chief]

You know, I did resize my pics and that is how they came out on Page 3, a lot bigger than what I have them at on my comp in my files.  My apologies for the screw up.  I will never post ST pics again. 

I definitely don't want that!  Those pics were awesome, we just need to get them down to a manageable size so those of us using dinosaur machines are able to view the page

[Nat of the Living Dead]

Its okay guys.  I'm just kidding.  Don't have the time now but I will look into re-resizing them again later.