Attachments as Links

[Vikash]

A couple of things from the recent posts I've just read.

Most of you undertsand, but for those who don't...
If you experience slow download times then this is because if your connection and your are free to opt for links instead of images (and you can select this in your options page), but this is not the reason that the pics have been taken off, or theads per page reduced. The server will probably be on a link upward of 100Mbit which is more than capable of supplying the demand. The problem is likely that of the allocated bandwidth allowance, which has caused the moderators to take action.

As I mentioned earlier the jumpy thing is really a non-issue and can be solved albeit with a little overhead in code.

As for people being educated to compress their images properly, well you clearly can't rely on this, and I would suggest running a simple post upload compression if the file size (and perhaps even image dimensions) is above some threshold. I do something similar for some of my sites and it guarantees all images to be of a sane size.

As for thumbnails, this will require mods to the db and a parse at all existing images to create suitable thumbnails. A good idea should it be the only option - at the expense of some coding time of the mods.

Maybe it's worth doing some analysis to see what the file sizes are in the db. If we could see the number of images that fall between say < 10kb, between 10 and 30, 30 and 50, 50 and 100 etc. then it may show that simply re-compressing offending images of superfluous size and dimensions may drastically reduce bandwidth usage - and there would be thus no need to take this no photos/thumbnails actions that some of us are against.

[karma]

im using imagemagick that works well for compression.
it allso would work with the forum change the code abit


http://www.imagemagick.org/

it Compresses the pic as it's uploading onto the server

[officeboy]

Problem is for this BB system all images and attachments are stored in a sql database.
So you can't just go and compress them better.

Although I'm sure it would help a lot.
I sure don't like grabbing a 50Kb jpg diagram when a 4kb gif would do the job even better.

[Vikash]

yes i use imagemagick too I upload a file without care for the actual size, and it creates a suitably compressed image and a thumbail. simple.

So you can't just go and compress them better.

just go through each row and check the file size/dimensions of the image. If it's outside the thresholds then recompress and update the row. I don't see the problem? Off course this is probably best done in batches so as to not overload the server if that's your concern.

I sure don't like grabbing a 50Kb jpg diagram when a 4kb gif would do the job even better.

Yes, this comes down to the users understanding the compression types and where each should be used for optimal compression. I'm sure it's feasible, and perhaps already done, where the image can be pre analysed to see if it contains photographic or line drawing content and selects the appropriate jpeg or gif format.

This is all academic, as I'm sure AF as well as many people on this board are capable of coming up with suitable heuristics to ensure new images are suitably compressed for future bandwidth preservation. If the mod's require any technical help to ease their burden, then I would be glad to help out too.

[Sandy H.]

For me, its not as 'fun' to click on the link than to get the pic. But that's a small price to pay. I've noticed that, IMO, the logo competition is not getting as much attention since links instead of pics are posted.

The only problem I see with linking my pics to my server is that one day, I will likely delete these and therefore any useful content would no longer be available. The only thought I have to counteract that is to have the forum have the pic in a link, but also display it on my own site. Sounds difficult, but I'm no expert.

Of the other sites I frequent, a subscription magazine sponsors one and they get great traffic and ideas. They limit their size to 100k and the topics are honestly more difficult to convey than many of the topics on this forum. True, sometimes hi-res helps with boards etc, but it may not be a requirement.

I guess my 'ideal' solution would be to have even a 25k gif with 240x320 size for a pictured post and a link to a higher resolution pic available by clicking a link all in the same post. It would require different coding and it could be more difficult than I make it out to be.

Good luck making the right choices. Hopefully donations by members will alleviate any compromise.

Sandy.

[karma]

hosting a server from home is relatively cheap i use go daddy.com
i paid $60 for three years thats it. and i can run a server with dsl
for $20 a month. and it gets bussy.

i say run a picture server and charge people that post stuff monthly to use it.

thats my 2 cents anyway

its a great server but the owner must be going thru hell just to keep it going. in bandwith that is it gets busy even without pics
and the upkeep of the server and the forum it self. the data base
must be huge. i have problem's with a small one let alone this size

or a paypal icon on the main page to donate whatever anyone can. looks cheap but its works with other domains