Posting huge pictures?

[PNW_Steve]

I don't know if many others are having this trouble but I am seeing more and more threads that I cannot view without clicking the link and then taking a nap while it loads.

I have the habit of resizing pictures before I post them so they load quickly. Some of us still live in areas with less than ideal Internet options. My connection here varies from 3mbps to 9mbps on a wired connection . I pay for 12mbps. Latency varies from 30ms to over 200ms while testing with the same server. Sometimes it just stops for a few seconds.

When users add pics from their 8 megapixel camera without resizing the render the thread pretty much unviewable to those of us with inferior Internet options.

As a little experiment I have tried posting the same picture native and resized to 1024x1280.

Once loaded, the native resolution picture didn't look any better than the resized version in my browser.

Any suggestions?

Thank you.

S.

[Willie_McCoy]

I use a hosting service like imgur or photobucket, I think the images automatically resize and post a smaller version with the option to click for full size.

Is that how they appear on your end?

Like this:

[ComfortEagle]

I use a 3rd party hosting site also, smugmug... Not free but worth it to me.

[Sasquatters]

The problem is that this forum is crazy out dated.

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by Sasquatters

The problem is that this forum is crazy out dated.

Some of the other forums that limit the size of uploads to eliminate the problem.

It sounds like using a hosting service may be a solution as well.

I have been thinking that the root of my trouble was caused, in part, by my crappy Internet.

[Sasquatters]

Originally Posted by PNW_Steve

Some of the other forums that limit the size of uploads to eliminate the problem.



It sounds like using a hosting service may be a solution as well.



I have been thinking that the root of my trouble was caused, in part, by my crappy Internet.

It’s definitely the forum itself. Some messages that are quoted several times are terrible formatting too. Throw and picture in there and it stretches the entire page horizontally.

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by Sasquatters

It’s definitely the forum itself. Some messages that are quoted several times are terrible formatting too. Throw and picture in there and it stretches the entire page horizontally.

The main trouble that I have is threads that take, no kidding, 3 minutes to load. The text pops up quickly but remains too small to read until all of the pictures load.

Another practice that makes the threads easier to read is not including the pictures when you quote a post that has a bunch of pictures in it. It is pretty simple to delete the links in the quote.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Willie_McCoy

I use a hosting service like imgur or photobucket, I think the images automatically resize and post a smaller version with the option to click for full size.

Is that how they appear on your end?

Like this:

That pic is GREAT!

If you're ever down south here maybe take me for a spin in that beauty?

[Sasquatters]

It is simple to do that but try getting everyone on a forum to do so. Most older people don’t even know how to turn their PC off. The forum just needs work properly and that isn’t going to happen without some serious work l, which doesn’t seem likely. In the near future I plan on starting a forum (I manage several) for skoolie people that will work great on any device and not have the limitations of this one.

[EastCoastCB]

I don't mind this format but I only use it on my super fast computer with my super fast 218 meg broadband speed on my 61" tv.

[banman]

Originally Posted by PNW_Steve

I don't know if many others are having this trouble but I am seeing more and more threads that I cannot view without clicking the link and then taking a nap while it loads.

SNIP...

S.

I will just ask -- am I one of the guilty parties?
If you say yes, I'll try and learn more about posting pics...

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by banman

I will just ask -- am I one of the guilty parties?
If you say yes, I'll try and learn more about posting pics...

I don't know but thank you for your consideration.

If I click on a link and recognize that it isn't going to load reasonably I hit the back button and move on.

[PNW_Steve]

FWIW: I use "paint.net", a free app, to resize mine.

[kazetsukai]

Originally Posted by PNW_Steve

I don't know if many others are having this trouble but I am seeing more and more threads that I cannot view without clicking the link and then taking a nap while it loads.

I probably could build a service that handled this problem in an afternoon. On upload an image would be resized to several different sizes and stored. Each user could then set in their profile the desired image sizes they wanted to see or set a "bandwidth profile" that chose the best option for them.

Previous images already uploaded to this forum could be migrated, and we could either use new forum software to generate links to the service endpoint or modify the current iteration to do so. If a site admin is interested in trying to prototype something like this, let me know. Migrations are a specialty of mine.

As for upload policy: My advice is allow uploads up to the tens of MB per image, but resize (scale, preserving aspect ratio) in the backend to a few desired sizes. Making others resize prior is just not a reasonable expectation due to vast differences in age and proficiency.

I'd still love to see webp support!

[wrenchtech]

Originally Posted by Willie_McCoy

I use a hosting service like imgur or photobucket, I think the images automatically resize and post a smaller version with the option to click for full size.

Is that how they appear on your end?

Like this:

I definitely want to be able to see images like this at the highest resolution possible. It’s the reason I invested in a 4K monitor for my desktop.

[PNW_Steve]

It appears that using hosted images causes them to be resized and they load fine for me.

[dzl_]

Originally Posted by Sasquatters

It is simple to do that but try getting everyone on a forum to do so. Most older people don’t even know how to turn their PC off. The forum just needs work properly and that isn’t going to happen without some serious work l, which doesn’t seem likely. In the near future I plan on starting a forum (I manage several) for skoolie people that will work great on any device and not have the limitations of this one.

I <3 Xenforo there may be other frameworks that are equally good or even better, but Xenforo definitely brought forums out of the 90's and into the current decade. Look into it.



And I agree, as far as forums go (which is not a high bar to start with) this forum has great people and great info but the forum itself is very clunky and dated, and has that 1998 vibe going on.


Picture sizing and search functionality are two of the most frustrating aspects to me. Even when I have decent internet, being accosted with a 100% zoom 20 megapixel grainy picture every time I click one of those album links at the top, and having to scroll a quarter mile to get from one edge of the image to the other is a less than ideal experience


Images should default to a sane display resolution (<1 megapixel)

[dzl_]

Originally Posted by kazetsukai

As for upload policy: My advice is allow uploads up to the tens of MB per image, but resize (scale, preserving aspect ratio) in the backend to a few desired sizes. Making others resize prior is just not a reasonable expectation due to vast differences in age and proficiency.

I'd still love to see webp support!

I agree, this would be a good approach!

[Willie_McCoy]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

That pic is GREAT!

If you're ever down south here maybe take me for a spin in that beauty?

We don't get down to FL too often, but I promise if we hit the sunshine state, you will definitely get a ride in the Crown!