Pictures Take Forever to Load - Just this website

danv23

Pretty frustrating.  I have xfinity with 170mbps down (25 up) and for some reason pictures on this website take 5 minutes to fully load.  Anybody else?

poster

yup, even longer to upload them

danv23

poster said:

yup, even longer to upload them

It's like GD dial-up!!!

Botch

Glad to learn its not just my setup.  Safari 10.1.2 on a Mac Air.  

bluebird66

Here I was thinking it was my slow dsl line!

Stormbringer

Do the pictures take forever to load from these threads?

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1209560/smashburgers-for-breakfast-sure-why-not

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1209522/inverted-dutch-oven-bread-getting-better-rise-in-my-bread

chuckytheegghead

Stormbringer said:

Do the pictures take forever to load from these threads?

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1209560/smashburgers-for-breakfast-sure-why-not

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1209522/inverted-dutch-oven-bread-getting-better-rise-in-my-bread

Those pages load quickly for me. 

Stormbringer

chuckytheegghead said:

Stormbringer said:

Do the pictures take forever to load from these threads?

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1209560/smashburgers-for-breakfast-sure-why-not

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1209522/inverted-dutch-oven-bread-getting-better-rise-in-my-bread

Those pages load quickly for me. 

I thought they would. The difference is that for the posts I make, I cut down the dimensions of the image on my PC before uploading, and also reduce the quality slightly. This turns a 4MB image into a 300KB image, much quicker to download. People who directly upload images from cameras without this processing, or I suspect from mobile devices, will cause threads to load slowly.

I'm not a Vanilla expert, but would be amazed if there isn't a HTML 5 compliant plugin available to reduce image size on upload. At work we implemented this for a persona application, it's dead simple.

Eoin

Stormbringer said:

chuckytheegghead said:

Stormbringer said:

Do the pictures take forever to load from these threads?

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1209560/smashburgers-for-breakfast-sure-why-not

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1209522/inverted-dutch-oven-bread-getting-better-rise-in-my-bread

Those pages load quickly for me. 

I thought they would. The difference is that for the posts I make, I cut down the dimensions of the image on my PC before uploading, and also reduce the quality slightly. This turns a 4MB image into a 300KB image, much quicker to download. People who directly upload images from cameras without this processing, or I suspect from mobile devices, will cause threads to load slowly.

I'm not a Vanilla expert, but would be amazed if there isn't a HTML 5 compliant plugin available to reduce image size on upload. At work we implemented this for a persona application, it's dead simple.

Me too, I always shrink the pictures down to a manageable size before posting. Too many threads with lots of multi megabyte pictures are slow to load with my (not great) internet connection. I end up abandoning many without looking when the pictures load too slowly.

HeavyG

No problems here. Just grabbed a random thread - http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1209565/another-fathead-pizza#latest - and all three pix loaded in a fraction of a second.

Clicking on each photo to see the large versions was almost instantaneous.

EggNorth

I use an older version of Paint Shop Pro, works great for shrinking down photos.   Now I just have to lean to take good photos.

My iPad gives up on a lot of threads and only shows a little blue box for the picture.

Theophan

A few things:

First, I had TERRIBLE problems when I was using a VPN to protect myself from all of the trackers that can follow you and tell companies every web site you visit, but once I turned off the VPN and just used the anti-tracking stuff without it all of a sudden it's MUCH better.  I don't really have a big problem at all, now, and I get 20-something MBPS from my online provider, so if the OP is getting 170-something, then something's wrong on his end.  Once I disable the VPN, I have no problem.  Once in a while at peak hours (evening, usually), it'll take several seconds to load a bunch of pictures, but usually they just appear without delay.

Second, as others have addressed, a big part of the problem is that most folks just upload photos the way they are in their phones, which are HUGE, just plain vastly larger than they need to be for a web page, and put a bunch of those on one page, and that page will take a while to load.  I wish the forum had some sort of automatic software that shrunk photos if they were over a certain size.  Like others who commented above, I always size my own photos to a reasonable size before posting them, usually around 900px maximum dimension.

Third, and this is OT, but you posted this question about pictures loading forever in the Poultry section.  As I explained in another OT post on this same topic, I've only recently caught on that there are not just recipes, but discussions like this one in each of the various "forums" here.  For many years I've just checked and posted in the general "Egghead Forum" section/forum, and had no clue that I was missing a bunch of other discussions going on in the other sections.  So... how do YOU guys choose what forums you're checking and/or posting in, and how did you (the OP) wind up posting this question in the Poultry section?  I'm trying to figure this stuff out.

poster

For your 3rd thing. Whether on my desktop or mobile, i have recent discussions displayed, so i see the most recent posts no matter where they are put. I never pay attention to what category they are in and dont think i have ever missed much

Theophan

poster said:

... i have recent discussions displayed, so i see the most recent posts no matter where they are put...

Somehow I had my bookmark set to the "Egghead Forum" forum (i.e., http://eggheadforum.com/categories/egghead-forum), and not just http://eggheadforum.com, so what I saw every time I came here was that.  I just now looked to see how you got "he most recent posts no matter where they are put" and I couldn't find anything that said that.  I tried clicking on "All Forums," but that just gave me a list of the categories.

Then I finally tried just typing in http://eggheadforum.com, and presto -- I think I got what you go to.  It seems to have the most recent posts regardless of what category they're in.  I don't know how I got started on the "Egghead Forum" forum, but that's what I've been doing for years.  I just changed my bookmark so now I go to the right place.

THANKS for your help!!!

nolaegghead

I try to only load 25 mb pictures.

theyolksonyou

This is the only site on the whole interwebz I visit. Seems normal. 

Corvus

Thanks OP for posting, I'm glad to know that it's not just me.  I'll give a thread a minute or so to load and if it doesn't, I'll read the content, then move on.  No doubt I've missed some good stuff but I view 6-7 cooking sites a day and this is the worst one when it comes to loading pictures.  It's the price I pay for a short attention span.

poster

Corvus said:

Thanks OP for posting, I'm glad to know that it's not just me.  I'll give a thread a minute or so to load and if it doesn't, I'll read the content, then move on.  No doubt I've missed some good stuff but I view 6-7 cooking sites a day and this is the worst one when it comes to loading pictures.  It's the price I pay for a short attention span.

I love when your trying to read a thread with multiple pics and it jumps a bit as the next pic starts to load so you scroll to where you left off reading and then another pops up and you lose your spot again. I always just assumed it was my crappy ISP, but I don't have much issues with any other sites

Woodchunk

poster said:

Corvus said:

Thanks OP for posting, I'm glad to know that it's not just me.  I'll give a thread a minute or so to load and if it doesn't, I'll read the content, then move on.  No doubt I've missed some good stuff but I view 6-7 cooking sites a day and this is the worst one when it comes to loading pictures.  It's the price I pay for a short attention span.

I love when your trying to read a thread with multiple pics and it jumps a bit as the next pic starts to load so you scroll to where you left off reading and then another pops up and you lose your spot again. I always just assumed it was my crappy ISP, but I don't have much issues with any other sites

This is a good example of this. I never got any of the pics to load
http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1209451/ot-canning-day-ot#latest

Roebuck

Theophan said:

Second, as others have addressed, a big part of the problem is that most folks just upload photos the way they are in their phones, which are HUGE, just plain vastly larger than they need to be for a web page, and put a bunch of those on one page, and that page will take a while to load.  I wish the forum had some sort of automatic software that shrunk photos if they were over a certain size.  Like others who commented above, I always size my own photos to a reasonable size before posting them, usually around 900px maximum dimension.

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes and Yes thank you @Theophan

The majority of photos here are not resized and are massive files (>MB) - This hurts SEO and slows the page down to a crawl (not that BGE or any of you are worried about SEO for this site). There are several free and easy ways to resize/compress your photos. Pixlr.com is one of my favorites. I'm not 100% sure about automatic software, but BGE or whoever owns this forum can put a file size limit for photos and should.

and @nolaegghead - LOL!

kl8ton

Woodchunk said:

poster said:

Corvus said:

Thanks OP for posting, I'm glad to know that it's not just me.  I'll give a thread a minute or so to load and if it doesn't, I'll read the content, then move on.  No doubt I've missed some good stuff but I view 6-7 cooking sites a day and this is the worst one when it comes to loading pictures.  It's the price I pay for a short attention span.

I love when your trying to read a thread with multiple pics and it jumps a bit as the next pic starts to load so you scroll to where you left off reading and then another pops up and you lose your spot again. I always just assumed it was my crappy ISP, but I don't have much issues with any other sites

This is a good example of this. I never got any of the pics to load
http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1209451/ot-canning-day-ot#latest

This is my canning post and I know better! 

I agree that most on here upload too large of photo's, including myself.  I will generalize by saying most of us post and view on our mobile devices.  Well, a 5 inch screen does not need a 5-6MB picture to look clear and detailed.  Most probably wouldn't notice a difference if file sizes were reduced to 70-200KB for each photo.

I don't have the time and I am too lazy to go and edit my photo and reduce the size before posting.  By not doing so, I am not being a good steward of bandwidth.

Craigslist has a built in function that re-sizes photos.  You upload a 4MB photo and CL will resize it depending on level of detail and number of colors, down to something around 200KB.  I am attaching pics of free roosters I just uploaded to CL.  The top picture is the one i uploaded at 4MB, and the second  pic is what they reduced it to.  Can you tell the difference in clarity/quality on your device?

4MB PHOTO THAT I UPLOADED


180KB photo CL automatically reduced to


@The_Buffalo

Is this something you can look into for us?  I appreciate that you will host photos on the site and we don't have to rely on 3rd party photo hosting.  I don't think anyone would be bothered by an auto-reducer on photo sizes.

Thanks!

jeffwit

@kl8ton, I can’t tell a difference in the photos because I can’t get the first one to load.

kl8ton

@jeffwit

May I ask what device and connecting you are using? 

Woodchunk

kl8ton said:

@jeffwit

May I ask what device and connecting you are using? 

Your pics above look ok to me, the same. Maybe people should just limit the # of pics posted in each response, don't load it up

jeffwit

@kl8ton I’m using an iPhone 8 on ATT LTE. 2 bars of service at the moment. At the moment, I was being facetious. Both pictures loaded, but the downsized CL picture loaded instantaneously, while the original took a while. 
It seems like it’s an intermittent problem with me. Sometimes the pics load quickly, but most of the time they take forever. 
It's worse when I’m on my home WiFi, but I live in the sticks. 

kl8ton

@jeffwit

I find mine to be worse on home wifi as well. Galaxy s5 with at&t 4G LTE 3 bars is faster. 

Eoin

I take pictures on my phone and email them to myself, at which point I get a small size option on the email.  4 - 5 MB becomes 150 - 300 KB.  I save the emailed picture and upload that.  Slightly more PITA than uploading directly, but making it easier for everyone to use the site forever.

kl8ton

Photo resizer app. First try.  Pretty quick.  It shows your gallery,  pick a pic.  Click 25%. Saves in a default output folder easily identifiable in gallery. 

I am using Android.  The app is photo and picture resizer.

[Deleted User]

Let me ask if there is something that can be done here. I looked for an add-on but didn't find anything for resizing pictures. That being said when uploading try resizing them before uploading to the site for now.

Theophan

The_Buffalo said:

... I looked for an add-on but didn't find anything for resizing pictures...

I noticed on this page that PIUpload claims "This plugin enables ... images, to be resized before upload to avoid errors, and disappointment."  I tried to read more on their site but found it rather unhelpful.  Maybe if you wrote to a support person there they could tell you for sure whether it would work.  It sounds as though it will work client-side, meaning that when people use the forum software (with this plugin, now) to upload pictures, they will have options to make the picture smaller.

The problem with just asking people to resize their own photos (which I always DO) is that very many people just don't know how, and won't be willing to try something that seems complicated.  If there is a way that the forum software could do that for people, it would be a benefit both to the forum operators and to all of the users.

Roebuck

Thank you @The_Buffalo