Pictures Take Forever to Load - Just this website

Stormbringer

The_Buffalo said:

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.

I believe there are configuration settings available to limit the size of files uploaded:

$Configuration['']['Upload']['MaxFileSize']= '5M';
$Configuration['']['Picture']['MaxHeight'] = 1000;
$Configuration['']['Picture']['MaxWidth']  = 600;

for example. However, this will block image upload for those that fail to comply, which isn't a great UX. It would be better to have a plugin akin to those in Facebook, Twitter and so forth that compress the image on upload.

danv23

jeffwit said:

@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. 

Have you tried Verizon?

danv23

The_Buffalo said:

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 

Thank you!!!

kl8ton

Thanks @The_Buffalo

[Deleted User]

okay this is what I know, they do not have a plugin currently that does what we are asking it to do but they said they can "restrict the file size of uploads, but it would apply to all file types and it has to be set to relatively small to restrict images appropriately" and I'm not sure we want to restrict all file types at this point. I will if you guys feel it is that big of a nuisance?

Toxarch

Don't restrict sizes. You will confuse too many people and end up with a bunch of old cooks complaining in new threads that they can't upload or they lost the resized photos.

HeavyG

Personally, I like that so many of the pix here are not just shrunken low-res files.

Sometimes you do want to zoom in on something in a pix and you don't want to just see a lot of compression artifacts.

Of course those pix are probably a rather small percentage of pix posted here.

Eoin

HeavyG said:

Personally, I like that so many of the pix here are not just shrunken low-res files.

Sometimes you do want to zoom in on something in a pix and you don't want to just see a lot of compression artifacts.

Of course those pix are probably a rather small percentage of pix posted here.

Something a few hundred k is plenty for detail though, no need for 4 or 5 meg pictures. 

Carolina Q

Test...

1.1M


77KB ("shared" above pic from desktop to email. Then dragged and dropped here. One extra, easy, step. Auto resized to 77KB.)

EDIT, this from my Mac, not phone.

Stormbringer

The_Buffalo said:

okay this is what I know, they do not have a plugin currently that does what we are asking it to do but they said they can "restrict the file size of uploads, but it would apply to all file types and it has to be set to relatively small to restrict images appropriately" and I'm not sure we want to restrict all file types at this point. I will if you guys feel it is that big of a nuisance?

@The_Buffalo I personally think restricting would be a bad idea. I have a good level of experience in this area, putting something in that blocks an activity is worse that having an activity that takes time to complete. If we can encourage users to do phone => PC for downgrade => forum, that would be better.

My .02c

HeavyG

Carolina Q said:

Test...

1.1M


77KB ("shared" above pic from desktop to email. Then dragged and dropped here. One extra, easy, step. Auto resized to 77KB.)

EDIT, this from my Mac, not phone.

Both of your example files are 3.4mb and 2896x1944 size.

Carolina Q

 have no idea why. sorry.

Theophan

I agree that restricting by image size will only stop many people from posting images at all, because many people don't know how to resize photos.  I think a lot of people will get really angry, and I think it's a bad idea.

I know that there are other sites that have the ability to automatically resize excessively large uploads, so users who don't know how won't have to.  This seems like such an obvious need for a forum like this, @The_Buffalo how about pushing the people who make your Vanilla software to make a plugin, or license one from someone who already does?

The_Stache

@The_Buffalo.... Easier to make a change that FORCES people to learn to resize rather than trying to get the "volunteer following" to comply. 

Perhaps a little more research on this with the Vanilla folks?

Asking people what they would prefer is kind of like asking them if the site should open links in a new web page!

Yeah... First world problem!

I am so glad to have retired from IT in Feb this year!!!

nolaegghead

It is super easy to automatically reduce the size when people upload to the forum. 

Obviously, the web developers would have to do this, but you get a command-line utility, set some kind of parameters based on the file size and script saving those files in a reduced resolution if they are too big. Zillion ways to skin this goat.

This will not only save the server bandwidth, but will help all the users, especially when they're on mobile devices.

An example of this is imagemagick.  We do this same thing with pdf scans of raw data and documents.  It's friggin simple and it will save everyone money and time.

https://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php

If Vanilla says they doesn't know anything about doing this, it might be because @The_Buffalo they are charging you for bandwidth served.  Or their project manager is an idiot.  Or both.  But it's done all over the place.  Look at craigslist, ebay for chrissakes.

Legume

Wait, so this means only part of my photos will show?  Is it the center?  Should I stop zooming in so when things get resized automatically, it will zoom in?

what about gifs?  I like all of the, um, food gifs that get posted.

lousubcap

As above, the operator should be able to size the file before uploading to the site.  Even I can figure that out and that's sayin' something.  You can tell by the quality of my infrequent pics that I really don't care about the level of resolution.  I doubt I have loaded a pic greater than 200KB.  Save the high-res for the adult sites.  

Toxarch

You don't have to send pics to your computer to resize pics. There are free apps that will resize pictures. I use one on Android called "Photo and Picture Resizer". Very simple to use, you just have to remember the resized pics are in a different folder. It's so user friendly, you can even take pics from the app.

[Deleted User]

The_Stache said:

@The_Buffalo.... Easier to make a change that FORCES people to learn to resize rather than trying to get the "volunteer following" to comply. 

Perhaps a little more research on this with the Vanilla folks?

Asking people what they would prefer is kind of like asking them if the site should open links in a new web page!

Yeah... First world problem!

I am so glad to have retired from IT in Feb this year!!!

Well the last time we made a change on here all hell broke loose...this time I just wanted to get your thoughts....that's all.  Vanilla Forums has their developers looking into it but for now people can resize their own images (there are plenty of free apps/programs/features that will allow you to do that)

The_Stache

The_Buffalo said:

Well the last time we made a change on here all hell broke loose...this time I just wanted to get your thoughts....that's all.  Vanilla Forums has their developers looking into it but for now people can resize their own images (there are plenty of free apps/programs/features that will allow you to do that)

I feel your pain, brother (or sister... don't want to make any sexist assumptions)!!  30 years of IT and trying to make everyone happy gives me a greater appreciation of the job you do and the perils of changes.

Keep up the good work!!! 

GrillSgt

Couple of things that are basic rules of the internet.

The poster/member should never be expected to have to jump through any hoop to post correctly.

When opening a linked site it should never take you away from the original site, it should always open with a new page so that you can simply close that page to return to the original.

That being said, this site is what it is. If it wasn't worth some occasional issue none of us would be here.

The_Stache

Hoping there's some update on this????

JohnInCarolina

The_Stache said:

Hoping there's some update on this????

Probably not, but I have taken to resizing pics before I upload them.  It’s easy.

The_Stache

JohnInCarolina said:

The_Stache said:

Hoping there's some update on this????

Probably not, but I have taken to resizing pics before I upload them.  It’s easy.

Agreed BUT not all forum users will or have been assimilated to this process!!  Hoping that @The_Buffalo will bet the folks at Vanilla off their old school A$$es and get their software somewhere at least in the 20th century if not up to the 21st!!

JohnInCarolina

The_Stache said:

JohnInCarolina said:

The_Stache said:

Hoping there's some update on this????

Probably not, but I have taken to resizing pics before I upload them.  It’s easy.

Agreed BUT not all forum users will or have been assimilated to this process!!  Hoping that @The_Buffalo will bet the folks at Vanilla off their old school A$$es and get their software somewhere at least in the 20th century if not up to the 21st!!

Yeah I wouldn’t count on it.  I’ve actually worked with people at Vanilla recently, and, well....

The_Stache

XENFORO 2.0

The_Stache

Maybe it's the Amazon Servers that are the issue???

DWFII

@The_Buffalo

I administer an internet forum although it is small compared to this one. But most modern forum software that I looked at when setting it up,  have a built in capacity to limit the size of a photo being displayed.

In my software, for instance, regardless the upload size, the display size can be limited to 1024x768 (or whatever you choose). This speeds up the loading considerably and lets the software take care of it automatically.

Most of my members don't have a clue of course and can't realistically be expected to downsize their photos themselves.

FWIW...