A suggestion about hosting off-site images

You get what you pay for - why should the rest of us suffer because a small proportion of Internet subscribers can't get broadband?

The rules above are designed to provide a sensible limit for a forum. You can post a decent resolution image with good quality under those constraints that is suitable for use in a forum.

I don't know how you are suffering. Do you want people to post 8000px images that don't fit on the screen etc.? Similarly why should I have to download several megs just to get a really high quality image when a decent jpeg would have been almost as good.

Don't know why you bring up funding either as its clearly not related to this thread. If more money is required for what the guys are working on I think it will be made known!

Albert,

I dont disagree with anything your saying - except the number of 200K.

If images larger than 200kB are found
A Moderator will edit the post to display the link to the image instead of the image itself.

Just seems a little draconian, especially when applied to the types of images currently displayed on this site.
Would users of this site prefer to see the images or just links to the images? Would contributors prefer to see their images on this site or just a link? Think about it is all I'm saying - and if its a financial issue then ask for contributions - simple really.
I know which I'd prefer - but thats just me - an old crank

Hi John,

thanks for your feedback, it is much appreciated. I am the guilty person who brought this up in the Moderators forums. There were two reasons. First is that I sometimes access this site from a dial-up location near Tullamore, and therefore experience the lowest of the low in terms of accessing threads with large images embedded. Second is that I have received PM's from members over the past number of years asking for restrictions on image sizes because the sheer size of some user's images almost killed the IFAS web experience for them.

IFAS's bandwidth is completely unaffected by off-site images showing up on these boards. It is what is hosted on our server space that gets called up on every page loads that adds to it.

To clarify something else: The bandwidth issue and associated charges was a very real one up to almost a year ago when IFAS was offered shared hosting through a member's friend's server to 'combat' the financial constraints. That provider was kindly providing us with a home but for a much cheaper cost than the pro's. Recently, our latest bill for bandwidth usage was due and brought to the committee's attention. At that time (last week), Darragh piped up about being able to host our site with greater bandwidth allocations than could have been imagined, at an even lesser cost, so we moved again!

It's good to know people, eh?

Seanie.

Just seems a little draconian, especially when applied to the types of images currently displayed on this site.
Would users of this site prefer to see the images or just links to the images? Would contributors prefer to see their images on this site or just a link? Think about it is all I'm saying - and if its a financial issue then ask for contributions - simple really.
I know which I'd prefer - but thats just me - an old crank

Its quite simple really, you can display an image in a format that is suitable for the forum. If you want to show something in high resolution then link to it, and include a pic that meets the rules as well if you like. Nothing draconian there.

eg heres today APOD that fits within the guidelines (180k, 800x705)


The full image is available from antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ its 1596x1406 and takes up 1.4Mb. The image above is much more appropriate for a forum.

Think about it is all I'm saying - and if its a financial issue then ask for contributions - simple really.

Nope, it aint an IFAS financial/cost issue, its a matter of people on the boards having dog slow dialup connections and been made wait too long for images to download.

However, there are people on dialup who don't have a lot of bandwidth and when images get too big they distort the layout of the site.

You get what you pay for - why should the rest of us suffer because a small proportion of Internet subscribers can't get broadband? This is a poor excuse for IFAS to submit - fact is you dont have the bandwidth or hosting space required to make the site work to its full capability. Why not ask all affiliations for support? I don't think that any club would not be willing to support IFAS commensurate with it's claimed membership numbers (ooops I forgot about AI maybe???). Or - maybe a small subscription from all who want to contribute would be fairer, say €10 per annum?

PS. I'm not having a go at Artificial or Assumed Intelligence or even Artificial Insemination for that that matter.

1) All images are hosted off site so this has NOTHING WHAT SO EVER to do with our hosting. Your implication that we can't run this site properly is totally off the mark.
2) We live in Ireland, making a site usable by people on dialup is NOT a pathetic excuse. NOT tailoring a site to people on dialup would be a disgrace. You may be lucky enough to have broadband but that's no reason to be all elitist and deny a good experience to those without. We don't discrimiate and to pretent that that policy of inclusion is a poor excuse is exceptionally childish and self-centered.

We are not asking ANYTHING unreasonable. We are allowing big images (800px is not small) and people can link to ANY size image they want. No one loses out but people on dialup can still play.

Bart.