Hello Xen

[GMT]

The problem is, reducing the quality of pictures, reduces the appeal of looking at pictures. Which in turn reduces views, which reduces the value of advertising space. If you make it so that each page takes longer to load, and contains more repeats, and uses more data, it reduces views and as before. It also costs the site more for each page view, while lowering ad revenue.

Reduce the posts per page, while keeping picture quality high, reduces site costs, reduces user costs, increases views, and therefore increases the value of advertising space.

I can't see a logical argument against it, "I want it my way " doesn't cut it.

 

[StevenHXF]

The problem is, reducing the quality of pictures, reduces the appeal of looking at pictures. Which in turn reduces views, which reduces the value of advertising space. If you make it so that each page takes longer to load, and contains more repeats, and uses more data, it reduces views and as before. It also costs the site more for each page view, while lowering ad revenue.

Reduce the posts per page, while keeping picture quality high, reduces site costs, reduces user costs, increases views, and therefore increases the value of advertising space.

I can't see a logical argument against it, "I want it my way " doesn't cut it.

The argument that it will reduce bandwidth use only works if people don't paginate between the additional pages, as you probably would because you want to actually see all the images then the data transferred would be the same. In fact, it would increase slightly because you're having to load the page furniture for an increased number of pages. Yes some of the elements would be cached but there would be times when they're not so yes, more pages would in my view increase bandwidth used.

There are a few things that an be done, first is decent compression, I'm not saying reduce image quality by half but it is possible to increase the amount of compression used on all jpg images by around 10% with no noticeable difference. We wouldn't do this on originals, instead we'd keep the original images but serve the new versions with slightly increased compression. There's also millions of old images that were uploaded when image compression wasn't as good as it is now.

The biggest win is going to be to move to proper responsive images. This means that the forum will generate smaller images of various sizes and would serve the most appropriate image to a user based on their device. If looking at the site on a mobile there's no need for the forum to serve a 3000x2500 pixel image (which it currently does) when the size of the forum on a mobile device is 320px, what should happen is that we serve an image appropriate for your device. If looking on desktop then you'd get a version no bigger in pixel terms than the forum container, on tablet you'd be served a smaller file and on mobile even smaller still. Instead of just resizing the large image, the forum would be serving a different file altogether.

This is beyond what XenForo does as standard but is something well built websites and WordPress etc... have been doing well for quite a while now.

I've looked into this and there are people who have implemented this in XenForo but it's a big job. It is something we will address but we are literally working on the Old Galleries as I type this so it comes down to there not currently being enough hours in the day.

 

[Rico Swazi]

My tablet is a clunker as far as wireless with no way to upgrade so I'm stuck
I'm liking the idea of being served a smaller file for it when its possible
Great work @StevenHXF be sure to take time for yourself

 

[GMT]

Talk me through this
If one post has 4 images at 2.5 mb data each, that post has 10mb data. 20 such posts per page is then 200mb data plus page requirements.
Halve the posts per page, 100mb data plus page requirements per view.

Now if it's your thread, and you see a reply, you click on the thread to see the last post. That's 10mb X picture post, per page, to load. If there are 14 previous posts to load, 8 of them picture posts, 6 are in the first ten and 2 in the second ten , you already know about the first 14 posts, so you are loading 5 posts, 2 of which are picture posts, versus 15, 8 of which are picture posts, the data used should be 20 mb plus extras rather than 80mb plus extras.
Also my phone is 720p, my tablet 1200*1980. Neither is latest tech, not sure where 360 comes in.

 

[Ganoderma]

The website will not let me quote ANY AND ALL posts. It just says it's "added to multi quotes" and noting shows up!

 

[StevenHXF]

The website will not let me quote ANY AND ALL posts. It just says it's "added to multi quotes" and noting shows up!

Click quote on as many posts as you want to quote, you can even select text in a post and click quote. Once you’ve done that scroll to the editor and select Insert Quotes, you’ll get a popup asking you to select one of the items you clicked quote on.

 

[StevenHXF]

Testing 12345.

 

[Mithridate]

We're in 2032 that's fantastic!

 

[Mitsuharu]

Thank you for finally implementing the page counter on top too, i've really waited for this!

 

[Kalbhairav]

Thank you for finally implementing the page counter on top too, i've really waited for this!

I second this.. really was getting annoyed of scrolling down each time on mobile

 

[exploziv]

WOW! Nice, some seconds saved everytime we just want to get to last/diferent page in a thread!

 

[bibi40]

Lol ,
too much upgrades here , i can't follow

 

[GMT]

Does the site not auto resize photos to the new lower quality required? I've been trying to work out why I can't upload pictures anymore. I think it's the new max pixel count.

 

[StevenHXF]

Hi, no it doesn’t resize them for you, if they’re higher than the maximum it just stops you uploading. This is for a number of different reasons not just to be difficult.

How large are the images you want to upload?

 

[GMT]

13mp, normally well within the mb but not pixel count.

 

[GMT]

Even a 6.3mp 3297x1896 at 2.6mb won't upload. It just hangs and then the orange bar vanishes. No messages to give a clue.

 

[StevenHXF]

Could you email me some examples of images that have failed? Send them to [email protected]

 

[GMT]

Done,

 

[GMT]

Any updates? Is there a list of file types and max sizes we can upload?

 

[GMT]

What does this image mean?

Why can't I link to my album photos?