Small or Large Thumbnails - Poll

[Admin US West]

I have reduced the size of image thumbnails to 200 X 200. A viewer must click on a thumbnail to see a larger image.

At the same time, I increased the number of images allowed from 6 to 10.

The issue is that it takes a lot of time to have a large number of 770 X 770 loading, and not everyone has a blazing fast internet speed.

What do you, the users think? I do not know how many users have fast internet, or how many have slow internet, so tell us.


I'm willing to go with the majority on this. The poll runs for 5 days.

Thanks for your input.

ADDED:

The forum only allows one size regardless of the board.

I'll look at the options for removing images. As I recall, they are not repeated when used as a attachment, but when someone embeds a link, its copied. We would not ban embedding links.

 

[Jim Saunders]

The first option gives previews a little smaller than the previous setup, yes? Either way it seems big enough, and six photos in what I consider a lot in one post.

Jim

 

[Arctic Photo]

Definitely want the large thumbnails, I rarely click on pictures but look at them in preview only. Smaller thumbnails ruins the whole gallery idea, my opinion.

 

[sagittariansrock]

I think it would be a courteous thing to remove images from replies, in the image galleries. It causes unnecessary repetition and wastes screen real estate. Can this be enforced in some way? Does anyone see any advantage to this?

 

[Northstar]

I think it would be a courteous thing to remove images from replies, in the image galleries. It causes unnecessary repetition and wastes screen real estate. Can this be enforced in some way? Does anyone see any advantage to this?

+1

 

[Northstar]

I like the larger images

 

[danski0224]

I prefer the larger thumbnails.

I am also one of the apparently few people that have "slow" internet.

It would be nice if there was a picture size (bytes) limit if the preview window is small.

I really do not see the need to upload images that are megabytes in size. I can use free software that makes web-friendly 800x533 images that are less than 300kb at the best quality setting with little apparent loss of detail. Setting the quality at 80% frequently makes the file size ~125kb.

Clicking on a 200x200 preview and viewing a 3mb attachment isn't happening here.

Attachments do not always work well on mobile devices, clicking on those 3mb files uses mobile data, too.

+2 on removing the image from a reply quote.

 

[infared]

I think it would be a courteous thing to remove images from replies, in the image galleries. It causes unnecessary repetition and wastes screen real estate. Can this be enforced in some way? Does anyone see any advantage to this?

I agree with this wholeheartedly!!!

I am beta testing the new Selling Forum...I like the smaller thumbnails and "ten-count" for the images in that forum, but the larger thumbs for the rest of the forums....but I am guessing that it is not possible to allow that??

 

[Click]

I think it would be a courteous thing to remove images from replies, in the image galleries. It causes unnecessary repetition and wastes screen real estate.

+1

...And I prefer large image 770 x 770

 

[lion rock]

I like larger images displayed. Clicking to enlarge and going back to the original thread is not streamlined. Doing so does not improving viewing speed on fast or slow connection which I have at home.

Limiting number of photos summited is fine, posters can always send in a second or more posts with another set of photos.

Lastly, I like the idea that replies suppress attached photos. Maybe, that's where much smaller images would be included.
-r

 

[RLPhoto]

I like the big thumbnails. Saves a lot of time and is less jarring to the thread reading experience.

 

[Orangutan]

I used to have much slower Internet (1.5Mb/s down), and when I viewed a gallery I knew it would be slow -- that's just the nature of a gallery. The benefit of having a gallery is much diminished if it's all tiny thumbnails.

I think it would be a courteous thing to remove images from replies, in the image galleries. It causes unnecessary repetition and wastes screen real estate.

+1

If possible, it might be helpful to limit the number of displayed posts per page on gallery threads so that each page loads faster.

 

[2n10]

I chose I have fast internet and would like more than 6 per post. My second choice would be keep the large thumbnails.

I do like the idea of removing images from replies.

 

[Lorex]

I think it would be a courteous thing to remove images from replies, in the image galleries. It causes unnecessary repetition and wastes screen real estate. Can this be enforced in some way? Does anyone see any advantage to this?

+1

And the small previews have really reduced my fun looking through the gallery threads, so I'm also for the large previews.

 

[RustyTheGeek]

I think it would be a courteous thing to remove images from replies, in the image galleries. It causes unnecessary repetition and wastes screen real estate. Can this be enforced in some way? Does anyone see any advantage to this?

I agree with this wholeheartedly!!!

I am beta testing the new Selling Forum...I like the smaller thumbnails and "ten-count" for the images in that forum, but the larger thumbs for the rest of the forums....but I am guessing that it is not possible to allow that??

Ditto. I think the selling forum is a great place to have the smaller thumbnails. I prefer larger images on the other threads BUT I'm willing to accept a slightly smaller image in the spirit of helping those less fortunate. Perhaps the original thumbnail could be larger and then the full size image available after clicking.

I understand that having different settings in different threads is likely not possible so I think a happy medium is necessary regardless of what we've all come to enjoy up to now. However, I don't want to lose folks or see the experience diminished too much as a result. It's a tough line to find. I hope everyone is able to be flexible.

 

[nineyards]

The poll was a good move
Personally, I have a super fast internet so the bigger the better for me, but that doesn't help those who have to wait unacceptably long for downloads off this site
However, I am thinking a lot of good shots might be passed by from viewers because of the relatively small size of the thumbs, if I click on a photo here, it's because I saw some detail or aspect that jumped out at me and made me want to investigate further
The smaller the thumbs, the greater the chance of me just passing it by
Also I believe if you hit the quote button directly from he post you are reading instead of hitting "reply" then referencing the post you will be able to reply without the repetition of the image, correct me if I am wrong

 

[DominoDude]

Great poll, indeed!
I prefer the bigger thumbnails.
I have to admit that Im guilty of replying by quoting posts with a full amount of photos in it at times. Kicked myself afterwards for the repetition of information that wouldn't make anyone happier. I do see the benefits of small thumbnails for a lighter load and speedy rendering for those with slow Internet connections, but it looks more professional with bigger shots and it invites me to look at them. I promise I will do my best to not add redundant information by having others photos quoted in my replies, if you keep the big thumbnails.

 

[Joe M]

My preference is to see larger thumbnails. Personally I hate having to click on "img.jpg" to see a larger size. At the same time though, I think the number of images should be limited. My connection speed is more than enough to handle the content but it can sometimes be tedious to scroll endlessly past a post full of images to get to the next one in line and read the replies and so on.

 

[Admin US West]

At this point, it looks to me to be a clear majority want the larger thumbnails.

I'm going to revert to them immediately, but leave the poll open. As a compromise, I'll allow 8 images and see what happens. I've not been able to find a way to remove the image links from a reply to a post.

Also note:

I also have the ability to turn off the thumbnail and show images full size.


While I was fooling with the image controls, I noticed a option that is checked to show the thumbnails as PNG format images. I did a little research, and the Simple Machines Manual says that's a higher quality setting. It just might be responsible for the frequent reports of poor colors and artifacts noted in uploaded images, so I will experiment with turning it off to see what we get. It is also possible that showing the image full size might improve the quality, the resize option is turned on now. I definitely don't want to bring down the forum by playing with the options too much, but it might be interesting to try settings for a few minutes to see what happens.

I'll first try turning off the png. Generally, the changes only apply to new posts and are not retroactive.

Anyone who wants to compare send me a PM and you can try a before and after.

Ed

 

[Dylan777]

At this point, it looks to me to be a clear majority want the larger thumbnails.

I'm going to revert to them immediately, but leave the poll open. As a compromise, I'll allow 8 images and see what happens. I've not been able to find a way to remove the image links from a reply to a post.

Also note:

I also have the ability to turn off the thumbnail and show images full size.


While I was fooling with the image controls, I noticed a option that is checked to show the thumbnails as PNG format images. I did a little research, and the Simple Machines Manual says that's a higher quality setting. It just might be responsible for the frequent reports of poor colors and artifacts noted in uploaded images, so I will experiment with turning it off to see what we get. It is also possible that showing the image full size might improve the quality, the resize option is turned on now. I definitely don't want to bring down the forum by playing with the options too much, but it might be interesting to try settings for a few minutes to see what happens.

I'll first try turning off the png. Generally, the changes only apply to new posts and are not retroactive.

Anyone who wants to compare send me a PM and you can try a before and after.

Ed

Thank you ;D