February 2005: Forum Changes - Avatars, Signatures

[Luke]

Comparing this February's site traffic to last February, there has been three times as many visitors and at the same time, more than three times as much bandwidth consumed. While I'm thrilled that UltimateDisney.com continues to grow and it's great that we're nearing 2000 forum members, many of whom actively participate, the bandwidth consumption is taking a pretty big toll. I personally can't afford to upgrade the site to dedicated server level. That would effectively remove bandwidth from the situation indefinitely, but it also costs a lot. I know in the past, I assumed the bandwidth situation would be resolved when we upgraded last fall and before that, but the site just continues to grow.

In the meantime, I'm going to implement some changes that can hopefully bring down bandwidth a bit. I don't know how much good they will do, but these changes are inevitable and they really shouldn't limit one's enjoyment of the forum at all.

1) The maximum filesize for an avatar was 35 KB. It will now be <b>21 KB</b>.

2) The maximum dimensions for an avatar was 140 x 140. It will now be <b>100 pixels by 100 pixels</b>.

3) Only members with 50 posts or more will be able to display an avatar next to their posts. Anyone who makes nonsense posts to reach this goal will be warned, and if need be, suspended.

4) Images in signatures (which must be hosted off-site) may not be larger than 100 pixels high, 600 pixels wide, or 35000 square pixels in total.

5) Please, please refrain from posting or linking directly to UD-hosted images on other forums, journals, websites, etc.

#s 1-3 are mostly to save bandwidth, while #3 also encourages regular contributions to forum discussions. An overwhelming majority of forum members post a few times and leave. There's no reason to have an avatar next to these few posts, and so you can think an avatar as a bit of a reward for being a long-term regular member of the forum.

#4 is an aesthetic reason. While signature images don't do much to bandwidth, they make the forum not very easy to navigate, particularly for those on slow connections.

#5 affects few of you, but there are a couple of foreign language forums that do this a lot, and while I won't mention names, it's being done by members of this forum. Please stop. You're welcome to link to a page that houses pictures or to save and host the images yourself, and provide a link to UD. But stealing bandwidth like that is a killer.

Thanks for understanding these changes. Feel free to post any questions or comments here. And of course, if the option is always there to make a monetary donation to the site (as little as $1 helps, though some of that goes to Amazon): http://www.amazon.com/paypage/PS5D9VFP3UXY

[JiminyCrick91]

even thou i am long past needing more postes to get an avatar by nonsense posts do you also count the games froum?

[Dan05]

even thou i am long past needing more postes to get an avatar by nonsense posts do you also count the games froum?

it all sounds good to me and yes i had that exact question in mind...

I was also wonderring if my avatar/signature is a good size or is it to big? cause i've never really understood this whole pixel thing

[orestes.]

Ah the avatar size thing is a shame but it's better than nothing.

My current avatar is over 100x100... I guess the change in size will be mandatory soon?

[Luke]

Jiminy, I don't consider posts in "Polls & Games" nonsense, but there's a few threads that seem kind of like a post count boost, and I may look into making those threads not increase post count, just to make sure that it's not.

Dan, your avatar is fine. It's 98 x 100, so it just fits.

orestes., I think for now you simply won't be allowed to select a new avatar that's bigger than 100 x 100, but it's not going to delete ones that are currently in place. You're free to resize to 100 x 100 now. If everyone did that on their own, it'd save me a lot of time.

[AwallaceUNC]

Amy's been cropped and downsized.

-Aaron

[anger is pointless]

um would taking images out of our sigs help too

[AwallaceUNC]

um would taking images out of our sigs help too

:

4) Images in signatures (which must be hosted off-site) may not be larger than 100 pixels high, 600 pixels wide, or 35000 square pixels in total.

#4 is an aesthetic reason. While signature images don't do much to bandwidth, they make the forum not very easy to navigate, particularly for those on slow connections.

As long as the pic in your signature is small and doesn't come from a UD url you should be ok, and you won't be taking away from the site's bandwith.

-Aaron

[littlefuzzy]

I was worried for a sec... But it turns out my avatar is only 80x80, and about 1.5K in size... BTW, if anyone wants to check their avatar size, they can right click on the picture and go to properties, that will show the pixel size and the byte size.

The fifty posts thing makes perfect sense. If you contribute to discussions, you will get there sooner or later, and if you don't, why do you need an avatar anyway?

I joined on the 10th of October 2004, and I was at 50 posts by the end of the month. I wasn't making posts just to bump my count, but because I felt I could add something (however minute) to the conversation.

As far as other sites using your bandwidth goes, that needs to be stopped dead in its tracks, even if it would mean banning a member that was doing it. Also, here are various things you could do so that hotlinking wouldn't work, etc.

[RJKD23]

Desperate Housewives avatar has changed to a Bree avatar
saving Bandwidth.

[toonstuff]

I haven't even been involved in these forums for a month yet, but I've been enjoying them alot. I appreciate the efforts you're taking to keep everything going.

I assume that clicking the amazon.com and bestbuy.com links bring in money toward the running of this website... If this is the case, maybe people could show their support of UD in that way.

Thanks again for being so cooperative!

[Sunset Girl]

Ok, I'm putting Sailor Minnie Moon on vacation and replacing her with Will from Disney's W.i.t.c.h. series. Thus, we have my contribution to a smaller avatar!

[Mehe]

I can dig it.

[Noriel]

Made the few changes.

[blaing]

Fair enough, Luke.

While (at the moment) I am using the Timon Hula avatar, I also use the Goofy title card avatar (which was 140 pixels wide) which I will rezise to the new dimensions (in case I decide to use it again)

[RJKD23]

wowweee, you know what?
I like how the 100 x 100 pixels is the max!
Everything looks so uniformed and organized!
(oh, and it saves with the bandwidth issue too. )

[Mayhem]

After getting bandwidth exceeded errors for the last 24 hours...

I fully support the need to reduce throughput. Even though it will take me a few more posts to get my avatar back

[poco]

Thanks for the changes Luke. One reason I don't come on a lot is that pages do take a while to load with the pics and all, and personally when I only have a few minutes break, you can understand my dilemma!

[orestes.]

wowweee, you know what?
I like how the 100 x 100 pixels is the max!
Everything looks so uniformed and organized!
(oh, and it saves with the bandwidth issue too. )

Ah I'm going through a faze where I like rectangle avatars more than square. After I get tired of my current one I'm going for the widescreen one again. Keeping 100X100 is too "fullscreen" for me.

[RJKD23]

wowweee, you know what?
I like how the 100 x 100 pixels is the max!
Everything looks so uniformed and organized!
(oh, and it saves with the bandwidth issue too. )

Ah I'm going through a faze where I like rectangle avatars more than square. After I get tired of my current one I'm going for the widescreen one again. Keeping 100X100 is too "fullscreen" for me.

hey hey hey, put your "Fullscreen" opinions in the correct thread!
you're saying you don't like this uniformity?

although now that you mention it...widescreen does look better huh.