Hi all.
I've been working, on and off, on a short, easily-digested guide for posting on the 405th, that should explain in more detail some of the forum etiquette we expect of our members. One of the things I've run into which I'd like to get some feedback on is the posting of images on the 405th, particularly in regards to file size and resolution.
There are two main reasons as to why I'm trying to work this issue along:
Firstly, full-sized images are a pain to look at. I use a fairly large monitor myself, and I still find that a great deal of images posted by our members fill up my screen and are difficult to see. This issue will most likely be compounded for our members with smaller screens - simply put, images that fill up the screen and require scrolling to view properly should, ideally,be resized for easier viewing.
Secondly: larger images load more slowly. In the age of broadband Internet, this isn't such an issue for desktop and laptop users who connect via a broadband/fibre home line, some of our users browse on poor connections and mobile devices while out and about, often on data allowance plans (I still remember with great fondness my first Internet plan, with a monthly allowance of one whole gigabyte). Larger images eat up these allowances, which cripples the experience for those users.
Therefore, I would like to invite the community to discuss this issue, and to possibly suggest an ideal image resolution of around 960x540, JPG format - half the size of a reasonably common 22" household monitor. I do realise that this issue may be subjective to each user's own screen setup, but the courtesy extended to the community at large would be a great benefit.
I'd also like to remind users that is is encouraged to use the 'Manage Attachments' tool in the expanded Reply editor - this allows users to add up to ten files as an attachment rather than hosting images off-site, and images are generated as clickable thumbnails as opposed to large, full-sized images.
Again, I'd like to hear what the community thinks of the proposals, and if there are any further ideas, I'd love to hear them!
I've been working, on and off, on a short, easily-digested guide for posting on the 405th, that should explain in more detail some of the forum etiquette we expect of our members. One of the things I've run into which I'd like to get some feedback on is the posting of images on the 405th, particularly in regards to file size and resolution.
There are two main reasons as to why I'm trying to work this issue along:
Firstly, full-sized images are a pain to look at. I use a fairly large monitor myself, and I still find that a great deal of images posted by our members fill up my screen and are difficult to see. This issue will most likely be compounded for our members with smaller screens - simply put, images that fill up the screen and require scrolling to view properly should, ideally,be resized for easier viewing.
Secondly: larger images load more slowly. In the age of broadband Internet, this isn't such an issue for desktop and laptop users who connect via a broadband/fibre home line, some of our users browse on poor connections and mobile devices while out and about, often on data allowance plans (I still remember with great fondness my first Internet plan, with a monthly allowance of one whole gigabyte). Larger images eat up these allowances, which cripples the experience for those users.
Therefore, I would like to invite the community to discuss this issue, and to possibly suggest an ideal image resolution of around 960x540, JPG format - half the size of a reasonably common 22" household monitor. I do realise that this issue may be subjective to each user's own screen setup, but the courtesy extended to the community at large would be a great benefit.
I'd also like to remind users that is is encouraged to use the 'Manage Attachments' tool in the expanded Reply editor - this allows users to add up to ten files as an attachment rather than hosting images off-site, and images are generated as clickable thumbnails as opposed to large, full-sized images.
Again, I'd like to hear what the community thinks of the proposals, and if there are any further ideas, I'd love to hear them!