Large pictures will no longer show

[John]

An announcement was posted, with which you are informed about large pictures no longer showing in a thread. The announcement is here:

http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?p=154055#post154055

Use this thread to discuss this feature.

[Rio Vista Slim]

Fellow Members,
I don't think that I'm alone, when I say that one of the best features of this forum is the ability to post pictures of our guns, as well as all of the knick-knacks and variables associated with the 1911.

Even my "el cheapo" digital camera comes with the ability to size the photos at the time that they are taken. Furthermore, services such as "PhotoBucket" have editing features that allow one to make his/her photos the acceptable size.

John realized a long time ago that we are not all on broadband, and that dial-up connections can take forever to download large images. Therefore, the restriction of photos no larger than 800 X 600 pixels.

I love to see your guns, holsters, repair-work, custom-work, etc. Please take a few minutes to be sure that your posted pictures fall within the parameters set by the forum rules. Postage stamp sized photos don't show me the detail that I like to see, and greater-than screen sized pictures take forever to download.

Thank you, from a 1911 (love to see your guns) addict.

[John]

Just so that members understand the restrictions some of us may have, when viewing the site, and the problems large pictures create, allow me to recite some cases where bandwidth is at a premium.

- Consider those who are using a dial-up connection. At 33.6 or 54 kbps, downloading a page with 5 pictures of 800x600 pixels, can be really time consuming.

- Even worst, imagine some folks who have real slow internet connections, like wireless connections at 9,6 kpbs. Ever tried to download a page with lots of pictures to your mobile phone?

However and for the benefit of those who wonder why John keeps insisting to see pictures of 1911s, let me explain that too. This site is the world first site on the 1911 pistol. If you do a search with Google, or Yahoo, or any other major search engine, the first site returned is M1911.ORG.

This has been accomplished with your help and with the efforts of the team running this site. We try to bring you things which can not be found elsewhere. New product tests, even before any other printed publication has them. News feeds. Chat. SMS. All for the service of the membership. All this makes M1911.ORG the No 1 site for our favorite pistol.

At the same time, this organization has become the premier Internet resource on the 1911. Being the premier resource means that any visitor should be able to find in here, anything he wants (related to the 1911). So why not help us make this site the world largest collection of pictures of 1911s?

So help us here. Don't complain when the ... Sergeant appears and asks you for pictures. Even if your 1911 is a bog standard Springfield GI, be proud of it and show it to us.

Help us stay at the top.

[Hawkmoon]

Another reason for the picture size limitation is that, believe it or not, some computers support only 800x600 resolution. Yes, I know it's archaic, but the computer my wife uses is limited to that (I don't recall if the limiting factor is the monitor or the card), my older notebook is limited to that, and when we were traveling and I was using Internet cafes for access many of them were running at 800x600 screen resolution.

Which means that any image larger than that requires both vertical and horizontal scrolling to see the entire image -- and that means you simply can't take it the overall picture in one glance. It ruins the effect.

[John]

Quite so, I forgot to mention that! Thanks for the reminder Hawk!

[John]

Has anyone else noticed a large delay when loading a thread with lots of pictures, like this one?

http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?p=154198#post154198&conly=

[Rio Vista Slim]

Has anyone else noticed a large delay when loading a thread with lots of pictures, like this one?

http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?p=154198#post154198&conly=
John,
It's been eight minutes, and the thread still hasn't completely finished loading. Of course, I'm on a dial-up connection, but I noticed this with the exact same thread yesterday, and I gave up on it.

[John]

OK folks, the code for not showing large pictures is officially taken off. I can't figure out how to make it work, at least not without affecting the speed at which the threads show. The button is shown reliably, but the code incures a huge delay when showing threads with lots of pictures.

Until I find a way to solve this problem, we are back to normal operating procedures, i.e. large pictures have to be trapped and the poster warned.

Thanks for your patience.

[DuckRyder]

That thread is noticeably faster now, it took over 2 minutes on a 768k DSL line now ~30 sec.

I like the concept of replacing the oversize images, but wonder if it might be possible to have a thumbnail of the image instead of the button. In this way, the viewer could decide if the image warranted viewing or not.

Just an idea...

Thank You for your efforts.

[John]

If I manage to solve my problems, that won't be a problem. I have the code for that already.

The issue is that the getimagesize routine (a build-in routine, in the language in which this board software is written), produces some errors, if the image you are asking it to find its size, does not exist. These errors appear on the top of a page and they break out the layout of the site.

I am trying to find a way to test if the images exist, however, it looks as if the most reliable way to do the test, is also heavily impacting the performance of the software, when viewing threads with lots of pictures.

A less reliable method is now tried.

I'll keep everyone posted.

[geneinnc]

Has anyone else noticed a large delay when loading a thread with lots of pictures, like this one?

http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?p=154198#post154198&conly=


no, but I'm on T1, took about 6 seconds

Dial up would have taken 45 minutes

[secinv]

Can you advise on how to post pics??

If I manage to solve my problems, that won't be a problem. I have the code for that already.

The issue is that the getimagesize routine (a build-in routine, in the language in which this board software is written), produces some errors, if the image you are asking it to find its size, does not exist. These errors appear on the top of a page and they break out the layout of the site.

I am trying to find a way to test if the images exist, however, it looks as if the most reliable way to do the test, is also heavily impacting the performance of the software, when viewing threads with lots of pictures.

A less reliable method is now tried.

I'll keep everyone posted.

[John]

It's all in the FAQ section, check it out. Right above the Sponsors Panel there is a line with links.