Pictures and the CB - Very Important - Please read

[jfulcer]

Diane

Your house thread is actually not that bad - you normally have a few pictures every few pages or so - what this is designed to stop is that people post like 15-20 pictures in one post, not spread over a bunch of them like your house post.

I've been provided with a little more explanation, but can't post it right here (yet). Pete is right in that it's <i><b>primarily</b> not</i> about bandwidth which he says in his post - it's just not clear what it seems to be about.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking it meant the whole thread might be a problem.

 

[always quiet]

Still no answer to my "remote bebug" pop up. Anyone else get this?

 

[jfulcer]

Ok, so as I understand it, here's the deal (and I'll try to simplify it).

While your browser (IE, Netscape, AOL, etc...) loads the pages that get sent from the boards, it 'holds' that connection open from Pete's server. Once the page is done being sent, it will close the connection.

If the post has a lot of pictures (and this includes smileys), it could take a while for your browser to load everything, all the while holding that connection open. This is ok when you have 10-20 people on your board looking at posts. When you have hundreds, if not thousands of people looking at posts the server is holding lots of connections open all the time. This is especially true for people using dialup to look at the boards, as opposed to broadband.

IMHO bandwidth is a smaller piece of the puzzle than what I described above. Of course, it most likely comes down to money - to get a server capable of holding more connections costs major cash. And for a free board, I would imagine it's a hard justification to make for Pete.

Have I confused everyone more? I can see where Pete would just blame 'bandwidth' in general as it's easier to explain, but now at least us technical minded people might understand more...

 

[Rajah]

Thanks Jeff. Now *that* makes sense.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I cut down on the annimations in my siggy. Is that also a problem? I decided to leave my OKW pic, and my little dancing pants. What about the trip counter?

 

[Pin Wizard]

Originally posted by Saffron
Is there a way to make this message or other "not to be missed" messages at the top of the board stand out from the other "locked up top stuff" so more people can see it?

That's for sure. Perhaps if it's at the top and somehow stands out...bold, extra large lettering? I for one know that the posts at the top are ALWAYS there. I just happened to open this one...probably the only time I've looked at the top posts in the last 6 or more months. I know that the last two of the "top posts" are under Alex's sn. When I come to this board, I click down looking for the two "WebmasterAlex"s and just start reading the subjects under them.

 

[Zurg]

I don't know about anyone else but if it's if from Pete, I read it.



Then I look to see if Charlie, NJ has hijacked it.

 

[JohnTBap]

Dude, someone jacked your shoe.

 

[C.Ann]

Didn't see any answer here on the smilies issue. I usually add a pink bounce and a green bounce at the end of particular posts and now I have to keep hitting the back button because I get a message saying there are "too many" in my post..

I don't understand the connection between smilies and HUGE photos.. Can someone explain?

Thanks!

 

[jfulcer]

Originally posted by C.Ann
Didn't see any answer here on the smilies issue. I usually add a pink bounce and a green bounce at the end of particular posts and now I have to keep hitting the back button because I get a message saying there are "too many" in my post..

I don't understand the connection between smilies and HUGE photos.. Can someone explain?

Thanks!

There's not really a connection between the two. The removal of the smilies is because of too many open connections on the server. Huh?

Ok, let's say you post your post with it's two smilies, and then add in your sig picture. Then add in all the smilies that any replies to you with, and their sigs. Then add all the buttons and other ads/images on the pages themselves. It adds up really quick.

Now try to send that post to two DIS users - one with dialup and one with broadband. The one with broadband will load that entire post in about a second. The one with dialup could take a minute to load - and the whole time even though the pictures may come from elsewhere a connection to the server is held open. Multiply that times 800 users and that's where you get the problem. Server resources are as much of an issue as bandwidth.

Obviously moreso when the rule was insituted without giving the users a chance to reduce their usage.

Understand now?

 

[C.Ann]

Originally posted by jfulcer
There's not really a connection between the two. The removal of the smilies is because of too many open connections on the server. Huh?

Ok, let's say you post your post with it's two smilies, and then add in your sig picture. Then add in all the smilies that any replies to you with, and their sigs. Then add all the buttons and other ads/images on the pages themselves. It adds up really quick.

Now try to send that post to two DIS users - one with dialup and one with broadband. The one with broadband will load that entire post in about a second. The one with dialup could take a minute to load - and the whole time even though the pictures may come from elsewhere a connection to the server is held open. Multiply that times 800 users and that's where you get the problem. Server resources are as much of an issue as bandwidth.

Obviously moreso when the rule was insituted without giving the users a chance to reduce their usage.

Understand now?

---------------------

Ummmmm...not really.. But thanks anyhow! LOL

 

[Blondie]

The whole thing still confuses me, but that's okay!

Coming from someone who is STILL on an old-fashioned dial up, I can honestly say I don't have any problems loading smiles or big clipart or reply buttons or whatever.

If I want to see a 'photo thread' as in DIS meet, I usually have to refresh a few times, but so what. Doesn't bother me in the least. I've gotten used to it.

What does hold up the loading of a page for me (on an old-fashioned dial up) is the banner ads up top. Very often I just sit here looking at the Birthday and Congratulations Thread Topic before I can scroll down the page because it's loading the banner ads. I know they are paying sponsors, so they'll never go away.

 

[Rajah]

Originally posted by Blondie
What does hold up the loading of a page for me (on an old-fashioned dial up) is the banner ads up top. Very often I just sit here looking at the Birthday and Congratulations Thread Topic before I can scroll down the page because it's loading the banner ads. I know they are paying sponsors, so they'll never go away.

I'm not sure if that's the banner ads loading, because usually I have trouble with the CB loading as well -- it loads the Congrats board, then hangs for anywhere from 5 to 60 seconds, then loads the rest of the board. And I'm on cable at home and something supposedly faster at work. My guess is that's a size issue -- the CB is so huge it just takes that long for the queries to grab all their data. Just a guess, though.

 

[Cricket2]

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[jfulcer]

Now it's back? Is the limit higher?

 

[Rajah]

Bah, it lost my attempt at writing my message. I was trying to say that if the limit is up at 8 or something, that's *much* better than 2 smilies.

Just to test... I tried 10 and that was too many, what about 9? Nope, 9 too many as well. 8?

 

[Cricket2]

I didn't intend on being cryptic

Yes, it's 8 now.

JC

 

[Buckalew]

Hooray!! Esp. for Mare!! <----- that's my favorite here!

 

[*Robin*]

OH MY! I hadn't evven seen this before...I'm going to have to go through the Depp/Bloom debate and get rid of a bunch of pivs...

I'm sorry Pete, I really didn't see this before!