Racketboy Will Be Upgrading Server Relatively Soon

Website · Post by **Lodestar** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:47 pm

So...when this happens, can we have avatars larger than 6kb?

Post by **racketboy** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:55 pm

Lodestar wrote:So...when this happens, can we have avatars larger than 6kb?

I could make it bigger, but 6k isn't very small assuming you're applying decent compression....
Mine is well under 5k

Website · Post by **Lodestar** » Thu May 22, 2008 2:22 pm

I think it should be at least 20kb, considering most of us are 'lucky' enough to have broadband connections or better. I'd consider 6kb adequate for a dial-up internet using community.

I remember trying to make an avatar and I kept going over the limit by like 1 or 2kb, but ideally I'd like to be able to use PNG format and not have to compress to a low-color lossy GIF or JPEG.

Post by **racketboy** » Thu May 22, 2008 2:46 pm

Lodestar wrote:I think it should be at least 20kb, considering most of us are 'lucky' enough to have broadband connections or better. I'd consider 6kb adequate for a dial-up internet using community.

I remember trying to make an avatar and I kept going over the limit by like 1 or 2kb, but ideally I'd like to be able to use PNG format and not have to compress to a low-color lossy GIF or JPEG.

20kb is pretty big -- that like the size I'd use for a header graphic or screenshot on an article....
I can up it a couple k I guess.

Website · Post by **Lodestar** » Thu May 22, 2008 3:38 pm

What kind of compression are you using? If you compare 20kb to the size of your avatar, then sure, it seems colossal..but is it really a huge hit on the server or what? I don't know a whole lot about server management, but I can't possibly see increasing the limit to 10-20kb making a substantial difference or causing a huge spike in bandwidth.

What about hosting on free uploaders?

Post by **racketboy** » Thu May 22, 2008 3:39 pm

Lodestar wrote:What kind of compression are you using?

on what, my avatar?
Mozgus actually made this avatar, so you'd have to ask him

I believe you can post a link for an external avatar -- there's nothing wrong with that.

Post by **Mozgus** » Thu May 22, 2008 3:53 pm

racketboy wrote:
Lodestar wrote:What kind of compression are you using?
on what, my avatar?
Mozgus actually made this avatar, so you'd have to ask him

I believe you can post a link for an external avatar -- there's nothing wrong with that.

It's just a simple GIF, where I cut around the lines to add some transparency. Pretty easy stuff. Cartoon imagery is generally suited for GIF compression, while live imagery is suited for JPG. It's really hard to break 6KB with an 80x80 resolution limit, as long as you dont use animation. Thanks to racket's dark layout on the forums, you cant have to be very accurate on your trimming. Look at my kirby avatar on a white background and you'll see I was very sloppy.

Website · Post by **Lodestar** » Thu May 22, 2008 4:11 pm

Alright, I'm going to try to make an avatar...I'll post it here if it goes over the limit.

Post by **marurun** » Thu May 22, 2008 4:24 pm

Larger hosted avatars can really fill up bandwidth, especially if the browser doesn't cache them. If a displayed page has 6 unique posters, each with 10k avatars, loading that single page would be 60k just in avatar traffic. That would be far more than the text content of the entire page, and possibly all of the html/xhtml/css code that renders that page as well. And if you browse multiple pages of multiple threads, like most of us who regularly visit, and end up encountering something like 25 - 40 unique avatars, that's 250k to 400k per user per visit. It doesn't sound like a lot but it really can add up, especially if there are 500 forum visits a day. With 25 unique avatar views per visit (average), 500 visits a day, that's 125,000k in avatar traffic alone per day. I'm kinda pulling these numbers out of my ass but I think they illustrate the point OK.

If you want larger avatars use an outside hosting service like avatarimage.net or some other image or file host. I even created a free Office Live account once just to host my avatars. There are a number of ways around the Racketboy site 6k limit and most of them are pretty simple, not to mention easier on Racket's traffic profile.

My avatar is outside the 80 x 80 size limit and well over the size limit at 12.7k. For that reason I have it hosted externally through a free service.

Post by **racketboy** » Thu May 22, 2008 4:29 pm

And we have nearly 6,900 forum page views a day here....