Forum Thread

Ello~ :)

At first.. I really searched for a thread that includes this topic as well, but all I found were uncountable different avatar-shops. So sorry, if this suggestion already exists.

I'd like to suggest that the avatar file-size of 150Kb will be increased to 300-500kb.

The point is, alot users are using gifs currently. Those gifs would looking much better, when the solution is as high as possible. (that would also be more userfriendly for those who had a poor eyesight)

it's quite possible optimizing pictures to a low-level and display them here, but that is only possible with arts that includes just a few shadows, colours or effects.

Just let me say that I don't talk about much glittering effects at this point. I talk about layers and colours. If you wanna display a special szene from your favourite tv-series for example you have to lower the quality to a minimum to show the whole scene (and we don't talk about a 30 sec. scene - it is alot less than that.)


just one example that I picked randomly out of my current notifications:
(no offense! I really love the gif. It's very pretty and well done, but I really need an example^^)

Dimensions: 150 × 113px
File size: 149?KB

this gif includes 25 layers. it was lowered to 32 colours and was also optimized to the web (in this point I just can guess.. to 20% ?) (that means that the quality was lowered.. do you see the small dots under his arm? thats what I am talking about)
please remember at this point: we took a look on an anime-scene. a human scene of real people would look horrible, because of a more difficult shading. (and more action in the scene. if there is much trouble then the size will also be bigger.)

so what do you think? is it a good idea to increase the avatar file-size ? (And I'm just talking about the file size, not the dimensions), or should we just don't use gifs? :>

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Support had same problem with gif avatars always was around 300-500kb and change was bad idea because from nice avatar ended as one big something whats moved

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I totally agree. A bigger size would look much better, and I don't think that it is hard to implement. Such a small size for an avatar can also be pretty annoying :/

uhm.. well i think it may be a good idea.
But think about people with slower internet that will have to load all those gifs. I know it may sound stupid nowadays to have a slow connection that takes long to load a simple gif of like 500kb. but i think they still exist.

regarding the gif:
(no offence taken for using my gif as example lawl)
I like the pixels =S

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As much as I'd love this, I need to point out that there is a size limit for a reason. ^^

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Loading times and bandwidth aside (some people do have limited bandwidth, for example on mobile devices), it seems an increase in file size would almost exclusively benefit animated avatars. Which I find distracting enough as-is. Even if there's only one post on a page with a fast- or complex- moving avi, it can get hard on the eyes. Therefore, no support.

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I would agree with you, moonrise and koinu, if the signatures would be handled the same way.
to say that 300-500 kb would change alot is a bit ... strange, you know, because people are using sometimes oversized signatures here too. ^^ to fight against avatar-size would just solve a symptom, but not the whole problem.

just because there's no mobile solution available at the moment, we shouldn't renounce a few quality-standards by regular usage. (and we should remember that riako is still working on an app for mobile usage, isn't he?)

but independet by all this arguments there could be some easy solutions. :-)

- caching processes // that would help mobile users, because they only have to load the content once.
- different resolutions // at the moment we're using two resolutions on whole site. there's a minimizer implemented that lowers all avatars from 150x150 to 120x120px. the possibility is there to morph avatars also to a lower quality.
- .mobile solution // if there's a .mobile solution, it would also be possible to hide ALL avatars and signatures. the pc-users wouldn't notice that, because there would be two different websites for different devices.

it is riakos decision how to solve the problems you're talking about. but let me tell you that there are alot possibilities to do it. :-) That's why I think we just should tell each other if we want something(or not). ^^ In my opinion it's not a question of "How can we solve this???" it's a decision like "Well, this will take some time. I would like to change it, but it have to wait for now." <- waiting wouldn't be a problem, but we can talk about it right now, right? :P

on the other hand of course animated files would benefit of it and also pictures without animation. Currently the most of us have to edit an existing avatar, because it isn't possible to upload - the allowed size is very small for graphics. it would be an reduce of work for all users that like to change their avatar.

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support, i guess
this is a pretty good idea, but I really wouldn't utilize it (I am not changing my avatar)

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I support this, I wanted a gif as my avatar however it was 300kB

suport

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Support (:
I make my own avatars from time to time and most of my files are, for some reason, too big :I

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If you searched hard, you missed my thread what suggested the size would increase to 400 size. Anyways, the suggestion wasn't added and I know very well why.
I would have supported in the past, but I wouldn't support the idea now, as otherwise the forum pages would have to be resized, and so would everybodies profile. And it just wouldn't look that neat.

But I see why you're suggesting this

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No Support, There is Some reasons behind this, as previously someone said so i dont think so it would be :)

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P.S. You can resize GIFs with Picresize.com so then you could use it for this website, all of the pictures shrinks but none goes missing so it stays the same, only smaller.

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