admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2,085
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Post by admin on Aug 8, 2018 6:13:13 GMT
I am actually making pretty good progress on the attachment maxing out issue - the first step was to reduce the maximum size down to 1MB from 15MB.. I don't know why it was set so high to begin with, there really is no reason to attach such a large image as it takes forever to load and unless you are going to print it on a T-shirt or something 100KB is more than adequate - and 1MB should cover anything we could want to reasonably upload and see on the forum.
Quite a lot of space was saved by going through several hundred images ranging in the 3-7MB range - mostly they were on sword ID questions and in the classifieds - and so every day I have been deleting the really big images on items that have been sold with huge images that are no longer needed.
Additionally, as I was talking about before, I have cobbled together some good posts with images into new informative articles, and replaced the images in the thread with direct links to where they are now hosted on SBG and a link explaining what was done and why.
Example:
A new article on the 6th How to Patina a Sword was created from 3 different threads, has the acknowledgements of whose info and photos were used at the bottom, and the original huge images were replaced with direct links to the images and a link to the article.
Even though the new replaced images are smaller in size (around 100KB down from 5MB) they show up bigger in the post.
Example:
This is what it looks like when it is an attachment that you need to open and download to see properly:
And here is what it looks like on the forum when replaced and in the SBG article:
Once I have finished enough articles I will start to replace dead stickies and link them for easy reference in the forums - this should go a long way to both fixing up all the dead links with helpful content and reduce the burden on hosting considerably - in just this one example those three threads totaled usage of 44MB for 12 images, which frees up enough space for 440 images at 100KB each.. Big difference right there..
A couple more 'cobbled' articles include one on antique swords and a fairly big one on how to bring out a hamon all made in the same way and freeing up space for thousands of new images if they are reasonably sized.
Same thing is happening with reviews, we now have 40 new reviews sprinkled throughout SBG on every sword type bringing the total to 180 reviews and counting. There is a review index for SBG recently added which lists reviews of products that are in production with images and a basic info - discontinued swords are given just a standard text link - so it should help visitors to read reviews on swords that are still theoretically available which is helpful (I don't know about you guys, but if I read a review on a sword and get excited about it - only to find out it has been discontinued for years now - it's just frustrating, so I have tried to minimize that frustration).
I don't know if it is possible to have compression on this forum as it is hosted by forums.net - the paid version of proboards, and is a bit limited compared to forums made from scratch, but on the positive side it is extremely robust, never goes down, is pretty much impossible to hack and that is what is important (it is much more expensive than normal hosting, but worth it for all those features - plus there is technical support available, etc). But to be honest, after the recent clean up I did - even though there are still at least several hundred images on there between 4-7MB - many are in threads that I don't want to mess with or active items for sale in the classifieds that I am waiting until they are sold before cleaning them up. QUICK FAVOR - if anyone has a listing in the classifieds with lots of images but the item has been withdrawn or sold but not been marked as such, please do so. I am erring on the side of caution and assuming that unless it says otherwise or is 5 years old, that the item is still for sale or available.
Still a long way to go, but with the attachment issue now downgraded from a red hot emergency situation to stable and still a bit hot but quite sustainable, right now we could manage another 4,000 images at 1MB or 40,000 at 100KB, and I am still working on freeing up more space, but the emergency situation is now over..
Been a heck of a lot of work but its all good for both the main site, which is now more relevant again, for the forums, which are about to regain a lot of lost info and get some new info that was never there before, and even the industry, as I have noticed that if a good sword is reviewed positively on SBG, it tends to stay in production by getting just enough sales to prevent cancellation. Though one of my favorites by Windlass, the European sword that was in the old logo and reviewed way back in 2005 is about to go the way of the do do at MRL again, and this time probably for good..
So no dramas on attachments - if you want to use the attachment feature for something that is what it is there for and is now set up so it should not max out like that again, and I will continue to take the pressure of it and ensure good reviews and content is saved forever on the main site as this will be an ongoing thing and once this first stage is over, I will be looking at ways to encourage people to post their best stuff and providing awards, recognition, prizes and other fun stuff.
I am sure there were many other things I wanted to put down in that post, but with so much on my plate right now I hope I will be forgiven for being a little absent minded.. Ah, yes - that awesome scabbard tutorial! Brenno, can you email me Findlithui's email address? Since it has been taken down I don't want to put it on SBG without checking with him. Verity sent me the PDF and it really is incredibly helpful to anyone looking to make a custom scabbard that looks amazing - and would hate to see it lost forever to the community.
Got to get back to the virtual grindstone..! Like I said, it is a lot of hard work right now but that's my job and to be honest, I am enjoying it immensely.
Thanks all, - Paul |
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Post by Verity on Aug 8, 2018 6:28:35 GMT
Paul ( admin), I also just wanted to say thanks for all the hard work keeping this community going. I am sure often it is a thankless job, so.. THANK YOU! |
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Aug 8, 2018 9:11:47 GMT
Paul's really been an animal lately with cleaning up and improving the site. I check in here a lot of times during the day, and the amount of stuff he's been doing in such a short time frame is pretty staggering. Thanks a bunch, Paul!
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LeMal
Member
Posts: 1,012
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Post by LeMal on Aug 8, 2018 10:53:29 GMT
Just a thought, but as we see above (sorry verity--you're right in front of me ;) ) many of us on here have the habit of quoting a prior post with images on it to reply to it--and not trimming the earlier post down to just what we're responding to.
Don't know if it matters to total storage count, but a lot of times those prior posts have images, even a lot of them, and at least from a reader's view it looks like the images get double-posted (or more, sometimes much more) that way.
(Though I'll also say, even if it doesn't pertain to storage count, I'd still hope we get in the habit of trimming the quotes we grab to only what's necessary for our responses. When scrolling through a long, multi-page thread It really improves readability--a lot!)
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Post by Verity on Aug 8, 2018 13:57:17 GMT
I'd still hope we get in the habit of trimming the quotes we grab to only what's necessary for our responses. Yeah, I’ll admit I am bad about that. Images therein however should not impact storage on quotes though because it is simply referencing the alias embedded |
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Post by randomnobody on Aug 8, 2018 15:04:37 GMT
Embedded images from third-party hosts don't count toward forum server storage, and images attached through the forum aren't quoted. Not a real issue there.
I do agree that quote etiquette here needs work. I've seen multiple [unnamed persons] copy entire reviews, full text, formatting, images, everything, just to say "Great review, nice sword. Thanks."
It's especially awful for folk like me who browse on mobile just as much or more than a proper PC.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2018 16:26:54 GMT
Quoting posts and images is more a bandwidth issue than storage. It is a matter of how often an image is being served. That is like what your phone or internet data package shows. How much data is being used.
It is like driving down the highway at 120mph instead of 25mph. More fuel for more speed. Bigger and duplicated images require more data transfer.
I hate the quotes with "me too" or "nice"as well. One can just post those few words without quoting but hey, human nature and all that. Some formats limit what a reader sees of quoted posts unless expanded. Kind of like the more button in Facebook posts. That is all about bandwidth, both the servers and users.
The image Paul posted above is 62kb or some such. He is agreeing with a point and issue that will likely fall on deaf ears. Hence the use by other boards to regulate how the uploaders work and other limitations made a status quo.
Paul mentioned server capability for storage and I go YIKES!. I have that much and more archived on various drives and the number Paul quoted is minuscule when one considers the size of images frequently uploaded here. Many users simply don't know they can regulate their own devices, nor how to proceed.
It's not a hopeless situation but notice and recommendation needs to be posted everywhere.
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Post by demonskull on Aug 9, 2018 1:00:13 GMT
I'm certainly not a tech wiz but I'm finding using pics I have stored and downloading them to Imgur (because my files are too large for the forum). I simply click on the pic, then hit the direct link button and paste it to the post. Fairly quick once you find the picture. It automatically reduces it to an appropriate size.
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Post by demonskull on Aug 9, 2018 2:03:42 GMT
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Post by MOK on Aug 9, 2018 9:25:34 GMT
I'm certainly not a tech wiz but I'm finding using pics I have stored and downloading them to Imgur (because my files are too large for the forum). I simply click on the pic, then hit the direct link button and paste it to the post. Fairly quick once you find the picture. It automatically reduces it to an appropriate size. To the appropriate visible size, true, and files stored on third party hosts don't use up the forum's bandwidth, either... but it's still good practice to always resize and compress your photos before uploading instead of just dumping them raw from your phone/camera. GIMP is freeware, and simply saving a JPG at 90% quality instead of 100% (the difference is undetectable 99.9% of the time) can take it down to a quarter of its original file size, and resizing it down to the number of pixels you actually need can shrink the file size even more dramatically. Even if you use a third party host like Imgur, smaller files load faster, making for a better viewer experience. PLUS this gives you the chance to apply Unsharp Mask and Auto White Balance filters (do that before resizing) to make your pics look sharper and more vibrant!  |
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Post by MOK on Aug 9, 2018 10:36:47 GMT
Come to think of it... does anybody think a brief tutorial on how to quickly resize and compress photos would be helpful (using GIMP because it's free and my current graphics/photo editor of choice)?
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Post by demonskull on Aug 9, 2018 11:01:20 GMT
Come to think of it... does anybody think a brief tutorial on how to quickly resize and compress photos would be helpful (using GIMP because it's free and my current graphics/photo editor of choice)? Yes a tutorial would be helpful. It should be somewhat all encompassing though. It should cover all the all the popular different hosting sites and the editing/resizing programs mentioned so far. This way everyone could use whatever system they familiar with. |
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Post by RickDastardly on Aug 9, 2018 13:45:08 GMT
Definitely would be helpful. I use photoshop and host my pictures on my own website (which isn't going anywhere soon) but I regularly see comments in various places about needing guidance with photos in posts. I often make a smaller, more compressed image for inline display (often all 512 or 640 wide for neatness) and link that to a larger version for those who want a closer look. It's a little more work, but worth the effort if one cares about one's post.
I'm not sure the post editor has the facility to add a link when adding an image... I didn't spot it if so but I just type in the bbcode anyway. Perhaps add a mention of how to do that in the tutorial too?
If I could, I would upload the inline image to SBG so that it cannot be 'lost', with a link to the larger, externally-hosted files. That's probably not feasible though.
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admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2,085
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Post by admin on Aug 10, 2018 8:53:26 GMT
Some great points and tips raised here - what I will do is when I update all the stickies (probably over the weekend, or early next week at the latest) I will compile the tips and ideas here into a new post and sticky it somewhere prominently so that it can all be easily referenced.
On another note, it is quite a trip down memory lane going through a lot of the large forum images and doing all I can to bring the jewels still there over to SBG. The most notable one I have been working on all yesterday and most of today is one that I had almost forgotten about from late 2011 to early 2012 - but my oh my - it is a real diamond of a thread - so I resized and uploaded all the images and formatted it all into a huge article on SBG with over 100 images and 6000 words total..
Old hands will love seeing this again in this new 'diary' style format, and new guys will probably have no idea it even happened (it was pretty buried in the customization section, where most of my efforts are right now)..
It is the truly AMAZING work done by one of our most humble DIYers, jblakey, where he created a picture perfect replica of the Brides Sword for Kill Bill from an Iaito for Adam Savage from Mythbusters..
Some of my favorite pics from the build (I have resized them here so as not to overwhelm this post, but actual image sizes are around 1000 pixels wide on SBG)
Beautiful engraving done on his CNC
Stunning grade 1 Rayskin panel (panels because the original movie sword was paneled)
The finished build
Just amazing work and it deserves to be prominently featured somewhere instead of buried in the dusty basement of the forum. I am occasionally having trouble when I try to view it as it is such a long page that sometimes it skips loading up some of the pics, but I don't have the best internet right now hopefully you guys aren't getting the same problem (if that happens, a refresh seems to bring it back).
Still lots more to do, but I am making good progress and am looking forward to fixing up the stickies and ensuring the forum is in a good place to keep going for many years to come..
More updates soon!
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Aug 10, 2018 9:02:08 GMT
Oh wow, I had totally forgot about that! That was such an awesome project!
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Post by Verity on Aug 10, 2018 13:09:36 GMT
Oh dang that is hot!
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Post by Deepbluedave on Aug 10, 2018 21:11:17 GMT
Here are some photo's of missing Albion's in the reviews Albion Crecy, Augustus, Danes, Gallowglass, Maximillan, Mercenary, Principe, Regents and Savante, I tried to keep them small, will do a few for longship next week. |
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AndiTheBarvarian
Member
Bavarianbarbarian - Semper Semprini
Posts: 8,817
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Post by AndiTheBarvarian on Aug 11, 2018 8:19:36 GMT
I added the pictures from my offline saves to the following review threads:
DSA Danish Two-hander
Comparison: Windlass Ulfberht vs. H/T Norman
Hanwei Saxon
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admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2,085
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Post by admin on Aug 13, 2018 10:44:36 GMT
Good stuff guys, great to see everyone chipping in. Just a quick update, I have gone through most of the main boards and unstickied most of the dead links and stickys that lost all their pics, videos, etc and replaced them with the new stuff that I have saved onto SBG.
Still a lot more work to be done, but at least we have replaced a lot of the dead links with fresh ones and now we actually have more content linked to than ever before, so we are in a good position to move forward and for members to start creating their own new threads and tutorials that can be stickied - so a nice, fresh start. :) With stickys back - and quite a few new ones too, the worst of the attachment crisis behind us and people adding more review pics the revitalization project can start to slow down and take a steadier pace. Which is just as well as I need a little rest for a day or two.. Phew.. Thanks all, - Paul
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Post by Graviga on Aug 20, 2018 21:22:30 GMT
I don't know if this has been mentioned or not, but have you considered garbage collecting the classifieds automatically? For instance if there has been no activity on thread for X amount of time delete it. Forum members can still bump their threads if there item hasn't sold otherwise there is no point in keeping them around. Outside of the member feedback section.
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