Attachment size is now temporarily limited.

[ScottieJ]

Some of you might have noticed that the forum has crashed a few times in the last few days.

Basically we have filled our host server's Database.

Whilst this is a good thing as it shows the forum is still growing I've had to disable attachments until we can compress all the existing attachments so that they don't take up as much server space.

We're doing what we can to avoid taking the forum offline while this is done as that might have to be a last resort.

You can still post photos using external hosting and the IMG code though if you want!

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Scott

[Darrell]

Well I know there's lots out there, but I use this one most of the time, free and easy to use.
http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm

I'd hate us to be limited to poxy photo sizes like many forums, but I'd understand if we needed a file size limit as the bandwidth used must be high as well as the storage.

Thanks for keeping it going

[ScottieJ]

Bandwidth isn't too much of an issue luckily but Going forward we are going to set it up so that it automatically resizes pictures as they are uploaded, as most external photo hosting sites do. Even photos off a mobile phone are around 2-3mb so it soon adds up. Last thing I want is to compress the pics so much that it compromises the quality.

The only other option was to double my costs to keep the site running but then we could have ran out of space again in a few years.

[courior]

what about using a service such as backblaze or copy.com and link to the photos? they give loads of Gb's free, should be enough for 1000's of photo's.

Courior

[djc]

I had noticed there doesn't seem to be a file limit on pics (or it's a v big one), many pica are over 2Mb - i always save mine to web, down around 200k or less. Isn't this about everyone uploading smaller image files (not small pics, just web resolution) or otherwise having to add a pic compression into upload??

p.s. as a user i'd much prefer to have the images come off your server rather than link elsewhere. And if they are smaller files they load a lot quicker too which is nice.

[timwilks13]

Not everyone has the facilities or know how to resize web ready images so a server side option is best really.

[Darrell]

Not everyone has the facilities or know how to resize web ready images so a server side option is best really.

I agree
If you can do it at home all the better as your upload speed will be great.
But if your using a mobile / can't be assed / don't know how, then a server side option
has to be the best way to go.

[ScottieJ]

For those of you that are happy to raise your own images I have just set it up with a size restriction of 500kb, more than enough for pictures but low enough that it won't take up too much space.

Once the automatic resizing is set up I can lift this limit and it will mean you can easily upload straight from your phone etc.

We did used to have an automatic resizing system set up....but it stopped working when we moved servers and never got fixed

[djc]

sounds good Scottie, can I check please? - the resize only kicks in if file uploaded exceeds 500k? So if I upload say 150k it is untouched. Is that the plan?

[twiss]

I have to wait to get my internet sorted out (forgot to pay the bill while i was on holiday lol) so I can take a full backup of everything as sorting out the image resizer may require some fiddling about!

in the mean time I have put together some screenshots to show the easiest way to resize pictures on a PC

right click on the image you want to resize, then choose "Edit"
you may not see some of the options on mine but edit will be there somewhere near the top

2014-10-01 19_49_11-smaller.png (108.2 KiB) Viewed 26974 times

on the top menu bar click "Resize" and the "Resize and Skew" dialogue box will pop up
Click on the "Pixels" checkbox the change the number in the Top Box (Horizontal) to "800"
The number underneath should change to around 600

2014-10-01 19_52_36-smaller.png (173.49 KiB) Viewed 26974 times

Save the picture and you're done