UESP Forums

Okay... I'm trying my best to play by the rules of these forums, but a 10kb size limit on my avatar image???? That just doesn't work. That should be at least 25 or 30kb... I mean, the image I'm trying to work with is 90x90 with a DPI resolution of 50 (23 less than the standard 72), and I've saved it as a PNG image -- it can't get any smaller in file size and it's still more than TWICE the 10kb (just barely more, but still more than twice the size).

Considering the ammount of posts that display on each visible page, doubling or even tripling the allowed file size will NOT damage the sites bandwidth nor occupy a ton of room on the server itself.

Making this change is simple, to boot. Just go into your Administration panel for phpBB 2, go to the "General Admin" section of it and find the "Configuration" link, which will open you to the General Configuration window... The 3rd field from the bottom should be "Avatar settings" and the next to last setting within that field should be "Maximum Avatar File Size".

You have to set this according to bytes, rather than kilobytes, so here are some numbers you may consider:

25600 - 25kb
30720 - 30kb

If you want to use a different number, just be aware that there are 1024 bytes in a kilobyte.

I don't even remember the last time I saw a forum with avatar images larger than what we're allowed here.

Is it a picture you've taken yourself or could you possibly find a smaller version of it online somewhere? And is it possible for you to just resize it?

If not, then sorry. I got 'nuthin. And neither do most of the mods as for changing that. I'm pretty sure only Daveh can do that sort of thing. Perhaps send him a PM?

I tried to upload this avatar:
http://www.uesp.net/w/images/KnightsOfTheThorn.gif

Unfortunately, it is too big, because it is exactly 12034 bytes in size.

So that really should be changed.

But there are more annoying points:
- The maximum length of your signature
- The maximum size (width, height) of your avatar
- The fact that these forums still use PHPBB2 while PHPBB3.0.2 is much, much better
- The lack of tags. A spoiler tag and YouTube tag would be great add-ons.
- The fact that you're not allowed to use the tags, then just upgrade this site to a faster host so the bandwidth won't be such a problem.

Well 100x100 is perfectly reasonable on the size limitation -- beyond that it takes up way too much of the screen at certain resolutions and can cause the theme to look bad.

We've all heard each other's thoughts on phpBB 2 vs 3 thanks to the spoiler BBCode script, and I for one, running a few phpBB forums myself don't encourage the change but that's not up to me, that's up to the administrator and (as an administrator) I wouldn't be suprised if they didn't want to go through the exceeding ammount of trouble transfering the site over to version 3.

From what I've seen this site does not lack in bandwidth... I'm sure that the server host INDENDS for it to lack in bandwidth (just as my server host does for my main forums) but for one reason or another, all of the statistics and speed data that I can pull on this site argue against that. Server uptime is phenominal, and it responds to large-file pings with ease and speed... Bandwidth does not seem too terribly limited.

And as far as completely transfering hosts would go... Well, the ease/difficult of that depends on the two hosts... For example, the future host must be accomidating of all platforms needed to run the forums, such as Wikisupport and the latest PHP server - not to mention support of an mail server. Additionally, if the current host only releases your data by means of a pre-paid transfer package, that could cost a lot of money.

Odds are that the administrator of this site doesn't have FTP access, and there for almost NEVER touches the base HTML of this site -- which might explain why it's running the default BBCodes. If the administrators access is limited to admin toolbars and settings he can only change what the server host allows changed. Most hosts have adapted this policy because it allows them to make more money by selling you MySQL table backups, and site transfer backups - not to mention getting a cut of URL sales profits.

Really, 10kb is pretty generous. Not to mention the adminstrator(Daveh) isn't constantly trying to improve the site. I believe he has multiple business trips he has to take care of, and this just isn't priority one.

I didn't want to risk breaking the "No Necro-Posting" rule, in fear that I might catch Codex on a bad day and begone from these forums forever, lol. (No offense, Codex, of course)

Just hotlink of it.

Glad to see it got some ideas going.

Also:

I support Vicious on this, he's right.
Even though 10k might be generous, it is roughly small.
And it wouldn't damage the bandwidth, much, but I don't know how much the bandwidth is here...

I'm not sure what the limits are, but I haven't experienced anything that would suggest poor bandwith since the server change a while ago. Still, it is usually not a problem to decrease the size of the image you want as an avatar to less than 10kb. Often just opening it in mspaint, and saving it right away without modifications will half the size.

Well I personally hate (and I mean loathe with a murderous passion not seen since all of those mom's ganged up on Michael Jackson in court) have a background around an image that doesn't require it.

It's negative space, and is just not at all artisticly pleasing.

So, the avatar that I've decided to use (which is a variation of my most commonly used avatar) is set on a transparent PNG background. I've done everything I can to shrink the file size while maintaining the transparent background, but no go.

If anyone wants to give it a try for me, have at...
http://xsupload.co.uk/file.php?id=218

Couldn't you screenshot a forum page, go into whatever picture-alteration program you may use (photoshop, MSpaint, etc) copy the post window color and set that as the background for your avatar? That way it'll look like there's no background in the picture itself. Just a thought which may or may not work (I've never tried it). But now that I look, the windows alternate between two colors, so it might not work perfectly, but it's something.

Or just use this.

You could have saved it as a .gif file with transparency. :/