PLEASE - Drop The Interactive Graphics

[Rick V]

Sorry I have only Dial Up - and that used to be good enough for this site.
However, since you have moved to include interactive graphics (those that continually change on the cover page), it takes me an inordinate amount of time to simply login - the changing graphics are stealing my login time! Heck, even trying to view this post, I have to sit through the priority given to the changing pictures.

Any chance you can terminate these continually changing graphics?

Rick V

[Craig in Denver]

ME TOO!! Another dial-up guy. :cry:

[TEK]

Dial-up here also..but what gets me is the embedded pics that are way too big. If it takes more than a few seconds to see, I'm already gone.:waving:

[Craig in Denver]

TEK:
I just started posting pics. The attachment page requests limiting to 800 x 600, which is what I resize to. They seem to load OK for me. If that's too large, I'll reduce my future attachments. I've seen some that take minutes to load, are so large I can only see 1/4 of the photo without scrolling. I'm guessing some of them are 2048 x something.

FWIW: If you right click on the photo, at the bottom of the drop down menu is "properties". Click on that and it will tell you the photo size. If it's over 800; I'll ask the poster to resize to 800 x 600 in the future.

[farmersamm]

Dial up. 24 to 26.4KBPS depending on the time of day.

A guy told me he gets 17k on his place.

Makes me feel like I'm in the fast lane when I hear that

[TEK]

Is everyone as surprised as me that no action has been taken on this request?

Being as ignorant as I am, I'm not sure what could be done without re-doing the whole mess. I am on real slow dial-up also, like 5-7kbs upload, and it doesnt bother me...but I run AdBlock Plus, and it stops all the crap from gettin here...well, most of it anyhow:D:waving:

[mark8310]

Just in case anybody doesn't know about this, you can click User CP (above left), then click "Edit Options" on the page that opens up, then scroll down to "Thread Display Options". You can unclick signatures, avatars, and images, which would greatly speed up downloads on a slow connection. You can still click to open, any pictures you wish to see ....

[farmersamm]

But then I wouldn't have time to go to the frig and graba beer, water the dog, check the cows, and have light snack:jester::blob3::p:D

[Donald Branscom]

I am SO happy to see all of these complaints about the Flash files and huge JPG.s that
have not been optimized for the web. !!!!

Many of us in America cannot afford the newest operating systems that could require buying a new computer. These are hard economic times and not the time for many of us to have to buy a new computer, with high gas prices, high food prices, and every body jumping on the price increase bandwagon. The city i live in just doubled the price of building permits too.

A FLASH file displayed in SHOCKWAVE 8 is NOT NECESSARY to get the messege across.
Just design good looking ads . We a can read we are not stupid. We do not need to see anything jumping,spinning, whatever across the screen. And leave it there long enough to actually read.

Like I say I am so glad that people are waking up and fighting back.

[Bob at WeldingMag]

All,
We can take a couple of actions. I have asked our dev team to eliminate the animations on the badge ads at the top of this site that are our own -- that would be 2 of the 4. A third -- the IMTS badge -- is scheduled to come down at the end of this week after the IMTS show closes.

The other action we could take would be to limit the size of photos and other attachments that members make to their own posts. I'm reluctant to do this, but will certaintly listen to people who want to weigh in on the issue.

The bigger picture is that the internet experience has simply progressed beyond plain text and simple images. While I know high-speed connections aren't universally available, they are getting close. Based on that, it will not be our gameplan to limit the possibilities of this website for the vast majority of our members. I'm sorry if this sounds unfriendly to those on dial-up. But the simple fact is that many members are availing themselves of the capability to append large files because they find that to be an asset in using this website. And we are committed to providing a full set of capabilities.

[Rick V]

Hi Bob! Thanks for responding to my concern - which was primarily the animations at the top of the site - that really slowed down my ability to even log in.

It certainly sounds like you are addressing that issue - "I have asked our dev team to eliminate the animations on the badge ads at the top of this site that are our own -- that would be 2 of the 4. A third -- the IMTS badge -- is scheduled to come down at the end of this week after the IMTS show closes."

As for the pictures; yes it's slow loading big ones but at least I am waiting to see something in a posted thread - not an advertizement on the Home Page.

Thanks,
Rick V

[Engloid]

I never even noticed the animations. Advertisements might as well not be there, because my brain seems to automatically block them.

[Donald Branscom]

Even when everyone has high speed internet, how long do you think it will be before that is all clogged up with youtube videos and 3000x2500 wide jpg's???

The 19 inch browser screen is only about 800 pixels wide.
A reasonable size for your JPG is 500 pixels wide.

If you do not know how to optimize your photos for the web, just do this.
Get a copy of PHOTOSHOP 5.5 or higher. THEN open up your photo and click on IMAGE on the top tool bar. then choose image size. change the size to 500 pixels.
HIT SAVE for the web button. A window will pop up. choose the upper right version of the photo and you will have good quality and good speed. (Save to desktop)

[Engloid]

Microsoft has a free image resizer on their website. It is something like 15k to download, and installs in seconds. Afterwards, you right click on a picture, pick resize, and tell it the size you want...and you're done.

[Brainfarth]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx is the page you want, if it's XP that you are running. Be sure to download and install TeakUI before any of the other programs.. They are great additions to windows.

-Mike