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We have noticed a slow down on the site at certain times and we feel the need to address the situation properly, as we the admins feel the situation could get worse if we don't take some sort of action. One of the big things is posting large images or other multimedia directly in a thread as opposed to just allowing the thumbnail generator to display images that users can click on if they desire. Unfortunately, the amount of server resources needed is starting to increase beyond our comfort zone, and according to our log files, that is showing up as one of the problems that is very easy to fix.
Therefore, we are asking our members to instead make sure that they just use the thumbnail feature if possible (everything is automated here and we set it that way so it's fine) and to avoid linking to off site images, especially high res files and multiple files if it already clearly is shown as a thumbnail file when you post. We would also like to see a reduction if those images are repeat images, especially if the originals are very easy to find with a simple search. (or you can just link to the thread)
Because this issue has happened before, and has become a small issue again now, we are asking our members to remember that such large images do slow down the site, and that our thumbnail system does make posting such images unnecessary. It also can really clutter up a thread, make it very hard to view in mobile and image generation is one of the more taxing things to a server, especially if it has to generate images and then has to create additional thumbnails for those images. That just adds a additional step every time someone views the page.
At PN, there are 3 admins, and any policy changes, even one as small as this one, has to be agreed to by all 3 admins. Therefore, we have come up with a way that should have as little impact as possible.
Our new policy is such:
We as admins reserve the right to go in and edit posts that we deem is overly large or a excessive amounts of images, and change those images in that post to thumbnails (because some people may not know how to use them) or convert them to thumbnails if need be. We will not edit the posts in any other manner, there will be no strikes, warnings or problems with it (unless you do a lot of them that we consider off topic of course) and it's just to remove any unnecessary bandwidth and help prevent the server from being overwhelmed every blue moon or so.
PN is completely supported by you, but we are still a small site and certainly can not afford a better server, but we are confident that if you as a poster consider the impact that it does have every time you post, we may be able to then use those server resources for something else or to improve a feature already in place. This server does struggle every once in a while and we hope to decrease those times.
We understand this is a small change that some people might not like, but we are trying this as the simplest solution we can come up with and try to make it the least amount of impact on anyone. I should also note that we will be starting this policy effective immediately, and that as time goes on, we will be going through the threads and thumbnailing some threads as we come across them, especially the older ones, so changes will be very gradual and over time. Please remember that we are only changing large sized images to thumbnails, your posts and threads will not change.
We ask you for your understanding and thank you for it.
The Admins
Therefore, we are asking our members to instead make sure that they just use the thumbnail feature if possible (everything is automated here and we set it that way so it's fine) and to avoid linking to off site images, especially high res files and multiple files if it already clearly is shown as a thumbnail file when you post. We would also like to see a reduction if those images are repeat images, especially if the originals are very easy to find with a simple search. (or you can just link to the thread)
Because this issue has happened before, and has become a small issue again now, we are asking our members to remember that such large images do slow down the site, and that our thumbnail system does make posting such images unnecessary. It also can really clutter up a thread, make it very hard to view in mobile and image generation is one of the more taxing things to a server, especially if it has to generate images and then has to create additional thumbnails for those images. That just adds a additional step every time someone views the page.
At PN, there are 3 admins, and any policy changes, even one as small as this one, has to be agreed to by all 3 admins. Therefore, we have come up with a way that should have as little impact as possible.
Our new policy is such:
We as admins reserve the right to go in and edit posts that we deem is overly large or a excessive amounts of images, and change those images in that post to thumbnails (because some people may not know how to use them) or convert them to thumbnails if need be. We will not edit the posts in any other manner, there will be no strikes, warnings or problems with it (unless you do a lot of them that we consider off topic of course) and it's just to remove any unnecessary bandwidth and help prevent the server from being overwhelmed every blue moon or so.
PN is completely supported by you, but we are still a small site and certainly can not afford a better server, but we are confident that if you as a poster consider the impact that it does have every time you post, we may be able to then use those server resources for something else or to improve a feature already in place. This server does struggle every once in a while and we hope to decrease those times.
We understand this is a small change that some people might not like, but we are trying this as the simplest solution we can come up with and try to make it the least amount of impact on anyone. I should also note that we will be starting this policy effective immediately, and that as time goes on, we will be going through the threads and thumbnailing some threads as we come across them, especially the older ones, so changes will be very gradual and over time. Please remember that we are only changing large sized images to thumbnails, your posts and threads will not change.
We ask you for your understanding and thank you for it.
The Admins
