BleepingComputer.com: Large Avatars And Signatures

By "large," I mean upwards of 75-100KB, or higher.

Because I have no choice but to be on slow dialup (usually connect at 26.4KBps), and am now using the bloated Vista Home Premium, opening some of the threads where members have large avatar and signature files can be painfully slow -- more than a minute, sometimes two, and sometimes I just plain time out. I'm aware of the option to turn off avatars and sigs, but I'd prefer not to have to, since many sigs have interesting and useful links in them, and there's often something to be learned about a person's personality by viewing his or her avatar. I'd be willing to turn off viewing avatars if there's absolutely no alternative, but not sigs.

The problem is compounded when people include images in their posts, the large majority of which are important to help resolve problems. Is there anything else I can do? Surely I'm not the only one here on dialup who has these problems. It wasn't as bad on XP, but the problem is now magnified by Vista.

Here's a thought ... I'd be willing to edit large files for members. I have an animation editor that does quite a good job, and I really enjoy working with graphics.

[Edit to correct typo - changed 75-100MB to 75-100KB]

This post has been edited by Dialer: 10 December 2007 - 03:30 PM

Sorry Dialer, but other than turning off these options, I don't know of any way to increase load times, for pages.
Avatars are limited to 200KB.

As far as sigs, they are linked to from outside of BC, so there's no way to control the file size, of them.
Having them limited to 500 pixels x 90 pixels, does help somewhat.

Sigh. Maybe I should just throw out Vista and go back to XP. Nah - I don't want to try finding all the drivers I'd need. Sigh.

OK, 'nuff whining. Thanks anyway, tg.

There is another alternative. It's like turning off avatars and signatures though. And that is to use the Lo-Fi Version of the BC.

You'll find the toggle to execute that option at the bottom - middle of any BC page.

It removes all the bell & whistles of the IPB for the most part.

This post has been edited by KoanYorel: 10 December 2007 - 03:36 PM

Of course ... I had completely forgotten about the lo-fi, which reminds me of the old BBs from years back. That might be just the ticket, especially since I can toggle it. Thanks for the reminder, KY!


ETA: Oh, I guess that nostalgic BB I was at another forum. But still, the toggle for this does the job very nicely.

This post has been edited by Dialer: 10 December 2007 - 04:02 PM

Alas, the lo-fi version doesn't allow for anything more than browsing. There aren't any post or reply options.

However, I've found a really great solution! At the top of any thread, click on Options, scroll down the menu, and select Outline. The OP is displayed in full, and then all replies are shown below it in threaded outline form. That way I can click on replies one at a time, rather than waiting for the whole thread to load.

The Outline format is in effect as I move from forum to forum. It seems to stay operational throughout a session and has to be reset if I leave the site and return later. Not sure exactly, because I haven't tested it fully, but that's no big deal.

Hey, I like that! I've never even noticed the "options" button before. Guess that's why I'm not a detective.....

Dialer, I didn't address the options toggle and the outline format as that still will open the first post fully.
I thought you wanted to avoid all the extra's in posts as you're on dial up.

If that works for you - great. Nice to hear that fits your needs.

(BTW - I was on a very, very slow dial up for a couple of years also. I know how you feel.)

Hi KY,

No worries. Essentially you were right about my wanting to avoid the extras. However, it's not too bad when only one or two posts in a thread are open at the same time, because the biggest problem is often with the cumulative effect of different avatars, sigs, and images in the posts. Also, there's one user in particular with a huge sig file whose posts I can avoid altogether this way.

Slightly OT: The saddest and most frustrating thing for me, though, is trying to visit digital graphics sites, which is my main interest. It wasn't anywhere near the problem on XP that it is on Vista, with the same miserable connection of 26.4 KBps.

Dialer, on Dec 13 2007, 11:22 AM, said:

I have no idea what your system specifications are there. You might not have enough RAM to run the Vista at its full potential? 512 is the minimum for real work and one should actually have larger to run smoothly?

You're right. I've got 1 gig and really want to up it to 3, especially since I also run some resource-hogging graphics apps. An upgrade will have to wait until well after the holidays and property taxes, though.

I hear you there Dialer.

My two little Vista lappy's run 2 gigs on 1600 mhz Intel system and sometimes I strain them also.

My custom, a bit larger but it's XP still. I'm reticent to up/down grade it to Vista.

And I run one F@H program on a little 256 with Xp - a garage sale buy..... he he

Fold On!

Sorry for such a late reply. I had seen this topic before but forgot that I had the solution installed on my home pc, but rarely use it (only for printing at times) .

If you use Firefox, you may want to install the following addon: Image-Show-Hide

It enables to turn of all kinds of images and refreshes the page upon turning it on or off. You will see the following:

Normal icon in Firefox toolbar:

-------------------

Avatar:

-------------------

icon when toolbar button clicked to disable pictures:

-------------------

Avatar when images are turned off:

Easy as that. Hope that helps.

YoHi

This post has been edited by Yourhighness: 16 December 2007 - 06:37 AM

Thanks so much, Yourhighness. I don't currently use FF, but I'm getting closer and closer to switching over from IE7.

The sooner you do, the happier you'll be.
Besides the security issues, there's the enhanced functionality, provided by hundreds of extensions, like the one Yourhighness suggested.