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IMPORTANT -- how to save your account from deletion

Posted: 10 May 2012, 12:08
by modman
  • Make a friendly introduction post - accounts with at least 1 post will NEVER be deleted
  • I you don't post, visit at least once a year. Postless accounts unused from 1y+ will be deleted.
  • If you create a new account, activate it within 2 days. New account not activated within 2 days will be deleted, because the majority of these a spam accounts.
  • Choose a username that can only be created by a human. Avoid numbers.
Freestompboxes.org in approach of its 5th birthday has:

+175,000 posts
+38,000 signups
+23,000 active accounts
+12,000 subject topics
+5,000 contributing (posting) users
+3,000 visiting members this week
+150 users logged in during the last 15min
+25 new members per dag (excluding spambots)

I should say this sounds impressive, but the sql engines seem to be doing fine. Still some cleaning out of unused accounts should be done, because of the massive amount of spamaccounts. Most of them don't succeed in getting their accounts activated, but clog up the database for no reason. It more the extended forum structure -with different sections- that turned out a bit unstable a few months back.

We should keep on emphasizing the importance of keeping the attachment file size. No black/white schematic needs to be 600k. But it's mostly those 1MB direct from the camera gutshots that are dragging us down.

Thanks everyone for taking this in account.
Johan

Re: IMPORTANT -- how to save your account from deletion

Posted: 11 May 2012, 11:16
by phatt
Re big pictures;
I'm a member of an Aussie Forum and they have canned direct posting of pics.
Not that I'm in favor as I don't use Pbucket or like.

Maybe some of those *in the know folks* could explain how simple it is to re-size camera shots.

FWIW, I use Irfanview to edit pics. Heck I'm a computter dumb-ass and I worked out Ifanview. :thumbsup :blackeye
Phil.

Re: IMPORTANT -- how to save your account from deletion

Posted: 11 May 2012, 15:56
by Greenmachine
I resize pictures using a PC running Picasa (free photo editor I think). Click on "Export" under the picture viewer and resize to anything under 700 pixels or so. I'll go even smaller than that from now on now that I see it has an effect on the site. Thanks Johan.
:thumbsup

Re: IMPORTANT -- how to save your account from deletion

Posted: 11 May 2012, 16:05
by IvIark
In IrfanView, go to:

Image > Resize/Resample

Choose a new width like 800 pixels, and if you have the "Preserve Aspect Ratio" option ticked, the height will be automatically filled in for you whilst keeping the image at the correct ratio.

Experiment with the "Apply sharpen after resample" option, personally I think the results look better without this autosharpening which tends to make the final image more grainy, but you may have better results than me.

Make sure that for "Size Method" you have "Resample (better quality)" selected and then just click ok to perform the resize. Save as a new image so you can keep the bigger original as a master copy.

Re: IMPORTANT -- how to save your account from deletion

Posted: 11 May 2012, 16:44
by Dirk_Hendrik
phatt wrote:. Heck I'm a computter dumb-ass and I worked out Ifanview.
Persoally I cannot imagine computer life without Iview. When setting up a new system it's one of the first applications to be installed. :wink:

Re: IMPORTANT -- how to save your account from deletion

Posted: 11 May 2012, 18:15
by CHEEZOR
Sorry, I totally clog up the tubes with large gut shots... :oops: I'll try to post them elsewhere.

Re: IMPORTANT -- how to save your account from deletion

Posted: 11 May 2012, 19:55
by modman
CHEEZOR wrote:Sorry, I totally clog up the tubes with large gut shots... :oops: I'll try to post them elsewhere.
Please don't stop, just adapt to a lower resolution.

Re: IMPORTANT -- how to save your account from deletion

Posted: 11 May 2012, 21:08
by rocklander
Dirk_Hendrik wrote:
phatt wrote:. Heck I'm a computter dumb-ass and I worked out Ifanview.
Persoally I cannot imagine computer life without Iview. When setting up a new system it's one of the first applications to be installed. :wink:
this, but for me it's photofiltre

Re: IMPORTANT -- how to save your account from deletion

Posted: 11 May 2012, 21:12
by CHEEZOR
No, I just meant that I would post links for higher resolution gut shots. I definitely wont stop. :)

Re: IMPORTANT -- how to save your account from deletion

Posted: 12 May 2012, 06:03
by modman
As far as schematics go, the below should be a rule of thumb:
analogguru wrote:Please DON´T save the schematic as .jpg.
USE INSTEAD black/white .GIF or .PNG !

The schematic drawing will stay sharper and the file will be smaller.
analogguru wrote:Anyhow here is the .pdf converted to .gif - first with ghostscript to .bmp and then with XnView (Freeware) to .gif - to show you what I mean.
resolution .jpg: 1123 x 793 (~ 100 dpi)
file size .jpg: 143.092
resolution .gif: 3508 x 2479 (300 dpi)
file size .gif: 95.015
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6946&p=74943#p74943
analogguru wrote:1.) look for the freeware Xnview, it does all you need and is free and fast.
2.) Never use .jpg to save a schematic, the file will be huge and the lines will become unsharp.
3.) use instead .gif or .png - the size of the dfile is much smaller and there doesn´t occur interpolation like in jpeg (what makes the drawing unsharp).
4.) never use true-color - reduce the file to 16 greyscales/colors or better black/white only. A schematic 210mm x 297mm with 300dpi resolution should be approx. 70kb as a .gif-file.
5.) If you want to reduce the dpi it is easily done with Xnview:
In the menu go to "picture"...."change size" and you have got it.
analogguru
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1674&p=20574&#p20574

Re: IMPORTANT -- how to save your account from deletion

Posted: 14 May 2012, 01:40
by salocin
modman wrote:We should keep on emphasizing the importance of keeping the attachment file size. No black/white schematic needs to be 600k. But it's mostly those 1MB direct from the camera gutshots that are dragging us down.
Johan, have you considered running a script over the attachments to resize/resample at lower quality? A PHP script using GD library would do the trick.