34V pretty much done

[T. C. Downey]

Hard to say how many members use the forum. Probably half of the current 1200 members have an account. These are many newer younger members. Half of those visit occasionally, specially when then need to find something about their plane. And half of those, visit on a regular bases and a quarter of those or about 40 do most of the posting.

But the library of info is here and the ability to ask and receive some sort of answer quickly is here and I think most of the members appreciate that.

For the most part big image files don't make the image we see on our computer, IPad or IPhone any better. These devices are limited by the amount of pixels per inch they display. the average computer screen for example is limited to 72 pi. Anything more is a waste in storage and a waste in bandwidth to send and receive it the first time and every time it is viewed after that.

Large photo images where not a problem until just a few years ago. It would have cost a person several thousand dollars to buy a camera capable of taking a picture the size an Iphone can take today. And size does cost money for all of us. Tom, you probably paid for a phone with more memory so you could hold those pictures that are 10 times larger than they need to be for 99 percent of them taken. You pay for the time it takes to transmit them to the forum and every time after that you pay for them to be sent back to your computer to be viewed when you look at a post with them in. An individual may not realize this and see the cost because they buy a plan that has enough data and more for what they do and they don't realize if they cut the file sizes in half perhaps they could reduce their data plan.

We have now paid to store some photos for 12 years. If we had allowed photos twice the size when we started, we might have paid twice the amount for all that time. BTW we did increase the allowed size one time.

Perhaps at some point the forum software will automatically strip the excess from photos. It currently does not do that, only allowing us to block them. Yes we probably could have some custom work done to accomplish the task but that adds immeasurably to the pain each time the the software is upgraded. And it is upgraded several times a year. All a process than our members don't see because we haven't overly customized the software and the upgrade works each time.

Bruce This web page has no problems with pictures http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/ and they run the same software that you do.. It's simply a case of wanting to fix it for a few or not. With the ability to load files like pictures renders these forums to a chit chat page JMHO.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Bruce This web page has no problems with pictures http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/ and they run the same software that you do.. It's simply a case of wanting to fix it for a few or not. With the ability to load files like pictures renders these forums to a chit chat page JMHO.

The Pilots of America site is not run on the same software as this board. They use vBulletin which they buy. And they likely paid for that module to reduce image size. We use phpBB which is a free open source software. The software is completely different.

I spend hours making changes and writing instructions and administrating this board to try to help everyone which includes a few. This particular issue is at the top of my list to 'fix" and has been for some time. I venture to say that I post more pictures and other attachments than anyone else. I'd love to not have to reduce the size of each image before hand. The fix is just not that easy.

So yes we want to fix it, it is just not in our reach at this moment.