LIMIT PHOTO UPLOAD SIZE

[Damien Hannah]

I'm opening a new thread, because I was just disturbed to find a 2010 post regarding the same issue, that's obviously been tucked under the rug.

Photos should NOT be a whopping 10MB limit! Users sit there, waiting for photos to load. JUNK.

Lets see how long this post is ignored for, lets see how fast the request is shut down.

I recieved a ticket regarding photo size. Just gonna copy and paste it for you to see for yourself.

Greg Buck reported the following issue on Addictapic

URL Reported: http://addictapic.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=3bc...

Issue:Other

Additional Information:Size of photos uploaded to the site.

Damien I hope you don't mind me banging on about this issue, but I believe the size of images uploaded to the site are way to big.
You do have a 10mb limit,but this is to much. If the images are for display only then all images should be much lower than 10mb.
Photographers uploading to the site will look carefully at this item. Most will resize anyway because of the chance of viewers stealing their work.

My uploads now are less than 1MB and that is plenty for display purposes.
10mb is way to large. Most of my full size images are less than 5MB.

The larger the file size, the longer it takes to open.

I would advise that you lower the size allowance to 2MB and place in the editing page a resize tool that the member can use. You can get free software for this purpose.

Control over this area is essential. Viewers to the site wont have the patience to wait for images to open.
The other danger is people stealing the images. Security is paramount for your members.

I would suggest that all images uploaded to your site carry your water mark to protect the members work.
The watermark should be a low density mark that does not impede the work of the Member, but gives security.

Members security of their work is vital. If this is compromised at any time, you will be the one to carry the can.

You have done a great job of this site and it is heading in the right direction, but security of private information and photographers work is the most important issue you will have to attend to.

I have attached a link to a article by Wordpress explaining the matter of image file size uploads. Hope it helps.

http://om4.com.au/client/preparing-image-files-before-uploading-wit...

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[Ron Fritzemeier]

I doubt you'll get much traction getting Ning to change the upload limit since I'm pretty sure that's a server-wide PHP setting.

Now you could probably hook into the file upload process with javascript and do some server side image processing (with your own non-ning server) to resize the image and put a watermark on it.

You would have to find the form ning uses to upload the image and redirect it via javascript to your own server, process and save the image, and then post the processed image back to nings upload form.

Existing process:
user_image -> user places in upload form -> user clicks upload -> saved on ning server

Modified process:
user_image -> user places in upload form -> change form action to your image processing server via javascript -> click upload -> user_image processed/saved on your server -> processed image sent to nings server from your server -> saved on nings server

You could use something like wkhtmltoimage on your server to do the image processing.

[Andy P]

I've been fighting this for ever. Give us an image file size control tool. Ning doesn't want to hear it, live with it. I've asked for some sort of gage to see how much storage we are using with similar nothingness. So I ask members to keep pics under 1 MB and remind offenders of slow loading time & theft issues. The honor system works sorta OK.