General PSA | Attachment storage limit

[Cannon]

I wanted to give a heads up about using attachments, such as posting pictures or memes. As image files get larger and larger, some members are close to the allowable limit. As you can imagine, the content posted across 23 years by the GripBoard's roughly 20k members  can add up to a lot. We have to host all that content.

Every member has a personal storage limit. The limit is 200 MB. If you click on your profile in the upper right, then My Attachments, you can see all your attachments. Your capacity should be shown there. I am guessing if you actually hit the limit then you'll get an error message. 

As a comparison, I post more images than the average bear, and also post memes from time to time. I have also been on here not paying any attention to this limit for 18 years. I have 240 attachments and my capacity is at 130 MB. Still a ways to go. So it is pretty generous on a per member basis. 

So have this on your radar. If you post a lot of memes or photos, you may run up against this limit. If you suddenly cannot make attachments, this is probably why. Consider first reducing the file size of images before posting. Hit me up with a PM if you have any questions.

[stranger]

Yikes...

[Cannon]

I have learned that Contributor Group 3 has an expanded 300 MB limit! 

@stranger That’s how you’re above 200 MB.  

[stranger]

3 minutes ago, Cannon said:

I have learned that Contributor Group 3 has an expanded 300 MB limit! 

@stranger That’s how you’re above 200 MB.  

Yea, i figured. Now I gotta delete some pictures lol

[Luke Blackwell]

How do you delete attachments?

[Cannon]

2 minutes ago, Luke Blackwell said:

How do you delete attachments?

You can’t because it would leave a hole in the context of where it was originally posted. Like people might have replied or commented on a picture that won’t be there any more. I did confirm this was the case. The picture that exists in the wild is inextricably tied to it being your attachment. 

[Luke Blackwell]

4 minutes ago, Cannon said:

You can’t because it would leave a hole in the context of where it was originally posted. Like people might have replied or commented on a picture that won’t be there any more. I did confirm this was the case. The picture that exists in the wild is inextricably tied to it being your attachment. 

I had a feeling...

With only 12 attachments, I've used 8%... it must go fast..

  I'll just be mindful. Thanks👍

Edited October 24 by Luke Blackwell

[Jared P]

Dang, already at 90%. Guess I'd better make sure my photos are actually worth sharing from now on lol.

[matek]

41 minutes ago, Luke Blackwell said:

I had a feeling...

With only 12 attachments, I've used 8%... it must go fast..

  I'll just be mindful. Thanks👍

The problem is if you don't resize pictures (in 2024, 200MB is about 40 smartphone pictures, if you don't resize it) . Sometimes I'm also too lazy to do it, and I'm 64% full of 300MB. But for reference, I have 489 attachments. So if you resize the images, it's actually quite a lot.

Btw if you upload the image somewhere else (like imgur), and just paste the link to the post (like https://i.imgur.com/blabla.jpeg) it will automatically embed the picture and will not affect your quota. For unimportant stuff like showing my bends, I will just do this from now on

 

Edited October 24 by matek

[Cannon]

50 minutes ago, matek said:

Btw if you upload the image somewhere else (like imgur), and just paste the link to the post (like https://i.imgur.com/blabla.jpeg) it will automatically embed the picture and will not affect your quota. For unimportant stuff like showing my bends, I will just do this from now on

Thank you for this tip

[Luke Blackwell]

7 hours ago, matek said:

The problem is if you don't resize pictures (in 2024, 200MB is about 40 smartphone pictures, if you don't resize it) . Sometimes I'm also too lazy to do it, and I'm 64% full of 300MB. But for reference, I have 489 attachments. So if you resize the images, it's actually quite a lot.

Btw if you upload the image somewhere else (like imgur), and just paste the link to the post (like https://i.imgur.com/blabla.jpeg) it will automatically embed the picture and will not affect your quota. For unimportant stuff like showing my bends, I will just do this from now on

 

Thankyou sir👌

[Climber028]

I'm so dumb I thought this was about storing like, gym cable attachment handles. There's no way I'm going to stop storing those, even that weird handle I haven't used in 3 years because you just never know

[Douglas Carney]

10 hours ago, matek said:

The problem is if you don't resize pictures (in 2024, 200MB is about 40 smartphone pictures, if you don't resize it) . Sometimes I'm also too lazy to do it, and I'm 64% full of 300MB. But for reference, I have 489 attachments. So if you resize the images, it's actually quite a lot.

Btw if you upload the image somewhere else (like imgur), and just paste the link to the post (like https://i.imgur.com/blabla.jpeg) it will automatically embed the picture and will not affect your quota. For unimportant stuff like showing my bends, I will just do this from now on

 

Yeah...unfortunately I didn't think to resize stuff until January of this year.  Wasn't aware of the imgur embedded option, though.  Great idea!

[Luke Blackwell]

7 minutes ago, Douglas Carney said:

Yeah...unfortunately I didn't think to resize stuff until January of this year.  Wasn't aware of the imgur embedded option, though.  Great idea!

Screenshots instantly lower the size, so I'll probably do that

[Jedd Johnson]

44 minutes ago, Luke Blackwell said:

Screenshots instantly lower the size, so I'll probably do that

That's what I try to do, too.

[Douglas Carney]

52 minutes ago, Luke Blackwell said:

Screenshots instantly lower the size, so I'll probably do that

Sounds a lot easier than my complicated/convoluted process...hahaha

When I make my YouTube videos, I create my title page using Microsoft PowerPoint to add the photo(s), title, and any shape(s) the way I want them; select, copy, and paste everything into Microsoft Paint; and save it as a jpg for my thumbnail (due to size limitations).  I then use that jpg in Microsoft Clipchamp as the first piece of my video.

Same process to downsize a photo.  Pop it in PowerPoint, copy it to Paint, and save it down.

Just a bad habit I got into nearly 25+ years ago when Office '97 rolled out.  It sounds clunky but is kinda quick for me because I've had to use Microsoft programs for work so l-o-n-g now and they don't buy me cool "new" tools.  Had to get creative with what I had available.

Edited October 24 by Douglas Carney

[Luke Blackwell]

11 minutes ago, Douglas Carney said:

Sounds a lot easier than my complicated/convoluted process...hahaha

When I make my YouTube videos, I create my title page using Microsoft PowerPoint to add the photo(s), title, and any shape(s) the way I want them; select, copy, and paste everything into Microsoft Paint; and save it as a jpg for my thumbnail (due to size limitations).  I then use that jpg in Microsoft Clipchamp as the first piece of my video.

Same process to downsize a photo.  Pop it in PowerPoint, copy it to Paint, and save it down.

Just a bad habit I got into nearly 25+ years ago when Office '97 rolled out.  It sounds clunky but is kinda quick for me because I've had to use Microsoft programs for work so l-o-n-g now and they don't buy me cool "new" tools.  Had to get creative with what I had available.

If it works, it works😁

[liftyzig]

I would be surprised if there wasn't a plugin available for the forum software to manage photo sizes, compressing without losing quality, limiting at a certain size (who realy needs to upload a 20MB+ JPG?), etc

[Cannon]

11 minutes ago, liftyzig said:

limiting at a certain size (who realy needs to upload a 20MB+ JPG?), etc

There are lots of these types of controls. At the global site level, forum level, and member group level. You can give restrictions on attachment file size, pixel dimension limits, file type, etc. I try an mess with as little as possible because it can really snowball in ways I didn't realize.  

This was just a PSA so people are aware. I don't actually know of anyone who has hit the limit or is having a problem. It's just something to think about if you're posting a LOT of photos and I noticed a few people who were screaming toward the limit very quickly. I have found how to delete photos on the back end, and possibly if someone was over the limit I could help them find the biggest files and do some targeted clean up in threads where it doesn't matter. Like in their own log or something.

 

[liftyzig]

I wonder how hard it would be to add an ability to reduce the footprint for people that are getting close by reducing the size of some of their attachments without deleting anything..

[Jared P]

A good photo compression website I've used in the past for website page loading optimization was www.tinypng.com - usually reduces the file size by 60-70%.

[richcottrell]

Anyway to decrease toe resolution of old photos so as to not create “holes” but also get back under the 200mb?

 

I do not post much, but I am way over already… and after so many years on the gripboard,  do not plan on paying more just to post more pictures.

now I wonder why thr  interface no longer works like it once used to

Edited October 26 by richcottrell

[Cannon]

I am working on a few things here.

I think it was maybe a recent software update which aligned or fixed some rules. Remember, the board is ~24 years old and has gone through countless different iterations and updates. It's buggy in some ways, but getting less so all the time. Also, I think the limits were set to a default of 200 MB during a time when that was a "lot" of storage. As above, by and large, 200-300 MB is plenty of storage even for members who are fairly heavy users. But something is out of order because I've found a few members who are actually over the limit, which that shouldn't be possible unless there was an update.

If you are over and care about that, let me know. I can probably help. For example, one member we discovered they had 100 MB of photos in a single post. I can delete those and free up the space. They were just in the member's log and if they wanted them trimmed there is no harm. In another case, the member had posted a single .gif that was 50 MB by itself.

Finally, I am working with the developer to understand the total storage allotment for our server space and how much of that we have used. I think it will be possible to pick different numbers which will modernize the allowed limit, understanding that we have 20k members and 24 years of accumulated data. Another point about that, by default the forum software is supposed to archive and then offload old content. When we moved to the cloud server, a bunch of our oldest content got archived, but not yet offloaded. I noticed it in time and convinced the developers to turn that off for our community since we are literally the digital history for this sport and grip community. That old stuff is relevant here in a way that is unique. Most communities want old stuff shuffled out.

More to come.    

[richcottrell]

On 10/24/2024 at 11:38 AM, Cannon said:

 

 It's just something to think about if you're posting a LOT of photos and I noticed a few people who were screaming toward the limit very quickly. I have found how to delete photos on the back end, and possibly if someone was over the limit I could help them find the biggest files and do some targeted clean up in threads where it doesn't matter. Like in their own log or something.

 

I see most of my attachments came from selling via the board.  
 

one thought on that part of the gripboard:

If the item was sold, while I understand the benefit of the full gripboard to view those old sales for historic purposes and price checking, now that  I realize those pictures helped push me over the limit, I regret giving so many angles.

I have 142 attachments, for a total of 218mb (112% of my allotted 195.31mb limit)

I have been all three tiers over the years so I guess that is how I got over 100%…

btw: I have under 860 total posts 

Edited October 27 by richcottrell

[Jermiah Merciconah]

On 10/24/2024 at 12:52 PM, matek said:

The problem is if you don't resize pictures (in 2024, 200MB is about 40 smartphone pictures, if you don't resize it) . Sometimes I'm also too lazy to do it, and I'm 64% full of 300MB. But for reference, I have 489 attachments. So if you resize the images, it's actually quite a lot.

Btw if you upload the image somewhere else (like imgur), and just paste the link to the post (like https://i.imgur.com/blabla.jpeg) it will automatically embed the picture and will not affect your quota. For unimportant stuff like showing my bends, I will just do this from now on

 

If you're shooting with ProRAW on newer iphones one image can be over 100MB, Which you'd never do admittedly for a forum but it puts it in context