GIF size, your Internet, and what is usable?

[b_lumenkraft]

Do you think even very small (~1mb) files should be click to play?

No one ever answered so i ask here.

[Tor Bejnar]

It's unanimous, so far. 
At home I sometimes run into slow downloads on certain threads, so I appreciate the click-to-run feature for large GIFs, etc.

[b_lumenkraft]

Unanimous equals good!

[uniquorn]

please define 'big'

[gerontocrat]

Having to do a click  to see a gif?
What a shocking waste of my valuable time.

Precious pups rule, OK ?

[HapHazard]

My internet connection is freaking awesome. I'm also aware that there are folks with a poor connection. I also find autoplay anything to be annoying. Please make all GIFs click to play.

That's my vote + explanation.

[magnamentis]

I'm aware that there are folks with poor connection. So i think only big files should be click to play.

while this is also true, the reasons may differ. my main reason is that i hate ANYTHING to start playing/moving before i'm ready or willing to start watching.

autoplay is something that even on main browser level can in one or another way be prohibited.

i like gifs that start on click with either a click to start mention below or in picture, depending on feasibility and ease of production.

[abraca]

It may be all click-to-animate, but please differentiate static images from animated ones somehow, maybe thick red border visible till you click on the image to animate, please?

[be cause]

As Haphazard says .. click to play . Maybe it's an age thing .. and eyesight .. but I hate the autoplaying world we are increasingly exposed to . I delight in what folk bring video wise but I really would like control .. even when it's only a couple of frames jumping over and back .. but at a speed I can't choose . b.c.

[be cause]

lol .. sorry b-l .. completely forgot your question this morning .. I was devouring the day , not broadcasting .. .. so anyway .. as above .. yes .. I would prefer everything click n play .. even your little page~flicker ones .. but then only 'cause I would like some control as consumer .. b.c.

[interstitial]

I voted the last one not because my internet sucks but while some animations are awesome many don't hold any interest. Besides what is the problem is it that hard to click a mouse to see something.

[b_lumenkraft]

please define 'big'

small     = < 1 mb
medium    = 1-3 mb
big       = > 3 mb

[b_lumenkraft]

My internet connection is freaking awesome. I'm also aware that there are folks with a poor connection. I also find autoplay anything to be annoying. Please make all GIFs click to play.

That's my vote + explanation.

Thanks so much for your opinion!

The problem with this approach is, if you resize a small GIF so it wouldn't autoplay, you also make the file size bigger.

PS: Apparently you are not alone finding autoplay annoying.

[b_lumenkraft]

I'm aware that there are folks with poor connection. So i think only big files should be click to play.

while this is also true, the reasons may differ. my main reason is that i hate ANYTHING to start playing/moving before i'm ready or willing to start watching.

autoplay is something that even on main browser level can in one or another way be prohibited.

i like gifs that start on click with either a click to start mention below or in picture, depending on feasibility and ease of production.

Honestly, i never considered autoplay to be simply annoying. Now that i think of it it makes sense.

That's great feedback, Mag. Thanks.

[b_lumenkraft]

It may be all click-to-animate, but please differentiate static images from animated ones somehow, maybe thick red border visible till you click on the image to animate, please?

This is a thing i don't control.

But when there is a click to play GIF i would always add the disclaimer '(Click to play)'.

[b_lumenkraft]

lol .. sorry b-l .. completely forgot your question this morning .. I was devouring the day , not broadcasting .. .. so anyway .. as above .. yes .. I would prefer everything click n play .. even your little page~flicker ones .. but then only 'cause I would like some control as consumer .. b.c.

Thanks, B.C.

I think i'm gonna do that in the future.

My thinking was when i resize a small GIF to 701 pixels, the file size increases, sometimes dramatically. I wanted to prevent that.

But the 'want to have control over the media as a user' argument is a good one.

[b_lumenkraft]

I voted the last one not because my internet sucks but while some animations are awesome many don't hold any interest. Besides what is the problem is it that hard to click a mouse to see something.

Thanks, Interstitial. I never considered that. Good, i made a poll!

[b_lumenkraft]

Having to do a click  to see a gif?
What a shocking waste of my valuable time.

Precious pups rule, OK ?

Repeat after me: Con-ve-ni-ence!

[KiwiGriff]

Another vote for click to play please.
I use mobile  data  the bandwidth is restricted sometimes due to atmospherics or demand.   Also the Mbytes used from auto playing stuff  mounts over a month sometimes causing me to overrun the cap on my data plan. 

[b_lumenkraft]

Another vote for click to play please.
I use mobile  data  the bandwidth is restricted sometimes due to atmospherics or demand.   Also the Mbytes used from auto playing stuff  mounts over a month sometimes causing me to overrun the cap on my data plan.

Thanks a lot, KiwiGriff.

That's a valuable input. 'Click to play' it is!!

[grixm]

The problem with this approach is, if you resize a small GIF so it wouldn't autoplay, you also make the file size bigger.

We could just modify the forum software to make all gifs/videos click to play, regardless of size.

By the way, I mentioned it in a different thread but gif's are antiquated formats anyway. If you make the animation a video like mp4 or webm you can reduce the filesize at least 80% without losing quality.

[b_lumenkraft]

The problem with this approach is, if you resize a small GIF so it wouldn't autoplay, you also make the file size bigger.

We could just modify the forum software to make all gifs/videos click to play, regardless of size.

Eager to hear what Neven thinks of this (IMHO good) idea.

By the way, I mentioned it in a different thread but gif's are antiquated formats anyway. If you make the animation a video like mp4 or webm you can reduce the filesize at least 80% without losing quality.

Yes, that's correct. But GIF is some kind of a standard. It's easy to share on every platform.

MP4 and WebM are not there yet.

[gerontocrat]

Having to do a click  to see a gif?
What a shocking waste of my valuable time.

Precious pups rule, OK ?

Repeat after me: Con-ve-ni-ence!

Con-ve-ni-ence! Can be a euphemism for what you use when having a crap.

[b_lumenkraft]

euphemism

I laughed so hard, my cat's flight reflex kicked in... 

[HapHazard]

Depending on your browser, there may be add-ons available for this. Might be worth a poke around internetland.

Used to be that you could hit SHIFT + ESC in Firefox, and animations would stop loading. There's also settings you can change in about:config to do with autoplaying (gif & videos).  I mostly use Palemoon here, and the only setting I have changed relating to autoplay is

Code: [Select]

media.autoplay.enabled | type=boolean | value=falsebut that's just for videos (all sites).

[uniquorn]

Animations are a bit irritating. In future I think I'll try posting a few lines of text and 3 or 4 large images instead.

[be cause]

Hi Uniquorn .. you post many of the best animations .. and the bigger the better .. your big ones are usually click to play and please everyone . Your little ones that self play or have 4 playing at once are more challenging . I would hate my poor intrnet to cause you to reduce your valuable imput .. b.c.

[b_lumenkraft]

Animations are a bit irritating.

Your animations are many things. Things like educative, interesting, brilliant, and much more. The word irritating doesn't come to mind, sir.

[be cause]

on reflection .. and looking at Nares thread .. I would continue to be happy with little gifs self play .. b.c.

[oren]

I'm alsi happy with self play for small gifs. It saves me clicks, especially useful when using my phone. For larger gifs click to play is best. I find animations to be much better than several images, as the differences are much more apparent.

[b_lumenkraft]

I find animations to be much better than several images, as the differences are much more apparent.

Totally agree! Sometimes a GIF shows more than 1000 pictures.

[Tor Bejnar]

euphemism

I laughed so hard, my cat's flight reflex kicked in... 

Consider yourself reported to the ASPCA*  - wait, that's only for the U. S. of A.  So, I've gone to "wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animal_welfare_organizations" and for Germany there is only one organization listed: Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft zum Schutz der Eulen.  Consider yourself reported to them - of course, as owl lovers, they may think scaring cats is okay.  Maybe you're safe for another day. 
 

____
* - American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

[b_lumenkraft]

I can assure you, Tor, no animals were harmed during laughing this laugh!   

Nice try with the owls though!

[be cause]

Freegrass's daily dose of self loading videos ( and he's not alone ) has stopped me loading the melting thread recently . Once again I appeal on behalf of the planet , my pocket and my patience !!! b.c.

[blumenkraft]

Please, everyone doing GIFs:

In general, produce GIFs. They would work on any platform. If it's a big file (>2.5mb), canvas size should be >700 pixels so that it doesn't autoplay.

If there is no way around mp4 for you, consider uploading to Youtube and link it.

If you don't like Youtube for some reason, at least make it >700px big so they wouldn't autoplay and eat up data budget for users.

Thank you.

Pro-tip concerning screenshots. Even screenshots can be very big in file size. Upload them to EZgif, adjust canvas size to 700px, optimize it at 35 and then download as a GIF. You can easily make a 2.5mb file to be 150kb. Better for the forum server, the users and the CO2 consumption. Everyone is happy. 

[nanning]

Great post blumenkraft. Thanks for the info and tips

[philopek]

Freegrass's daily dose of self loading videos ( and he's not alone ) has stopped me loading the melting thread recently . Once again I appeal on behalf of the planet , my pocket and my patience !!! b.c.

perhaps this helps in some cases, just discard if not

[be cause]

 I have massively reduced my time on the forum lately . I did not realise just how much of my monthly data was being eaten by gifs . Freegrass has been costing me a small fortune as I race toward the inevitable data squeeze for the last week then fortnight of the month.
  I know blumenkraft and others have demonsrated there is no difficulty in providing gifs etc that do not self load or run automatically ; but most regular high megabyte uploaders ignore these options and go for maximal consumption options , obviously in a 'to hell with the planet' approach to warning us of impending doom .
 I will continue to appeal to people to consider those with low data provisions and more importantly the people who come after us .
  lol .. I just looked at the last 3 posts on the melt thread .. 8000kbs of data just gobbled . I can but try / cry .. b.c.
 
 

[nanning]

Maybe it is possible to change the forum software. To provide a separate way to load the thread without all the embedding and autoloading. To only load the bare HTML.

Have you tried to use wget in stead of your browser?

[oren]

Cross posting:
The current problem is with mp4 files. Although they require a click to play they still load into the browser. If DM or Neven can disable this autoloading and just load a thumbnail it would fix everything.

[grixm]

I have massively reduced my time on the forum lately . I did not realise just how much of my monthly data was being eaten by gifs . Freegrass has been costing me a small fortune as I race toward the inevitable data squeeze for the last week then fortnight of the month.
  I know blumenkraft and others have demonsrated there is no difficulty in providing gifs etc that do not self load or run automatically ; but most regular high megabyte uploaders ignore these options and go for maximal consumption options , obviously in a 'to hell with the planet' approach to warning us of impending doom .
 I will continue to appeal to people to consider those with low data provisions and more importantly the people who come after us .
  lol .. I just looked at the last 3 posts on the melt thread .. 8000kbs of data just gobbled . I can but try / cry .. b.c.
 
 

Are you aware that the forum has a WAP2 mode? Here you can browse in in text only, each visit only costing you 3-4 kB: https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php?wap2

[be cause]

yes grixm .. I tried it out last year but it spoils the experience of the forum . It is the autoplaying option only that ruins my experience here .. but why should everyone who comes here join in unnecessary energy consumption because some few people refuse to adopt the efficient options of presentation ? I hope to follow philopek's suggestion myself but really it is the choice of posting method that needs to change . b.c.

[philopek]

Ni .. can you help ? .. I've no idea what you said .. but I like the outcome .. I have no idea how to find the autoplay disabler . I have no education or much interest in computers other than to access what I think #I want to see . I don't understand the language and have made no attempt to learn . Could you post an 'idiots guide' to getting the job done perhaps on the gifs thread .. it would be much appreciated ..

Hi,

Posting here as per your suggestion via PM and do my best to get you there

a) You'd need to update "Google Chrome" to anything above 76.x.xxxx.....
-   Attached screenshot(s) are OSX/Mac versions but to find and update
-   under Windows would be not so much different.

-   Thing is that a) and b) are not related but a) comes with a then new feature that would
-   not load background (invisible) media content by default which already solves one of your main
-   issues that was that each time you visit a page it would reload all the videos, images and gifs.
-   as to the videos i'm 100% sure it won't but i did not test each media file extension separately.


b) You'd have to install a specific Extension or several should you find others on my list that make sense for you It allows you to decide on a "per site" basis to disable auto-launch/auto-play of
html5 content.

-   Screenshot attached as well and the link to that specific one separately below :

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disable-html5-autoplay/efdhoaajjjgckpbkoglidkeendpkolai

c) As to dealing with .gif files in a similar manner i link you to a search collection containing various solutions and workarounds, perhaps you find one that is after your gusto.

Hopefully this is useful, else let me know, i'll come by here again

[blumenkraft]

I wasn't aware MP4s loads in the background until Oren mentioned it earlier today. And i bet i'm not the only one. People upload big files in the (false) hope it wouldn't download on the user's side.

[philopek]

Browser configuration
Many web browsers support the ability to disable any images from being displayed to help with load times for users with slower Internet connection. Verify this option is not enabled by following the steps below.

Chrome
Google Chrome users
Open Google Chrome.
Click the Customize and control Google Chrome icon Chrome settings in the upper-right corner of the window.
Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
At the bottom of the screen, click Show advanced settings...
Click the Content settings  button button.
Under Images make sure the circle next to Show all images is selected.
Click Done.
Close and re-open the browser window.


Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer users
Open Internet Explorer.
Click Tools IE tools icon in the top-right corner of the window.
Select Internet Options.
In the Internet Options window, click the Advanced tab.
In the Settings under Multimedia, make sure there is a check in the Show Pictures check box.
Click Apply, then OK.
Close and re-open the browser window.
If after following these steps you continue to have the same issue, follow each of the recommended steps in our basic Internet Explorer troubleshooting section.


Firefox
Mozilla Firefox users
Open Mozilla Firefox.
Type about:config in the address bar.
Click the I accept the risk! button.
Search for and double-click on permissions.default.image.
In the box that pops up, make sure the value is 1.
Close and re-open the browser window.

[philopek]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/bat1ni/google_chrome_to_support_lazy_loading_by_default/

https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/3yvw2w/chrome_not_loading_pages_until_you_focus_on_it/

[be cause]

Hi Philopek..
       I didn't find a content settings button (chrome) .. 'open proxy settings' was the closest but .. b.c.
 I'm on a laptop if that makes a difference ..

[philopek]

Hi Philopek..
       I didn't find a content settings button (chrome) .. 'open proxy settings' was the closest but .. b.c.
 I'm on a laptop if that makes a difference ..

Laptop doesn't make a difference:

Privacy and Security > Site Settings > Images

[gandul]

In an effort to be constructive for once, I collect elsewhere what seems to be the common demands, perhaps somebody with authority can put them in tables:

- If one can go all the way to post the animation on YouTube, seems the best option. Size UNLIMITED for the main thread.
- If you are with mp4, the jump to YT seems easy (upload it to your channel there; the embedding  here is just writing the YT video url and works like a charm)
- If you are with gif, or stuck with mp4, don’t post over 1.5MB in the main thread, (or make the gif bigger than 700x pixels).
- Post on the main thread mp4 and gif only if < 1.5 MB, and avoid posting multiple per day unless absolutely necessary (avoid cluttering thread with animations only, as common sense dictates).
- if you cannot comply with any of the above, post the animation over the animations thread and link to main thread for discussion.

IF ALL HAPPY MAYBE NEVEN COULD MAKE THEM INTO A RULE OF SORTS 

[gandul]

Please, everyone doing GIFs:

In general, produce GIFs. They would work on any platform. If it's a big file (>2.5mb), canvas size should be >700 pixels so that it doesn't autoplay.

If there is no way around mp4 for you, consider uploading to Youtube and link it.

If you don't like Youtube for some reason, at least make it >700px big so they wouldn't autoplay and eat up data budget for users.

Thank you.

Pro-tip concerning screenshots. Even screenshots can be very big in file size. Upload them to EZgif, adjust canvas size to 700px, optimize it at 35 and then download as a GIF. You can easily make a 2.5mb file to be 150kb. Better for the forum server, the users and the CO2 consumption. Everyone is happy. 

I just noticed this. Seems pretty much what I put together, 2.5 MB as size threshold is good to me but what do I know. Let’s avoid big files and only post relatively small files in main thread, thats the message, try to use youTube for big mp4, use >700 pixels for big gifs...