Hey all,

We have had our attachment (images) feature changing lately trying to find the right balance between ease of use and server limitations. I'm sure most of you know how it works but for those that don't.........when ever a picture is directly attached to a post, that picture is uploaded and saved on the site's server. This might not sound like a big deal, but over time, these pictures will eat up a LOT of space and slow everything down (not to mention the costs associated with buying server space).

So what we have decided to do is set a limit on attachments to 200kb in size. Not only will this help with eating up too much server space, it will help the pages load faster for those members that are on dial-up service. Taking this one step further, I would like to ask everyone to keep these dial-uppers in mind and try to keep pictures to 640 x 480 in size.

Also, we have removed the Global limit on attachments per user . What this is referring to is the total number of pics you have attached. Before, if you reached the limit, the only way to attach additional pics was to delete some of your others in older posts. This is no longer necessary.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you do not know how to resize a pic, follow these simple steps....

-Open the pic in Microsoft Paint (should be on every computer)
-Click on "Image" from the menu
-Click on "Stretch/Skew"
-Lower the Stretch % to the same amount for both Horizontal and Vertical
-Click "File" and then "Save As"
-Rename your pic and save it as a JPEG

Your pic will now be reduced dramatically in both file size (kb) and dimensions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As always, you can still link an image that is hosted on another site. This will not take up any server resources, but keep in mind that it will still have to load the image when viewed. This can still make page loading for dial-uppers painfully slow.

To link an image, follow these steps.....
-Find the pic you want to link in your post
-Right click on it and highlight "Properties"
-Highlight the Address (URL), right click and copy
-While making your post here, click on the IMG button above the post entry window
-In the Image window, right click and copy the URL for the pic
-Click OK and your pic will show in your post
Your pic will not show in the post entry but appears as [IMG]address from pic[IMG]
When you submit your post, the pic will show up as a viewable image.