Animated avatars

[azsnowman]

Is it just me or does the animated avatars some members have *kinda* slow the thread down? I just got high speed net about a month ago and God I LOVE it......but when I click on some threads where the poster has animated avatars, trying to scroll to the bottom on the page is just, well, SLOOOOOOOW

Dennis

[GalvestonDuck]

I'm guilty of having one, but it didn't slow down my old computer and hasn't slowed my new Dell up either. Of course, I still have the same DSL.

If the avs are a problem, I'll gladly change mine. But you're still gonna be stuck with Gabby.

[O Town]

Sometimes, but not often.

[weatherlover427]

Nope, not at all here on my 8mb cable connection (unless it is a GIGANTIC file )

[Rainband]

I am on my new DELL lappy and it doesn't have any probs and it's wireless broadband

[HurricaneHunter914]

Really my computer uploads fine. Do you have DSL azsowman, it's awesome.

[CajunMama]

There are some that tend to make my computer lag.

[coriolis]

I don't think that it's the avatars that make my computer slow. My computer makes itself slow. (500 mhz)

[P.K.]

It is not just that, large image files (Say a few hundred kB, or bigger than the screen, say wider than 800 pixels) make threads hard to read and use extra bandwidth I'd rather not use. Don't know how it works in the USA but I have a limited amount of downloading I can use every month and so would rather people just posted links in these cases.

[AussieMark]

I have unlimted download limits

[P.K.]

Most broadband providers limit downloads here sadly.

[CentralFlGal]

Most broadband providers limit downloads here sadly.

This is the first I've heard of this. Is that the case on the continent too? You'd have to stay away from graphics-intense websites, and, unfortunately, that appears to be a trend in web design these days.

[P.K.]

I'd assume so. Initially there were no limits as far as I'm aware but over the last couple of years it is something most of them have introduced here.

[O Town]

I have never heard of such either. Lordy I hope the U.S. doesn't get any bright ideas like that.

[bvigal]

Lesson in economics - just because you don't pay for it yourself, doesn't mean there is no incremental cost. Bandwidth costs money, and somebody pays for it, somehow. Yes, it gets cheaper all the time, as new technology allows more and faster to be pushed down the pipe, but then it's used more all the time as users take advantage of the increased possibilities. Just like computers, phones, etc. For downloading, most users have unlimited usage at their bandwidth. Some have to choose limited usage plans, like P.K. Mine is $100/month ADSL, supposedly unlimited and a certain speed, but the more users they put on, the slower it gets.

Then there is the issue of bandwidth bottleneck from hosting server to backbone, which can happen when site is busy. You'll see when storm season begins...

This is straying off course a bit (as she drags the soapbox from under the stair), but everyone using email and the web should know this.

The truth is, our bandwidth costs, however small they might be, would probably be 1/2 what they are, if SPAM'ers could be hunted down and put out of business for good. With many thousand sending out several million mails/day, the estimates of internet bandwidth used for "junk" are very high. (Not to mention admin costs for security layers, etc. eventually paid by the user.)

As soon as my email host software (IceWarp) gets upgraded to refuse IP Blocks via wildcards (i.e. 220.*.*.*), I will stop everything in Asia, and much of Europe, from even being accepted by my mail server. (They keep saying they can do it in the last couple of releases, but it doesn't work.) I don't know anyone in these place, so I don't need to get email from there.

I research and report a lot of spam, been doing it since mid-90's. I don't care who mailed it to me (which could be forged or relayed via an innocent party with poor security), I just go after what they are trying to sell - the website in question. I've successfully shut down many domains being advertised via SPAM. But, the mail hosting providers and domain allocators in Asia, and some other places, are so poorly regulated, that reporting to them just gets your address on another bunch of mailing list CD's for sale.

And, they've only scratched the surface. There is so much money to be made, that people want to 'take it and run', not waste time and money to set up an infrastructure of regulations and consequences and agreements with multiple jurisdictions, etc. So, they don't care if their customers are eating up the Western Hemisphere's bandwidth, etc.

A large % of "send this to everyone you know"-type emails are designed to support this industry, by collecting more email addresses. Please discourage this type of traffic, by deleting it instead of participating, and by asking your friends to do the same.