We are approaching 3000 photos in the gallery. I remember when I was excited the site had 300. Unfortunately there are some negative ramifications of so many images. Primarily I am worried about a server slow-down issue that other sites have reported using the software this site uses on sites with over 1500 images. I don't know if this is starting to rear its ugly head yet, but I have noticed some slow server response lately. Secondarily the site is now using 65% of the total storage space we have on our Web hosting plan. Sooner or later I will need to initiate some kind of growth control and the gallery is the primary source of all that storage. I don't want to get to 90% and then try to deal with this issue at the last minute.

Solutions:
1. Reprocess many of the super-large images in Photoshop, and turn 150+kb images into 50-100kb images by using proper compression techniques.

2. Eliminate images that meet the following criteria: duplicates, reference images that lack details useful for modeling, similar angles of models that are not showing unique aspects of the item, images that may be copyrighted, and non-military related images.

3. New photo submissions that are not compressed and sized properly will need to be sent via email to [email protected] (preferably zipped if multiple images).

4. Discontinue image uploading for users that do not have the means to reprocess and compress images to the correct size. (sorry I know this one hurts)

Please don't mistake this posting as me saying these are now the rules. The solutions above are what I am considering. Some or all of them may help extend the storage space of the site (and reduce the amount of bandwidth the site is using).

Feedback? Questions?

Jim

Fully understandable Jim.
In fact, I have a few that I could remove without any pain to me. I glad you are dealing with this issue now rather than wait till you "red-lined" the storage.
I was wondering if the pictures in the forum's post are affecting the storage at all. I would think not, only because they are there from their URL's link. Is this correct? If they do affect it let me know, so in the future I'll just add the pic's URL rather that the pic itself.

Keep up the great job Jim. All is appreciated very much by all here.

Jim, the bain of all webmasters-storage and bandwidth. I totally understand. In fact, if you need to start removing stuff feel free to remove the Tiger I and Panzer IV galleries of mine. I have webspace available that I can post them on. I realize it's not much but it might help you out some if you need the space. Same goes for the the F-18, A-6 and A-1 reference pics I took.

Same here Jim, feel free to kill any of the pictures I posted. I'll hold back on any further uploading. Just got a new FMTV 5 ton wrecker in too, but it can wait.

Damnnn. Just those responses are hurting me. I'd really hate to curtail the input here. There must be another answer.
Numbers 1,2,& 3 seem perfectly agreeable to me. How about everyone else?
Can #4 possibly be addressed by including links for the appropriate free/shareware programs to accomplish the task?
Can we possibly 'archive' some previous input either text or .jpg in some fashion as to free up some space for new input?

Come on, between the bunch of us we can find a solution.

Tread.

Well I don't want to over-react. Killing good pics and the like is not productive at this point. But again using certain guidelines I think we can all still continue to post images of models and good reference material. I think I may have to scale back on the idea that all types of older reference shots should go into the gallery though because a.) they are already out there in droves and b.) copyright issues which may become a serious issue down the road. That's why to be honest I would rather have pics like the ones Bryan and Rob have taken over some shot of an M1 Abrams that is on every military photo site on the planet. That said any M1 shot that shows something really essential for detailed weathering or modeling should stay. Hope that makes sense.

Anyways I agree with Tread that I would love for users to be able to get and use their own image processing programs and continue to upload. Let me look into that and I will tie that into my article on digital image processing.

Rob - I am going to look into trying to re-size and compress the great shots you have put up. I will keep you posted. Keep posting them though.

Jim

Same here! What ever you think is necessary to get the space you need. Feel free to remove some of my things and let me no.
Anything to keep this sight going so well.

Jim,
Tin_Can's statement that he has webspace to post his galleries got me thinking. Perhaps Armorama could post links to photo's when they are posted elsewhere on the web. I know that some Yahoo clubs do that.
It would free up some space and maybe even allow us to see more pics.
Chuck

Jim;
Have a look at the second e-mail I sent to you,may solve your worries.
russ

I've already chimed in on this issue privately, but I wouldn't mind removing my Gallery of images here like the guys above. Just say the word!

Gunnie

(note lack of words above)

I am strategizing a few solutions for this "issue".

First I think I would like to create a forum for posting images for comments, and constructive critiques. Then users can simply either link to their own gallerys or perhaps use the IMG tag function to add the images directly to the post. They could of course link directly to an image here on the Armorama gallery too. But I am not as thrilled with using the IMG tag function for those as it's more a bandwidth drain when people come back to reply, etc. Of course if it's Yahoo, MSN, or WebShots who cares?

Secondly I would like to work on augmenting the Photo Sites links in the Online directory. SAS, who has provided some great reference photos for the site has a myriad of additional photos on MSN communitiy sites that some of you have perhaps seen. I think getting a good index of these sites is a good way to promote usage on Armorama as we can't at this time afford to host the hundred plus thousand photos that are out there. I will likely create a link in the gallery main-page that will call out this list as additional reference.

Lastly, I will need to attempt to bring the existing images and future uploads into more of a standardized size, format, and subject requirements. This will likely mean no more SUPER images that are 200-500Kb in size. Too long to download for most people anyways, plus many of those images can still be compressed to a reasonable size. Take a look at this example:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/modules/gallery/albums/albuo43/aab.jpg

That huge photo is only 82Kb in size. The original was somewhere around 800Kb! I downsized it and compressed it before adding to the site. As an opposite example look at this photo:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/modules/gallery/albums/album47/aah.jpg

475Kb! And not only that but stupid me put it there. Needless to say that this is the kind of photo I am talking about. That one is ALL OVER the net. And it's taking up as much space as 8 or 10 average photos.

I hope that helps everyone understand where I am at with this. I will start making these changes as time permits. I will also be looking for "helpers" that feel confident they can help me weed out some of the bad pics. What I will probably do is have the helpers move them to a "holding album" to await their doom! :::evil laugh::: Just kidding. Once in the holding album I can assess them and decide whether to delete or not. Anyways keep in mind I am talking about images like ole Thunderbolt above. NOT MODEL IMAGES.

Thanks,
Jim

JIM!
the issue is understood and feeling somewhat guilty of abusing armorama for uploading too much of my pics kept me busy of thinking for solutions on this already for a while...
you instructed me which tools to use for compressing and sharpening pics and it seems I
am on the right track with this..nevertheless

--you can throw out those pics you think are unnecessary
--advise if I shall continue with things like the austrian army album. I think we are here
in the main problem of defining what is of "main interest". I am thinking of uploading
pics of the "Kürassier" and uploaded already pics of the APC Saurer, Pinzgauer,
Haflinger. from all these 4 vehicles no resin or injection moulded plastic model is available. only some awful vacu-formed kits, which are mainly available in europe.
therefore the question is: is it of main interest to upload such pics, especially detail shots, from a modellers aspect, when we know that only a handful will have the vacu formed kit,
5-6 intend to scratch it, but maybe 2 of them all are aware of this site and the pics?

Jim, when you invited me to join armorama and allowed me to upload pics, you created a "monster". I have so many pics, with own copyrights, which just want to see the virtual daylight, and because a site on my own will never materialize, due to several reasons,
armorama was a real kick for me and scanning and uploading pics became my favourite sport.
since I met wolfram bradac, who runs his own site, I also have a view behind the scenes and I am constantly learning more on this issue and also of the costs/problems with web space...
If we can agree that my pics are "in the armorama spirit" and shall continue, even at a reduced level, but webspace problems are an issue because of the amount I uploaded already I have no objections in paying for this webspace..or better neam it "lease the webspace".
please lets all think and comment on this..

regards, werner-tankbuster

Noooooooooooooooo...............

Sorry, Gunnie, you can't. Won't let 'cha. Nope. No can do. That option is not available at this time. Afraid not.

Tread.

I'd like to second Tread's idea to make Gunnie's models a permanent part of the gallery.

YodaMan

Model and Dio images are not at issue right now. That said Gunnie has a very nice collection of images on his site (more captions too).

The reference pics contributed by Rob (Sabot), Werner (tankbuster), and Bryan (Tin_Can) are good examples of the kind of original photo pics I want the site to archive. That's why you may have noted the new link in the gallery area to the directory for further photo archive sites. I would rather this site have an image no one else has (well at least for a while) then an image common to anyone searching the net.

Also please check the new F.A.Q. about Photo Submissions to put this into even better focus. hehe

This, in conjunction with resizing some existing images in the gallery, should be all I need to do to bring this in-control.

Thanks,
Jim

And here I stopped taking and uploading pictures because of the space problem. I figured the best way to avoid the problem was to curtail the photos.

Rob,
Your pics are great. As they are coming raw from the camera, I have already reprocessed them all to about 1/3 their current file size, but because of limitations with the gallery program I can't simply replace the existing images. I could however upload the new images to replace the others. But I will have to carefully transpose the captions for each individual photo.

You can probably help out best at this point (if you can't reprocess images as outlined in the FAQ) to just zip up the images you want to put up and send them to me via e-mail. Then I will compress them and re-size if needed and you can still enter the captions after I upload.

Thanks,
Jim

sorry for getting philosophical on this issue now, but it needs to be...
I understand your aim to have something special on this site and display rare/unknown pics. the problem now is how to handle this.
if I enter M60A3 in yahoo I get 2040 hits. must I check all these links and probably the related printed literature and then upload only the pics which are not represented in the a.m. sources??
that would be very exclusive indeed, but not very userfriendly, if we recommend a dozen of links for the other details to look at, because armorama does not want them.
I do not see this as solution and the information on a special subject should be provided
in total, even if there is the danger of duplicate info. I mean each case is different, but in case of pics of the handful of surviving panthers and tigers, which can be seen from almost every angle on many websites, there is no need to show them on armorama as well.
but who will judge this?
will we move towards a sorta blacklist with vehicles/ships/aircraft which are ok to upload and others not?

next I want to explain my idea of "leasing" webspace a bit more. maybe jim can assign a special amount of free webspace to each individual who is allowed to add pics and everything which exceeds has to be paid for. I know this is a matter of trust and starts a business relationship, but I have no objections..
another idea would be, that these users run their own webspace, and armorama is linked to them, invisible for the user. but I have no clue if this is something which can be done and is reliable.
I would prefer this solution to commercial support from companies, which pop up whenever you do not need them.

last but not least: Gunnie forever! please never waste a minute again on removing your pics!

regards, werner

another issue to mention. as far as I have been told it is important to add as many notions of a topic in an article/picture as this has an influence on the ranking given from a search engine.
If this is true, then we are in trouble with some picture signations, as descriptions like
aab1, abc1, etc will not be inserted from a potential internetuser when he is looking for info on a certain original.
but I am not sure if this works for picture underlining as it works for articles, which I prooved recently.

regards, werner

Werner,
The search issue is definately important. I am actually kind of torn bewteen whether I would want all the images indexed by the major engines, or, just let those who find Armorama benefit from the gallery. Images that are routinely picked up by search indexes actually dramatically increase the amount of bandwidth used by a site. So it's sort of a double-edged sword. On the plus side the site would definately be found by new users, on the negative side probably even more people who are not scale modelers would bring up the images and cost the site valuable bandwidth.

Currently this is not really an issue yet as the site has only been indexed on a surface level (homepage and several homepage level links), but eventually google (and others) will index the entire site (including the gallery - unless I set up files to block them). So your comments about captions are very true. "abc" will not help anyone find an image of a Tiger tank whether it's the internal search engine or externally.

Personal Server Space - This is a good idea. I just have no idea how I would administer that at this time. I will keep an eye out for something that manages personal web-space via their PostNuke accounts. I think there are people working on this kind of module.

Also a tip about photo searching on the web. Try using Google or Altavista's "image" search mode. Google's advance image search even allows you to look for an image of a particular size. Great for finding the better detail images.

Jim

Tread, Master Yoda, and Tankbuster - thank you for the encouragement! I feel like I've been nominated for an Academy Award

Gunnie

You mean the Academy Awards mean something??? I thought it was just another contest for the actors to see who could looke the most believibly shocked... Perhaps we could make some kind of annual Armorama.com awards.
A question about photo contributions: If someone sends a picture to Jim that is put on the site, would the person who sent the photo now be labeled as a 'site contributor'? Would the be able to virtually sit at the contributors roundtable?

YodaMan

Heh Heh - the same question could be asked about model contest awards :-)

I think Jim will chime in here about the Contributor's Roundtable, and qualifications that elevates one to the status of Knight of the Virtual Armorama Table...

Gunnie

Indeed the quest to attain entry to the fabled Contributors Table does require a knightly act of contribution. Any contribution will do.

Jim

Hmmm. Need any pics from the Kennedy Space Center? I plan to check out the local 'Prarie Aviation Museum', but I think it's just the 3 old planes that are parked outside. Admission is only $2, so I'll give it a whirl. Heh heh, I love that phrase.
Also: I expect to be able to write a little article on wiring up LED's for a model (with a dimmer too). My Dad and I will be drawing up schematics for it sometime this summer. Don't know when though. I'm told there's a lot of 'home improvement' upcoming this year. oh joy

YodaMan