Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

heres an idea:

how about make the NG thingy into the Post new topic button.

As a few have mentioned, I always thought it was just another cool logo, not an interactive .swf. I say don't scrap it; but extend it across the entire top of the page! Fill that extra space with the logo.

And incase you didn't catch liljim's post on the front page, here it is again. This guy should be listened to.

At 8/12/02 06:11 PM, liljim wrote: Here are my thoughts. For what they're worth.

1. Allow users the ability to upload an image to their BBS signature. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to wait for one page of 30 posts to load on a 56Kb when there are a lot of duplicate images in there (I say "duplicate", when in fact the images are read on an individual basis)?

50Kb images (post upload limit) * 30 posts per page (at worst) = 1.5Mb. None of these images are cached if you're viewing them for the first time, since they're uploaded individually. Fine if you're on a fast connection (which I am at work - but I have to be careful with what I'm looking at whilst I'm at work. Pictures of that guy pulling his ass apart don't help my cause, either... but that's a whole other issue).

2. Having allowed users to upload BBS signature pics, enforce a rule whereby the images people upload should be relevant only to the post they're making. This will take some vetting, but still... it's got to be worth an effort.

3. Make a big button next to the "Post New Topic" button that says, simply, "Post New Reply". Users who click on this will be taken to a reply form without quoting whatever message they're replying to. Some people are clearly incapable of clearing the message field manually and big buttons just might do the trick for them (think of it as "reading by pictures").

4. Delete all the spam posts. Literally thousands of them.

5. Allow the person who's browsing the page to NOT load signature pics whilst viewing message posts, providing they're logged in. Thus reducing bandwidth further. I am not interested in what people post, image wise, since this feature is overly abused for the majority of the time.

I realise that diskspace isn't really an issue in comparison with bandwidth costs, which is one of the reasons you allow users to upload images (and all of the other reasons - such as

- Hotlinking being disallowed on some sites that users upload their images to.
- Users exceeding their own personal bandwidth on those sites when hotlinking.
- Users deleting images from their filespace without realising it affects output in the forums (and elsewhere where they might be hotlinking from).
- Etc.

)

However, when the maximum text bandwidth that you're expecting to rip through to display a bbs topic per page is 6Kb(ish) * 30 (150Kb) compared with 1.5Mb's worth for the pics, per page, you should soon realise that it's probably a big bandwidth killer and is worthy of taking a little time to program something to allow BBS signature pics.

That's not what's killing your MySQL database though - the filesystem is much more tolerant than the database driven stuff... You really need to cut what the users are submitting through posts in terms of text (not through limiting what they're allowed to write, but through afore mentioned methods) to save MySQL from going into spasms.

You've mentioned that Ross has been working on some administrative scripts to allow you greater control over user submissions in general. Let's hope it isn't too much work for him to let you do something along those lines.

With regard to the sparkly thing at the top left of the pages - it doesn't crash my browser, it's not big to download, and if it's been downloaded, it's cached and takes no time to display. The scrolling really doesn't bother me, even on a 800 * 600 res, which I'm forced to use at home unless I want to hear the monitor hissing (literally) at me. Please just sort something about the needless upload of images on literally every post.

It is a cool icon but if removing it will improve site performance i think it would be good to remove it.

I think you should take it away! I mean, I love playing with that little logo.. but If I wanted to have some mindless fun with some stardust, I can always do it on the banner in the portal! Make the BBS load faster!!!!!!!!!

Yes, you do that...

haha less scorlling = better site. BUt I would still have to scroll so it would still suck but o well haha

At 8/12/02 05:07 PM, TomFulp wrote: Completely random opinion poll...

If I removed the fun little animated "stardust" NG logo from the BBS (here's a secret - try clicking and dragging your mouse around the logo!), and made the "POST NEW TOPIC" button higher, more horizontal and less vertical... We could gain a good 75 pixels of space before users have to start scrolling down. The page might also load two seconds faster and be less likely to cause seizures. Your thoughts?

no, leave it alone

At 8/13/02 09:59 AM, warriormage wrote: Nice, more space, shorter loading time. Efficiency has been increased.
Too bad about the stardust thingy, but who really cares about that.

agree its not that special and 2 seconds is alot in this day and age

Whatever you think is best, I suppose. I'm sure it's slower for people still on 56Gay, but for cable, dsl, and others, it takes about a second for the page to load. So you can either care for the dial-up users, or keep it there. I really don't see the point in the stardust .swf anyway.

At 8/12/02 05:07 PM, TomFulp wrote: Completely random opinion poll...

If I removed the fun little animated "stardust" NG logo from the BBS (here's a secret - try clicking and dragging your mouse around the logo!), and made the "POST NEW TOPIC" button higher, more horizontal and less vertical... We could gain a good 75 pixels of space before users have to start scrolling down. The page might also load two seconds faster and be less likely to cause seizures. Your thoughts?

I guess another add or random popular pick thingy

At 8/12/02 05:07 PM, TomFulp wrote: Completely random opinion poll...

If I removed the fun little animated "stardust" NG logo from the BBS (here's a secret - try clicking and dragging your mouse around the logo!), and made the "POST NEW TOPIC" button higher, more horizontal and less vertical... We could gain a good 75 pixels of space before users have to start scrolling down. The page might also load two seconds faster and be less likely to cause seizures. Your thoughts?

I think it would be a great idea, but only if you think you really need it. Because I think it's fine how it is.

evrrrrybody looOOOoove NEWGRoUNDS!

Hey! ça marche! en cliquant sur le logo, les étoiles bougent et se déplacent!

VIVA NEWGROUNDS!

Go for it Tom if it means that newgraounds can load faster! That would be a plus for everyone!

sure go for it.
although, 2 seconds of load time doesn't really bother
me cause i'm lucky enough to have an DSL connection
yay me!!

At 8/12/02 05:07 PM, TomFulp wrote: Completely random opinion poll...

If I removed the fun little animated "stardust" NG logo from the BBS (here's a secret - try clicking and dragging your mouse around the logo!), and made the "POST NEW TOPIC" button higher, more horizontal and less vertical... We could gain a good 75 pixels of space before users have to start scrolling down. The page might also load two seconds faster and be less likely to cause seizures. Your thoughts?

I don't have a problem with moveing the post new topic
button but I am rather fond of the star dust NG logo so please don't change it

At 8/12/02 05:07 PM, TomFulp wrote: Completely random opinion poll...

If I removed the fun little animated "stardust" NG logo from the BBSand less vertical... We could gain a good 75 pixels of space before users have to start scrolling down. load faster

FASTER IS BETTER P.S TOM THIS IS OFF THE TOPIC BUT IS THERE ANY CHANCE THAT YOU COULD MAKE A DEMO FOR PICO 2 IM A DIE HARD PICO FAN AND THOSE PICS WERE JUST A TEASE

At 8/12/02 08:01 PM, Karolek wrote: I really dont think it would matter for me. It would be a good idea for more speed on the site. But those who have cable, dsl, t1, t3 dont give a fucking care if it loads 1/100 of a second faster but nice idea the speed up the process, hint take off some of the repitive banners.. all right later gater

ya know i fully agree with this guy.

most .gif files= seen one seen them all type a deal, it's been there for a hell of a long time, but i never would really care to see it go :)

At 8/12/02 06:43 PM, patheticthoughts wrote: If you are trying to have things load faster, I'd say get rid of the dressup section. So much bandwidth must be sucked up by 12year olds viewing every Britney Spears dress-up on there. Get rid of it and make room for quality flash.

Yup do that, and put the stardust logo on every page!

At 8/12/02 05:07 PM, TomFulp wrote: Completely random opinion poll...

If I removed the fun little animated "stardust" NG logo from the BBS (here's a secret - try clicking and dragging your mouse around the logo!), and made the "POST NEW TOPIC" button higher, more horizontal and less vertical... We could gain a good 75 pixels of space before users have to start scrolling down. The page might also load two seconds faster and be less likely to cause seizures. Your thoughts?

well tom the thing about it is even tho it's only 2 seconds it's still a hell of a lot faster then it is now. because i know sometimes when it runs like a friggin snail and that's why it has the nickname snailgrounds around my buddys. but to be honest i do agree with this. it might not bother people but to me being here on like a daily bases i would luv for this site to go much faster. so yea go ahead and do whatever u think would be necessary to get the site running faster

-DUDE

At 8/28/02 01:13 PM, Artic_Fox wrote:

At 8/12/02 06:43 PM, patheticthoughts wrote: If you are trying to have things load faster, I'd say get rid of the dressup section. So much bandwidth must be sucked up by 12year olds viewing every Britney Spears dress-up on there. Get rid of it and make room for quality flash.

Yup do that, and put the stardust logo on every page!

hahah i agree with patheticthoughts and what he siad. i know when i have friends around and they wanna see what newgrounds have i usually go there because it really catches there attention. but then on the other side if they (12 year olds) wanna watch some porn on the site let the search thru the damn site. because don't u get money for each second that were on this site??? and by letting them search thru it u gain money even if that's if u make it by this ^_^

yes, make more space! Have Wade do it,