The trouble with CactiGuide.com

*Barracuda_52* · Post by ***Barracuda_52*** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:26 am

All the pics i post you can just click them and you can view them way much larger, it also helps to view pics better when ya have a much larger monitor 24 to 27 inch makes for nice viewing of pics.. LOL!!

hob · Post by **hob** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 6:16 pm

i have a tenancy to post images on the widest size of 600 pixels, i tend to post a lot of images

my eyesight is such that this is ok to me,.........also i always have in mind the loading time of pages for those with slow connections and the cost of disk space and bandwidth to cactiguide.com.

there is a large difference within software that compresses images quality wise, i started off using Microsoft photo editor which although free with windows is crap at resizing images,I must echo Daivs wish to avoid advertising which would allow the financing of greater disk space.

there is a balance to be struck between image quality and the cost of displaying images, for those who wish to display large images there are the options of places like photobucket which can be linked to or a direct upload to cactiguide.com.

Direct uploads to Cactiguide.com have the benefit of permanent linkage but the cost of storage has to be considered, Cactus mall, ( our hosts) charge a fee for storage of information (including storage of images) therefore the cost of hosting increases with the amount of images hosted

it is then a question of how much are we willing to pay for the hosting of cactiguide.com ?

Therein lies the problem, of how Cactiguide.com is financed................ at the moment Cactiguide is financed by Daiv personally, as a moderator i feel i can comment more on the costs than most, so far my offers to help with payment of Cactiguide,com to avoid advertising have been refused.............my one thought would be to post a minimum of images to avoid costs of hosting. my other thought would be to consider the offer of like minded people to share the cost of hosting the site .....................

just my thoughts on how things should progress............

larger images cost money

Post by **daiv** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:19 am

I need to talk to Tony Mace about increasing disc space for CactiGuide as it is. I'll see what kind of options/prices it is. Web hosting isn't that expensive really. I pay yearly so most of the time I don't even think about it.

I'll follow up and see what I can come up with.

GermanStar · Post by **GermanStar** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 5:09 am

I would leave the Guide as is, I agree consistency is important in regard to maintaining a professional and well--organized appearance. Not so much with the forum though, where inconsistency and a more informal appearance are par for the course.

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 5:36 am

Daiv, if you want me to pitch in after the enormous load of photos from today, let me know.

peterb

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:54 am

And I could send you more seedlings.

Post by **daiv** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 3:50 am

You guys are a riot! No dire straits here or anything like that.

That said, nothing helps cacti guide, like buying cactus books!

At some point we're going to need to expand so I always appreciate these discussions.

Post by **daiv** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:10 pm

Update! I've been talking with Tony Mace (ie. Cactus-Mall owner/host) and we're going to "beef up" the CactiGuide.com account. I'm also going to do some other hosting things at the same time so it is going to take a little time, but within a couple weeks, I'll be looking at our options for increased image sizes.

Stay tuned...

Daiv

GermanStar · Post by **GermanStar** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:18 pm

That's great news! IMHO, 900x600 would be just about ideal for the forum (remember, it's a new wide screen world out there), but 800x600 would also be very good.

Post by **daiv** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:24 pm

Here is the breakdown for CactiGuide.com of screen resolution by percentage of visitors in the past month:

GermanStar · Post by **GermanStar** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:35 pm

So 80% have a screen width of at least 1280, and 70% run wide-screen monitors. Those numbers will only go up.

iann · Post by **iann** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:51 pm

The 1280x1024 is probably all me

Be careful not to assume too big. More and more people (not me!) are using tiny netbooks now, although maybe more often with Facebook and Cactiguide

Post by **daiv** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 2:46 am

iann wrote: Be careful not to assume too big. More and more people (not me!) are using tiny netbooks now, although maybe more often with Facebook and Cactiguide

Yes, isn't that the rub? Just when everybody gets a nice big widescreen monitor, they stop using it and switch to even smaller screens than they had before!

GermanStar · Post by **GermanStar** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 4:21 am

Haha -- I had one of those, I thought I was going to get a hernia when I finally picked it up and tossed it in the garbage after it crapped out.

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 4:23 am

GS,
yeah mine weighs a ton. I have a feeling I would have the same problem. (One of the many reasons I am not getting rid of it yet!) Give me a breaks It cost 17.99 at one of those Salvation Army places. It was a replacement that someone else broke, and I am not complaining.
(its better then zero monitor!)