What Bird Is That Forum

I'm running into issues with uploading an avatar and photos. I tried cropping a photo and reducing the pixels to the indicated amount but it still says it's too large; how do I reduce the size? Then just now I tried to upload a photo and it also says it's too large. I can't find an option to reduce the size of the photo in my photo editors (nothing fancy, the ones that came with my laptop). And what size photos (not avatars) is allowed? Thanks!

I raised the default attachment size limit from 256kb to 1Mb when I started the forum. You should be able to upload an attachment to a post up to 1Mb unless I goofed.

The default avatar size limit was 90 by 90 pixels. The one I had handy was 123 by 123, so I made that the limit.(I am reminded of a god-like character played by John DeLancie in the Star Trek franchise. When confronted with the question of how to deflect an asteroid enough to avoid an inhabited planet, he said "Easy. Change the gravitational constant of the universe.")

Let me know if for some reason you can't upload up to 1Mb attachments or 123 x 123 avatars.

Microsoft Paint can be used to resize images to whatever size you need.

I did change the avatar photo to 123 X 123 but it says it has to be less than 6 KiB. The avatar shows as 31 KB; reducing the pixels didn't change that. Sorry, I'm clearly missing something here! I don't see how to change the number of MB in a photo with paint, and changing the pixels didn't affect that.

aveschapinas wrote: Sun Jan 11, 2026 3:51 am I did change the avatar photo to 123 X 123 but it says it has to be less than 6 KiB. The avatar shows as 31 KB; reducing the pixels didn't change that. Sorry, I'm clearly missing something here! I don't see how to change the number of MB in a photo with paint, and changing the pixels didn't affect that.

I'm sure changing the size of the image did change the file size, but if it only got to 31 kb it must be a PNG or BMP, JPG's have smaller file size.

In any case, I raised the file size limit so your avatar should be okay now.

Greyhawk wrote: Sun Jan 11, 2026 3:59 am

aveschapinas wrote: Sun Jan 11, 2026 3:51 am I did change the avatar photo to 123 X 123 but it says it has to be less than 6 KiB. The avatar shows as 31 KB; reducing the pixels didn't change that. Sorry, I'm clearly missing something here! I don't see how to change the number of MB in a photo with paint, and changing the pixels didn't affect that.

I'm sure changing the size of the image did change the file size, but if it only got to 31 kb it must be a PNG or BMP, JPG's have smaller file size.

In any case, I raised the file size limit so your avatar should be okay now.

When I first resized my avatar image to 90x72pixels, it was still a 14kb jpg file. I had to export the 90x72 image at 50% quality in order to get the file size down to the 6kb limit. It definitely had me thinking that the 6kb file size restriction was excessive and I am glad to see that others won't be quite as restricted as I was.

Lonestranger wrote: Sun Jan 11, 2026 8:32 am When I first resized my avatar image to 90x72pixels, it was still a 14kb jpg file. I had to export the 90x72 image at 50% quality in order to get the file size down to the 6kb limit. It definitely had me thinking that the 6kb file size restriction was excessive and I am glad to see that others won't be quite as restricted as I was.

And of course you can change yours at will.

Greyhawk wrote: Sun Jan 11, 2026 8:53 am And of course you can change yours at will.

Now that I've uploaded the image and the avatar is working, I'll leave things as they are. I appreciate that I can change it to a better image, I just don't see the need for it. Mosty laziness on my part.

Thanks for your patience @greyhawk and for helping us all work through the growing pains of the new site.

Greyhawk wrote: Sun Jan 11, 2026 3:59 am
I'm sure changing the size of the image did change the file size, but if it only got to 31 kb it must be a PNG or BMP, JPG's have smaller file size.

In any case, I raised the file size limit so your avatar should be okay now.

Thank you! Success. Now to see if I can upload photos to threads. (It is a JPG...)