April 25, 2008 11:49 pm

Avatar Update

We have removed the 64x64 from the site (including the news) and have replaced them with Headshots of your Human Avatar. If you've noticed, the site is moving considerably faster, because instead of having to save and load (And query the database for) both versions of the avatars, we only have to do this for one :)

Let me explain this, in a technical way. As best as I can - to answer the questions that have been posted up to this point.

The avatars were located in one folder, that was over 13GB in size when it was just removed. That means that each time an avatar was displayed on the site (the 64x64 one) it had to search that directory for the right image (which caused crashing in NFS) as well as query the user database, for information on which avatar was the users.

With the HA only version, it queries from the HA image folders (which are separated) and there are no MySQL queries, as the information is already cached for each user.

That means that we're saving 13GB worth of file searching, and a database query to the most important table in the database, for each avatar load.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Having the option to turn this off would be good for me as well. If it was one of my pets, it would have some appeal, but seeing more of my HA yet again---well, that just doesn't thrill me at all.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Keith, make a poll, with the head or without the head (meaning nothing, out, gone, nada, no square, zip)

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Okay, I don't fully get it... but the end result I understand.

I read as: "I make avatars go poof so site go faster"

That's about the size of it, isn't it? ^__^;

My HA is made of Phoenix and win, so it's all good in the end.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

I'm going to lock this, because clearly people are skipping over the technical standpoint I'm trying to make, and just whining.

Very few of you have offered alternatives, and those of you that have - I've replied to with my thoughts.

This is not your venue to go GOD I HATE YOU KEITH WHY DON'T YOU EVER LISTEN TO THE USERS. Or repeate yourselves "why wasn't this polled" 500 times without reading the reasoning behind it.

Locked.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

man... just put your avy on your lookup layout and it's kinda like it never left.... i've got mine

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Is there a way to turn off the HA headshot in the basic user info on your profile? It's messing with my layout, I don't wanna see mine on my own profile.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Question: How does having or not having a 64 x 64 avatar make or not make this a petsite?

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Like this site wasn't focused on HAs enough. I deleted my HA in silent protest.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

yeah...if anything...I'm lagging very very severely now. I'm certainly not noticing any improved speed.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Aw, I'll miss the 64x64 avs. But I guess if it makes the sitefaster its ok. Saves me the job of making thatnew avI was goingtodo.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Quote:

; border: 1px solid ; font-family: georgia; font-size: 10;">
I agree, there's too much hype about the HA's now. I personally don't care about mine because for one, I have no idea what to dress mine up with (due to me not caring, most likely), or the desire to waste money on wearables. And also, I like this site for what it is: a virtual pet/item site. Not a social network like Gaia, Myspace, etc.

Clothing is an item - to use on your human avatar.

We aren't putting focus on the Human Avatars, just applying them to parts of the site that they fit best. It didn't make sense having two sets of different types of avatars, and it also effected the server very badly.

There were over 200,000 images in that one folder, which was causing problems with the server. The database load has dropped by half since this change, and the Apache servers (that search through images) are FAR less loaded now.

This has been a good change, server, and speed wise for Subeta.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

goodbye avvies ;_;

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Awwwh. I really loved my 64x64 avatar..

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Sprinter...every site these days are social networks. If it has a forum it'll be social. If you can communicate with other users it's social. There was no way that Subeta was not not going to be a social network

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

If you don't see the headshots, hit Ctrl F5 a few times

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Yanno, people claim they don't think this is a petsite, then when they put in changes like the feeding your pet requirement to get to things like the wardrobe, people complained then too.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Actually my dialup is trying to crap out on me in this news thread now that so many avatars are loading. So that's a big dowside for dialup users once enough people have posted. Maybe have a no avatar at all poll like someone else said.

Anyway, bye. :3

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Ugh, well this sucks. I love my 64x64 avvie. I think there should have been a poll or something first.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Keith, is there any way we can disable the one in our user info widget? It looks funny showing my HA there twice, even if the smaller one is just the head... but I don't want to delete that widget as it has my online status.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Subeta isnt a petsite to me anymore o-o Everything revolves around HAs. Even the economy to an extent.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

I don't see the headshots.. O.o

BUT, since we now have headshots of people's HA, could the HA PLEASE be removed from the info boxes that show up when you hover on someone's name? There is now absolutely NO reason for them to be there.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

for those who say its slow..give it time. For some it will work right away then others. Everyone doesnt have the same type of internet or computer so out comes will be different.

Try quitting the internet and reopening it.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Also, I am extremely skeptical that this will prevent downtime of any kind.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

I guess you cant please all of the people all of the time. Good job in trying to make things faster and better, and pooh to the complainers.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

<quote>Me no like, for the avatars made it easier for us to tell others apart. If you ask me, everything revolves around the HA now.</quote>

I agree, there's too much hype about the HA's now. I personally don't care about mine because for one, I have no idea what to dress mine up with (due to me not caring, most likely), or the desire to waste money on wearables. And also, I like this site for what it is: a virtual pet/item site. Not a social network like Gaia, Myspace, etc.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

=( To be honest, it makes me sad. I really liked my avatar--it was a custom made for me by someone I love very much and seeing it gone is not very pleasant.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

if you haven't cleared the cache on your browser your avatars might be in there - it's worth a shot if you didn't save a copy

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

I am not seeing any HA headshots in place of the 64x64 icons.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Eh. Wish there was a better solution.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

lol I was never really fond of those anyway

yay

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

I don't have an avatar or a HA anyway, so yeah...xD Can't say I care too much. Although...it does seem rather pointless. Wouldn't it be easier to just show the whole HA if you're going to show the head anyway? shrug Whatever works, I suppose.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Man, that sucks. Like it really sucks. Hard.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Eee ><
I miss my Liam Lace

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

hummm well the site isnt moving faster for me! It seems to be lagging pretty bad for me!

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

I shall miss my bloodred warador avatar. I had someone make it for me before the waradors were revamped, when they all had the same staff. But since I still have a copy of that av saved on my computer, I'm good .

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Oh hey...does this mean the MySQuirreLs are gone for good?? rubs hands together
Works for me!

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

I miss my cute Bunnilet ;o; but...I guess if it helps make the site more efficient, then whatever. I just liked expressing myself and my likes more with the 64x64. I was even going to make myself an avatar once my computer was functional...darn.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

hopes for offsite hosted 64x64 possibility in the future

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

the placement of the HA icon avatar on the profiles is in a icky spot if you ask me

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

If you want your icon, I suggest putting them in a forum set or on your profile~ Seriously, this isn't a big loss if it means Subeta won't be down so much. You can work around it if you're this upset about it. I for one think it's a good solution. (so, nyeh!)

---

I agree. I was always upset because the site would always be down right in the middle of me doing something. So I hope with these changes the site will crash/lag less

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

I'm gonna miss my 64 x 64 avatar

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

That's what I was wondering too, MidnightShadow- if having the HA would slow the site more since the images are bigger. It wouldn't be taking up filespace, but it would slow the commenting a lot here. (like it is now for me xD; )

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

I'd be upset but my HA is just so damn sexy, I can't stop staring at it.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

I have no problem with doing this and speeding up site performance. The crops of the HAs aren't always the best unfortunately, but c'est la vie.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Quote:

; border: 1px solid ; font-family: georgia; font-size: 10;">Again, if this were an option, i'd have polled it, or I'd have removed it now due to a lot of people not liking it.

Hey, let's poll if it should stay like this, with the floating heads, or none at all. I'd vote for none.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Well, that's ok, now everyone can stare at my beautiful (fake) face.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

I'm not liking this change as all :/

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Quote:

; border: 1px solid ; font-family: georgia; font-size: 10;">
It only shows the head though. And you know the more items you wear on your HA, the larger the file size. So if I'm right about this, then we're loading everyone's full avatar on one page, which would make these pages load even slower than a little 64x64 image with a lot less colors than what's available on a human avatar :/

After you've viewed the image once, unless you're on an archaic browser, it gets cached

(The background image)

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Some warning would have been nice. I lost my custom commissioned avatar. Done by an artist that will probably never ever do them again, payed for with real money. As for loading faster, they do not load at all for me, it slows down the time pages take to load in general.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Use @username to mention someone. Supports markdown formatting.

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Avatar Update

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