What is the Ideal Number of Photos per Post?

Community
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Following Up on Previous Discussion:

Continuing the conversation from August Platform Upgrade Complete, I’d like to gather more feedback regarding photo uploads in posts.

What is the ideal number of photos per post?

Please consider this from both perspectives: as an uploader/poster and as a reader.

Having more photos in a post can be convenient for the uploader, as it reduces the need to carefully select which images to include, saving time. However, from a reader’s point of view, sometimes less is more, especially if the photos are thoughtfully curated.

Personally, I find posts that are concise and to the point easier to follow, which helps me keep track of my place in the thread (A single post represents a minimal increment on the navigational timeline). Additionally, I prefer when photos include at least a basic description of the content, providing context and details. In contrast, some users, particularly newer ones, might tend to post just a title followed by a series of photos, similar to what they may be accustomed to on social media. However, without accompanying information, the post’s informative value is significantly diminished. I want the details: the strain, the growth stage, the media used, information about the grow room, and more.

Currently, there is no limit on the number of photos per post, nor do we plan to impose one. However, there are other considerations that could affect the overall user experience.

So, let’s move on to a polls:

How many photos per post would you ideally like to see?
  • 0-5
  • 6-10
  • 11-15
  • 16-20
  • 20+
0 voters
Should photos come with a description or commentary?
  • Yes, optionally
  • Yes, mandatory
  • No
  • I don’t care
0 voters

Go to the Poll results: What is the Ideal Number of Photos per Post? - #28 by LemonadeJoe

8 Likes
2

As a poster 11-15 is more than I need but some would need this many so that’s the choice I went for.

As a reader it’s very annoying to come across a post with 50 pictures of the same plant.

21 Likes
3

:point_up:

was typing, but he said it :grin:

commentary/descriptions are helpful and welcome.

5 Likes
5

AS said… I’m a :framed_picture: whore.

:rofl:

16 Likes
6

For the most part it doesn’t matter.
But when you post a picture in a thread that is dead and then someone immediately post 10 pictures and buries your post its kind of annoying.

I would love to see 20 great pictures. I can do with out seeing any shiuty pics…
too many variables.

3 Likes
7

I’d say generally 1-5 is good for most posts. Sometimes people need to document more than 5 strains or need more pictures to convey their message.

6 Likes
8

It really depends on the situation but the main idea should be to create good content and keep it interesting.

8 Likes
9

Seems the picture quality has gone down significantly since the update via compression and resizing. I understand bandwidth and storage costs money, so understand the change may have been necessary. Similar for the whole 1 photo at a time thing.

As for the question - I’d like to see more people actually growing plants on overgrow so as many pictures as they feel like posting.

13 Likes
11

Yes! We are encouraged to grow plants by the community, so let’s be able to show them off easily with many photos :slightly_smiling_face:

4 Likes
12

This may be an unpopular idea, and not a big deal, but to save server storage etc. i wouldn’t mind if folks just posted words saying Thank You when they get a seed puck in the mail. Instead of a photo of the puck or coin flip.

For example when the Fall box ships out there will be many 100’s of photos of just pucks n flips that people put up to show “i got the seeds”.

I would rather save server space for photos of plants and buds, than photos of pucks n flips. I wouldn’t want to make it a rule though.

14 Likes
13

The downsizing has always been an issue for me, if it’s even worse than it was before now (I haven’t posted any pics since then) I’m not sure what I’m gonna do.

I wonder how many total photos are on this site? Is it in the hundreds of thousands or is it more? I can’t even upload the normal resolution of my cell phone camera to this site without it telling me they’re too big. I have to take much lower res photos and even those are downsized significantly. The photos in my thread are less than a half a megabyte which is honestly ridiculous in this day and age. At 450kb it would only take 4.5tb to host 10 million pics. I’m not saying we should start posting 100x 50mb pics in a post but there’s gotta be a compromise between full size photos and these tiny file size limits.

Personally I don’t mind how many pics are in a post. Especially if it is a grow during flower or finished bud pics. The more these pics are compressed/ downsized the shittier they look though.

5 Likes
14

That was never intended… There is a technical limit for simultaneous uploads (= single batch). I’d say we should find the sweet spot somewhere between 5 - 15 files and it needs some testing (which is in progress). Browsers especially on the mobile are limited in terms of RAM (memory) and it could have a negative impact. That said, more photos can be always uploaded in multiple batches.

5 Likes
15

I think we host around a million photos currently.

I agree. Increasing the resolution (or more precisely, quality) is on our roadmap. Probably the sweet spot is around 600kB - 1 MB per image (that’s what Apple uses for their Shared albums).

However, we first need to migrate all photos to the cloud and start utilizing a CDN to serve them.

7 Likes
16

Did we lose the photo grid option or am I just daft?

I really liked grouping photos together in that fashion.

4 Likes
17

Thanks for bringing this up! Definitely not!

The Image Grid is now native, much more reliable and it should be easier to use.

All you need to do is wrap the images in [grid] ... [/grid] tags.

I have disabled the old (very buggy and now redundant) grid plugin and I need to convert old posts into the new format.

9 Likes
18

I see your point. For me, i like to show the sender the condition of his packaging, maybe crushed seeds, after going through the mail system. Then he can strengthen the packing as needed.
Also things could be missing from the envelope, it has happened to me.
Without a pic the sender/receiver wouldn’t know.
When i send something, i like to see the condition it arrives in.
Its only one photo :slightly_smiling_face:

6 Likes
19

1 to 5 is first choice. No more than 10 pics per post is my 2nd choice. 15 is getting long.

4 Likes
20

Happy Monday everyone 5 to 10 pics seems like a good post. The thing I’m noticing is too large of a post with lots of pics makes it difficult for people to follow along ask questions ect. I’ve noticed people want to like certain parts of a post ect. This is easier if the posts are not too large. I think when you have 3 paragraphs and 5 to 10 pics it leaves the right amount on info and less confusing for people to comment ect. I am guilty of too many pics per post so no love lost just my opinion for me to improve upon. Another thought is providing the space to describe the pic attached to the pic. When you have a lot of pics and then try to describe it in the post it’s confusing. Less is more and possibly a second post should be considered to share more info. Cheers !!!

2 Likes
21

I picked 6-10. I try to document my grows thoroughly and that seems like a good number. I do try to post info on the pics as I post them.

10 Likes