Unlimited Userpics

[tmelange]

Title
Unlimited Userpics

Short, concise description of the idea
I want unlimited userpics. Would be happy to pay.

Full description of the ideaMy userpics are maxed out, but if I want to rotate them, I'll lose all pic designations for the individual posts for the deleted userpic. I really want unlimited userpics...and would be very happy to pay for

Comments

[zhonnika]

Not if it slows down the site, no. Userpics aren't worth my not being able to load pages.

[sofiaviolet]

+1

[dawna]

+1

[rebelsheart]

+1

[trempnvt]

+3

[sleepfighter]

+1

[bookslibretti]

+1, but with the caveat that if LJ charges enough to buy enough extra server space and still breaks even or profits on the deal, it should be possible.

[ex_uniquewo]

*nods*

[azurelunatic]

It might be a bandwidth rather than a server problem, but it would be nice to have extra icon space until your icon bandwidth reaches such and such a limit, and then pay an extra whatever for the month.

[afuna]

Possibility of problems stemming from having a very popular icon, though. And there's no way to limit hotlinking of icons, unlike with pictures from a hosting site.

Er, that made more sense in my head. What I mean to say is that (I think) hosting sites that limit bandwidth also generally allow you to prevent hotlinking by adjusting permissions, and there's no such thing for userpics. You could delete a too-popular icon that used up too much of your bandwidth, but given how attached most LJ-ers are to their icons, it might not be a viable option.

I'm beginning to wonder how much bandwidth is used up by a single icon on a daily basis. Given how many places userpics turn up, and how often people load comment pages full of userpics, icon bandwidth could be used up pretty quickly, even if it's just a 40kb picture. Hm, 40kb * x comments * x viewers (recent entries, comment pages, comment notifications, allpics.bml, editpics.bml)...

random

[star382000]

icon love

[turlough]

+1

[jewelianna]

Absolutely agree. Functionality is more important that 100x100 squares.

[tmelange]

I think it's safe to say that *no one* would want to sacrifice performance for userpics. However, the point of this exercise is for LJ to figure out a way to deliver a feature *without* sacrificing performace. There *must* be a price scheme that they can come up with that allows people to pay for what they want--without impacting those who do not want to pay.

No one is asking them to implement FREE UNLIMITED USERPICS FOR ALL.