I *like* the avatar sizes. They're big enough to be instantly recognizable, even if some people change them more often then their underwear, but small enough that I'm not inconvenienced when browsing at home on my 56K connection.

Although yesterday, someone thought my avatar was a cat-like creature. I'm not sure if this is an image error on my part or a massive misunderstanding of basic taxonomy on theirs.

looks like a polar bear to me.

That would be because it is.

Yep. 'tis a polar bear. Or a hubland bear, for those of you ... elsewhere. But in the insult thread, it was called a "loafing feline-like facsimilie".

makes me wonder what the orca would be mistaken as.

Oh dear. I always thought it was a lion. Looked far too skinny to be a polar bear, I thought.

Ah, the successes of the hibernation diet plan...

It's because of the rock or paw or shadow underneath the bear's snout. It's close enough to his fur colour to appear to be part of him, and adding a lower jaw like that makes the whole head look more cat-like than bear-like.

I had to lean close and look carefully before I could see it was not a cat.

Sounds like I needed something to give it a sense of scale. Understanding this is the picture of a two meter long creature might have put 'cat' out of people's minds.

On the other hand, I do so love the pose.

Not to be a spoil-sport, but... what does that all have to do with suggestions or comments? *starts slapping wrists*

Um. I suggest people get higher-resolution avatars so we can tell a polar bear from a lion? :)

And I comment that the forums, no matter which forum, can always use more humour!

Back to the subject at hand, the problem is pretty simple.
<ol><li> Open file in photoshop</li>
<li>Go to File>Save for Web...</li>
<li>Set Type to jpg and quality to 72</li>
</ol>


It is that simple. If you resize it to 100x100 you can make it even smaller (after all, 150x150=22,500 pixels and 100x100=10,000 pixels for a savings of 12,500 pixels when using the smaller res.) As a result, I would suggest not increasing the allowed avatar dimensions, as that would increase the demand for larger avatar files.

Besides, most post take up less vertical space on my screen then all the junk on the side. Bigger avatars would just mean more wasted space.

PS here is the image resized to 100x100 at quality 97