Title: Light code, heavy disk and data
Last modified: August 14, 2017

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# Light code, heavy disk and data

 *  [GenealogyCoach](https://wordpress.org/support/users/samatva/)
 * (@samatva)
 * [8 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/light-code-heavy-disk-and-data/)
 * This plugin is great in that it allows all users to upload a custom avatar, and
   I trust there are no security implications. It has several shortcomings that 
   make it a “no go” for my site.
 * The first problem is that it creates as many as 10 sizes of the avatar image –
   one modest test of a 512×512 .png file occupied a total of more than 320k of 
   disk space in all the versions (images 26, 32, 52, 64, 96, 128, 192, 250, 500
   pixels square), *plus* the space of the original image. In jpg format, it was
   smaller, but still close to 200k.
 * These do not show up in the media library (a plus and a minus) so there is no
   easy way that I can see to manage the huge number of photos we would end up with(
   other than to go to each user’s profile page…)
 * A test user I set up was able to directly upload a photo, no problem, but the
   displayed “Choose from Media” just took me to an eternally-rotating “wait” icon
   as that user did not have access to the media library.
 * The usermeta table also is filled with an array of the full URL of every size–
   this ends up being quite large. I could see this bogging down the type of listings
   I need to make (a school intranet – listing full lists of classes with avatars).
 * Seems to be an okay plugin, clean and simple for users, but I fear it would swamp
   even a modest site and end up as difficult to manage. There are trade offs made
   in every plugin, and some of those decisions won’t work for my site. If you have
   a small community site, this plugin will probably work great for you.

The topic ‘Light code, heavy disk and data’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/wp-user-avatars/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=1266776)
 * [WP User Avatars](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-user-avatars/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-user-avatars/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-user-avatars/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-user-avatars/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-user-avatars/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-user-avatars/reviews/)

 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [GenealogyCoach](https://wordpress.org/support/users/samatva/)
 * Last activity: [8 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/light-code-heavy-disk-and-data/)