MacRumors Does Its Part

[Doctor Q]

Some site visitors and forum members have asked us why we have reduced our color footprint today. We at MacRumors feel that every website should do its part to be a good Internet citizen and conserve bits where possible, so that all websites get their fair share of the zeroes and ones. After all, there are only a finite number of bits on the planet.

Unfortunately, our highly popular live event coverage, as well as our always-busy news/rumors pages and forum discussions, attract quite a bit of Internet traffic. We've tried to mitigate the problem by operating with a small staff, but the popularity of the MacRumors family of sites continues to grow.

Therefore, in recognition of Earth Hour last month, when many cities went dark for an hour, and of the upcoming Earth Day (April 22), MacRumors is showing its responsibility by operating with only one third of the usual number of bits, and using a minimal-color logo designed by forum member acearchie. Scientists estimate that full color consumes a whopping 24 bits per pixel, but that grayscale requires only 8 bits, thereby conserving 67% of this valuable resource. Fewer bits also produce less bit friction, which helps reduce Internet warming.

(We considered switching to black and white, 1 bit per pixel, but that would have reduced the quality of our news reporting, and halftoning would be time-consuming for the workers in our news print shop.)

We believe that every website should strive to be Carbon-neutral, Cocoa-neutral, and Color-neutral. Please help support our efforts.

Thank you.

 

[SilentPanda]

i am only typing in lowercase as capital letters take up more bandwidth.

 

[calculus]

i am only typing in lowercase as capital letters take up more bandwidth.

there was no need for that fullstop (period) though - a complete waste of resources if you ask me

 

[119576]

i am only typing in lowercase as capital letters take up more bandwidth.

n fct, vwls r th mn bndwdth cnsmrs n th ntrnt.

Maybe all of the kids have got the right idea.

 

[SilentPanda]

it was a lowercase period since i didn't press the shift key.

 

[Schtumple]

If everyone wrote in white we could further reduce our colour footprint and save the endangered dial-up intertubes from collapsing under heavy bandwidth.

 

[rdowns]

i'm not going to spam this thread to do my part.

 

[calculus]

i'm not going to spam this thread to do my part.

In that case neither will I

 

[Jaffa Cake]

It makes sense. Back in the 1950s everything was in monochrome (I've seen old TV shows from the time) and they didn't have bad stuff like global warming back then. That's all the proof I need.

 

[forafireescape]

It makes sense. Back in the 1950s everything was in monochrome (I've seen old TV shows from the time) and they didn't have bad stuff like global warming back then. That's all the proof I need.

Very true. It's all color's fault. We should just get rid of it altogether.

 

[Much Ado]

Very true. It's all color's fault. We should just get rid of it altogether.

Why not just get rid of global warming? That would save many problems. Or rather, one problem.

 

[dernhelm]

Some site visitors and forum members have asked us why we have reduced our color footprint today. We at MacRumors feel that every website should do its part to be a good Internet citizen and conserve bits where possible, so that all websites get their fair share of the zeroes and ones. After all, there are only a finite number of bits on the planet.

I've noticed that there are a lot of extra 1's and 0's in your logo, Dr. Q. Perhaps you could donate some of those to the cause.

 

[Diatribe]

Why not just get rid of global warming? That would save many problems. Or rather, one problem.

Why has no one thought of this earlier... Al Gore would be out of a hobby.

 

[nagromme]

Sweet! I saved my shiny gray "N" avatar (I bet nobody knew that's what it was) for future use!

(The fake "dead pixel" to the lower right of my avatar, which I made for a past April Fool's and never got rid of, worked better in color--it was a nice single-subpixel purple And to my knowledge it only ever alarmed one person... that I heard of. )

 

[Teh Don Ditty]

It makes sense. Back in the 1950s everything was in monochrome (I've seen old TV shows from the time) and they didn't have bad stuff like global warming back then. That's all the proof I need.

I thought the proof was in the ProZone stats?

 

[Jaffa Cake]

I thought the proof was in the ProZone stats?

No, they came later. Had ProZone been a 1950s invention it would include stats on stuff like pints drunk prior to match and number of cigarettes smoked at half-time.

 

[dops7107]

I think it's time to boycott those advertisers who use flash in colour. Even if they are advertising that upgrading your memory is green!

 

[Teh Don Ditty]

No, they came later. Had ProZone been a 1950s invention it would include stats on stuff like pints drunk prior to match and number of cigarettes smoked at half-time.

Those are important stats though, they should be included.

 

[Doctor Q]

I've noticed that there are a lot of extra 1's and 0's in your logo, Dr. Q. Perhaps you could donate some of those to the cause.

It's a hybrid avatar that runs on either binary or trinary. And I get to post in the forum carpool lane.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Those are important stats though, they should be included.

Nowadays the stats cover stuff like litres of energy drinks quaffed, average warmth of wooly gloves worn and the amount of Vicks Vapour Rub applied to the front of the shirt.

We may yearn for the simpler days, but things move on and so must we. Luckily, the most important statistic – pointing average – still remains at the forefront of the modern stats package.

 

[Sun Baked]

Banning a few members here for 30 days would probably free up 10% of the internet bandwidth.

 

[Diatribe]

Banning a few members here for 30 days would probably free up 10% of the internet bandwidth.

I'd propose everyone above a 10,000 post count.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I'd propose everyone above a 10,000 post count.

More to save if we ban everybody under that count...

Hmmm...that would mean some long needed peace and quiet...maybe, just maybe...

 

[atszyman]

More to save if we ban everybody under that count...

Hmmm...that would mean some long needed peace and quiet...maybe, just maybe...

I thought that 70% of the moderators' jobs was just keeping mad_jew inline. Would banning all the sub 10,000 posters really be that much a of a work reduction?

I've been saving my bandwidth by keeping most of my posts in the PRSI and console game forums so that the bandwidth required to increase my post count is minimized.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I thought that 70% of the moderators' jobs was just keeping mad_jew inline.

That's why we modded him, so he could do that job himself, leaving us to take care of the rest of you...