[Forums] uploaded GIF custom avatar looks worse

[Mithgol]

I have uploaded this GIF (96×96 pixels, 50991 bytes) as my custom avatar:

However, my 96×96 avatar on the forums now looks like this (88823 bytes):

There's some visible GIF noise in almost every frame, and also the file is 74% larger.

Why are you doing this?

If the intended behaviour is some GIF-to-GIF recompression to save the filesize, then why the result of such recompression is not abandoned when it happens to become larger than the uploaded file?

If the intended behaviour expects that everyone follows the prompt “It is recommended that you use an image that is at least 400x400 pixels” (and thus the uploaded file is always resized to yield the 96×96 version actually used on the forums), then why the resizer does not have a fast codepath (that is a no-op) for pictures that already have the desired width×height?

 

[BraveDude8]

Xenforo is really, really bad at handling GIFs. I'm entirely unsurprised that it's managing to make them larger and worse, and I don't think there's anything we can do to modify that behaviour.

 

[Mithgol]

Thank you for explaining.

I'd better use some static avatar then.