What subject says:
When you upload a GIF animation to the site, the site downgrades it's quality to show it in a preview. I can understand that in regular circumstances, but it looks like KYM's downgrading system is botched, when it comes down to GIFs – while reducing quality of the GIF, it also increases the filesize quite substantially.
Original images still can be accessed by clicking the preview, but the thing is that preview is loaded first, and it's both bigger in size and worse in quality.
This seems really counterproductive, and touches several of my sensitive spots as a quality-fag that I am.
Here's some examples:
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/974419-doom
Original file – 4 Mb, KYM preview – 7 Mb
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/988853-anime
Original file – 2 Mb, KYM preview – 5,7 Mb
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/989040-monster-musume-daily-life-with-monster-girl
Original file – 1,1 Mb, KYM preview – 3,47 Mb
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/987729-anime
Original file – 1,14 Mb, KYM preview – 2,62 Mb
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/988782-monster-musume-daily-life-with-monster-girl
Original file – 0,8 Mb, KYM preview – 1,7 Mb
Image dimensions and other properties are the same for both preview and original, so it can't be result of resampling.
What I noticed: if an image uses some optimisation techniques like separate palettes for each frame, KYM downgrades it heavily, no matter the outcome.
The solution for this issue should be relatively simple – make whatever algorithm KYM uses to generate previews to also check whether or not preview file would be bigger than original, and if it is, discard the preview and use original image for preview instead – this will result in both saved space and better quality animations on the site.