The Pop Reel is UGLY!
-an Article by Headaxe about ugly pictures and weird proportions

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This problem is really annoying to me for a long, long time now.
To make my point clear, here are a couple of questions for PMC first:


1. Why is the only option we have uploading a cover image on Planet Minecraft which gets turned into a horrible looking JPEG?

Here you can see, that the image took serious "damage" from being uploaded on PMC.
It doesn't have the proportions that have to be used in order to display it entirely on the pop reel.
I doubt that it would look that bad, if I had uploaded it on imgur.



2. Why is the size of images on the pop reel about 640x280 pixels instead if a size with 16:9 proportions which are obviously today's standard?

Apperently, this cover looks absolutely perfect on the pop reel and has a size that seems to fit into the pop reel extremely well.
The size, required to achieve this effect is 640x280 instead of a size with 16:9 proportions, which is very strange.



3. If that is the case, why are the "perfect" proportions for images on your profile and in various listings 16:9?

On the top you can see a blog which's cover has a size of 640x280.
That means that it looks absolutely perfect on the pop reel.
Surprisingly, it looks horrible on your profile.
The blog cover below has a size of 640x360.
That means that it looks absolutely horrible on the pop Reel but it also means, that it looks gorgeous on your profile.
Does PMC really force us to either have a blog that looks good on the pop reel or to have a blog that looks good in your profile?


Conclusion:
First of all, PMC should at least give us the chance to have gorgeous pictures on the pop reel, just like contest covers.
The transformation into a JPEG is neccessary to save storage space on the servers, however, a premium membership or something like that would first of all help finance the site and also make nice pictures for certain users a thing.
Seriously, I would pay money to be blessed with a solid looking picture!

Second of all, PMC should decide between ~640x280 and 640x360.
It forces us to choose one of those and whatever we choose, we are never entirely happy with it.

Third of all, if none of these is an option, then the pop reel should add gray borders to the picture instead of just being cruel to the poor picture and cutting a part off, like it does at the moment.


Just to make this clear, I was banned once for this blog already and it was taken down once too.
The ban was undone and the submission was reenabled.
Before reporting the blog because of how "ranty" it might be, keep that in mind please.