How do I change it back?

Image samples were turned on for anonymous users. The notice at the top of the page that you're looking at samples is currently broken for anonymous users, but I have a fix pending for exactly that problem.

You can either log in and change the scaling mode, or you can click full size/download for the original file.

KiraNoot said:
Image samples were turned on for anonymous users.

Any estimates on how much this will reduce the burden on the site's hardware?

Lance_Armstrong said:
Any estimates on how much this will reduce the burden on the site's hardware?

It overall reduced bandwidth usage by a considerable amount(~30-35%), especially during peak hours. There are only a few days of data, so the long term impacts are still pending.

Violet_Rose said:
If you're talking about what I think you are, you need to go to My Account, then Settings, and under Posts/Tags there is "Image resize mode". Set it to "Don't resize images".

Thanks man, worked.

Somewhat related question is there an option somewhere to enable higher resolution thumbnails?
I assume there is only one size on the server but I thought I'd ask anyway.

list said:
Somewhat related question is there an option somewhere to enable higher resolution thumbnails?
I assume there is only one size on the server but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Thumbnails are only 150x150 on the server, so there is no option for anything larger.

Lance_Armstrong said:
Any estimates on how much this will reduce the burden on the site's hardware?

I would also imagine that this encourages artists to upload higher resolution. There has been cases where images do not get as much attention because they are nearly crashing browsers with the resolution they have, they are draining data caps because of how large they are and become harder to view properly on smaller screens.

Even if samples have always been option, not many go to their user settings to change that. Altough I do say that non-registered users severely need the notification of just sample being viewed.

Also 90 quality JPG and being restricted to 800x800 feels way too low in 2017, where TVs are 4K and standard phones resolution is becoming 1080p. Also transparency is always turned to black.

KiraNoot said:
It overall reduced bandwidth usage by a considerable amount(~30-35%), especially during peak hours. There are only a few days of data, so the long term impacts are still pending.

I thought previously that you were using Cloudflare on static1.e621? Am I crazy, or is there a reason why you don't do this anymore?

You can make use of CF's Page Rules with a long TTL, which helps reduce the origin requests. I run a site with many large image files cached by CF without any problems, saves me a lot of bandwidth.

The sample notice at the top of the page now shows up for anonymous users. As a little added bonus I hacked in a quick dimming effect(that looks terrible and needs more work) to indicate that the full size image is loading.