Could the upload size for attachments be given in MBs rather than MiBs
One of the questions I often get asked by applicants is "what is an MiB?" Thanks to Wikipedia I know it is a Mebibyte, but that is a very obscure term, especially in the non-Linux world. Would it be possible to change to the ubiquitous, near-synonym megabyte MB? It isn't a major thing, but anything that cuts down on an applicant's confusion level is probably good. Thanks.
These are moved to archived during client up effort in 2024 April.
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David Deal commented
In my opinion, the really easy solution to this is to make no mention of MiB, and instead provide the converted amounts….i.e., 1.07MB instead of 1MiB. Although someone may wonder why it's *exactly* 1.07, I suspect we'll get far fewer calls than we get asking about MiB.
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Heather Beffa commented
Please include a popup that explains MiB to users, and the conversion table that was included in one of these comments:
1 MiB is 1024 KiB. 1 KiB is equal to 1024 Bytes
1 MB is 1000 KB. 1 KB is equal to 1000 Bytes.
This would head off a lot of problems for applicants, especially last-minute applicants. -
Sally commented
I just posted a new "idea" that the print packet reflect the same size as the application to have consistency. The print packet is still in MB.
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Patrick Zimny commented
Hello everyone!
Sally and I had a talk about this earlier today and I just wanted to do a little follow-up with everyone. The switch to MiB or KiB instead of MB or KB happened in the release of GLM 4.1.0 in 12/3/13. This was done to primarily handle confusion caused by users that are uploading from different file systems.
Different operating systems and web browsers utilize different size units. MiB, which stands for Mebibyte, is the most accurate unit and the unit most compatible across the greatest number of operating systems and web browsers.
To bring it down to the nitty gritty some conversion has to be done.
1 MiB is 1024 KiB. 1 KiB is equal to 1024 Bytes
1 MB is 1000 KB. 1 KB is equal to 1000 Bytes.As mentioned above in the comments the MiB is larger. It is confusing because not many people are use to seeing MiB but to stay consistent across the different type of file systems it was decided to switch it from MB to MiB.
Sorry for the confusion! Also thanks for asking your questions and giving us feedback!
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Sally commented
I agree... when did this change, I am positive it used to be Mbs.
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andy commented
I concur with this issue. We get several phone calls a quarter asking what MiB is. As long as 3MB is smaller than 3MiB, why not change the display to MB. It takes a whole lot of hassle out of the process. 99% of users won't know what an MiB is anyway.
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Mary Giraulo commented
On the other hand... looks like mebibytes are bigger than megabytes, which is a good thing, because we already have applicants unable to upload files that should be small enough... so I agree, change the naming only to MB.
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Mary Giraulo commented
Oh my! I was not even aware that it was a different measurement - I thought it was an (annoying but harmless) typo. Now I know why applicants complain that they are trying to upload 3MB documents to a 3MB file upload and can't... WHY is it MiB? Can this be changed (truly changed, not just named) to MB? I can't imagine that any of our applicants even know what a mebibyte is, much less how to determine what size their documents are. It's so strange to have this be the measurement on the software.