what do you mean it's pronounced weppy?


im not necessarily writing this to boldly exclaim my opinion on webp, no siree, i mean sure i might talk about where i stand sometimes, but so like
i keep seeing people talk webp and like every time they do there's such a divide for some weird reason
and i just wanted to think about that for a moment, why that is, think about the broader picture


i suppose in a divide there's usually a side of logical and emotional
some people talk from the feelings, some people talk from the data
or whatever
here in webp discussion, there's a lot of hate and loathing, this unexplainable, disdain towards the thing
and i feel it too in a core level but why is this?
well i already said unexplainable (or atleast it feels like it is), but i can narrow it down a liiiiiiiiiittle bit
so like
i think the main part comes down to software adaptation and usability because of it right
windows, even windows 11 gawd damn, doesn't support opening webp with the default image viewer thing
which is like, baffling in its own way, but i think this is the main reason because
as an artist i very often had the experience where i downloaded an image to use as reference or whatever later, and it turns out to be a webp file and i can only view it by opening it on a web browser which is ridiculous
i mean atleast i can view it sure but it is annoying as hell
well that brings me to the next part, perhaps it comes down to this difference
a sort of, this feeling that comes from that there is a whole separate branch, maybe it's a sort of distaste for any sorta change
and also maybe that new things are... mysterious, hard to grasp, we don't quite understand it yet so it's hard to accept it maybe
as an artist myself im like... is it safe to edit it like i would a png file? how much loss will it take when i do, when does it become lossy like jpg?
can i use it for pixel art and not have information lost or altered, so that i can edit later with exact pixel colors?
such and such questions

i recently read that it's google who invented it and that's like whatever to me, but i feel like people trying to fight against webp is just using this as whatever anchor point to attach any sort of excuse to be against webp
it's hard to verbally fight if you don't really have a weapon or know where to hit


so what's the opinion _for_ webp?
webp seems to be aiming to be like this png replacement right
and with the entire world wanting higher and higher resolution media for some damn reason, even the pretty good compression of png or jpg ain't seem to be doin so hot against these gigantic medias
so i guess webp's seems to be doing compression well
i mean it sounds swell enough right
if it's properly adopted widely it coooould reduce internet data usage and file storage

when it comes to alternate image formats there's always been multiple around yknow, png jpg gif are the main three that's been around and always kinda coexisted
with specialized ones sometimes around for like camera use or whatever, avif and tiffs and stuff, they were fine to not be readable with common softwares
so i don't see why not let coexist, i mean technically speaking it all already coexists right now, whether you or i like it or not
i have my strong attachment to Wirth's Law and stuff but im also big on saving internet data usage
if computing resources could handle the creation/compression/something logic for webp or whatever, i would think it'd be good


so it feels like it ultimately comes down to.... legacy support?
there's always difficulty in adopting newer formats and all that in this day and age where software and technology is everywhere, and hard to update all of them
in that sense, of course our web browsers support these newest things, they're usually updated often, for bugfixes or vulnerability fix and whatnot
and older softwares might not get these new support for new formats, yknow, old windows or old smartphones not getting updates and such
legacy support always seem to be a hard thing for all party involved, whether that be for common consumers or even in systems of the seasoned engineers
so it's hard to introduce something new, and when they do, there's always a lot of effort, one way or another


what i saw in the webp talk earlier was like, this,
what do you call it, a knee-jerk response?
i was taught about this word once, it haunts my dreams but i can see that it applies in some places
you just, THINK about webp and it's like oough, i have horrible experience with it, i mean it's actually mild inconveniences but mild inconveniences? in this economy?
and there might be a little aftertaste of just wanting something to hate on. something to fight against at given time.
and like, whatever, yeah we can do that
but THEN
there was this one time where a person online i respect had given their fair enough opinion against webp
and then i was browsing my social media later and i saw that one of my followers were like
mocking the person for complaining about it and that was like
what?
i mean i get if the opposing opinion was dismissing the data or whatever and if you were trying to point that out or something but no thats not even it
a personal attack?
what?

that was strongly disturbing to me



so i guess maybe both sides of any arguments have their faults
not to say that's everyone involved, some will give the other side some merits when it is valid
but sometimes it feels so
dismissive







it's kinda awkward cause i havent really had trouble with webp in a while because when i got this new laptop i changed the default image viewer completely to nomacs and it can display anything even with thumbnail support




i dont know what moral to end this story on
uh
be kind?