C'mon Grim, don't be glum...the thumbnail is just a teaser for the main event, your images speak for themselves. Why don't you try cropping an interesting part of your main image and shrink that with less compression...use a portion of your image as a thumb, without compromising your perceived quality of thumbness. Why are people so obsessed with big thumbs? We going hitch-hiking? What was that girls name? Jelly-bean, Jelly-roll? ...damn can't remember now...
;-)>