Williamsn, for an example, take a look at my newest upload:
http://excalibur.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1237827

Look at how horribly aliased the shrunken version is (my first comment is even about that, and the blame was assigned to me instead of your new gallery format).  Now click on it and see how it all goes away, b/c it's not there in the originally uploaded image.  However, it's very bad that the first impression that viewers get of our artwork is one that's been mangled through HTML shrinking routines.

In case you are seeing a beautifully anti-aliased shrunken image on some magic uber browser you have, let me show you what I'm seeing in IE 6, 7 and Firefox.  These are unaltered screencaps of what shows up in the shrunken version versus the "zoomed" image that displays when you click.  The only editing on this screencaps is cropping to keep the file size small.  Notice all the jagginess around the legs in the shrunken version.  This occurs over the entire image in my browsers, and apparently at least one of my viewer's browser (look at the first comment on my image above).

Shrunken version vs "Zoomed" Original version

I would suggest allowing a "Shrink to Fit" option (defaulted to off) for people who want it, and know that they are degrading the quality of the images they are seeing.  However, to force that upon all images by default is pretty inconsiderate of the artists.

¤~Giolon~¤

¤~ RadiantCG ~¤~ My Renderosity Gallery ~¤