However, we do losslessly compress some things. We run PNG files through optipng and JPGs through jhead to strip out EXIF data, but most interestingly, we run GIF files through ffmpeg and serve them up with HTML5 video [1]. We usually get between 500 and 2000% faster for GIFs.
However, I agree that it's a little misleading, since we don't do it for every kind of media, and an ideally compressed file cannot be compressed further. I've been considering rewording it.
And speaking of which, saying that you can get "1000-3000% faster for some files" is also pretty dishonest. You can pretty much claim those kind of numbers with only one of the many formats you support (and one where you're not doing lossless compression), but the way you word it makes it sound like you could get it for potentially anything.
All in all, I'd really suggest you rewrite the description to be more honest.
Two other things I noticed: I can't seem to select text on the homepage (on latest Chrome). Your icon also looks rather similar to that of Miro: http://www.getmiro.com/
As for selecting text on the home page, not much we can do about it. We force your focus into a contenteditable div to allow you to paste images/URLs directly into the page.
Regarding the icon, it just so happens that I had the sneaking suspicion that I had seen it before when the designer presented it to me. So I ran a reverse image search and looked at about a thousand similar icons. I didn't find Miro - if I had, I probably would have asked for it to be different. In any case, I think it's different enough that I'm not worried.
And you should fix it right now. I already got super-bad first impression. Currently your product is just marketing junk shit to me. And you have no way to fix my impression because I won't review your product ever again.
You know that, but our intended audience isn't the HN crowd.
I'm sorry to hear that you got a bad impression of the site, but even without any fancy speed tricks (and there are fancy speed tricks), it's still an open-source, privacy-centric media hosting site that I think is pretty damn great.
That came across to me as super snarky and entitled, despite you having a point. Rewrite it right now.
(See? Now, I actually don't think you meant it like that, but if I was the OP I would've taken that badly. Food for thought!)