Reduce repository size: move release screenshots out of git history

[DScoNOIZ]

Summary

The releases/ directory contains ~76 PNG screenshot files that add 150–200 MB to every git clone. These files are no longer used in the README/CHANGELOG (since v3.36+), but they remain in git history, increasing clone times and CI/CD bandwidth costs for all contributors.

Proposed Solution

1. Add releases/ to .gitignore to prevent future commits of these files
2. Optionally: use git filter-repo to remove the files from git history (this would require coordination since it rewrites history and affects all forks/PRs)

Benefits

• Faster git clone for new contributors
• Reduced CI/CD bandwidth and storage
• No functional impact — the screenshots are not used in the current version

Notes

I've already applied local workarounds in my fork (.gitignore, .git/info/exclude, git rm --cached). Happy to help with the implementation if the maintainers agree on the approach.

[DScoNOIZ]

Context: this repo already has a .gitignore with releases/ and a commit removing it from tracking on all local branches. But the history still contains all 76 PNG files. The filter-repo pass is needed to actually recover the disk space and bandwidth.

Local workaround for anyone pulling from this fork: git filter-repo --path releases/ --invert-paths --force + git push --force --all.

[HappyVing]

1

[DScoNOIZ]

@navedmerchant Hey there! So what's the problem with removing this junk? Will we have time before Christmas? Best regards.