Animated forum avatars

[Jarmo]

 

 

Could you put a general ban on the likes of these?

 

Beacuse they're mostly just distracting and annoying.

There are a few good ones I wouldn't mind, but I'm always advocating throwing the baby out, bathwater or no.

Edited October 18, 2012 by Jarmo

[Jarmo]

 

Just because of reasons.

[Hoverdog]

Is this a forum for 12-year olds?

[Jarmo]

Those are just examples from the internets btw,

not from this forum because I don't want to point fingers, or bother going through every avatar.

[Humanoid]

Despite the obvious, I don't mind it as general policy: wouldn't be the first place to do it, and I take no particular exception. Indeed I used to run my connection through a software proxy (Proxomitron if anyone remembers it, unfortunately discontinued due to the death of the author) that froze all animated gifs, ironically.

 

 

That said, having carried it since the opening of the Interplay forums in 2003 (I wasn't special enough to be allowed a custom avatar on the BIS boards ), it's probably more closely associated with my identity here than my utterly generic and forgettable username (which I'm not particularly fond of).

[Jarmo]

Or if it's technically possible, make the forum display just the 1st frame.

 

Humanoids avatar is not what I had in mind btw,

it's not a mooning pedobear or something liable to cause epilepsy.

 

Wouldn't have made the post if all there was, was forum appropriate limited animations.

[Humanoid]

Freezing would be a function of the browser, not the forum software. I can freeze every gif on this page instantly by just hitting Esc. (Firefox)

Edited October 18, 2012 by Humanoid

[Malcador]

Well, if you're using Firefox, adblock the images, simple. Depends on the avatar though, some sort of weird epilepsy inducing one would probably get nixed by a mod.

[AGX-17]

They don't matter. If you've got ADHD or epilepsy or whatever there's probably some product to deal with it.

 

I also don't like the loaded poll options that suggest everyone can only either love them with an authoritarian stance that everyone must use them, or they must dislike them. I do not care about them and I am only posting because I don't like it when people feel entitled to dictate an entire forum's policies based on their own individual preference.

 

I mean, you posted three of the "offending" images in your post, so you're apprently not THAT bothered or epileptic, so why make it an issue?

Edited October 21, 2012 by AGX-17

[ItsAlways42]

Personally, when I selected my avatar from my picture folder I had assumed it would just upload the gif as a static image. And while gifs may be slightly distracting depending on their content, over all it's momentary thing and a non-issue. The content of the gifs on the other hand can easily be reported, or left to a mod to remove on their own.

[Tigranes]

These days it's very easy to adblock or freeze .gifs that you don't like, so I personally don't think it's a huge deal, unless it's too obscene, etc.

[Jarmo]

I also don't like the loaded poll options that suggest everyone can only either love them with an authoritarian stance that everyone must use them, or they must dislike them.

 

I thought the 4th option would be redundant, falling between liking a lot and not liking but still not banning.

Not trying to dictate policy, it's not like I had any authority or anything.

 

If there had been a clear fast result of something like 476 votes for ban and 5 against, then maybe that'd have lead to new policy. Or not.

But with 6 for and 9 against... bah, forget the whole question, it's clearly a non issue to just about everybody.

[Gorth]

But with 6 for and 9 against... bah, forget the whole question, it's clearly a non issue to just about everybody.

 

 

Fortunately, so far it has indeed been a non issue. The few exceptions over the years have indeed been exceptions. There are some size guidelines and for the rest it's a matter of common sense and if somebody have avatars/sigs that go out of their way to attract attention (nudity, ridiculous sizes, gore, "strobe" flashing etc.) and flaunt common sense, they get addressed individually on a case by case basis.