Avatars

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AuthorTopic: Avatars
BANNED
Member # 5219
Profile #0
Why doesn't this forum allow avatars? :confused: :confused: :confused:
Alot of others, if not all, allowed them.

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You can take my Windows XP when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse!
Posts: 394 | Registered: Saturday, November 20 2004 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #1
Once it did. The loading times caused by the avatars got to be excessive, and Spiderweb decided that they weren't so helpful after all.

—Alorael, who blames gigantic dragons and suchlike that made astoundingly painfully and highly distortional appearances.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
BANNED
Member # 5219
Profile #2
Ohhh...thanks :)
But couldn't they make them smaller? If you've ever been to gamespot, they have small avatars and it works for them. :)

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You can take my Windows XP when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse!
Posts: 394 | Registered: Saturday, November 20 2004 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #3
Well, they could... but I guess they just decided to go the whole way and abolish the problem altogether. It makes sense; there is a whole lot more traffic and posting here than on any forum I've seen yet that had avatars. If they hosted them, they would be paying for that traffic.

Can they control the filesize if they don't host it themselves?

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The Encyclopaedia Ermariana <-- Now a Wiki!
"Polaris leers down from the black vault, winking hideously like an insane watching eye which strives to convey some strange message, yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey." --- HP Lovecraft.
"I single Aran out due to his nasty temperament, and his superior intellect." --- SupaNik
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Agent
Member # 1104
Profile Homepage #4
quote:
Originally written by The fire upon her carcanet:

Can they control the filesize if they don't host it themselves?
Just with the width and height, not the actual filesize.

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Austrian Alex - Reality Corp.
Posts: 1307 | Registered: Tuesday, May 7 2002 07:00
Warrior
Member # 4414
Profile Homepage #5
Sometimes, avatars are neat. But more often, they're horribly annoying, because they just serve as another way for board members to try to prove how much more awesomely cool they are than other board members. We have enough of a venue for arrogance already.

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Posts: 86 | Registered: Friday, May 21 2004 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #6
quote:
Originally written by RC:

quote:
Originally written by The fire upon her carcanet:

Can they control the filesize if they don't host it themselves?
Just with the width and height, not the actual filesize.

That's the problem: No matter what the width and height in the html is; the loading time is the same. So if I link to a picture that is 1000 * 1000 big and about 500 k, then it will display as a small, neat square of 60*60 - but the load will still last just as long.

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The Encyclopaedia Ermariana <-- Now a Wiki!
"Polaris leers down from the black vault, winking hideously like an insane watching eye which strives to convey some strange message, yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey." --- HP Lovecraft.
"I single Aran out due to his nasty temperament, and his superior intellect." --- SupaNik
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #7
RC and Aran- You're both wrong. Avatars only cost SW traffic if they choose to upload them, in which case they can merely restrict avatars to outside sources- and considering how easy it is to get a Photobucket account, this wouldn't be too tough. Also, you can limit file sizes. Maybe not on UBB, but UBB ain't the greatest choice for a board anyway.

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人 た ち を 燃 え る た め に 俺 は か れ ら に 火 を 上 げ る か ら 死 ん だ
Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Master
Member # 1046
Profile Homepage #8
i'm guessing there isn't much of a way on UBB to limit avatar sizes... remember lost_king's avatar? it was close to 800x600 (!!!!!), IIRC.

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Polaris - Weather balloons, ninjas, and your big daddy Wise Man. What more could you want?
Undead Theories - Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Posts: 3323 | Registered: Thursday, April 25 2002 07:00
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #9
I don't believe UBB supports much in terms of avatar control. This is because it sucks.

Invision (which sucks in other, different ways) allows individual users to disable viewing avatars. In addition, it actually enforces maximum pixel size, instead of just using HTML scaling.

Reasonably sized avatars don't burden even dialup connections. My magic avatar averages about 3KB (that's 64x64, PNG). With pages of 25 posts, making the wild assumption that that's 25 different users with 25 avatars... you're talking 75KB.

To give you a sense of scale here, this medium-length post, including HTML, is more than 3.5KB. That's not including posticons, etc. This page, with only 9 posts of short length, is 56KB -- again, not including any images. Thus, at worst, avatars would increase the size of a page by 50% or so. In practice, it'd be much smaller.

The main load-time issue is slow remote servers, but a good browser won't stop the page from loading while loading an image.

Of course, once those avatars are downloaded, they can be cached. Thus, further posts by those users cost no additional network traffic for avatars.

[ Sunday, December 12, 2004 11:34: Message edited by: The Dog And Pony Show ]
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Apprentice
Member # 5267
Profile #10
Avatars are just as bad as signatures.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Tuesday, December 7 2004 08:00
Warrior
Member # 3870
Profile Homepage #11
Hit the nail on the head.

Neither is bad, as long as they're kept nice and small.

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"Toleration is not the opposite of intoleration, but is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience, and the other of granting it."
---Thomas Paine

Posts: 156 | Registered: Thursday, January 8 2004 08:00
Shaper
Member # 3442
Profile Homepage #12
quote:
Originally written by Can-ned Food:

Avatars are just as bad as signatures.
But without them how would be witty? And, more importantly, what on Earth would distinguish Alorael from the rest of us commoners? Apart from his sparkling wit, love of skribbane and sniper rifles?

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"I am a living sign..."

Thus endeth this post.
Posts: 2864 | Registered: Monday, September 8 2003 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #13
I would still have a signature without signatures built in and the rest of you would not.

A signature has to reach obscene proportions before it actually causes loading problems. It becomes an unbearable hassle and eyesore long before that point. Avatars, on the other hand, become eyesores at around the same size as they become loading sores.

—Alorael, who believes that characteristics two and three are in direct opposition to characteristic one in most opinions.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Apprentice
Member # 5267
Profile #14
I was being too mean in my post -- of course, I wanted to. I meant that, usually, both signatures and avatars are abused (especially signatures, but not really on this board) and so I view them poorly -- or is it poorly view them? ;-)

I do capture quite a lot of quotes & stuff from signatures though, and I sometimes actually download avatars.

-Increasing post count with a touch of quality!
Posts: 10 | Registered: Tuesday, December 7 2004 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #15
On a semi-related note, signatures are also great for self-plugging. I thought no one ever clicked on links in a sig, but they do, actually. On the Encyclopedia, out of ten visitors about 2 come from Google, 3 come from Drakey's Demesne and 5 come from the forum...

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The Encyclopaedia Ermariana <-- Now a Wiki!
"Polaris leers down from the black vault, winking hideously like an insane watching eye which strives to convey some strange message, yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey." --- HP Lovecraft.
"I single Aran out due to his nasty temperament, and his superior intellect." --- SupaNik
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 3719
Profile Homepage #16
Yes, signatures are very excellent for the self-plug, I get a fair amount from all the boards i visit :)

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Scandalous Stories, fishing,and great photos
Posts: 294 | Registered: Monday, November 24 2003 08:00
Warrior
Member # 3159
Profile Homepage #17
EDIT: Sorry for the double-post, I hit stop because it wasn't loading and changed the text a bit

[ Saturday, December 18, 2004 01:07: Message edited by: loserclassof06 ]
Posts: 111 | Registered: Monday, June 30 2003 07:00
Warrior
Member # 3159
Profile Homepage #18
Well if nobody is really too attached too their post count or member number, they could just wipe the forums and go to phBB... phBB has options to limit both avatar dimensions and size.
Posts: 111 | Registered: Monday, June 30 2003 07:00
Agent
Member # 618
Profile Homepage #19
Actually, I'd just like to pick up on Aran's first post. The SR fora allow avatars, on the condition that they do not stretch the text box unreasonably. They average a good four times the amount of posts that these fora make in a busy season.

There's nothing wrong with ava's, just as long as they are either moderated or are controlled to prevent certain... incidents.

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Aut Tace Aut Loquere Meliora Silencio
Posts: 1487 | Registered: Sunday, February 10 2002 08:00
BANNED
Member # 3121
Profile Homepage #20
You mean I shouldn't be able to have an avatar with Yam Sthruss in it? :(

[ Saturday, December 18, 2004 07:20: Message edited by: qwd ]

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The Great Mister

kommari@gmail.com[/url]
Posts: 761 | Registered: Thursday, June 19 2003 07:00
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #21
Or five pagefuls of horse sex merged into one image?

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Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #22
quote:
Originally written by qwd:

You mean I shouldn't be able to have an avatar with Yam Sthruss in it? :(
Not unless fully clothed and photographed from the front. We've got children here. :rolleyes:

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The Encyclopaedia Ermariana <-- Now a Wiki!
"Polaris leers down from the black vault, winking hideously like an insane watching eye which strives to convey some strange message, yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey." --- HP Lovecraft.
"I single Aran out due to his nasty temperament, and his superior intellect." --- SupaNik
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
BANNED
Member # 3121
Profile Homepage #23
[Link removed. Shall we read the CoC again?] So, in your opinion, Yam wouldn't be BAD STUFF if photographed from the front.[/URL] ^^

[Please note, this link leads to a white, blank page, with another link on it. Someone follows these two links and comes back whining? They knew what they were going to see.]

[ Sunday, December 19, 2004 09:12: Message edited by: Brief ]

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The Great Mister

kommari@gmail.com[/url]
Posts: 761 | Registered: Thursday, June 19 2003 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #24
That doesn't exactly qualify as 'fully clothed'. :P

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The Encyclopaedia Ermariana <-- Now a Wiki!
"Polaris leers down from the black vault, winking hideously like an insane watching eye which strives to convey some strange message, yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey." --- HP Lovecraft.
"I single Aran out due to his nasty temperament, and his superior intellect." --- SupaNik
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00

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