Final plea for avatars

[soliloquy]

Ok.  Here were ALL reasons presented against avatars:

Bandwidth issues
Slows down dial-up users
Clutters screen
Possible offensive pictures


Solutions:

Bandwidth: Link to off-site avatar (standard)
Slowdowns: Option to not view avatars (standard)
Cluttering: 70x70pi size limit.  Would fit in margin without causing any cluttering.
Offensiveness: Avatars are selected from a predetermined list.  Anyone wanting a specific avatar could submit it to be added similar to pianoworld's system.  Images are hosted in www.imageshack.us, which is free, unlimited, unexpiring, no-membership-needed image hosting.

This requires minimal coding; in fact, I would bet money it is already coded but simply disabled currently.


SOLVED.  Now give us some avatars.

[allthumbs]

SOLVED.  Now give us some avatars.

What for, no one cares!

[Ruro]

I would like to use an avatar on here. I'm not gonna start a fight for it, I don't care that much, would just be nice to see. Usually my avatar's represent a facet of myself, which I think is quite good, it give's a visual basis on judging someone.

Someone with a Gif containing Stick Men Fights over someone with a picture of a Liszt Portrait says alot... or perhaps to many, I'm just speaking BS :/ But it's what I think.

Sorry if I don't understand, but one small flaw Soliloquy, this predetermined list... there would need to be a Stickied Thread or something containing the list of avatars uploaded onto ImageShack by the Admin? I mean... I think to control the avatars anyway... Suspension, to the extent of banning would work. Alot of people here, even the silly long timers don't wanna dare losing there accounts I'm sure.... some silly picture containing porn being visible for 2 hours or something is certainly not worth it.

That's my opinion on it all anyway, personally if it comes about I'll have my favourite picture of Yoshiki playing the Kawai Piano at the Last Live

[soliloquy]

What for, no one cares!

That must be why there are SO many threads requesting avatars...

[alejo_90]

Well, I don't care that much for avatars, but I'm ok with having them on the forum.

soliloquy you'd have to PM nilsjohan, he's never here. I think he's the most inactive moderator I've seen on any forum.

Best
Alex

[tompilk]

i put up a plea for sigs but the high and mighty people put my idea down too... i don't care much anyway now... they'd be good though. I always like avatars.
Another point - who has dialup now? I'd have thought most have broadband and a maximum filesize would be fine... i prefer the setup on gamingforce, which is not slow or anything even for the computers at school (and they are SLOOOOOOOOOOW).
Tom

[jre58591]

soliloquy you'd have to PM nilsjohan, he's never here. I think he's the most inactive moderator I've seen on any forum.

on the contrary, he ALWAYS seems to be there whenever i post copyrighted sheetmusic or certain recordings. hes only here for "important" matters.

back on topic, i dont think avatars are worth the bandwidth issues. i think a signature is enough. if you feel that you must have a pic by your post, put a link to a pic in your sig.

[nilsjohan]

soliloquy you'd have to PM nilsjohan, he's never here. I think he's the most inactive moderator I've seen on any forum.

on the contrary, he ALWAYS seems to be there whenever i post copyrighted sheetmusic
or certain recordings. hes only here for "important" matters.

Sorry to continue off topic but I am just curious - in what way do you think this forum suffers from "inactive" moderation?
We try too keep the forum as open and free from moderator influences as possible but of course within certain limits. Over the almost five years online the moderation policy has not changed, simply because it has worked pretty well.


Regarding avatars, the practical and technical obstacles presented by soliloquy can be overcome but the main reason for only displaying the avatars on the  profiles pages is a design and usability issue. Even if we CAN display them we believe less is more in this case.
However, the idea about an option to view avatars or not with the default set to off is definately something to think about...

FYI, avatars can currently be uploaded and displayed in your profile but putting images in the signature is not possible.

[rimv2]

Sorry to continue off topic but I am just curious - in what way do you think this forum suffers from "inactive" moderation?
We try too keep the forum as open and free from moderator influences as possible but of course within certain limits. Over the almost five years online the moderation policy has not changed, simply because it has worked pretty well.

[dorfmouse]

Another point - who has dialup now?

I do. No choice. 

[princessdecadence]

I don't see the need for an avatar...

[alejo_90]

I don't see the need for an avatar...

Neither do I.

Best
Alex

[avetma]

I would like to have an avatar.

Imagine topic with >3 pages - it would be much easier to follow writers.

Besides that, it's easier to remember someone's picture (it doesn't have to be personal picture, just some sign) than all those usernames...

That's my opinion...

[Ruro]

Imagine topic with >3 pages - it would be much easier to follow writers.

Cheow! Exactly, plus it adds personality, on other forums, everytime I see certain avatars I think, "Ah my god, I know it's gonna be some hilariously witty remark from him again! Haha!" ^_^;;

Plus when you see all the time; white text on a dark background, you look away from the monitor and still see the darn stuff! Furthermore, this place is precariously bland, and unless this Board has a feature of implementing our own CSS - screw you guys j/k

[jre58591]

Cheow! Exactly, plus it adds personality, on other forums, everytime I see certain avatars I think, "Ah my god, I know it's gonna be some hilariously witty remark from him again! Haha!" ^_^;;

haha i agree with this. on the other forums i frequent, im used to associating people with a picture. here, it is a bit hard to recognize people with just a bunch of letters and numbers. but i must say, avatars are not a needed thing. but it would be nice to have them with a few restrictions (like pic size and such).

[e60m5]

Wow, soliloquy really knows how to put in a kind and respectful feature request. 

[piano guy]

     I am also putting in my 'vote' for avatars. I think it would be a great way to give the members of this site more individuality here, and I think it would certainly attract more members. Some people who may have been members otherwise may end up not joining here, because they think it looks too boring. With avatars, I think this could be helped tremendously, and I think it would bring many more members to this site! I'm not going to throw a tantrum or anything if we never get avatars. That's just my two cents, for what it's worth (which is probably about that much, lol  )!