I made this thread asking people to 'please vote', and more did, though now the amount of people who voted "I don't care" has gone from 0% to 20%
...Because for some strange reason, none of my avatars seem to work with the forum format any longer. I feel the requirements in file size (kb) and/or physical size should be tweaked to allow a little larger files to be used. Nothing sucks more than finding an avatar that represents you only to try and squeeze the shit out of it, and have it still be too large. You can only compress and dither something so much before it becomes completely ass cr@p.
I've received email as recently as today asking me that if we allow avatars to make sure to limit their file size as some users are on dial-up still.
As for the people who are sensitive, allowing a simple avatar to affect their entire thread-viewing experience. Well, I feel very sorry for you. Maybe you're the type that should open your mind up a bit more, look at something from more than just one perspective. I know at least for me that the connection I make with other klovers is largely based off of their avatar more than their nickname....
It would be nice if you didn't insult people that don't necessarily see things your way... Some people find them just visual noise. Another complaint I've heard is that the movement attracts unwanted attention while browsing at work. I'm sure there are more.
That said, if anyone can recommend a decent animated avatar utility for the mac, I'd certainly appreciate it. Right now, I'm using ImageReady and for all of its tools, it still won't create a damn animated file that these forums will accept. I've looked at the FAQs, written the mod, but have not been able to create new ones ever since the forums were 'upgraded'.
Hey..I finally found an animated Max Headroom Gif and when i tried to upload it.. I was denied. WTF?
I just looked at the FAQs, and there is nothing useful on the subject at the moment. I actually thought everyone knew the whole story with avatars since it has been rehashed here ad-nauseum the last few years but I guess not.
Basically, in short, 'animated avatars' was a feature that has been turned off for a very, very long time, with at least two periods of exceptions in which it was accidentally turned on during a software upgrade, and was often left on for quite some time before it was turned off again. It's been off for quite some time.
Being 'off' doesn't affect anyone that has one already (unless they upload a new one). As such, a number of users have them "grandfathered", and the rest can't upload them.
While I don't have a conceptual problem with 'grandfathered rights' in theory, the reality here is several lost animated avatars simply by trying to change one. It's sort of my opinion that it's time to turn them all off, or begin allowing new people to add them. I have a slight inclination to head towards the later choice (allowing), which is why I posted the survey.
If I turned them on, it would likely be for a 'beta' group first and then spread from there. There are some things to learn about the way things work here (including back end choices on which software library gets to process uploaded images) and some additions to the FAQs I'm sure.
In the past, I think it was Frizz that noticed if you uploaded an animated avatar too big that it would 'flatten it' for you. With the feature turned off, I thought it flattened all animated uploads. I tried it yesterday and the system instead gave me a message saying the animated avatars were not permitted (which I think is better than flattening it without an explanation). I didn't try uploading an oversized one though.
Avatars used to be limited to 80x80 pixels, and then went up to a max of 100x100 something like 2 1/2 years ago. The max image size is set at 20,000 bytes (about 19.5k).
Max avatar size isn't increasing. Nor is a ban on controversial avatars.
Question:
If animated avatars were permitted, is 19.5k enough?
