Avatars

[EviLTwiN]

I feel for some reason that people won't want them, but i think the sinner should allow you to have an avatar.

Discuss.
Don't disagree or a giant snail will slim you.

[Guided By Vices]

[s]EviLTwiN wrote on 15:19, 8th May 2003:
I feel for some reason that people won't want them, but i think the sinner should allow you to have an avatar.

Discuss.
Don't disagree or a giant snail will slim you.


Rubbish, and in any case I need to lose some weight so where are those giant snails?

[rubbermuffin]

what is an avatar?

how does a snail 'slim' someone? Force weight watchers down their neck?

[hr]'I said I wasn't blaming Jesus or anything. It wasn't His fault that He didn't have any time.'

[Pilmour Boy]

Avatars are evil things leeching up bandwidth and getting in the way of discussion. On a lot of sites it seems that signatures and avatars take up 3/4 of the space on a page.



[hr]One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. - Plato

[niall]

yeh, but they are stupid sites, bellow is an screen shot of what tastyspoon.com used to look like, they wee picture on the left is an avatar:

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~nmm2/tastyspoon/pud.JPG

[hr]do you have a tastyspoon?

http://www.tastyspoon.com/forum

[Cain]

[s]niall wrote on 16:43, 8th May 2003:
yeh, but they are stupid sites, bellow is an screen shot of what tastyspoon.com used to look like, they wee picture on the left is an avatar:



[hr]do you have a tastyspoon?

http://www.tastyspoon.com/forum


Who's your buddy?

True - few people would like avatars. the sinner is very simple and easy. just like the sinners.

[hr]
whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance

[highway_to_hell1982]

don't get me started on the avatar business. there are some chatsites i know which uses 3d avatars to make some kind of virtual reality communities. some of the people that goes to these sites have no independant moral view and are nothing but total suckups.

wanna know something? if you swear on one of their chatsites, they won't let you off, in fact they go as far as tracing your IP address, calling your ISP, threatening you by saying the feds are after you, making your lives a living fucking hell and try to destroy your future? unforgiving? ya damn fucking right! this happened to someone and it almost destroyed them. but i guess i am making an exaggeration. but, just the thought of having a community using avatars may change the way i view the community since all the others possess a commonality of not just being a suck up to rulebooks, but a total fucking windup as well.

you all might think what i'm saying is probably nonsense, but its true. but thats just my view of having an avatar community here. i know all this sounds crazy, theres alot more to explain about it, too much to get into right now.....

[Blessed Benediction]

seems like avatars are not in favour. i feel a poll coming on. avatars seem a bit of a luxury at best from the sounds of things. they don't really do a lot & they can create a apparent sense of elitism. given that The Sinner seems to be quite an open community supposedly then by having avatars would maybe give the appearance of a more closed looking community & might deter more casual visitors from posting. those casual visitors being part of the future of the Sinner community in certain cases.

then there's more points like astheaetics where if folk have ugly avatars then it can make the site look ugly as a whole & will put off visitors & even regulars perhaps.

then theres those pictures which flash & can probably make some folk quite ill. i wouldn't be overly surprised if now & again one of those fast flashing avatars was resposible for some folk's epileptic siezure.

etc...

[hr]watches should have a smiley face on them as it's always time to be happy

[James Baster]

What on earth are you trying to say, highway_to_hell1982? That a site that uses Avators is going to have some bastards on it (Don't all sites?) and that there all going to attempt to enforce their rules? (Assuming no swearing was a rule.) Is it something about Avators that immeditly changes people? Most peoples rants here are at least vaguely sensible.

Anyway, Avatars, No. (Not as long as I'm Boss! Wait .....) Mainly because to do so would make loading of pages (both from the database, and from the web browser, in terms of number of graphics) slower. But Benidicts reasons are actually good arguments.

The apparent sence of elitism thing is the reason theirs not categorys like "Newbie!" "Regular in Training!" besides everyones post that changes depending on how much they post.

[hr][s]*Stabbed throught side of rib cage* It'll take more than a poke in the ribs to kill this old warrier!
*Stabbed throught heart* Yup, That'll do it.
Marine Dude, Jason X[/s]

[EviLTwiN]

i agree with the bandwidth problem.... i expected that would be the case.

Some of the above points about avatars tho are so totally stupid it is unreal.

Incidentally it's easy to make it so avatars can't flash.

as for looking messy, well check out this site....
http://www.guitargeek.com/chat/showthre ... eadid=3365
thats hardly gonna look messy, not matter what avatar you use.

As for the closed community thing, thats also totally rubbish. Being a registered st-andrews user is just as likely to create the same effect. You'd obviously have to register to have an avatar, and it would say the same thing closed communitywise as the registered username.

What they do achieve is to give the posts/users some personality. This may even enourage people to join up and become part of the community. It certainly won't stop an outsider posting, because he knows he's an outsider, and as i said, hes told that when he posts it will be as an unregistered user!

Anyways... also, you can have a decent avatar for 2kb, and you can limit the size. Hardly makes much difference to the website, especially when most pages will have the same users posting multiple posts.

thought this would provoke a strong response

And to the dude who made those comments about an avatar community and how the people on those sites have no moral whateverthehellyousaid......
what are you on?

[Alex Rennie]

Personally, i think avatars are a good idea. Is it possible to put an IMAGE command in your signature?

[highway_to_hell1982]

[s]James Baster wrote on 18:22, 8th May 2003:
What on earth are you trying to say, highway_to_hell1982? That a site that uses Avators is going to have some bastards on it (Don't all sites?) and that there all going to attempt to enforce their rules? (Assuming no swearing was a rule.) Is it something about Avators that immeditly changes people? Most peoples rants here are at least vaguely sensible.

Anyway, Avatars, No. (Not as long as I'm Boss! Wait .....) Mainly because to do so would make loading of pages (both from the database, and from the web browser, in terms of number of graphics) slower. But Benidicts reasons are actually good arguments.

The apparent sence of elitism thing is the reason theirs not categorys like "Newbie!" "Regular in Training!" besides everyones post that changes depending on how much they post.

[hr][s]*Stabbed throught side of rib cage* It'll take more than a poke in the ribs to kill this old warrier!
*Stabbed throught heart* Yup, That'll do it.
[i]Marine Dude, Jason X[/s]
[/i]



um, dude, you do not know the whole story. virtual reality communities are just full of plain unforgiving bastards who should be shot down for trying to make lives hell for other people if they did wrong. rather than accepting apology, they end up being a jackoff pain in the ass. i shall not say anymore as my opinion about the issue should be clear by now considering the history of past communities encountered by people i know...

and yes, avatars are FREAKING UGLY too! P

[Pussycat]

[s]highway_to_hell1982 wrote on 19:09, 8th May 2003:
um, dude, you do not know the whole story. virtual reality communities are just full of plain unforgiving bastards who should be shot down for trying to make lives hell for other people if they did wrong. rather than accepting apology, they end up being a jackoff pain in the ass. i shall not say anymore as my opinion about the issue should be clear by now considering the history of past communities encountered by people i know...


Given how charming you sound I can only imagine the kind of communities encountered by you and your friends.

Jeez, perhaps you shouldn't make such sweeping generalisations. Some communities are no doubt full of muppets, others are obviously not. And seeing as (for the most part) the Sinner is not full of muppets I fail to find your arguement that convincing.

And as for not knowing the whole story, well duh you didn't tell it. And no, I don't want to know.

[Oli]

It's possible Alex, but I think it's rather annoying.

I don't see any need for avatars really - if you want a picture of yourself you can put it in your profile.

They don't bring anything extra to the message (we already have smilies to do that, and they are used infrequently), and I can only see them as being distracting and irritating.

[Pussycat]

There isn't much point seeing as The Sinner is a basic and simple forum, nothing complicated. Avatars look good on other forums but are perhaps not suited to this one.

[niall]

[s]highway_to_hell1982 wrote on 19:09, 8th May 2003:and yes, avatars are FREAKING UGLY too! P


how?! most the forum sites i use have avatars and they dont look out of place at all, they can be something to reflect your personality, a cartoon character you like, a movie star you idolise, a picture of yourself, etc

what so ugly about a small 80x80 picture beside each post?

[hr]
do you have a tastyspoon?

http://www.tastyspoon.com/forum

[highway_to_hell1982]

[s]Pussycat wrote on 19:18, 8th May 2003:
[s]highway_to_hell1982 wrote on 19:09, 8th May 2003:[i]
um, dude, you do not know the whole story. virtual reality communities are just full of plain unforgiving bastards who should be shot down for trying to make lives hell for other people if they did wrong. rather than accepting apology, they end up being a jackoff pain in the ass. i shall not say anymore as my opinion about the issue should be clear by now considering the history of past communities encountered by people i know...


Given how charming you sound I can only imagine the kind of communities encountered by you and your friends.

Jeez, perhaps you shouldn't make such sweeping generalisations. Some communities are no doubt full of muppets, others are obviously not. And seeing as (for the most part) the Sinner is not full of muppets I fail to find your arguement that convincing.

And as for not knowing the whole story, well duh you didn't tell it. And no, I don't want to know.
[/i]



ok pussycat, or whatever your name is, firstly i did not say the sinner was full of muppets, and secondly i do not wish to share the story since it is so darn depressing. and forgive me for my 'charming' personality, just seeing the word 'avatar' struck a nerve where it shouldn't have. anyway forget it. avs are a waste of time anyway.

[Ashley]

With the general anti-consensus here. Can't be arsed, especially when I'm on dialup next year.

[hr]Nobody ever mentions the weather can make or break your day

[Endemoniada]

I personally have nothing against avatars. There are some message boards I use which allow them and make the whole place slightly more enjoyable. There are huge arguments about peoples taste in music which more often than not get resolved by the post "hey, at least your avatar rocks!" which I find quite beautiful.

Anyway, avatars good, stupidity bad

[hr][s]And Trogdor smote the Kerreck and all was laid to burnination![/s]

[nova]

Quite simply, avatars suck...mainly for the reasons already stated by Blessed Benediction and Mr. Baster.

[hr]"Won't you tell me, brave captain, why are the wicked so strong, how can the angels get to sleep when the devil leaves his porch light on."
- Tom Waits