Avatar selection

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Woo Hoo I would be able to use my Sohei picture, or my Kenshin picture, but I would need an image editor to make it work...

[player1]

Wohooo!
I finaly got Hastati avatar!

[TosaInu]

Hello,

Kaiser of Arabia yes we can, it's not added yet to this board. Just to the board I use to see the effect of hacks/tweaks before they get added here.

I'ld guess Rommel is ok. He was 'just' a general, or am I wrong?

Quietus no, you can't upload your avatar as that is still not allowed by the PHP settings (vbulletins default url linking, uses file upload as well). What you can do, is enter the url to a picture, and it will be loaded from there and displayed here. Different details, but result for the user will be the same. So, you're right too.

The org has a hosting space for users custom avatars and a PHP script to upload them (different server, different PHP setting). Those scripts recently broke down and will have to be fixed though.

No, the point is that users could perform such things like uploading a 2,000 * 2,000 10 mb image and render the whole skin useless for other users.

Some members will use the system, and it's their free choice to use it, so I ask them for fair limits. Staff will only patrol to spot those who breach it in order to demolish the system for others or post pictures that (could) cause a big uproar (18+, vulgar, hateful).

So, it is possible to make a custom avatar (your choice: red firetruck, purple orchid, a general, a panzer, picture of yourself..) but to keep it working we need agreements from the users about max pixel and byte sizes, animations, sound and which skin will be used (it should be possible to make another option toggle in UserCP and use it with the current skins, but I'm not there yet). First things first.

[Togakure]

I like the idea of custom avatars.

I think it's important to make sure that custom avatars don't adversely affect performance for us 56K users, and also that they don't distort the dimensions of posts.

I have never liked the idea of the privilege to use special or custom avatars being linked to a patron's post count. This encourages spam. I have been a board member for a while now, and have contributed my fair share to the board, particularly to the Sword Dojo. Yet look at my post count--I refuse to make a habit of spamming just to get my postcount up.

Because custom avatars are so desireable by the younger, rowdier folks in particular, I think one way to leverage them is to use them as an incentive for gentlemanly behavior on the board. This doesn't require a judgement call up front--maybe once you become a regular member you can have a custom avatar. If you ever get a serious warning, your avatar would be suspended for a period of time, the worse the offense, the longer the time. This would be in addition to temporary banning etc. I think this would encourage good conduct a bit. Maybe it would be funny to make a special avatar for those who are "in jail" because they behaved badly, like a person in jail clothes or wearing a dunce cap or something like that .

I have mixed feelings about leaving it up to patrons to make sure the dimensions and file sizes of their avatars comply with forum standards. You've had problems with this regarding sigs in the past, and I think you will have problems with avatars too if you don't build in some automated controls. I think it's important to balance usability for the patrons with manageability for staff. If you don't think it wil be a problem to shut down custom avatars that exceed the standards before they mess up the experience of board users, then I'm fine with it. But if it's going to take days to correct abusers, then I think automated dimension and file size management would be better.

My two cents ... .

[therother]

Okay, I say that dimension limits should be encouraged to be around, but not significantly bigger than, the current size of avatars (about 50 by 70). So I think perhaps 100 by 100 is a fair upper limit, assuming it does not distort the formatting.

Current avatar image size is ~4.5KB. Current signature picture limit is a maximum of 10KB. So I propose that we should have a maximum image file size limit of 15KB. So you can have a 15KB avatar, but no signature picture, or a 15 KB signature picture, but no avatar (custom or system), and various combinations of the two (e.g. 10KB sig pic, 5KB avatar). This means that the overall download for narrowbanders will remain the same.

As for the other restrictions, I'd say no sound but gif animations should be fine as long as they are within the file size limit. IIRC, solypsist's custom avatar was animated.

[Quietus]

Tosa, thanks. This is awesome!

IMO, the rules of posting avatar should given to members as soon as it is determined. Perhaps, an announcement at the colosseum for current members and maybe another thread at the new members section.

This way, Togakure's concern is addressed right away and there are no ambivalence.

I also agree with therother's assertion of 100x100 pixels and 15 kb max (sounds reasonable enough).

[Epistolary Richard]

As Quietus has solicited opinions from the Colosseum, I'll venture mine. I like the fact that these forums have a consistent themed look and so I'm not in favour of custom avatars. They'll also make more work for the moderators, undoubtedly lead to disputes regarding inappropriate images and a slew of 'I can't get my avatar to work' threads.

That being said, I appreciate that posters who are active on several different forums would like to use the same picture across them all and that there are some brilliant custom avatars out there. I always have avatars switched off anyway.

[TosaInu]

It's a matter of choice now Epistolary Richard. I've been experimenting a bit, and one simply gets another toggle in view options (where the toggles for displaying avatars, signatures and pictures are). Toggle URL avatars and normal avatars on, and you'll see both images (there's a size limitation now to prevent huge pictures, but we'll have to find out which limits we'll use). Turn one or both off if you like that.