I've always wondered... why doesn't Massassi use avatars? Lots of other forums do, and I think it would be cool.
Do you guys think Massassi should use them? (with the following rules?)

• Option for each user to view avatars or not.
• No extremely bright avatars. (It would clash with massassi's color scheme.)
• Size limit on avatars (like 80-100 pixel-wide limit)
• No animated avatars
• 6-8 KB limit (for faster loading)

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"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." - Proverbs 27:17

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[This message has been edited by DogSRoOL (edited February 24, 2004).]

Here we go again

In a nutshell: bandwidth and annoyance are why there are no avatars here.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

Slow loading for people with dial up?

completely pointless?

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Drugs & Stupidity, Tons of it.

Looks like Avenger beat me to it... Most of us are stuck with a cruddy 52k connection at home, and most avatars are annoying, and do very little for anybody except for the person that has them.

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Nes digs around in the trash can.
Nes finds a hamburger!
Nes puts the hamburger in his backpack.

OK. Let me add some rules to my original post...

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"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." - Proverbs 27:17

Catalog of Electronic Components - Complete IC data sheets
National Electrical Code (NEC) Online - Don't do wiring without consulting it. OR ELSE!

Not even a 1 pixle avatar....bleh avatars.

/makes some witty comment about avatars.

/shakes his brandy.

/walks off.

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I’m not going to die, I’m going to see if I was ever alive. - Spike

It's not your right to decide whether they live or die. They deserve a chance! - Vash

Massassi is clean.

Avatars/flash/html make my eyes bleed.

Edit: sp
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[This message has been edited by Mystic0 (edited February 24, 2004).]

I like avatars... As long as they are all exactly the same size, ie 64x64 or something.

As a 56k user at home, I can quite honestly say avatars don't take that long to load, especially if properly implemented.

We dont have them because massassi is run by a bunch of luddites who aren't very open to the idea of change.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Avatars... they can get large and annoying, and even if they dont, the kinda interupt with the general layout of the forum. Its a visual thing, I prefer forums that look nice and neat.

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And everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon...

DSettahr's Homepage

I'm on a 26400 connection and don't have a problem loading avatars rather quickly, as long as they're kept at the same size, and that size is no larger than 80x80. It would be nice to have an option to turn them on/off and externally link to our own.

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http://www.napalmdeathsquad.com

I look at it by a cost-benefit analysis... I don't see what the avatars really add to the site, while they do have significant costs:

-low-speed connections require more time to load them.
-people might select avatars that have nothing to do with the site's themes.

I really see no benefit from using avatars.

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Nes digs around in the trash can.
Nes finds a hamburger!
Nes puts the hamburger in his backpack.

Avatars don't have to do with the site at all. They reflect something about the person.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

My friend's on 56k and he loads avatars extremely fast. There is no problem. /jedimindtrick

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There is no signature

Why don't we allow people to use small avatars, but when the page loads, only the green channel is shown... that would be so 1337 because it would blend with our colors.

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I prefer not avatar. Those are annoying. Hard on eyes.

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Snail racing: (500 posts per line)
-----@%

The consensus on the massassi features thread a long time ago was that when/if we do implement avatars, they will behave like this:

1. No animations.
2. All the same size (dimension-wise).
3. Default to off: if you want to see them, log in and set your preferences.

Avatars would ruin massassi's perfectionism. Say NO to avatar.

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"The Oracle told me I would die with my boots on. I've worn tennis shoes ever since." - Axis

And a good decision it was, when the time comes for it to be implimented


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I've always wanted to show off my awesome avatar at massassi <3



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Do you have stairs in your house?

i didn't think that these forums supported avatars

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*landfish 'splodes*
7 of 14

Quote:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by nottheking:

-low-speed connections require more time to load them.
-people might select avatars that have nothing to do with the site's themes.</font>[/quote]low speed connection as a con is overcome by an option to have them visible to each person or not.
As for theme, most of the topics come from this particular forum, which usually aren't star-wars themed (if that's what you're referring to). In what way? Maybe you hadn't noticed, but the forums are visually bland. Looking at a single color or set of similar colors for too long is hard on the eyes, anyway. Avatars might even help those with sensitive eyes (such as myself), so long as they aren't incredibly high contrast. Most of us at Massassi seem to like dimmer colors anyway (judging from levels and such). I'd use one of the following:


They're not to clashy with Massassi's color scheme right? Yet they add enough color to liven it just a little.
You can't tell me pictures that small would be annoying. They're only 80 pixels wide. My screen name is wider than that.

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"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." - Proverbs 27:17

Catalog of Electronic Components - Complete IC data sheets
National Electrical Code (NEC) Online - Don't do wiring without consulting it. OR ELSE!

[This message has been edited by DogSRoOL (edited February 24, 2004).]

Okay, that was dumb. This is the kind of thing that makes people think you're annoying.

As for avatars, I'd say no. Unless I have room for a very nice Count Dooku avatar, I'm totally opposed.

Our forums fit the Massassi theme, we don't need n00bs with their flaming rotating skulls polluting our forum with stuff that doesn't fit at all.

Yea......Sure it is. American Peegdog.

Avatars are annoying. bleh. I like the idea of turning them on and off though.

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I’m not going to die, I’m going to see if I was ever alive. - Spike

It's not your right to decide whether they live or die. They deserve a chance! - Vash

Perfect.

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My Daily Ramblings
"This world is made of love and peace!"
"Let's live today, let's live tomorrow, and let's live the day after that, even if it means living in eternal pain."
- Vash the Stampede

max 16x16 would be preferable. just enough for witty smiley;p Although, being able to append our names with a title would be a nice feature, or possibley have an admin/moderator give people custom titles. Then, you could hold contests to win your title;p

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"It's OK for us to randomly attack people!"
-BV

I think it's part of Massassi's charm not having avatars or anything really special. We're old school.

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"Buildings that we have created to be aesthetically pleasing are slaughtering birds."

Avatars I really don't have an issue with. Brian's guidelines would work well. But I plead, no signature images for the ever love of God!

I HATE those!

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<scribbly handwriting barely resembling name>

they have big avatars and sig images at this mechwarrior site I visit once in a blue moon. jpegs and gifs

it's like some kind of carnaval really

I have to say, hunting out what post was by you and what post was by who, can be a bloody strain on the old eyeballs in 1280 here

it's not a complete 56k-killer either, you either wait for the jpegs to load or you don't. you just read what you want and move on. it all ends up in the cache sooner or later anyway.

mind you, this one guy inflicted a 1.3meg gif on us once at this other forum. as fun as it was to see skaifey do half a dozen burn-outs in a HSV, it was a bit of a punch in the gut for the modem

Rod-nog, I'm giving you sincere advice.

If you keep being annoying after somebody told you flat out, "you're being annoying," then you can expect no sympathy from me when you cry that nobody likes you.

And I'm sure pointing it out everytime is a great way to solve the problem.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

I know you're being sarcastic, but yes, it is. He obviously doesn't know when he's doing it, so it's up to us to tell him.

So far you're the only one who's commented on it.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

What the hell, I don't even see a post by Rod-Nog on this thread. WTH?

Anyway, we will of course NEVER allow sig images. *shudder*

Rod-nog = SAJN_Master

NO. NO AVATARS.

As an off topic side note, this school mouse sucks major butt. I can't move the mouse anywhere without it skipping around.

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--End of Line--

Sounds like a good idea to me.

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Exactly. Keep them all the same dimensions and file size and a dial up user really doesn't have any problems. I visit the CAD forums on dial up, and over there they have all manner of avatars, and I've never had to sit and wait for a page to load because of one. Except for sig images. Those things are hell spawn.

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"When all else fails, eat pie."
-¬thoughts from beyond observance

avatars are completely pointless.

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Drugs & Stupidity, Tons of it.

No.

Avatars, like avenger said, reflect something about the person and build individuallity.

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[This message has been edited by Mystic0 (edited February 25, 2004).]