CaptainKipard Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 (edited) I don't like them. [snip]'s is particularly obnoxious. Ideally I'd like to see them disabled. Edited January 30, 2015 by Vanamonde Please do not refer to fellow forum members in such insulting terms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starwhip Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 I like them, but people, as always, love to abuse things...If the file could be bigger, I would have one too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fr8monkey Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 I am rather fond of them... I don't see a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunbaratu Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 There's a bandwidth issue if you try to make them too big. An animated GIF requires a lot more bytes be sent to the browser than a still one, and that rises faster the bigger the dimensions of the GIF. So most of the time an animated gif must also be a tiny gif, else you're starting to bog things down for the people on slower connections like mobile phones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worir4 Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 They distract from posts, especially Overfloater's and fr8's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirligig Girl Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 They distract from posts, especially Overfloater's and fr8'sfr8's is one of the best that there are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worir4 Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 fr8's is one of the best that there are.Exactly... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tex_NL Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I don't like them. [snip]'s is particularly obnoxious. Ideally I'd like to see them disabled.Some avatars are 'obnoxious'. Some signatures are 'obnoxious'. And sometimes even the user him/herself can be 'obnoxious'.But as long as forum rules and regulations are observed I see no reason to disable them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainKipard Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 Some avatars are 'obnoxious'. Some signatures are 'obnoxious'. And sometimes even the user him/herself can be 'obnoxious'.But as long as forum rules and regulations are observed I see no reason to disable them.:/ That's backwards. Rules in general don't have intrinsic value. Appealing to rules as a guideline for what to do and not do is not how rational communities do things. Rules emerge.You can look at spinning cats and coffee-addict penguins everywhere on the internet. As avatars they add nothing, except distractions.Look at it this way. A tiny minority of KSP players have colour-blindness, but Squad are making an effort to make the game accessible to those people, despite that fact.The same principle should apply to their forums. There is a minority who don't handle this kind of stimulus very well. It's not too much to ask for a bit of consistency, is it...The loss of these kinds of avatars amounts to nothing for everyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robotengineer Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 (edited) I don't mind small 'member scale' animated avatars, the huge moderator ones are a different thing. They are distracting, and break the flow of reading threads. I think you know who's avatar I'm talking about? Edited January 31, 2015 by Vanamonde Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikaneko Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Ones like Beale's are OK, with subtle movements.Ovefloater's left me mesmerised, I think it's a ploy to get a slave army for his world domination plan.Spinny spinny spinny spinny... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Iron Crown Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I'm generally not a fan of them. Some are not too bad, but others go way overboard with it and it's distracting from the actual content in the thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norpo Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Avatars should be simple, I say. No need for a giant amount of detail for something that users will look at for a second and say "oh yeah it's that guy", eh?Exhibit A: My simple space invaders avatar. Who else has one of those? Exhibit B: Red iron crown has a... Seriously? You need a hint? Red crown.Avatars are supposed to be an identifier, not a work of art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainbowtrout Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I'm rather fond of them. I like to think that this one in particular isn't too distracting from the post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r4pt0r Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 normally I'm pretty stone-faced, but I crack a smile at that adorable mudkip, and the kerbal on a treadmill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainKipard Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 (edited) I'm rather fond of them. I like to think that this one in particular isn't too distracting from the post.I couldn't even get to the end of the first sentence before it drew my attention. I don't know what's going through people's heads. It's right next to the text.Some of you will probably visit Imgur or 9gag or something. You know that animations, and especially loops, will do that. Use some common sense at least...Oh and I keep being compelled to look at it, throughout typing this post.editAnd two more things. Remember how nineties internet looked? Animated banners EVERYWHERE. Having one or two animations on a page is not good, it's just less bad.There have been studies done on reading habits of internet viewers and book readers. People have very short attention spans when reading off of a screen. This just makes things worse. Edited January 31, 2015 by Cpt. Kipard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanamonde Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 People, can we please discuss this without singling out individual fellow forum members for condemnation? People choose their avatars to represent some aspect of their own personalities or interests. Saying "Bob's avatar is obnoxious," is, to an extent, the same thing as saying "Bob's personality is obnoxious." It's needlessly harsh, contributes to a sense of enmity within the community, and furthermore, it's not necessary to name names to make one's points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tex_NL Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I see nothing wrong with Rainbowtrouts Mudkip. To be honest Kipard, I find your large signature more distracting.(Yes. Yes. I know. My signature is pretty big as well.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanamonde Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 If avatars are a problem for you, it is a forum option to turn them off. Click on "Settings" on the upper right of the main pages, then "general settings" down that page a bit on the left, then about halfway down that page under "thread display options," there is an option to turn avatars off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainKipard Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 (edited) I see nothing wrong with Rainbowtrouts Mudkip.It's on the lower end of the scale for sure. The movements are quite gentle, but they're still big, as is the image itself.To be honest Kipard, I find your large signature more distracting.(Yes. Yes. I know. My signature is pretty big as well.)Could you be specific? I don't want to be a hypocrite, but on the other hand signatures are not a good comparison. My signature has no gifs, but it's meant to be eye-catching to an extent because it contains a whole bunch of links most of which are there to help, not to distract.---Without naming names, I just think there are some things that could be added to the rules, like:No big gifs at all.No big movements.No jerky movements.Just common sense stuff that would make reading the forum a pleasure rather than a challenge. I'm sure everyone who needs to will be able to express themselves within those boundaries. This is not uncommon on other forums.If avatars are a problem for you, it is a forum option to turn them off. Click on "Settings" on the upper right of the main pages, then "general settings" down that page a bit on the left, then about halfway down that page under "thread display options," there is an option to turn avatars off.Avatars aren't a problem, they're a solution. Edited January 31, 2015 by Cpt. Kipard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slam_Jones Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 (edited) Well, why not totally ban all avatars? Bright colors are really distracting when I'm trying to read text. Especially the yellow in yours, OP. Wowee.You know what, let's get rid of formatting, too. I can't get through a single sentence without staring at those sharp box edges.Seriously, though, if you get that distracted by gifs, then I'm rather worried you might, in reality, be a goldfish. Edited January 31, 2015 by Slam_Jones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainKipard Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 Well, why not totally ban all avatars? Bright colors are really distracting when I'm trying to read text.You know what, let's get rid of formatting, too. I can't get through a single sentence without staring at those sharp box edges.Seriously, though, if you get that distracted by gifs, then I'm rather worried you might, in reality, be a goldfish.I don't want to get dragged into a meta-discussion. This is a slippery slope argument, and therefore worthless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slam_Jones Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 (edited) I don't want to get dragged into a meta-discussion. This is a slippery slope argument, and therefore worthless.Back to the original question, then: I personally don't mind them. Even an "obnoxious" avatar or gif (as you are just so eager to describe them as) can be easily ignored or overlooked. Like Vana said, you can choose to have them not appear on your browser if you are so opposed. Unless it's main intention is to be irritating (and even then, who's to judge whether that's true?) or offensive it should be allowed.If it's blatantly against the forum rules, then yes, it should be removed.If the only issue is that you don't like it, well, tough luck, buddy.Is there a specific reason you have to complain about this? Perhaps medical or something (some kind of epilepsy perhaps? I certainly wouldn't count ADD as a major medical issue)? If so, your points are absolutely understandable. Edited January 31, 2015 by Slam_Jones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainKipard Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 In addition to all the other reasons I posted on the previous pages (there are a few) there also is a medical reason, which I prefer to keep to myself. I didn't mention it because it's not relevant to other people, who might also agree but not know that they can do something about the avatars. Hardly anyone visits Kerbal Network.Even ignoring the medical thing, what I'm proposing makes sense from a design perspective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainbowtrout Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I tend to use avatars to identify users. I recognise Van by the banana, I recognize Cpt. Kipard by the glorious ascended, etc, etc. Especially when I forget a username, if they have a unique avatar, then that helps. GIFs are easier to recognize for me. Speaking of GIFs, I'm called Modkip more often than Rainbowtrout, I think because of my user title and the changing GIF of your one true leader. Oooh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts