Avatar rules

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Woah, Calm down Jari...No one has overly large avatars.... I admit mine was big.  But that was only because The size of it on an empty page (On mirex' trashbin) Looked alot smaller than it did actually IN the forums, Same goes for the one after that which was overly wide, I was informed, and i chaged it to what it is now.  But the problem is, How many newbies will acutally read the forums rules.  I doubt most of the people here did....
 
I've already asked one or two people to resize their avatars recently, and just PM'd another now.

Darkdevil:  Nobody has overly large avatars, but some of them still break the rules.  Back in the old days we didn't have avatars!  It's just a lot nicer to browse through the forums without large avatars in your face and clogging up your bandwidth.

As for the rules, I'm not entirely sure what the exact limits are.  I tend to ask for a resize if it's 100x100 or over, or if it's over 50kb.  AFAIK, jpg and gif images are allowed, and probably those php ones as long as they're not malicious.
Perhaps Qhimm could enlighten us on the rules?
 
Perhaps phpBB could be tweaked to crank out an avatar free version of the forums, for people who want it? Or even graphics lite version? Might make modem users happy..
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Coming from a 28.8k connection, I can honestly say that would be superb! Haha.
 
I'll certainly consider an avatar-free version of the forums, sounds like a good idea for modem users.

Unfortunately it seems that the rules regarding avatars have become a bit fluid, but I'll try to nail down how I judge things:
    • In general, avatar dimensions should be kept below 80x80. There can be exceptions to this rule (to a certain extent) if the avatar in question justifies it in a tasteful manner. One example would be Sephiroth3D's sephy avatar, where only the sword tip extended rightwards (making the avatar rather wide, but not "bulky" wide).
    • Avatar formats allowed are GIF, JPEG and PNG. Be aware that although the hack allows for transparency in PNG images, it can be buggy; make sure you're using correct PNGs. BMP images are strictly forbidden!
    • Linking your avatar to a PHP script (or similar) is allowed, provided the script behaves nicely and returns an image in any of the formats mentioned in 2. Examples of improper behaviour would be collecting information on forum visitors.
    • Animated avatars (in the form of animated GIFs) are allowed, but only to a certain extent. Animations should be kept discrete; you browse the forums to read the posts, not to have your vision constantly distracted by flashing images.
    • Avatar sizes should be kept below 10 KB, even when using animated ones. Non-animated avatars should strive to be below 5 KB.
    • Of course, avatar content should be kept inoffensive. The definition of "offensive" lies with the moderators, to whom you should bring any complaints.
    • These rules apply equally to everyone, but as you can see there is some room for slight exceptions. If you wish to use an avatar that violates one of the above rules, always consult a moderator first.
    • Repeated or severe violations of avatar rules will result in your avatar privileges being revoked and/or warnings being issued.
    How does that sound? Oh, and I should probably make an effort to update or get rid of the different rulesets on the forums, like the FAQ page... when I have time.
 
I hope noone's going to rip my head off for having a 64x96 Avatar. :P
However:

1. My avatar consists of 64x96 = 6144 Pixels.
An 80x80 avatar would be 6400 Pixels.
2. My avatar is in jpg format and well compressed, so it's size is only 3096 Bytes, which is  lower that 3KB.


General discussion:
Usually 80x80 should be okay for everybody.
But in my opinion it's okay when the width of the avatar is more than 80, let's say 96 as in my case, but then, the height should descrease.
Reason: There are surely people who want to have a movie screenshot or something like this as an avatar.

And I personally don't like avatar which get too high.
Here's a quote from me from that Avatar Sizes topic:
In my Opinion, an Avatar size of 64x64 is big enough.
Let's take a look at Shinra's last post in the Valentine's Day #2 Topic: 3 lines and an avatar that makes the post three times higher than w/o avatar.

If this continues the way it goes, we'll have a problem like the other boards:

post consisting of:

      Header (Posted: 2002 ...) (height: 20 pixels)
      a 2-lines post (height: 22 pixels)
Signature with huge pic in it (128 pixels)


Please let's avoid that, okay?

- Alhexx
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Jari: I like your idea with that webcam avatar ;)


 - Alhexx
 
You say it takes ages for Modem users (like myself) 5 minutes to load tha page and all avatars...5 MINUTES?!!? If i cleared my cache, After downloading the main board style and graphics, Its under 30 seconds for all avatars to be displayed.  Animated ones however take upto a minute to load...So its not THAT bad.  Luckily we ordered broadband today for when our telephone exchange tranfers to broadband :D  w00t a 1 meg adsl line coming my way :D so as a 56ker atm, I can say there isnt REALLY that much point in an avatar free forum if your brower is working correctly.  But as messiah said, connecting on a 28K modem can be tedious, So perhaps theres a stylesheet hack or something.  Provided he uses FireFox.
 
But as messiah said, connecting on a 28K modem can be tedious, So perhaps theres a stylesheet hack or something.  Provided he uses FireFox.
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Neva! Just IE, I may hate M$, but I still prefer their products over most of the competition. Never used FireFox, but Ive had bad luck with 3rd party browsers, I didnt care for Avant when it was recommended, and Netscape has to be the most appauling thing Ive ever seen, just my opinions, feel free to not agree.

But Im also usually running a few things. Im simultaniously connected to Yahoo and MSN messengers and AIM any time Im online, as well as ICQ when I remember it, which all take bandwidth.You might not think much of it, but remember my bandwidth amouths to very little, if I download, it moves 2k/s on average, and having anything running adds up.

I dont mind the avatars, as theyre usually the last thing on the page to laod anyway, and Im already well on my way reading the posts when they load. Having the option to disable them would be more a luxury than a necessity.

If Qhimm decides to do it, I'll probably take advantage of it, if he doesnt, I havent lost anything on the deal, and Im still happy to be here! :D
 
Hrm, I suppose you're right...
In that case I think there should at least be an option...If its possible that is.
 
I think I prefer having the rules a little loose near the edge and decide on a per-case basis. Having a completely fixed ruleset makes it harder to be creative; there ARE plenty of examples of tasteful avatars that are true to the spirit of the rules even if they break the letter of the rules. Rather than having fixed rules and then making specific exceptions, I prefer a process of natural selection :P
 
Rather than having fixed rules and then making specific exceptions, I prefer a process of natural selection :P
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And who's allowed to play god? :D
So if the admin is god, am I an arch-angel then?? *_*

 - Alhexx
 
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