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Animated Avatars


*i

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Wow. Thanks to all the abusers out there. Yet another place on the internet where a few bad apples ruin our privilege of showing freedom of expression by taking it to an extreme.


The problem was from both the abusers, as you said, but also the raw numbers. I've received some comments that they are becoming distracting, so I think it best to pull the plug before things get out of hand. This way our board is more friendly to our viewers.

EDIT: Also, I should remind people that I generally don't discuss any actions taken against certain members so as to avoid embarrassment. Exceptional cases aside, I prefer not to publicly rebuke people for misconduct.

Finally, Salmon, your avatar was fine. I would be okay if everyone had one similar to yours. However, it becomes very difficult for me to set hard rules about which ones are fine and which are not. Unfortunately, the only way to avoid complete arbitrariness is a blanket ban on them.
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I understand why you took an action. I just disagree with the type of action. It's a philosophical thing. I would have expected that a PM to the offenders would have worked, especially from you. Had I received such a request, I would have complied immediately.

 

As it is now, I can point some fairly accurate fingers at those who, through their actions, have restricted the privileges of the non-abusers. I'm not sure that is the best result.

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I think the concern is not really that a few people have recently shown extravagant avatars, as that a clear trend towards more of them was becoming evident. At the current level, yes, individual PMs would do the job fine (and in fact, have been doing it). But at the rate we're going, sending PMs to newbies about their garish animations would have become a full time job within a few months.

 

Well, okay, we don't gain new members that fast. But this is the point: more distracting animations were steadily becoming more common, and *i's decision was to nip a problem in the bud, rather than wait for the crisis. That's the kind of proactive decision everyone agrees good leaders are supposed to make, except that everyone also agrees that good leaders should never overreact. If the crisis never materializes, how do you know whether it was prevented by wise early action, or whether its failure to arise proves the action was unnecessary?

 

A decent modern board engine would give every member the ability to turn individual avatar animations on or off at will. Then we'd be fine. I don't know when that will come.

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Some of these things are fine; Salmon's, in particular, was cool but easy on the eyes. Others may be cute at first, but quickly get irritating. One or two on a page isn't a big deal, but the day when most avatars on the page are jumping around and flashing, well, I'm happy that day won't come. Or were you one of those people who thought blinking text html tags were the best thing since Gutenberg?

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Originally Posted By: Master Ackrovan
By distractions, meaning they were making pages run slow? Because if they were eye sores, it would be just as easy to look on the other side of the page. Or, better yet, the actual text in the post.
One simple trick is to hit [ESC] after the page loads. This stops GIFs from animating.
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See, that's what's annoying about distracting animations. You can't just look away, because this thing bouncing around in your peripheral vision keeps pulling your eyes away. It makes it take effort to read the text. Effort is bad.

 

Perhaps I can forestall gruesome threats by making clear that I did not originate the ban on animated avatars. I'm just a self-appointed spokesperson on this topic for the mod hive mind.

 

I didn't know about this [ESC] trick. Does it work on all platforms? If the default were not to animate gifs, and hitting ESC would turn them on, then at least to me that would be an adequate alternative.

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Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity
I didn't know about this [ESC] trick. Does it work on all platforms? If the default were not to animate gifs, and hitting ESC would turn them on, then at least to me that would be an adequate alternative.
The Google knows all! (The about:config trick only works on Firefox; doesn't seem you can do it on a per-site basis without AdBlock/Greasemonkey).
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This avatar stuff doesn't really apply in my case, seeing as I don't bother with one. Although, using Dikiyoba's fanfics as a guide, I considered (eventually) making myself an animated avatar showing the Exile series' giant rat dragging a large backpack across the graphic. I guess that's a moot point now.

 

Having said that, I really had no problems with anyone's avatars, animated or otherwise.

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Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity
That's the kind of proactive decision everyone agrees good leaders are supposed to make, except that everyone also agrees that good leaders should never overreact. If the crisis never materializes, how do you know whether it was prevented by wise early action, or whether its failure to arise proves the action was unnecessary?

A decent modern board engine would give every member the ability to turn individual avatar animations on or off at will. Then we'd be fine. I don't know when that will come.


1. Clearly not everyone thinks totalitarianism is a good working model of governance. Slowly removing options, and freedoms, from the population at large is not an attractant.

2. Technology is a crutch, and not a replacement for good behavior. A modern society isolates law breakers, attempting correction, but always recognizing that they may have to stay removed from society.

3. It is a moot point, though, as Jeff's games aren't designed to run on my system, and the directed evolution of this community is not one I find myself enjoying. It was fun while it lasted, but now, not so much.
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Salmon -- This is a company message board on privately owned servers. The analogy to government does not really apply here as no one has a right to do whatever they want on someone else's server. If you own a wall, I certainly do not have a right to plaster it with advertisements without your permission.

 

What's important is we have message boards where Spiderweb Software's customers can come find information about the games and interact with other fans. Decisions have to be made that keep the forums an aesthetically pleasing (e.g. not full of distracting avatars) place. The growing trend of animated avatars was conflicting with this requirement. There is nothing fundamentally new here. We have had this since the beginning of the Ikonboards.

 

You say we should remove the troublemakers, however, that is impossible without being completely arbitrary in this case. What objective measure can we use to judge which animated avatars are fine and which are disruptive? While one can say there is arbitrariness involved with enforcing rules on obscene content, and you are somewhat right, there are generally agreed upon societal standards. With animated avatars, it is incredibly difficult to draw the line because it has completely to do with aesthetics. I'm uncomfortable making decrees based on pure, one-off opinions. At least with this, we have a clear standard to base decisions from.

 

If removing the privilege to have an animated avatar offends you, I'm sorry about that. Certainly, it's good to have a solid community. We are all in agreement on that. That's why we don't go back to the old rules of allowing only posts related to the games, and we have no plans to push things to that extreme. All that is removed is the ability to have an animated avatar since these can be distracted. People are still allowed to express themselves with static avatars, of course.

 

I will make it clear that there is no directed effort on the part of the moderators to engineer the community itself beyond removing those whose behaviors become too disruptive.

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Originally Posted By: *i
I will make it clear that there is no directed effort on the part of the moderators to engineer the community itself beyond removing those whose behaviors become too disruptive.
It's kind of sad that you felt you even had to state that fact for the record. I feel for you. frown
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Originally Posted By: Monroe
It starts at avatars, but in no time they're coming for your children in the night!


First, they came for those with animated avatars, but I did not speak out, because I did not have an animated avatar.
Next, they came for those with long signatures, but I did not speak out, because I did not have a long signature.
Then, they came for those who changed their name regularly, but I did not speak out, because I did not change my name regularly.
And then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.


You have no idea how hard it wad to type and proof that on an itouch.
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Originally Posted By: Dantius

First, they came for those with animated avatars, but I did not speak out, because I did not have an animated avatar.
Next, they came for those with long signatures, but I did not speak out, because I did not have a long signature.
Then, they came for those who changed their name regularly, but I did not speak out, because I did not change my name regularly.
And then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.


My English teacher had a poster of Martin Niemöller's version of that poem. I was 11 or 12 whilst in her class, and the poster used to terrify me.
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Actually, of course, we are directedly evolving you all into an army of cyborg drones, with which to invade and conquer the forums of rival game companies. We'll start small, picking off other indy groups; but as we absorb them, we will grow, and take on steadily larger targets.

 

If *i's calculations are correct, six months after we ban signatures and the letter 'e' from here, we'll have the entire subscription base of World of Warcraft. And then Jeff will get his Heroic Death's Verdict, and we will rest with the will of our master finally achieved.

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Originally Posted By: Dantius
Next, they came for those with long signatures, but I did not speak out, because I did not have a long signature.
I know I might have a lot to say about that, should it happen.
Quote:
Then, they came for those who changed their name regularly, but I did not speak out, because I did not change my name regularly.
Alorael would really be in trouble on this one. The again, he could use his mod powers to fight it should such a horrible thing come to pass (though hopefully it won't; I enjoy wondering what his new PDN will be).
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And then they came for me
Much easier said than done in my case. You can't abduct someone you can't find. tongue
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Long signatures have already been dealt with harshly.

 

—Alorael, who has no particular feelings about avatars. He's just glad that the old era of painfully gigantic avatars is over. He's also quite relieved that Spiderweb does not fall into the category of forums in which huge images in signatures occupy more screen space than posts.

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Originally Posted By: Alorael
Spiderweb does not fall into the category of forums in which huge images in signatures occupy more screen space than posts.

Let's all thank whatever divinity(ies) we may or may not believe in for that!
Maybe that's the reason Spiderweb is the only place for me.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Actually Slarty's froze upside down within 24 hours of the general ban.

 

I, after 2 years of having a tacky avatar was courteously requested in a PM to change it. I readily agreed and complied. (In my defense I must say I and others thought it funny. Playing game at torment level and cartoonishly bashing my head to pulp on keyboard.) On my machine it played through so fast that until I saw it on a "brand x" dialup machine where it was essentially r e a l l y s l l o o w w I agreed with it being tacky.

 

Comparing SpidWeb forum leadership to Nazism is absurd.

 

I, was a 'bad guy' avatar wise. I had a 'static' one for years and was encouraged by other members to spice it up with an animated one. At least make it glow or something. I started with a wind breaking smiley, then a cartoon of head smacking keyboard frustration.

 

Until it was pointed out I thought nothing of it. Acts far exceeding cartoon violence are involved in all SpidWeb games. BUT, no gore splashes/decals. Yes, occult activities, but the triumph of good over evil. (At least the way I play it.)

 

Sooo. I'm content without the splashymessness, somewhat competitive attitude of animated avatars. I think the 'throttling back' was done rather well and agree with it. I even agree that some avatars (other than mine) were actually irritating.

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