I’ve said it before - if we want this board to have a look and feel consistent with modern message board, and thus be attractive to new users, then it must have avatars. If we want to keep this message board stark and text-only, then it will eventually become the stylistic equivalent of a 1980’s modem BBS (and eventually suffer the same fate). Remember, Ed’s plan is to gain ad revenue by growing the traffic on the board. Are new people more or less likely to keep visiting a text-only board, or one which allows use of avatars and inline images (something not mentioned here, but which I think need to be added)?
That doesn’t mean that we must or should have embedded Youtube videos and sounds, or even animated avatars, but surely we can bring the board forward a little bit. Especially when, as it’s been posted innumerable times on this message board, you can turn off avatars from showing up.
I agree with CarnalK on one point and I’ll go even further - I doubt that even a single, solitary person will actually leave (despite any protestations to the contrary made in this thread) if the board allowed avatars.
Kid_A - if the avatars are uploaded to the vBulletin database and stored in there as binary objects, then yes, they will add CPU time and bandwidth requirements to the server (as well as slightly increase the database size). In vBulletin 2.x, that’s how it’s done. I do not know for certain if it is done that way in this version, but I suspect it is.
Hold on a minute! Switch-offable avatars are one thing, but inline images are surely the quickest way of sending this board to Goatse in a handcart. :eek:
My objections would instantly vanish if only there was a way to turn off display of avatars at the message boards, but I don’t know if that’s possible or not.
All right, before someone shoots me (hey - I thought my previous post was funny) I’ll add a longer explanation.
I am happy without avatars
I prefer the board without avatars
but
If avatars are allowed at the board, I will display them because I had being confused and if I don’t display them I run the risk of reading a comment like “Hey PosterX that was pretty funny” and then combing through a thread pointlessly for a sign of humor from PosterX until I finally realize that PosterY was commenting on something in PosterX’s avatar picture. I might even run the risk of being called a hypocrite by having an avatar picture myself.
My conclusion: if this were up to a vote, I would vote no.
Avatars are the wave of the future? I don’t think so. If a graphics-free message board inspires such devotion from current members, surely there are others who will also be drawn by our style. It is a promotable feature, not a drawback.
Not so long ago, all the cool guys had a Rat Fink t-shirt and window stickers to show their loyalty to Thrush mufflers and STP (Scientifically Treated Petroleum, not Stone Temple Pilots). It was terribly important to have those hip things, to express our individuality and coolness. :rolleyes: Now, it’s avatars. Two years from now, you cutting-edge avatar pushers will get avatars-and-feathers.
I don’t want avatars, I don’t want to see them. I don’t need them to tell me who is who. So I would turn them off. But what we’d end up with is threads with responses like this, in-jokes relating to avatars. They would still impact the boards even if they were turned off for a particular user. We’ve seen it with the google ads. Of course it’s going to happen with someone’s “funny” or “really fitting” avatar.
I would not leave just because avatars were implemented. But again, this is why if there were a vote, I would vote “no”.
Besides, to turn the argument back around - if avatars or the lack thereof is the sole reason that someone would choose to join this board or not, what would that person really add to the discussions on the board?
And no, there’s nothing at all wrong with that post or that thread - I’m just scratching my head at the notion that people who like avatars on messageboards are some kind of master race of troglodytic half-wits. Give me a break.
Personally, I don’t like avatars and would prefer not to have them–so call it a nay vote.
On the other hand, if they’re implemented, I’ll probably have one.
Yeah, we’d be able to turn avatars off, but if we had them, I might as well provide a visual cue for the members who need one, and I can always ignore the “explain your avatar” threads, sigs that reference the avatars, comments and jokes about avatars, and complaints about inappropriate or insensitive avatars.
And besides, it would get rid of all these “should we have avatars” threads
I turn them off, and when people comment about them, I ignore it. If somebody says something I don’t understand, I ask or move on. I’m not sure you people realize that you are voting not only against avatars, but against anyone else having a choice about it.
