# Can we get 'how to enable avatars' added to the 'FAQ - Technical issues for Posting' sticky? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 22, 2012, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033 "2012-07-22T10:51:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/261 "2012-07-26T10:05:32Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > So, I guess calling “avatars,” “community-user visualization badges” won’t make a difference. Community User Name Tags. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/262 "2012-07-26T10:24:58Z")
Crazyhorse, question by someone who knows just enough about computer security to know that I know nothing. So the greasemonkey scripting language is isolated enough from everything else to prevent, say, a buffer overflow from being exploited by a url that’s too long? I’m not saying your script has an exploitable error, I just mean in theory. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/263 "2012-07-26T10:54:01Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Crazyhorse, question by someone who knows just enough about computer security to know that I know nothing. > > So the greasemonkey scripting language is isolated enough from everything else to prevent, say, a buffer overflow from being exploited by a url that’s too long? I’m not saying your script has an exploitable error, I just mean in theory. Basically user scripts work by injecting themselves into a web page after it has already been completely downloaded from the source and operates on code that exists only in your browser. For example users of the Avatar script will notice when loading a thread the entire page and all the posts load first, then the avatars are added once the full page has loaded. So there isn’t a whole lot that anyone from the outside can do to interact directly with a running script in a user’s browser. At one time, about 8 years ago, a [fairly serious security hole](http://wiki.greasespot.net/Security) was found in Greasemonkey (as has been in every browser, email program, webserver, and operating system, until they were identified and fixed) where a script could gain access beyond what a javascript should normally be allowed to have. It was not only patched immediately within Greasemonkey but the browsers (Mozilla at the time and now Google with Chrome) decided not to take any chances and built their own security into the browsers to limit user scripts to the same “sandbox” that all remote javascript is limited to. Anything might be able to be hacked to some extent in some way, but user scripts are as secure as any other code that might be running in your browser whether through an add-ons, extensions, or loaded at a visited website. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/264 "2012-07-26T13:10:50Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > **Irishman** always seems so damn reasonable, especially with that calm, thoughtful-looking fellow I have assigned as his avatar in my own browser. I hope he’s handsome. I’ve always wanted to be handsome. And look good in hats. (I can’t wear hats. I always feel I look dorky in hats. All hats. Any hat.) > [@Fenris](#): > > YES!! I object! > > You should read at 300 baud as the makers of this Bulletin Board System intended. > > If you read faster than that, you will somehow change my user experience in undefinable, but absolutely real ways that will horribly detract from my pleasure in reading the board. Well, I know I play a lot less solitaire (actually, Freecell) since I stopped using my crappy dial-up with the flaky line and got high speed cable modem. Not that that affectss anyone else’s experience. > [@Crazyhorse](#): > > It would be a nice service to the guests here if TPTB made a quick reference to them in a sticky like “The SDMB does not create or support browser user scripts, but here are a few that some of our posters found useful.” That’s sensible. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/265 "2012-07-26T16:06:16Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Community User Name Tags. > > 😃 Seconded. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/266 "2012-07-26T17:05:40Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > You can damn near wallow it, can’t ya? SSSSH! You’re affecting the _flavor_ of the thread, the texture and massing of the prose that alters the character, ebb, flow and intellectual signature of this discourse. Maybe if the color scheme were a little bit less indigo … ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/267 "2012-07-27T21:00:37Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > [Found it!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=579165) Now that I have seen his gallery, that just means that people whose faces I didn’t know, I now know. If there is a single anti-avatar person in there, they are a hypocrite. YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE YOUR PERSONAL PIC IN YOUR AVATAR! Also I’m annoyed now that I am on my home computer where I have the script installed, and still can’t see the avatars. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/268 "2012-07-27T21:09:46Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > Also I’m annoyed now that I am on my home computer where I have the script installed, and still can’t see the avatars. ☹ Do you mean you can’t see any avatars, or that you don’t see SDMB portrait gallery images? The avatar script doesn’t have any links to SDMB Portrait gallery images (but you can add custom avatars for any poster you want using any image you want in the custom avatar section). If you mean you can’t see any avatars at all you might double check that the script is enabled not just installed, and if that is the case, it might help to reinstall it in case something got inadvertently edited or deleted from the original. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/269 "2012-07-27T23:18:17Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > After turning the avatar script off, the flavor of the board seems different, in some indescribable way. I’ll say it’s better, perhaps more authentic and real. If anything, there’s subtle changes in the pace, sequence and timing of posts, with posts taking on a more nuanced, immediate and lifelike character. Prose seem more defined and warmer, the individual letters more accurate. (Is he high?)😕 ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/270 "2012-07-27T23:35:37Z")
Elmwood is making fun of the position many posters in previous threads took that despite there being no reason they would ever see avatars, it would change the board in some undefinable, unmeasurable, but unmistakable way for the worse. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2012, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/271 "2012-07-28T16:42:59Z")
I don’t give hoot about the script using my gallery picture, because I’ll bet there are less than two dozen posters on the whole SDMB that use the script. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/272 "2012-07-28T17:04:18Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I don’t give hoot about the script using my gallery picture, because I’ll bet there are less than two dozen posters on the whole SDMB that use the script. It doesn’t use the gallery picture. It uses the picture or link to a picture in your user profile. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/273 "2012-07-28T17:06:11Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > It doesn’t use the gallery picture. It uses the picture or link to a picture in your user profile. Whatever. Nobody is going to see it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2012, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/274 "2012-07-28T17:11:21Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Whatever. Nobody is going to see it anyway. **"SDMB Avatars** By [SDCrazyhorse](http://userscripts.org/users/473648) — Last update Jul 7, 2012 — Installed 412 times. " ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/275 "2012-07-28T17:22:30Z")
> [@Crazyhorse](#): > > **"SDMB Avatars** > > By [SDCrazyhorse](http://userscripts.org/users/473648) — Last update Jul 7, 2012 — Installed 412 times. " Is that the current total or have there been more since July 7th ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2012, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/276 "2012-07-28T17:34:32Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Is that the current total or have there been more since July 7th That is the current total. The text I copied just happened to include the last modified date too. In fairness at least 100 of those are duplicates from people downloaded updates during the development, but also in fairness there are many who just copy/paste the script and don’t use the installer. My very rough guess as to how many individual users have the script is about 150-200. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/277 "2012-07-28T17:37:27Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I don’t give hoot about the script using my gallery picture, because I’ll bet there are less than two dozen posters on the whole SDMB that use the script. I see a cute woman who looks like Bernadette Peters hugging an older gentleman sitting in a chair. If you are the Bernadette clone, can I have your phone number? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/278 "2012-07-28T17:41:10Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > I see a cute woman who looks like Bernadette Peters hugging an older gentleman sitting in a chair. > > If you are the Bernadette clone, can I have your phone number? 😃 That’s going to be a long distance call. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/279 "2012-07-28T18:58:01Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I don’t give hoot ers I don’t normally like animated avatars, but yours has kind of a pleasant hypnotic feel to it. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/280 "2012-07-28T19:03:40Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > ers > I don’t normally like animated avatars, but yours has kind of a pleasant hypnotic feel to it. I just give 'em what they want. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033.md?page=15)