Another problem of avatars is that by default vBulletin stores the uploaded avatars in the database (for security reasons). This means it becomes, unfortunately, dynamic content. Thus, every single time you load a page, even if it has the same avatars on it you just saw, it has to do those same SQL queries and re-send the same jpgs or gifs. They should be cached, but it doesn’t work that way IRL. So it would be a serious bandwidth issue here.
On my board, all avatars are static content (manually copied by me to a static directory), so they are cached, and not a bandwidth issue.
However - can you imagine the Staff here being mailed 1000 avatars every week to upload by hand? Yeesh. Not good.
Why is my post odd? Umm…where did I say that I had done any kind of search for vB boards with avatars turned on? I said I didn’t know one off the top of my head, and I stand by that. I provided a link to a site that I knew had avatars. Period.
At Ship of Fools , they make the avatars available for people who send them money, while those who want to post for free still participate but without pictures.
It seems to me like a pretty good system for bringing in a little money without making it a pay site.
I wrote and re-wrote this reply about 4 times to try to communicate that I’m not trying to be sarcastic, only factual.
It’s odd because given that you’ve posted in the past of having a great wealth of experience with php-based Boards, and have even posted on how much effort it would take you to modify features of vBulletin in specific for the SDMB, I would assume that that would mean you had been actively visiting and reading the technical info in the official vBulletin community, the official vBulletin “hack” community, or on other vBulletin Boards. Both of which have always had avatars enabled.
And, since every single vBulletin Board I’ve visited has avatars turned on, it just seems unusual to find one without.
“Odd” isn’t the proper word then, and I apologize if that was insulting or seemed argumentative, as that was not my intent. “Unexpected”? A Mr. Spock “Fascinating?” It was merely a figure of speech, and I didn’t mean anything by it or intend to get into a dispute over it, so please forgive me.
The basic facts are not changed, however. Based on the past comments and official word of the Staff, the SDMB will likely never have avatars in any form. And given the way things are, that seems for the best.
Ah. Well, all I was saying was that at that particular moment, I couldn’t think of a vB board with avatars. No more, no less. I’m a member and contributing programmer of the board I did post a link to so, naturally, I thought of that one first. But, in the interest of thoroughness, here is a vB board replete with avatars.
I agree avatars off is best for this board though.
There’s such a thing as optimization within constraints. This board is very highly optimized, within the constraints of the amount of money we have. And that constraint is outside of the control of any of the regular users of this board (administrators included): It’s entirely up to the management of the Chicago Reader (Cecil’s home newspaper, which also owns this entire site).
But you have no idea how much time jdavis, the Reader’s tech guy, has spent getting this board just so, so it’s even usable at all on the very limited budget.
