Yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking.
Don’t be ridiculous. If you don’t ever put a fucking check mark in the fucking box outlined in fucking red on this fucking page, you will never see avatars on the dope while you’re logged in. Ever. Regardless of whether that functionality gets turned on boardwide.
He’s not saying the site would be sued or shut down. He’s saying we have a strict copyright policy (since we want people to respect the copyright on Straight Dope columns) and as such, it might be a hassle for us to enforce our copyright rules with regard to avatars. And yes, then there’s the question of avatars that offend people.
How do Avatars clutter up the boards?
Its not like the board will be a collage of images.
Is it your opinion that if all message board options aren’t switched on, the owners/operators of said message board should be considered “ludites”?
This is an off-topic question, but…
Why does it say I’m a guest and not a member. I did register.
Back to the avatar thing, the purpose of having avatars is simply just to make the board look more entertaining and interesting. That by itself sounds like a good reason. We do all kinds of things just for the fun of it.
Members pay 14.95 a year for the privilege of having member under their name. Guests don’t pay anything at all. You’re still registered, just branded a cheapskate.
A member is someone who pays to subscribe. They get some additional perks.
I think everybody gets that. But some people feel the images would make the board look cluttered and that from an aesthetic point of view, it’s not the Straight Dope “thing.”
Nitpick: Actually the citizens of Lud rather lost when Blaine the Mono released that cloud of poison gas thruout the city when he departed to make his last run to Topeka.
And if avatars would make people happy, then they shouldn’t have them. Or so say my Calvinist ancestors.
I see.
Under the new TubaDoctrine, it’s a “computer-explode” issue: It can’t go in IMHO because it’s about the board. Such a poll can only be done in ATMB. But the ONLY polls allowed in ATMB are test polls. Any content in polls in ATMB would forever ruin the board. So they can’t go here.
Are folks that read unillustrated books “ludites”?
Is it your opinion that asking really idiotic rhetorical “straw-man” questions in every discussion in ATMB is remotely helpful?
Do you pick and choose your books based on whether they have illustrations or not?
Yes, exactly. Someone will use a copyrighted/indecent picture, the mods will be notified, and then there will be a protracted number of threads complaining that “my picture of Sandusky in the shower with a paper tube is not indecent! Mods suck”. Avatars can be fun but they just aren’t that necessary. Since they can be turned off I don’t care but I certainly understand the reluctance.
[QUOTE=Inner Stickler]
Do you pick and choose your books based on whether they have illustrations or not?
[/QUOTE]
Naked marsupials, actually. Always look for the naked marsupials…
-XT
Are juvenile rhetorical questions really annoying, especially when they’re spewed in every ATMB thread in which you participate?
Do you honestly believe that they accomplish anything beyond making people :rolleyes: at your posts?
I’ve never written to a publisher complaining that the book would have been so much better if illustrations had been provided, or that they should have provided illustrations because some other book on a different subject had done so.
Not necessarily. But in the case of something as simple as avatars, which are pretty much available on every message board out there, and haven’t caused nearly the havoc that everyone seems to be predicting, yes, definitely.
Or at least, I find their arguments mere hysteria.
Why not try them out for say, a month or two, and see how it goes?
Me neither. I’m too busy writing letters to my cable company, asking them not to add shows I don’t like to channels I don’t get.
And you also don’t start threads asking for avatars on messageboards. Congratulations, you have achieved consistency.
A book and a forum are not the same thing. A book is a finite thing that has a work stage and a finished stage. A board has no such limitation; it is a continuing product of refinement. And as a poster, you are not equivalent to a mere reader, you are a contributor to the work and in our hypothetical book and illustration scenario, may just have a suggestion or two when it comes to pictorial representations.
