Would it bother you if avatars were allowed, but off by default?

I’m on a few boards that use avatars. I have them turned off. What happens is that the avatars become part of the board culture, part of what people talk about in threads. So I turn them on. They’re a bit on the large side, some of the images annoy me, and I’m often on a limited-bandwidth connection (as I am right now, in fact… one of those EVDO cellphone-network based broadband cards for laptops, better than dialup of course but still a far cry from DSL & cable speeds) and downloading unnecessary pix seems wasteful.

Yeah, mark me down as a spoilsport. I’d really rather that the board simply didn’t have them.

If we are going to have them, I’d want a much smaller max pixel-by-pixel size than the board software natively supports. Something the size of a smilie, perhaps.



  OOOOOOOO
 O        O
O [O]  [O] O
O          O
O    o     O
O          O
O [_____]  O
 O        O
  OOOOOOOO

Grab the bull by the horns and make it happen!

So, let me see if I have this right:

Anti-Avatar argument: “I don’t wanna!”
Pro-Avatar argument: “You don’t have to!”



  OOOOOOOO
 O        O
O [O]  [O] O
O          O
O    o     O
O          O
O [_____]  O  Hello - I am RaftPeople's Avatar!
 O        O     
  OOOOOOOO


Yep, you got it.

Close, but it’s more like:
Anti-Avatar argument: “I don’t wanna, and I don’t want you to have them either!”
Pro-Avatar argument: “You don’t have to!”



  OOOOOOOO     _______________________________________
 O        O   [                                       ]
O [O]  [O] O  [ This Space Reserved for Advertisers   ]
O          O  [   contact me at Avatar-Ad.com         ] 
O    o     O  [_______________________________________]
O          O  
O [_____]  O  Hello - I am RaftPeople's Avatar!
 O        O     
  OOOOOOOO


Yes, actually this does seem closer to the actual arguments on both sides.

Assuming they are default off, optional on, no animations, not too large, don’t tire out the hamsters and perhaps are discouraged from changing very often. I don’t see any negatives.

Major positive being it’s easier for us folks who need some kind of visual to form memories of identities.

People who want them can have them and people who don’t want them will never have to see them. Seems like a win-win to me.

Interesting how the results so far of the various polls seem to differ widely based on whether they are default off.

I’ll also mention, some are the arguments are based on WORST POSSIBLE CASE SCENARIO. Having avatars can be done in such a way as most of the things people are afraid of are easily avoided. I think “No avatars, because they would do X” people should stop and think about their response and change it to “No avatars unless X is averted”.

Agreed. I think the perfect natural size would be a square the height of which is the exact space the username + guest/chartermember lines take up.

It could be a great money-spinner if only paid-up members have avatars, and everyone else has a blank, or generic silhouette.

Perhaps this has been their long-term plan all along…

You are cracking me up with this.

Tibbytoes just upped the ante :slight_smile:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12994261&postcount=80

Hell it bothers me that people even want avatars, it’s like finding out the girl you really like likes Twilight and the Jersey Shore.

Yes, but would you watch Jersey Shore if all of the cast members had normal human skin tones by default?

Hell it bothers me that people even don’t want avatars, it’s like finding out the girl you really like has no sense of humor and a B.O. problem.

I’m sorry that you have that opinion of those who prefer verbal discourse over visual stimulus when it comes to message board communication.

Heheheh. I love a good whoosh in these types of threads.

I’m typing aren’t I? I’m not making little rebus puzzles in wingdings for people. Are you laboring under the misapprehension that those of us who want avatars would prefer to go without typing permanently? If so, I don’t know where you got that idea as it is eminently silly. I really don’t understand your objection on this issue.

Slippery slope: it starts with avatars, but next thing you know everything’s in pictograms.

Fish fish bird eye pyramid fish

I’m not trying to junior mod, but I thought you can’t say that here anymore.

:mad:

Penguin penguin teapot.