Here it comes..........Avatars!

[1cRaZyFooL]

This has been said before but is it time for TheHelper.Net to include avatars for members? With the recent upgrade should we move on to avatars as well? Thanks Chile for upgrading the site, it looks so much damn better.

 

[The Helper]

I am considering this. One of the arguments by opponents of Avatars is that they are on dial up and they do not want to have to wait - whether or not the forum displays avatars is a user configurable option - so that argument holds no weight.

Mainly, I have to look at how much trouble it is to setup and see how much it affects the site's bandwidth but I am a proponent of avatars - at least on a trial basis. We will see.

 

[Mind]

I strongly dislike the idea of allowing avatars here. Avatars, in my humble opinion, spoil the atmosphere, are irritating, and, of course, significantly reduce the loading speed.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Several factors to consider here.

1. The other WC3 sights are not slow because of avatars. They are slow because the entire interface is graphical. I saved the front page of wc3campagins.com, and its 690k on my computer. Just the front page. This is why they are so slow; not avatars.

2. On the other hand, I am against avatars because of the abuse. I have several avatars on my computer from other people, and they are over 700k in size because they are animated. I consider that outrageous for an avatar pic.

3. May I remind you, if you do not wish to see avatars, you can uncheck them in your profile options. So having avatars would not effect you.

 

[Mind]

Are you certain that you can prevent others' avatars from being displayed to you?

If that is the case, I don't see why avatars should not be allowed, on condition that they have a size limit.

 

[The Helper]

The option to disable avatars exists in your user control panel for the forums. If we decide to use avatars the size of those files will be limited and most likely users will have to achieve a certain number of posts before we will allow them to use one.

 

[XXXconanXXX]

You just need to set limits such as no graphical avatars, only pictures and a size limit. It shouldn't be to hard to enforce the avatar rules, as all you need to do is when you look at a post and see a bad avatars, delete the avatar and warn them.

 

[1cRaZyFooL]

I see you guys have avatars, is it only for mods/admins?

 

[SD_Ryoko]

No, it just hasn't been formally announced.

 

[XXXconanXXX]

I tried changing my avatar, and they are enabled, but there is nowhere to upload one. It has one option, and that is to not show one.

As for allowing avatars for only membrs with a igh amount of posts, that MIGHT be abused as some members might spam just to get their post count up.

 

[Darg]

if we can find the option, avatars will be awarded for a certain level of reputation, not a certain number of posts. Right now its on for everyone.

 

[XXXconanXXX]

You'll have to let reps sink in first. Alot of people totally disregard it, and alot of the helpers here are getting low amounts of reputation.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

A word on reputation.

I find it flat out rude to ask or whine for rep. Some examples:
"No one gives me any rep points"
"Please give me rep"
"If you like it please give rep"

If people want to give you rep, they will.

The only time I feel thats acceptable, is a work-rep trade offer, as it makes good currency.
"Can I give you my map so you can fix my spawn code?"
"Can you fix a bug on my web page?"
"Sure, for a rep point."

Lastly, I'm suprised since I seem to be the one dealing with all the heat, that I dont have negative rep already. LOL.

But I'm not concerned. I played negative alignment in Trade Wars 2002 all the time, and was still very respected player, as I wrote the tunnel finder script for telix, and was very feated pirate.

(Tunnel finder script did path-mapping calculation for every possible combination route, 1 to 5000. Then cross examined any one-way jumps for holes. It took hours to complete, but when it was done, would find the deepest tunnel in the game, sometimes up to 30 sectors. )

Then the script was STOLEN at a lan party - SHARE YOUR DRIVES CAREFULLY!

 

[XXXconanXXX]

One other weird thing, i went to my Control panel, seeing I had 20 reputation points and the alst one was received from an anonymous user who gave me a eweird rep. Anyways, just the other day I got anohter and it shot up from 20 to 33 from only one reputation point. Seems a little odd.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Admins rep points give the most. It shot up because I gave you one.

 

[1cRaZyFooL]

That's good idea with the rep points you said earlier, may be instead of avatars from rep points you could put in sigs, then other things.

 

[XXXconanXXX]

A word on reputation.

I find it flat out rude to ask or whine for rep. Some examples:
"No one gives me any rep points"
"Please give me rep"
"If you like it please give rep"

If people want to give you rep, they will.

The only time I feel thats acceptable, is a work-rep trade offer, as it makes good currency.
"Can I give you my map so you can fix my spawn code?"
"Can you fix a bug on my web page?"
"Sure, for a rep point."

Yes, that does make sense. Reputation can make for good currency, and reputation is just that, it can define a respected member from a new member. The thing is, that is totally disregarded when people are begging for reputation and making trade-offs rather than actually earning it.

Admins rep points give the most. It shot up because I gave you one.

I see. Administrator points give 11 reputation points each, seeing as I have 3 but I have 33 reputation points from 3 different Administrators. I can understand Ryoko's reputation point, but the other two seem a little odd 0.o.

 

[The Helper]

see http://www.thehelper.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14747