Avatar updates?

[TheMM]

I realize we haven't had avatars in a very very VERY long time, but recently the thought crossed my mind about them, and I was simply wondering about them again.

If we're not going to get avatars again, that's fine. I'm mostly just curious.

[hearmenowu2]

I have a feeling that there gone for good now.. but I hope im wrong.

[dolphinbad]

I would like to have an avatar. I don't know what the reason for not allowing the use of avatars, but if there is a reason this should perhaps be explained, I believe we all understand.

I take this opportunity to thank the idealizers this great forum and thank all who contribute to its maintenance. This space is unique and very special.

[Ender]

There was a report that there is a fault in way the forum handle changes to user Avatars that crashes the entire forum. So the feature was turned off to prevent outages...

As I recall the system had fairly tight restrictions on the size, resolution, color depth, and encoding that could be used... I can easily believe that the basic system might not validate the submitted image files and if the system tried to manipulate one sort of image using the rules for a different image format it might drive the software into a nervous breakdown.

Ender

[fleXodus]

I'm sorry guys, but the avatars will probably not be returning. Since the avatar files themselves will be hosted on the server, I don't want do anything incur any additional bandwidth charges from the webhost.

[TheMM]

Ah, then that's perfectly fine. You do quite a bit for us already, I wouldn't wanna to ask for more of a burden of you in the form of something rather small like an avatar.

Glad to hear at least something from ya FleX.

[ljobenza]

Isn't their an option to disable uploading avatars and an option to point to an external website for avatars? I would actually prefer to use my avatars in my photobucket account than uploading them here.

[ARCHEON]

Hey Flexodus, no biggie. Avatars just add bells and whistles where none are really needed. Personally, I've come to like the cleanness and simplicity of this site. BTW, if you made the minor changes recently (Blue color on the Evolution Forum font and new shield images, etc.) they look great.

Yeah, I notice these things. ;-)

[nypup2train]

I thought I might commit a little necromancy here, and revisit this thread in the light of 2010-era web technology.

Seems to me, fleX, that it would now be possible to return avatars to the board -- if people desire them -- without incurring any additional bandwidth demands or hosting space. As I understand it, those were your two major concerns with the on-site avatar system, no?

Well, fortunately it's 2010, and we've learned that local avatars r 4 suckaz!! Meet:

http://www.gravatar.com/

They do for avatars what OpenID does for logins -- a set-up-once, plaster-all over the web central hub for managing your representation in tiny thumbnail form. Create a gravatar account, upload your avatar image, and enjoy pristine laziness as it simply follows you around while you sign up at social media sites and discussion forums to your heart's content. I've had my "respectable" email address signed up for a gravatar for about a year now, and I'm amazed the number of sites where my image just automagically appears.

But, if you don't maintain completely distinct email entities to represent your various different online lives, fear not. They figured that not everyone wants their R-rated "shirtless in a stained jock" cruising avatar to suddenly pop up on Grandma's Facebook page. You can configure multiple gravatars at different "content advisory" rating levels, and it'll use the "tamest" one by default, except when you tell it otherwise.

Naturally, vBulletin is just about the only forum/CMS system they don't provide a plugin for right on their website. (Tho it'll supposedly be a standard feature in vB 4.0.)

Not to worry, a few moments with Google netted me not one, but two plugins for vBulletin 3.8:

FXI Gravatars - Automatically Replace Avatars (all, custom, or empty) with Gravatars! - vBulletin.org Forum
Afzz GrAvatar - vBulletin.org Forum

...Just something I thought I'd bring up, as it seemed a way to solve the no-avatars problem without increasing the burden on the forum servers significantly. Think about it. Certainly it's a far-from-critical issue, but at first glance it seemed like those plugins would make implementation fairly quick and painless. If there's any more legwork you feel needs to be done, let me know what you need and I'll be happy to schlep back over to google and do some digging.

[nypup2train]

(Don't mind me, I was just venting about the spammers... who seem to be the only ones replying to this thread! *grumble*)