I Want To Individualise Avatars - Living Avatars - Please Vote

[anthony]

Yes Hope, the avatar packs allow expansion, to pets, backgrounds, etc.

 

[goingonhope]

I think people would be posting for the wrong reason. Therefore I voted "no".

Anton, I too considered this concern and possibility, but then figured that such would become most obvious, possibly embarrassing to anyone inclined to do so, IMO, and certainly would undermine oneself while not serving anyone.

Now on the other hand if it simply encouraged people to contribute more, and/or post more sincere posts, then nothing lost.

Don't get me wrong, I do understand and certainly respect such concern, Anton. :thumbs-up


Anthony, yes and pretty cool.

 

[anthony]

People do that now Anton, or are at risk for doing it because some find it competitive to have more posts, more reputation, etc, as they believe it gives them status. So they go and post a thousand posts of crap to feel important when really it all comes back to self esteem. We do remove a lot of nonsense from this site though.

 

[her_indoors43]

will the avatars cause problems for the folk on dial up.../?.........when i was on dial up i avoided alot of pages that had to many pretty pics on it....was friggin pain in ass.....god hope i never ever go back to dial up........:eek:

 

[anthony]

Like now, you can turn avatars off from within your user profile for those who choose not to have pics or those on dialup and want to improve their loading time. The soon to be released Vbulletin4 will greatly assist those on dialup, as it has moved to a majority of CSS based coding, which means page size overall is significantly smaller than what you load now. I am looking forward to that one.

 

[fin]

Does it have to be all or nothing?

Would it be possible for instance for people to perhaps keep their preferred choice avatars if they wished to?

 

[anthony]

I can do either Fin. Replace existing or integrate as an option.

 

[fin]

How would the integration work? Would the selection thingy be the same? Am wondering if you could perhaps open that up as an option perhaps Anthony.
I would like to draw my own at some point but I don't have the thing right now to scan and then upload my drawings - freehand... I would like to keep mine different I just think the option to integrate would be good for people here and perhaps people joining the forum new might like the choice.

 

[Mina]

I voted no. It sounds way too distracting and bothersome. I also think it will encourage people to post for the wrong reasons; I don't think avatars should be related to how much someone posts, as quantity can have very little to do with quality. Plus earning and buying things for characters/avatars reminds me way too much of role-playing games.

 

[Anton]

I can see the validity of other people's opinions in this thread, and wasn't aware that "avatar view" can be toggled. *click* :smile:
That doesn't change my stance though.

That I like the utilitarian character of the original site is probably just a personal preference, but I also think the site is about PTSD and not about playing games with pretty pictures.

More than a few people (including myself) would get a not-so-good impression upon their first visit.

I do not visit this forum because I'm bored, but because I have a serious problem.
Entertainment is nice but I feel this isn't the place for it. May I suggest a fun & games subforum?

I can see why people want to be able to use avatars (especially their own avatars, which is pretty much the norm on Internet forums) but the "game" aspect doesn't sound like a good idea.

That said, I could and would never bear responsibilty for policy and maintenance of a website like this one, and I greatly admire Anthony and Nicolette for doing just that.