Gif Avatars

[SnickerSnack]

This is a repost of a thread I made in the PAL forum about 2 weeks ago:

It seems that I can't use animated gifs as avatars anymore. I get this error:


You may not upload animated images.

Is this a temporary problem? If not, why has it changed?

[SnickerSnack]

I hate to be a bother, but why is it that a problem had by a new member (<1 month) gets responses from both admins, while a 2+ year member who is also a pal gets none? I posted this in the PAL forum weeks ago and now the feedback forum to no avail.

[Noammr]

I encountered this too (a couple weeks ago, when I was last semi-active on the forum :/), I even sent out a pm to an admin on the subject.

I'm still waiting for a reply :coffee:.

[SnickerSnack]

I guess I'm glad it's not just me...

The wait continues...

[Elly]

I disabled it a while back because we had some pretty awful animations - fit-enducing type affairs which were very off putting when trying to read a post, especially if you got a couple different ones in view at the same time.

Is it something you really want?

[SnickerSnack]

I disabled it a while back because we had some pretty awful animations - fit-enducing type affairs which were very off putting when trying to read a post, especially if you got a couple different ones in view at the same time.

Okay.


Is it something you really want?

Yes.

It was especially useful for this thread (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=744816). It's nice to be able to have 2 or 3 on rotation (~10 seconds each) rather than only being able to display one. For example:

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn276/zacherysharon/avatars/hallowtar55.gif

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn276/zacherysharon/avatars/werner1004.gif

I like to toy around with GIMP from time to time, and I'd been thinking about making something like a short movie, not spastic though. Maybe something like the flash animation in the left panel here (http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/index.php) (it's on a rotation, so I'm don't know which one you'll see if you follow the link).

In the meantime, I'd like to have a short montage of my current characters, from stills like:

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn276/zacherysharon/avatars/barbtar01.jpg

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can definitely see the problem with having spastic avatars now, though; I hadn't thought of that before.

I can see 5 options off the top of my head:

(1) When I first mentioned it a few weeks ago, Thyiad offered to try to change my avatar to a gif for me, so maybe (given there's a good reason for disabling it) it'd be better for me to just ask a mod to change it when I occasionally have something.

(2) Is there a way to allow/disallow a gif based on the average number of seconds per frame (or something similar)? The purpose being that a gif with 2 frames at 10 seconds each isn't spastic, while a gif with 2 frames at 0.2 seconds each is... This would disallow all spastic gifs, but it would of course disallow a well-made non-spastic gif that needs a decent frame rate. Not such a bad option, but I doubt the forum has that ability.

(3) Is there a way to allow gifs, but then remove the privilege only from those who abuse it (I realize this would be more work on the part of the mods)?

(4) If possible (again, more work for mods), give the privilege of having animated avatars only to those who ask for it, with the understanding that it is a privilege that can easily be removed. (This might end up being less work for mods than the logical conclusion of option 1)

(5) No animated tars.

Thanks for your reply, and for looking for a way to let me have the avatar(s) that I want.

[Noammr]

I disabled it a while back because we had some pretty awful animations - fit-enducing type affairs which were very off putting when trying to read a post, especially if you got a couple different ones in view at the same time.
Fully understandable. (Gotta ask though, am I on your ignore list or something Elly? Why no answer when I asked this before?)


I concur with SnickerSnack's summation of options to deal with this (well, provided you change the "I"s in number 1 to "anyone who wants to upload an animated 'tar" ;)). Hopefully there's a solution that wouldn't be too demanding on the mods & admins.

[Elly]

No, you're not on my ignore list. I don't actually have an ignore list. I must have just overlooked it at the time. They can scroll off the page quite quick sometimes. Sorry about that Noammr.

[Noammr]

Was Just joking about the ignore list (do we even have something like that on this forum? :P), no harm done. Will wait your answer on the gif issue, I guess in the meantime we'll just have to ask a mod to change them if needed but I'm not sure that's a good idea as a permanent solution.