Avatar Changes

[Rawhide]

As of now, you will no longer be required to enter in the width and height of avatars (which means also that you will no longer be required to instruct people on how to do that).



HOWEVER

You will still only be able to use an avatar that is 120x120. Avatars larger than that that had previously been set to a lower value and manually shrunk using the width and height values will now "overflow" into a "hidden" area.
This is only to ensure formatting is preserved, please do not allow this to happen!

This will break some current avatars that will need to be resized.



REMEMBER

File size restrictions still apply.

[Lord Loss]

Can we keep a somewhat oversized avatar 120 x121 if it looks adequate and we cannot find a suitably sized version of said avatar?

[Rawhide]

Can we keep a somewhat oversized avatar 120 x121 if it looks adequate and we cannot find a suitably sized version of said avatar?

Do you have the legal right to use the image as an avatar (i.e. not a copyright violation) and is it hosted at a site that states it allows hotlinking?

[Another_Poet]

Oh noes... my avatar just died :(

I'll work on fixing it. Thanks for the explanation Rawhide.

[Lord Loss]

Do you have the legal right to use the image as an avatar (i.e. not a copyright violation) and is it hosted at a site that states it allows hotlinking?

I'm not quite sure. Looking, however, it is on a Wikia site, so I presume it is fine.

[Flame of Anor]

Can we keep a somewhat oversized avatar 120 x121 if it looks adequate and we cannot find a suitably sized version of said avatar?

Seriously, just open it in MS Paint, chop a pixel off, then upload it on Photobucket.

[Lord Loss]

Seriously, just open it in MS Paint, chop a pixel off, then upload it on Photobucket.

oh okay. Wasn't aware I could do that. Computer-fu fail.

Will change sometime today or tomorrow.

[TheLaughingMan]

Well this is inconvenient.

[Kobold-Bard]

Oh noes... my avatar just died :(

I'll work on fixing it. Thanks for the explanation Rawhide.

I noticed yours as well as a couple of others and thought it was a new trend. Guess not

Why was this change brought about out of curiosity?

[Blue Ghost]

What will happen to smaller avatars?

[NEO|Phyte]

What will happen to smaller avatars?

Nothing, as they fit within the 120x120 limit.

[Haruki-kun]

So my 117x117 avatars are all fine?

EDIT: Well, it looks fine....

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

Okay, os it's just the maximum is still 120x120. Everything below that just follows what the image does, so I don't have a horde of screaming people hounding me for making their avatars thin. This is good.

[sciencepanda]

Ah, so this is why my avatar went all wonky looking.

*sigh*

I guess I will get to making a new one.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

I'm not quite sure. Looking, however, it is on a Wikia site, so I presume it is fine.

Should be more sure than just presumptions. Avatars aren’t covered under fair use.

Don’t most wiki sites have a use justification for the images they use? If the image is public domain, you should be fine. If it has any copyright, then you aren’t.

Seriously, just open it in MS Paint, chop a pixel off, then upload it on Photobucket.

That’d actually be 120 pixels that need chopping off.

Why was this change brought about out of curiosity?

Well, it would give users motivation to actually use proper size avatars rather than make other people’s browsers resize the avatar. It’ll reduce page load time for users and reduce bandwidth for the server hosting the image. That’s why I’ve been planning on using that in the forum software I’m developing, anyway.

Could also reduce layout quirks where one person’s author-info box is noticeably narrower than everyone else’s, I think.

So my 117x117 avatars are all fine?

Yeah. Instead of squeezing or stretching an image into a specific-size box, it’s simply putting everyone’s avatar into the same size box, which automatically crops the image. Of course, the entire image must still be downloaded by the users’ browsers, so it’s still important to obey the size limit, even if you don’t mind or even notice the cropping.

[Dvandemon]

Well this is inconvenient.

Not so, just resize it. In some way it's more convenient given that I had to open MS Paint and check the attributes

[GenPol]

Ah, ok, so that's what's happened. I'd better get started fixing that then, my avatar is... slightly larger...

[Kobold-Bard]

Not so, just resize it. In some way it's more convenient given that I had to open MS Paint and check the attributes

How is having to do something you didn't hve to do before more convenient?

[Rawhide]

Images used for avatars should all be the correct size. You should not have used the dimension fields to resize the images (not a board rule, of course, but a rule of good HTML).

There are now two less fields (width and height), which both change for every avatar created, to worry about. As long as the image you would like to use is of the correct size (120 by 120 or less), you no longer have to identify the width and height of an avatar image nor do you have to set or change it (resulting in stretched images when you get it incorrectly or forget).

In some cases this is less convenient (people were inappropriately using the width and height fields to resize an image and will now need to resize the source image) but in most ways this is more convenient for more people.

[Lord Loss]

There, all fixed up (I think) and saved on photobucket...

[NerfTW]

I'm not quite sure. Looking, however, it is on a Wikia site, so I presume it is fine.

Hot linking to an image on a site you don't have control over is bad for two reasons.

First, you're stealing bandwith from the site owner. They're paying every time that image is downloaded. Especially if you're taking a massive image and jamming it into a 120x120 box.


Second, and most important to you, you have no control over the image. Mods generally don't take "I didn't know they replaced my icon with hardcore porn" as an excuse. And that IS done quite often when someone discovers a person hotlinking their images.

Always use your own hosting service, or something like Photobucket.

[Defiant]

In some cases this is less convenient (people were inappropriately using the width and height fields to resize an image and will now need to resize the source image) but in most ways this is more convenient for more people.

This, I found, was the most convenient aspect of avatar placement (would have only been overshadowed if there were an option to upload avatars directly). No longer would I have to keep resizing my image until it was the appropriate size: the board did it for me, as it should be able to.

[Lord Loss]

Hot linking to an image on a site you don't have control over is bad for two reasons.

First, you're stealing bandwith from the site owner. They're paying every time that image is downloaded. Especially if you're taking a massive image and jamming it into a 120x120 box.


Second, and most important to you, you have no control over the image. Mods generally don't take "I didn't know they replaced my icon with hardcore porn" as an excuse. And that IS done quite often when someone discovers a person hotlinking their images.

Always use your own hosting service, or something like Photobucket.

i found my current image (same pic different source) on photobucket with a good size and saved it onto my photobucket without modifying it in any way.

[TheLaughingMan]

This, I found, was the most convenient aspect of avatar placement (would have only been overshadowed if there were an option to upload avatars directly). No longer would I have to keep resizing my image until it was the appropriate size: the board did it for me, as it should be able to.

Agreed. I hate having to bring up Photoshop every time I want to change avatars.

[Elder Tsofu]

Agreed. I hate having to bring up Photoshop every time I want to change avatars.

Just curious - was that sarcasm?

[TheLaughingMan]

Nah. I have to Photoshop on my father's computer (still a teenager), send it back to my computer, post it on TinyPic, copy the HTML, come back here, and hope it fits so I don't have to start the process over again (never fits).

[Zherog]

If all you're doing is resizing, why not just bring the image up in MS Paint?

[TheLaughingMan]

Don't own a Microsoft.

[NerfTW]

Don't own a Microsoft.

Photoshop is still not necessary. That's like putting a nuclear engine on your bike. There's plenty of other choices. Every OS has a basic image editing program built into it.

[Catch]

Nah. I have to Photoshop on my father's computer (still a teenager), send it back to my computer, post it on TinyPic, copy the HTML, come back here, and hope it fits so I don't have to start the process over again (never fits).

Don't own a Microsoft.

I saved your avatar, opened it in GIMP, resized it, and uploaded it to ImageShack. Done in less than 30 seconds and I'm not using Windows either.

Here you go, champ: