A Question about avatars

[Telchar]

The administrator has disabled the use of avatars.
Just wondered if there is any chans that they might be enabeled..

[Telchar]

I guess that means that there isn't any chanse that they might be enabled..?

[Talierin]

WM said we might get them eventually, but who knows when that will be.

[¤-Elessar-¤]

sorry to sound stupid, but what, pray say, is an Avatar?

[Talierin]

An avatar is a small pic that is rather like a signature, but goes underneath your name, location, etc on the side of each post.

[Aerin]

I have wondered what Avatars were, but didn't think to post a thread about it! ;) Yeah, Telchar!

[¤-Elessar-¤]

on the down side, it would make all of the pages load very slow if each person were to have their own pic...

[Walter]

A pic in the profile section would be the simpler and more efficient solution methinks - for those who want it...

[Gilraen]

i second your suggestion walter. will the administrator consider it? i think it would be nice if the forum members were able to include an avatar in their profiles. :)

[Telchar]

I don't know if that can be done, depends on the vBulletin software, and I can't say I have seen it before at a vBulletin board, only at ezboards..

[Walter]

I don't know anything about vBulletin, but if it doesn't directly support that, it would be easy to work around it: by dedicating some webspace - basically anywhere - for the pics and adding a link in a new field or even an existing field. Since there seems to be a possibility to attach files to normal posts I should like to think the upload will not be a major problem...

[Beorn]

Yeah...vBulletin does support Avatars...Goto UserCP, Edit Profile. At the bottom there should be some blurb about them being disabled...

[Son of Gondor]

Why not? Instead of avatars, which can get repetitive.

In most forums you can have an image that you think best represents you, under your name. There is always a limit in size (don´t remember the actual pixels measure though), so it wouldn't be a mess.

Whatcha think? (im pretty sure this has been brought up in the past, though)

[Treebeard]

Yeah, I agree.

[pixieamalthea]

that sounds cool to me

[Gnashar_the_orc]

That's great! You could see my resemblance to a butt-ugly martian!

[Lucie Baggins]

They sound good, why can't we have them?

[Dain Ironfoot]

we can do it but if you really want it than you shuold just pm a mod......
~Dain

[Grond]

Avators, in what ever form they take, will be added when the Webmaster decides whether he wants them in the forum. Please don't PM any of us with these requests. The issue is being looked at by the powers that be and a decision will be forthcoming.

[Legolam]

Can I just ask, what are avatars? :confused:

[legoman]

Are they the little pictures of yourself you put up next to your username??
If so this could be bad, if people know what I look like less of them will talk to me!! lol.

[Anarchist]

I think it's a fine idea but don't forget that some people (like myself) don't own scanners or digital cameras so a big part of the members will not be able to put their picture. After all this is not a make-up site right?

[menchu]

*Oi, cover that pimple with a brown shadow, Anarchist :D *

I don't think we'll get this thing anyway, because of the loading speed.

[Úlairi]

I agree. I think the most important thing is that we get our views in, and not take up speed that other potential posters may want instead of having to wait for half an hour!!!

[Strider97]

Sorry guys and gals-

forget the pictures and purge the member files. Save the bandwidth for those of us that use the forum- I have already lost too many post.

[tookish-girl]

I agree with this one.
It would probs take to long to load on these battered old college computors and cause them to crash all the time. If you want to share your image with people, you can always just post a photo or several!

[Ciryaher]

Actually, the avatars would be (in the process of deciding, presently) pre-selected pictures based on aspects of Middle-Earth and wouldn't take up huge amounts of bandwidth. You'll know when they are implemented...just keep your eyes peeled for new News.

[Úlairi]

Will do Cir.

[Rangerdave]

My crappy old computer is slow enough as it is.
more graphics to sort through would just be a colossal pain in the @)$&*

RD

[Úlairi]

RD, could you give me a basic outline of your computer system? OS, CPU, SDRAM etc.

[Úlairi]

I just remembered a few others. The speed of your modem and CD-ROM, hard drive space and any others you can think of.

[Rangerdave]

Win98, 2gig hard drive, 48megs ram, CD 16x, 56k modem.
no graphics card or vid card.

This was high tech five years ago when I bought it.

why do you ask?
RD

ps quickly post again and change your count. as I type it reads 1040. A very evil number in the US.

[Úlairi]

I just wanted to see how shot your computer is and I'd have to agree with you although your OS is OK. Here are mine:

CPU = 233 mHz (really bad!)
Hard Drive = 2 Gigabytes (also really bad!)
SD RAM = 128 MB (OK)
OS = Windows 98 (Perfectly fine)
CD-ROM = 24x (pretty bad)
Modem = 56K (alright)

I am unsure of vid or graphics cards. Is yours a Pentium? Mine's a Pentium II-MMX which is alright for now but my computer will soon be out of date in no time at all. Your's is already way, way out of date. I feel sorry for you RD.

Don't worry, my post count will read 1042 now so I wouldn't worry. Why is 1040 a bad number again?

[Ancalagon]

Don't worry RD, everything has a solution, it's just knowing where to look to solve it!

If you have a fairly small harddrive, it is important that you clean out all the accumulated junk. Small cleaning/tweaking programs are the best way, there are a number of free ones you can get via places like CNET.

http://download.com.com/3000-2094-8813717.html?tag=lst-3-8

Something like this is useful for emptying out old files etc., though you can look around for other types. If you want to buy a product, Tweakme is pretty good. You should also be using your scandisk and defrag at least quarterly on your PC. Also, remove any old programs from your drive, games demos take up huge chunks of space.

Overclocking your CPU may be another option to speed up performance, though contact me if you want to discuss this as an option.

In addition, if you are using a 56k modem, you should contact your telephone company and ask them to increase the volume on your line. This may incrrease distortion when talking, though it also can help increase packet receipt. Also, ensure your cable from your phone point to your PC is clear, short and chink free. Check your modem also, buying a new one and fitting it is simple and can vastly improve your connection performance.

If you have any other questions relating to PC cleaning and speed enhancements please feel free to contact me, I may be able to help.

[Rangerdave]

Thanks for the info you two.
I will keep all that in mind. Actually this old 200mz pent 2 works just fine for what I do with it.

I was just feeling old and cranky and I had nothing else to gripe about.


I get that way sometimes
RD

[Úlairi]

No problem RD. :)

[ReadWryt]

We don't have the staff or the time to review every picture submitted for the members to use when they request them, and knowing how these things end up working out from my days in Role Playing Chatrooms folks want to change their pictures often...making it doubly hard to approve all those images for use on the Forum. The alternative is to give everyone a tiny bit of space on our server for an image and let them swap them out for whatever they want whenever they want, and the first time somebody uploads some disgusting image of a deviant or grotesque nature everyone will recoil at the very idea.

Avatars would/will be controlled and approved of by the Forum, and each need only be reviewed once. We are going over a list of 24 Avatars that we might want to use...they are not currently made yet and we are getting ever closer to the announcement of the Avatar contest, to be overseen by the lovely and talented Talierin...

R.W.

[Khamul]

Dont feel bad, my internet comp is much worse.

166 mhz processor
48 sd ram
win. 95
Hard drive- 2 drives with total of 2 gigs
16x cd rom drive
56k modem (a pretty fast one actually)

My other comp. is much better, but my bro is always on that one.....

Wouldnt dare to overclock the system I have now. The Motherboard is a piece of ****. The new comp I am getting pretty soon will be much better.

1800+ processor
256 ddr ram
win 98 (it supports open gl)
Hard drive 40 gigs
16x12x40 burner
dvd drive
GeForce 2 64 mb

But, thats a pretty small system compared to some other ones.....

Only paid about 575......(US dollars)

[Úlairi]

You lucky man, I am so envious! :cool:

[Khamul]

I have to keep my room clean for 40 days though, so it might be a while......

[Úlairi]

Yeah, that's always a problem.

[Khamul]

My parents were just kinda mad at me I guess......So they decided that they needed to punish poor Sting.....:(

[Úlairi]

Yeah! That's always the way isn't it?

[Bilbo Baggins57]

I have no problem finding cool pics, it's just they're all too big for the 64 by 64 pixels limit that we're allowed to have in here. Do u guys know any sites w/ some smaller pics that I can download?

[Rangerdave]

If you are looking for moving pics I can't help you much. But if you want a static pic like the majority of us, the I suggest a handy little program called Irfanview. This lets you manipulate pics in a variety of ways. The easiest is to simply use the resize/resample option and set the higher of the two dimensions to 64.

the program can be downloaded from this link.http://www.irfanview.com/

and best of all, its free.

enjoy
RD

[Samwise_hero]

i had no idea how to get my pic to fit but pippin/frodo was kind enough to make me one. thanks again:)