Avatars

by **jray** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 1:43 am

Did you guys turn the avatars off? or am i just completely stupid cuz i have this awesome picture i want to use but I cant figure out how to

by **surf patrol** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 6:17 am

Yep, they are turned off at the moment along with signatures. This will be reviewed at a later date. Sorry about that.

by **Duncs** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 10:06 am

Yeah, i totally think Avatars are cool. I have this cool glassJAw one i would use!!! One has to be careful that this forum remains what it should be, a place to give out tips and discuss surfing. We don't want random images that can detract from the meaning of the place!

Worth considering though me reckons!

Duncs

by **leolivi** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 3:07 pm

I think avatars and signatures are greate, and they even make the forum more user friendly, cause it is easyer to know who is posting what.
I dont know if it is possible, but to make a size limit to the images, and a lenght to signatures is a good idea.

Up to now good sense and respect rule this forum, and probably avatars would not be a problem, specialy if surf patrol keeps the good job.

by **Duncs** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 5:04 pm

Yeah, well said!!!

Normally signatures are limited to 255 charachters, and Avatars have to be smaller than 80x80 pixels! At least that is what i have seen on the other forums i am on.

I am also glad that sense and respct rule here. Some forums get quite vicious. I would like Avatars and signatures though!

by **surf patrol** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 3:51 am

There are reasons why signatures and avatars are not currently available. Not to go into too much detail here are the reasons.

Avatars -
Mainly a bandwith issue. The more files downloaded from the server the greater the bandwidth. Bandwidth costs - and at the moment there is not a great deal of money to buy loads (boo hoo I hear you cry). This is why the site at times looks a little light on graphics. This will be addressed in the future. There is also a download issue with extra files. If you are downloading a full page on a poorly connected 56k with lots of graphics it can be a nightmare - anyone with a crappy internet connection can vouch for this. At the moment the site is very slow connection friendly, so it makes the site accessible to everyone.

Signatures -
I have already talked to Duncs about this one. The reason is to guard against abuse of the forum in the form of outgoing links to other sites. (This is why no full url's are not allowed to be posted and html is disabled)
I am not going to go into details but it is to do with search engine rankings. I do not want people posting in just for the benefit of their own websites / businesses - I want people posting for the benefit of members or the forum and those using the forum for answers to questions and useful surfing information.

At the moment there is only one person looking after the forum, so limiting the ways for those devious people out there to abuse the forum makes life easier.

Makes me sound like a right moany old git!!!
It's all in aid of making this the most popular surfing site on the internet so we'll just have to see how it goes.

That said, I might change my mind!, so we will see what the future brings.

by **Guest** » Thu May 27, 2004 12:09 am

@Admin

It may interest you to know that there is a phpBB MOD which allows signature control from the Admin Control Panel. This allows you as Admin to permit signatures, but control how they may be done. This includes ability to prevent URL links in them, or linking to large images, limiting the number of lines or image size, etc.

This is your board, but I have this installed myself, and this would seem to solve the problem of allowing your members freedom to express themselves without them abusing the privilege or feeding the search engines with offsite URLs. HTH :D

Code: Select all: http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=163493&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

by **PapaW** » Thu May 27, 2004 7:59 am

Wicked.. now I don't have to go on a mission to find where I last posted!

by **surf patrol** » Thu May 27, 2004 11:14 am

See https://surfing-waves.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=582 for an avatar update. NB, avatars can only be added by admin.

by **PapaW** » Thu May 27, 2004 4:24 pm

Aye I saw it.. any chance on a early addition :) ;)

by **surf patrol** » Fri May 28, 2004 12:55 am

Send it to me now and by the time I have got round to adding it you will probably have well over 100 posts

Avatars

Avatars

Reasons - prepare to be bored!

Re. signatures and URL links

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