Forum avatars... how?

[ZaO]

I forget the requirements for being able to upload a forum avatar. Wasn't it 400 posts? I don't seem to have the option to do it yet. Have been looking forward to the day for almost a year now lol!

[Shirty]

It's 500 afaik.

[Saracen]

500, I'm afraid.

The first sticky in this (Welcome) forum, by joshwa, explains the criteria for various things.

[ZaO]

Ok 500 then. Maybe another few weeks or so til I'm there Thanks.

[0iD]

Go for it, you're a forum veteran, should pose noo problems

[ZaO]

Go for it, you're a forum veteran, should pose noo problems

Hahaha a forum veteran.... I've not beeen 'ere that long!

[YEHBABY]

I know I'm new, but seems crazy to wait for 500 posts for an avatar. I usually use them to recognise at a glance who has posted.

I understand building up your privileges on other items e.g. market place and PMs etc, but I just think it would overall aid the forum if you could see at a glance who posted.

[Shirty]

I know I'm new, but seems crazy to wait for 500 posts for an avatar. I usually use them to recognise at a glance who has posted.

I understand building up your privileges on other items e.g. market place and PMs etc, but I just think it would overall aid the forum if you could see at a glance who posted.

+1

100 posts maybe, but 500 posts takes time even with hardcore spamming.

[Guy]

Good things come to those who wait.

More of a privilege tbh, takes less time than you think to reach the magic milestone.

[ZaO]

I said the same thing when I joined this forum. I forget names so easily. But I remember faces pretty good. Applies to usernames and avatars on forums too. So useful to keep tabs on who's saying what for us people who's brains work that way. Here I am almost a year later, after using the forum nearly every day. And I still can't use an avatar lol... I have no issue with needing to be active for a while first. But yeh, 500 posts seems a bit much...

[Siesta]

I know I'm new here but that's never stopped me speaking my mind before I agree whole heartedly the 500 posts requirement is excessive for 2 reasons really:

1) they are useful for fast recognition of other forum members' posts, particularly when accessing the forum from small screen mobile devices

2) it does strike me as not very welcoming or encouraging to new members tbh. It's referred to as a privilege to be earned, as though you're not worthy of recognition until you've "proved"yourself, and that can take a long time! For example Pleiades joined this forum in December 2004 and, according to his profile, has only recently got over the 500 post mark!

Avatars are a form of personal expression and can tell you something about the "owner": do they have a sense of humour? what are they into? are they mad and to be avoided at all costs? They can provide a talking point too. All good reasons, in addition to the above, to encourage the use of avatars asap imo

[Saracen]

It's not a privilege. That's a term used once or twice, the first of which that I can see was a new member that's been here a few days. What it is is a very visible form of recognition of members that have been here for long enough, and at an activity level high enough, to have achieved a milestone, that being 500 posts.

Different forums do things indifferent ways. We've been doing it this way for, what, 10 years or more, and in the absence of very convincing reasons to change, I don't see it changing. It's been discussed in the past, and each time, the decision was made to stick with the status quo. I don't see that changing.

As for fast recognition, there's two sides to that. The converse is that having the avatar at 500 posts gives fast recognition of longer standing or more active members, simply because they have an avatar. If nearly everybody has one, we lose that. Also, it's easy enough to check the name.

And, as length of membership increases, so you'll get to recognise the characters, and their individual traits, by name anyway.

Also, there are a limited number of ways we can recognise those that, either through length of membership, or posting rate, or a combination of both, have achieved a fairly significant milestone, that is, a limited number of types of reward.

As I said, different forums do things different ways. Some, for instance, don't allow custom avatars at all, but instead, have a series of pre-defined levels where your avatar choice increases by one each time you hit a milestone, but only from a stipulated list. And that system has advantages too, though it also has disadvantages.

Here, we prefer to allow (within guidelines) freedom of expression in an avatar, but only once that benefit has been earned by a level of activity sufficient in duration and/or intensity to hit 500 posts. And, after all, over even a relatively brief period, it's not exactly hard to do. I remember watching my daily average, post count on another forum, years ago, and I was hitting about 30 per day, on average, without either really trying, or posting a single post just for the sake of it.

And at that rate, it's some 16 days to wait to get an avatar. Not exactly the end of the world, is it?

Decisions like this are a group decision by the admins, in consultation with the mods, unless overruled by the site owner and I don't remember the last time that happened. So it's not my decision, but if it were, I see no convincing reason to change, and reasons not to.

Being aware you'll hardly ever do anything on a forum, let alone in a democracy (which this isn't, by the way), that pleases everyone, we need a very good reason to change a long-standing tradition. Especially when others that either have put in the time and effort to 'earn' their avatar, or that have been working towards it, would feel cheated if we suddenly and for no good reason, gave them out like confetti.

So make your case by all means. We certainly have no problem with that. And if you manage to come up with that overwhelmingly good reason, we'll listen and if justified, act on it. But be aware, this is a cyclic event. We've been here before, and nobody has yet come up with a good enough reason. I would advise not getting your hopes or expectations up, 'cos my bet is on the status quo prevailing.

[Saracen]

I know I'm new here but that's never stopped me speaking my mind before ....

Nor should it stop you.

Every member has the same right (subject to one criteria) as every other to make his/her point, and length of time here doesn't confer extra ability to speak out, or to be viewed as right.

That one criteria is, as I'm sure you know, that some members (like me) have been asked to help run the place. That means we have two roles. In terms of moderating decisions, we do have seniority. So if you break rules, we can and do take action.

But in terms of expressing views, for example on politics or current affairs, everybody's view carries the same weight, and everybody has the same right to say it .... within the rules.

Providing people accept that there are rules and stay within them, we actively welcome people, new or not, having their say. It's what the place is for, after all.

[Siesta]

I have no hopes or expectations of change on this matter, merely stating an opinion. But I have to ask you something ... 30 posts a day!? Did you not have a non-forum job?

[Saracen]

I have no hopes or expectations of change on this matter, merely stating an opinion. But I have to ask you something ... 30 posts a day!? Did you not have a non-forum job?

Sure did, but .... it was in the very early days of forums, at least, internet forums. And it was different, novel.

I've always enjoyed a good debate (code for polite argument) and it gave me exceptional opportunity to indulge.

Some of my posts were, erm, substantial and took quite a bit of time, but sometimes, you can make a very valid point in (and I expect gasps of shock, nay, disbelief, from those on here that know me) in just a sentence or two. So, a couple of dozen posts taking a minute or two, and a few a bit longer. It doesn't actually take that much time to do 30 a day, and do it with no hint of spamming.

[Shirty]

Well argued

I can see that tradition will almost certainly prevail, and the opinion of the few new members won't change that (nor should it). But I still think a slightly lower number would have been a better starting point.