PetrusQuber
Legend
I can see the possibly annoyances, but I don’t really believe animated profile pictures are that big a deal either way.
Community Feedback: how can the site improve?
- Thread starter pjk
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rubik2005
Veteran
There's no reason to ban them. If you don't like them, just change the settings on your device. Just because some people don't like something a certain aspect of the site doesn't mean every member has to be affected by it and see new restrictions.
Gifs are just a fun way to express our interests. As far as I'm concerned, they have harmed nobody, so if you do not enjoy seeing the puctures, ignore them.
Coming from the person with what seems to be the most attention-grabbing avatar out of all the recently changed animated avatars, I'm not sure your words have much weight.
I'm with qwr here, actually. If you look at the front page, literally the only animated things are the avatars. It looks pretty awful, to be honest. Maybe a compromise like: non-animated avatars everywhere, except on profile pages and on the info card that pops out when you hover over someone's username? (This would require passing the image through ImageMagick or ffmpeg or whatever to pull out only the first frame.)
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Deleted member 36445
Guest
ooor you could have the option in your account to choose if you want to see animated gifs or notComing from the person with what seems to be the most attention-grabbing avatar out of all the recently changed animated avatars, I'm not sure your words have much weight.
I'm with qwr here, actually. If you look at the front page, literally the only animated things are the avatars. It looks pretty awful, to be honest. Maybe a compromise like: non-animated avatars everywhere, except on profile pages and on the info card that pops out when you hover over someone's username? (This would require passing the image through ImageMagick or ffmpeg or whatever to pull out only the first frame.)
I really like the gifs :confused: :?
rubik2005
Veteran
Coming from the person who was named "Smartest member," I actually expected a better response from you.Coming from the person with what seems to be the most attention-grabbing avatar out of all the recently changed animated avatars, I'm not sure your words have much weight.
I'm with qwr here, actually. If you look at the front page, literally the only animated things are the avatars. It looks pretty awful, to be honest. Maybe a compromise like: non-animated avatars everywhere, except on profile pages and on the info card that pops out when you hover over someone's username? (This would require passing the image through ImageMagick or ffmpeg or whatever to pull out only the first frame.)
Could you kindly answer how my profile picture selection correlates to the "weight" of my words?That was mostly tongue in cheek, lol.Coming from the person who was named "Smartest member," I actually expected a better response from you.
On a more serious note, though, lemme actually answer your question. Let's say I really like X, but a decent number of people take offence to it. If I try to argue that you people are too easily offended, then it would be fair to say that I'm biased and possibly not seeing the bigger picture.
The thing with the animated avatars is that yours is by far the most visually active animated avatar. Filipe's is just a slowly rotating Sonic (… ironic), while SH03L4C3's is a slowly vanishing pizza (with little colour variation). Someone seeing you suggest something to the effect of "hey, we really like animated avatars; you're the weird ones for not liking them" should very rightfully come to the conclusion that your opinion would be the most biased in favour of animated avatars, even compared to other people with animated avatars.
rubik2005
Veteran
1. I never said "you're the weird ones." All I'm saying is that gifs shouldn't be banned as @SenorJuan and @qwr want. I really don't care if youf pfp is a gif or not.
2. I chose this gif because I like it. That's it. I don't care about any attention I get from it, and didn't choose it for everyone to notice me.
3. By your logic, if I change my pfp to a simple picture, now my opinion is worth more. That's just irrational. I'm the same person regardless of whether my icon is as simple as yours, or as "visually active" as the one you say I have. The "weight" of my words won't change. In fact, this whole "your opinion is worth more/less thing is just complete cow-poop. We are all people who enjoy cubing.
kubesolver
Premium Member
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I think something as annoying as animated avatars should be opt-in to see.
Our brains are not designed to easily ignore animated objects.
And also it's obvious that some people's opinion matters more than others. It's common, it's natural and it's fair.
For example in this dispute in the end only pjk's opinion matters.
Our brains are not designed to easily ignore animated objects.
Regardless of your intentions. If you stand in the middle of a library shouting you are distracting and bringing yourself attention even if you did it for purely personal reasons.
I want to keep seeing animated gifs in other context. The should be disabled on the front page.
And also it's obvious that some people's opinion matters more than others. It's common, it's natural and it's fair.
For example in this dispute in the end only pjk's opinion matters.
Yes, because it shows that you have no vested interests. (At least, assuming that you commit to using a simple picture as your avatar. This does not apply if you temporarily change your avatar to a simple one just for the sake of argument.) You would then personally not be affected by whether animated avatars end up being banned or not, which would also mean that other people can treat what you say more seriously.
(The logical conclusion of this is to say that people with vested interests shouldn't participate in discussions about said interests, but I also think that's going too far. In an ideal world with superrational actors who never lie, conflict of interest just would not be a thing, but unfortunately none of us live in that world, and we're all selfish or irrational in our own idiosyncratic ways.)
(also I want to reiterate that my original post was tongue in cheek; it wasn't meant to be serious and that's what the smiley was for)
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Kit Clement
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I really don't see how animated gifs can possibly be annoying.
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Deleted member 36445
Guest
I really don't see how animated gifs can possibly be annoying.
PetrusQuber
Legend
Especially considering their wide range, from slowly rotating hedgehog to blinding flashes of white and blackI really don't see how animated gifs can possibly be annoying.
Seriously though, having the ability to turn them on or off I think would be great, though it might not be that easy.
I’m alright with the animations generally, but for now, you can just config your browser to not see them.
rubik2005
Veteran
Compromise: gifs are allowed inside threads (not in the home page/what's new section), and members can choose whether they want to see them or not.
Nmile7300
Veteran
I'm pretty neutral here mostly because I turned off the animations very easily (Follow the link from @Christopher Mowla's post). However, I think adding GIF avatars to this degree wasn't a great idea in the first place, considering it can be extremely annoying for you eyes and honestly doesn't add much to the forum. Also while it can be turned off fairly easily, I think it would be a better idea to have a setting to turn them off inside the forums instead of having to look up an extension. That or have the animations only appear by hovering over the picture.
These gif files are large - the one belonging to 'Rubik2005' is 660K in size. A few of them on a thread and the page load time is going to increase, as is the data burden on PJK's server. For comparison, a 660K jpeg file image would typically be 3 Megapixels, eg. 2000px by 1500px, considerably larger than a regular PC screen. A static 96x96 pixel avatar image is just 5K in size, for comparison.
I'm no PC boffin, but I think disabling animations using browser settings would still actually load up the full file, it just wouldn't display it animated.
I'm no PC boffin, but I think disabling animations using browser settings would still actually load up the full file, it just wouldn't display it animated.
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rubik2005
Veteran
Was the "What's New" tab removed?
DuckubingCuber347
Veteran
I was wondering why SS felt different. I personally didn't use them so I don't care but I still want profile posts brought back.
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rubik2005
Veteran
I actually used the Whats New every day, so I miss it 
PetrusQuber
Legend
I do really miss profile posts/the what’s new tab.
I’m aware there are threads for some of these, but it doesn’t really feel the same.
Some things go better in profile posts though. You can put PBs in there, say happy birthday to people, ask people things without needing to pm them, post frequent videos without people getting annoyed, have status updates on what you’re doing with cubing or your activity, and chat more informally about cubing within it.
I’m aware there are threads for some of these, but it doesn’t really feel the same.
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