Default avatar

[MangaD]

@STM1993

Both don't work with the white theme.

@LutiChris

Changing others' avatars might be possible but undesirable to implement. Like STM pointed out, such feature would probably not be used much. Too much work, not worth the effort.

You can, however, use Greasemonkey (firefox add-on) or Tampermonkey (Chrome add-on) for this.

I just made a script in Tampermonkey for you that changes your avatar and STM's. All you need to do is change the uid and avatar source. :)
Only works for threads, not profiles nor memberlist...

JAVASCRIPT-Code: // ==UserScript== // @name         LFE Avatars // @namespace    lf-empire.de // @version      1.0 // @description  try to take over the world! // @author       MangaD // @match        lf-empire.de/forum/* // @match        www.lf-empire.de/forum/* // @grant        none // ==/UserScript== /* jshint -W097 */ 'use strict';   // Your code here...   // User id's to change the avatar and respective link to new avatar var uids = [["1603","http://s6.postimg.org/5c1bbflel/face.png"],//LutiChris            ["7","http://i.imgur.com/xa1pvrJ.png"]//STM1993           ];   /* Get all avatars in the page */ var avatars = document.getElementsByClassName("author_avatar");   for (var index = 0; index < avatars.length; ++index) {    var profile_link = avatars[index].firstChild.getAttribute("href");    var uid = profile_link.substring(profile_link.indexOf("uid=")+4);    for(var i = 0; i < uids.length; i++) {        if(uid == uids[i][0]) {            avatars[index].firstChild.firstChild.src = uids[i][1];            break;        }    } }

[Som1Lse]

I'll have to agree to @A-Man, an avatar seems mandatory. In fact, every social site I have joined so far had some kind of default avatar enabled. Some went with the logo of the forum, others have an emoticon. Those that require some sort of "real identity" (i.e. failbook, university-backends, ...) have either a stylized silhouette of a portrait shot, optionally with a question mark in front. It just gives a clear sign saying "Hey, I'm just a temporary placeholder, feel free to put your personal touch in here!"

First of all, appeal to majority: Just because all other sites does it does not make it a good decision.

Second facebook in particular is heavily designed around having an avatar next to every single post you do. If you took it away the layout would break, even if it was replaced with blank space it would look weird. The avatars on facebook also do not take up any extra space, as there is always text next to it. Same thing as far as I am aware goes for youtube.

Third like I wrote in a previous post, that seeing other peoples avatars already makes it pretty clear that you can replace it. If you really want to tell users that they can change their avatar make it a part of the registration phase, so they can optionally pick an avatar to use.

The argument that you are a bit lazy at scrolling seems to suprise me, considering that modern websites generally like to space things to ridiculous amounts. A minimum post height doesn't seem too bad, really.

It is not scrolling that annoys me; I almost always scroll to the next post, when reading a thread. What annoys me is when two posts are relevant to one another, and having to scroll up and down between two posts with relevant information to each other, even if these posts are not being expanded by an unnecessary avatar, there could easily be posts in between that take up unnecessary space due to the default avatar. It may not be too bad, but I still believe the default avatar still serves no other purpose but to take up space and arguably look cool. I have already stated my reason as to why I do not think it serves a purpose.
Which modern websites space out things unnecessarily? Just about every website I use on a regular basis have a pretty reasonable design to them.

[MangaD]

First of all, appeal to majority: Just because all other sites does it does not make it a good decision.

I think what Blue Phoenix meant is that it is kinda standardized to use default avatars. Not use them would be non-standard and could cause confusion. Of course LFE does not need to be like other websites. LFE is LFE. But there are certain standards that should be followed nevertheless.

Well, not my opinion anyway. All I care about is the eye candy.

[A-Man]

First of all, appeal to majority: Just because all other sites does it does not make it a good decision.

True; point made clear without the link to wikipedia. But sticking to such conventions, as much as I am hating comparing LFE to facebook or other counterproductive sites, does serve to make using this forum easier and let people feel more familiar with what this board has to offer. Take a look at Yahoo's terribly counter-intuitive 'different' forum boards. We make intuitive.

Second facebook in particular is heavily designed around having an avatar next to every single post you do. If you took it away the layout would break, even if it was replaced with blank space it would look weird. The avatars on facebook also do not take up any extra space, as there is always text next to it. Same thing as far as I am aware goes for youtube.

Right. Youtube is more geared toward its video content way more than the comments. Heck, they even allow their users to block comments in their videos because, let's be honest, how much do comments usually contribute compared to the content of the videos? There is no better way for someone to better represent themselves as fast online like with a video of yourself or you speaking to your audience directly.

Facebook is supposedly a "family and friends" network where people can make a secondary presence on a much more open world nowadays. People in real life are more concerned about impressions they make, and photos, pictures of self. So an avatar is surely something important to those people, regardless whether it takes some space or not.

As an example, the cplusplus forum, is another internet network on the other side of the scale which main purpose's to be productive and constructive. To ask questions or give answers. And all that is about a specific field, and that's the cplusplus language. That's a case where an avatar isn't really necessary because who you are doesn't really matter as much as how you're 'fluent' with the cplusplus language and the answers/questions you have to offer.

LFE, like MangaD mentioned previously, is a fan forum that is more than about LF2, and style matters. You said yourself that the only thing representing LF2 here is the bandit icon in the index, and a default LF2-ish avatar would further add to that feel.

If you really want to tell users that they can change their avatar make it a part of the registration phase, so they can optionally pick an avatar to use.

Optionally? If that is added to the registration form properly, then it should be a matter of a click on a combo box with avatar icons listed, which no one would likely be too stingy as to not click it. In which case it yields almost the same result. Why not go with a smaller placeholder avatar if space is that much of an issue?

Which modern websites space out things unnecessarily? Just about every website I use on a regular basis have a pretty reasonable design to them.

LFE signatures look like they're a part of the post if you're not familiar with the separator. They're more better at wasting space also with repetitive irrelevant content.

[Hellblazer]

Dear Blue Phoenix,

Here I shall ask you one simple question.
As far as I remember, the default avatar before the forum upgrade was different than this one.
Why did you ditch that one? It suited the black theme well at least. (and aesthetically)
However I may be wrong about this whole statement, maybe it was the same(?)

Adieu.

[MangaD]

@Hellblazer

https://web.archive.org/web/201306051313...erlist.php

[Hellblazer]

No defaults but still using pixels? Hmm...

So this tells that there is no need for a default avatar, as people who joined earlier figured out in a way or so, themselves about how to change their avatars.

[Silverthorn]

So, I have investigated on how things were done even earlier (danethical). Screenie for illustratory purpose:



So essentially, it was a minimum post height at some point (which, honestly, looks awful). I still prefer a default avatar, regardless of its size (<= 120 px).

I do remember trying to implement a theme-dependent default avatar in here but, as it turns out, there is no easy way in doing this without changing the core files themselves. Yes, I have done this in the past but this makes it extremely tiring to reimplement everything upon each upgrade. So far, the ava should fit both themes.

As far as I remember, the default avatar before the forum upgrade was different than this one.

I guess that got answered by @MangaD sufficiently.


@Someone else: (regarding the pointless scrolling) any website with a styling such as this.


@LutiChris: doing it the other way round (everyone decides themselves how others should look like) is no real option for me. That's just one more thing that could easily mess things up.



Probably forgot a couple more things to answer, need some sort of reminders some day.

[Som1Lse]

@"Someone else": (regarding the pointless scrolling) any website with a styling such as this.

That is also really infuriating and stupid.