Avatars?
 

Someone mention in "What I like best about the Cellar" the idea of Avatars.

How hard would that be to implement?

I don't think it's the difficulty that keeps UT from implementing it, it's that they get rather annoying. I personally like the lack of avatars, keeps the eyes on the writing not the little flapping bird on the left.

I used to not like avatars, but being on a board that uses them (as well as using them on my own board), I find that if they're kept small and aren't animated, they're cool to have.

Implementing them = selecting one radio button

I strongly feel that they suck ass.

- They take attention away from the text - the important part of a forum and especially this one

- They discourage newbies and lurkers from posting, and when such people post their posts are taken less seriously

- They encourage a more closed cliquey nature to the community

- If any single avatar is crap, the entire board is crappier by nature

- They cause up to an additional 100k of image loading per page and up to an additional 1 meg of bandwidth required per reader (not user) per day (including search engine spidering)

- They make you hate some people on the basis of something other than what they say; granted, that's our general tendency as humans, but still, let's not encourage it

So what are you trying to say? :)

While I don't disagree with the possibilites of most of your points, I know how much of an issue bandwidth is.

Agreed. One thing I like about the cellar is that the newbies come in and are judged on content.

So y'all are saying that you don't trust the judgement of the Cellarites enough to expect them to get past a lacking or a suck-ass avatar to get to the true poster within?

Given this bunch of people, no.

No you don't trust their judgement?

or

No you're not saying that?

Avatars are too often distracting, obnoxious, and wince-inducing. And like UT said, they change perceptions... an avatar tends to promote preconceived notions about the intelligence level and personality of it's owner, often to negative effect.

For instance, imagine if the Cellar did start supporting avatars, and some of the people you've considered to be intelligent, well-rounded, and witty put up Pokemon avatars. Could you ever respect them again?

The lack of avatars is what makes this board so refreshing. I think I told the story of being on another superficial board where there was a competition of who had the coolest avatar. Like other elements of that community, it promoted a "high school lunchroom" enviroment.

You're not referring to the other board we post to, are you?

I was being a shithead. I think most people here could look past a crappy avatar.

Having said that, the only rationale I agree with for not having them is the bandwidth issue. Fair enough, since we don't pay for it.

The bandwidth on my side is one thing, the bandwidth on modem users' side is another thing!

I really, really don't like avatars -- but at least they aren't as bad as banner-sized images in people's signatures.