External Avatar Images

[Firestryke31]

It's too bad the forum doesn't allow me to use an external image for my avatar. I finally finished a PHP script that will randomly choose one from a list based on the date.



I guess it helps speed up page loading, but it is kind of disappointing...

[JamesM]

Why not make your script submit the "change avatar" form every day?

[Firestryke31]

Because it would need to submit it every time someone viewed one of my posts on every forum I want to use it on, and would have to work across multiple forum software solutions. Or I could get one site to allow external images for avatars. Which might be easier on someone who is still learning PHP?

[Owen]

Why not make your script submit the "change avatar" form every day?

That would involve the script fiddling about with PHP sessions.

I'd like this feature too, since I keep mine as a Gravatar, and can't be bothered setting things up everywhere on the 'net

[chase]

Sorry but after years of running the website I've gotten really tired of dealing with broken links.

[Owen]

Does it really matter if the link to someone's avatar breaks? I would personally just ignore it; anyone who doesn't notice it needs to pay more attention to their posts.

[Firestryke31]

If an avvy link is broken the worst that could happen is that it would slow down loading the page it's on. Even then, chances are if someone's avvy is broken, they haven't been on in a long time, and all of their posts are buried in the later pages of the forum that few people read.

[JamesM]

If an avvy link is broken the worst that could happen is that it would slow down loading the page it's on. Even then, chances are if someone's avvy is broken, they haven't been on in a long time, and all of their posts are buried in the later pages of the forum that few people read.

If your broken link causes my page to load slower, is that fair on me? Externally linked avatars also don't have a proper size constraint, so you could take up my entire screen with a stupid avatar.

No thanks. If you really want your avatar to be updated more often, have a cron job to update it every so often.

[Owen]

Perhaps we could support for Gravatars then? The Gravatar servers tend to be fast, and I don't expect Automatic will be disappearing tomorrow. I presume there must be a PHPbb 3 Gravatar mod? (There was for 2)

[Brynet-Inc]

I vote 'no' on this as well, even though this place isn't a democracy..

This is just silly, there is no need to be constantly polling some remote server for your latest and greatest avatar.

We don't necessarily want to see your kitten with a festive hat each holiday, but you can choose to upload a new one when the opportunity presents itself.. it's not that difficult.

+1 JamesM, dead pictures are a pita.. is already enough of them in peoples signatures.

[pcmattman]

I personally have disabled avatars on the forum (as well as emoticon images and the img tab), so this wouldn't affect me.

That said, if I did actually want to see avatars (and they were actually externally linked), I'd prefer something like Gravatars over every kid and his dog with a server hosting a picture of another cat saying it likes cheeseburgers over a dialup connection.

Slightly exaggerated, but the point remains.

[Owen]

The reason I like using Gravtar is because it gives me one picture which has a reasonable chance of, wherever you see it, identifying me. I have over the years developed a couple of nicknames on the net; which name I use generally depending on the context in which it's used, and unfortunately it's really too late to change that, but wherever I go, I use the same Gravatar.

I don't care whether gravatars or URLs get enabled for avatars, and it's really just a wish, but I must point out that if we allow image links in signatures, there is no real reason not to allow linking to avatars (Particularly if the avatar is put in a fixed size container - i'm not sure how phpBB themes handle this though)

[Firestryke31]

Well, I still wouldn't be able to have my random avvy script, but what about restricting external images to certain sites? It would help reduce bandwidth usage a little bit, and still allow users to use a single copy of the image at multiple sites, making updates easier.



Perhaps I could just put it in my signature. I see very little about sig rules at a glance, so I will at least keep it reasonable. If there are more rules than "There is a 255 character limit." could someone point me to them?

[earlz]

Well, I still wouldn't be able to have my random avvy script, but what about restricting external images to certain sites? It would help reduce bandwidth usage a little bit, and still allow users to use a single copy of the image at multiple sites, making updates easier.



Perhaps I could just put it in my signature. I see very little about sig rules at a glance, so I will at least keep it reasonable. If there are more rules than "There is a 255 character limit." could someone point me to them?

It is general forum etiquette to never place big images in your forum.. other than that, I don't think there are any other rules

[Solar]

I don't want to see a-random-pic-from-collection anyway. I want to see avatars that identify the user (and how hard can it be to set them up, once, and forget about them?), or something that is topical (e.g., screenshots).

If I want to see a random funny picture, I can go to randomfunnypicture.com. (HEY! That URL actually exists! )