I Think Avatars/image Signatures Should Be Necessary. Or at least just for Hosted members.

[elaks 0]

I'm always annoyed on forums, by people who don't have avatars or images in their signature to identify themselves. Topics with rows after rows of people talking with nothing but their name's to identify themselves gets abit tiresome.Maybe it's because I've become lazy, but the only real forum members I can remember are ones with distinguishing avatars/sigs. The rest are just a blur of random names- even if they have over 500 posts. That's why I think it should be necessary for HOSTED members to have avatars/sigs. Just an idea.

[truefusion 3]

Well, what do you do when they change their avatar and sig(s) and it appears as if they're a new user? When and if that happens, does that bother you much, if any? Have you ever changed your avatar and/or sigs before? And what happens when you find two users with the same avatar but no sig? How do you handle that?

[Azriel_Stormbringer 0]

And think about server load too...lots of images use lots of bandwidth. Its possible to crash forums with enough of that going on.

[rvalkass 5]

Personally I use usernames a lot more often than sigs and avatars to recognise users. For example, a few users have rotating signatures so they don't appear the same too often, which makes identification quite difficult.

[Tetraca 0]

I'm always annoyed on forums, by people who don't have avatars or images in their signature to identify themselves. Topics with rows after rows of people talking with nothing but their name's to identify themselves gets abit tiresome.Maybe it's because I've become lazy, but the only real forum members I can remember are ones with distinguishing avatars/sigs. The rest are just a blur of random names- even if they have over 500 posts. That's why I think it should be necessary for HOSTED members to have avatars/sigs. Just an idea.

For the qbasic community, theres an entire community that thinks signatures and avatars are a complete waste. They say that they don't really have any point and that text is just as good, if not better - it doesn't take as much to load, it's simple, et cetera.

[HoRuS 0]

Sometimes it's easier to identify people by their avatrs and sigs, true...But its also true that those consume a lot of bandwith and cause serverstress.I also think avatars and sigs brighten up a forum,maybe there's a way to have a limit on the size in kb a sig or avatar contains for users...

[elaks 0]

maybe there's a way to have a limit on the size in kb a sig or avatar contains for users...

That would certainly remove the problem of large amounts of bandwidth being taken up.

For the qbasic community, theres an entire community that thinks signatures and avatars are a complete waste. They say that they don't really have any point and that text is just as good, if not better - it doesn't take as much to load, it's simple, et cetera.

I'm all for that. In my spare time I post in BBSs, so absolutely no images at all. But when some users in a topic have avatars and others don't; I find all my attention is drawn to the person with the avatar.

Well, what do you do when they change their avatar and sig(s) and it appears as if they're a new user? When and if that happens, does that bother you much, if any?

Doesn't bother me, it's unlikely a user is going change their avatar more than three or four times a week- and that' only extreme cases. Once I see a username, I look at their avatar and allocate it to their name and posts.

Have you ever changed your avatar and/or sigs before? And what happens when you find two users with the same avatar but no sig? How do you handle that?

I will admit, problems to arise when people share the same avatar. For instance, in my last forum (Not mine) there were about a thousand members. One of the mods sent a message to me and friends saying it would be funny for us to change avatars to the admins. So we did. And for a whole week we had the same avatar as the root admin. Let me say; this caused havok.
This topic has given me alot to think about. Thanks for the feedback. The problems caused by forced avatars seem to outway the pros. Well- I suppose it's best to make thinks purely text based instead to make the username really mean something.

[velma 6]

I liked the idea of keeping sigs/avatars to identify members but sometimes the members have really slow internet so they usually switch off all images so that the pages load faster (personal experience) So it might not show to them.I switch off sigs and avatars in my settings so that I can know when a member tries to cheat the credit system by including pictures in their post to increase credits so I rely more on the person's name than the sigs and avatars.

[Plenoptic 0]

I switch off sigs and avatars in my settings so that I can know when a member tries to cheat the credit system by including pictures in their post to increase credits so I rely more on the person's name than the sigs and avatars.

Velma you can just look for the dashes in the post to tell whether it's part of the signature or not. But then again if you are looking at every post that could be time consuming.

As for the topic at hand, I don't think everybody likes signatures, or really want to spend the time making them. That'd sort of push people that come here into having to do more than just receive credits. Although most people who have posted in this topic has signatures, some people probably don't know how to even add them. I think it'd cause problems. If all 30,000+ members here have a signature though, wouldn't it be hard to identify who's who still anyway? Sure not all are active but a lot are, and then you'd only remember the ones that you see the most.

[truefusion 3]

Velma you can just look for the dashes in the post to tell whether it's part of the signature or not. But then again if you are looking at every post that could be time consuming.

No you can't, people cheat that too. They actually copy the exact amount of hyphens that is made to seperate their sig from the post! I've caught some people using fake signatures before. I don't roam around the forums with signatures on for that reason and 'cause some people's signatures are just insane, like mine.

[Plenoptic 0]

No you can't, people cheat that too. They actually copy the exact amount of hyphens that is made to seperate their sig from the post! I've caught some people using fake signatures before. I don't roam around the forums with signatures on for that reason and 'cause some people's signatures are just insane, like mine.

lol Wow! I didn't realize that credit stealing got that serious. If they put half as much effort into posting quality posts as they did trying to cheat the credit system, they probably wouldn't have to worry about it.

[master_bacarra 0]

i don't know why this is supposed to be a big deal. personally, i put up an avatar or signature image because i think it's a cool sig/avatar, but i'm not bothered if members don't put up their own sigs. your sig doesn't show your reputation in the forum, SPECIFICALLY this one, unless you're part of the gfx team who loves to show their talent to others (but we have a subforum for that). you build your reputation in the forum by posting [according to rules] and by that others would remember you in one way or another. and besides, i don't think the sig and avatars are the first things that people look at when they search for posts/topics.

[Dooga 0]

It does seem interesting that this is brought up because I do sometimes find it difficult to recognize people without avatars... or accidentally see the wrong sig and think it's someone else. But the lack of avatars and sigs usually (and I mean, 'usually') imply that the person is not a frequent user of the forum. Usually members with more presence have avatars and sigs, while members who just registered or who lurk don't bother to do so.

[Mermaid711 0]

What on earth have you been smoking kid?First of all, it's a pain in the *bottom* to make a unique signature, and even harder to find one off the internet that fits you well. I think it's silly that you have to have images to remember such things! Besides, alot of times sigs can start to look alot alike.And like truefusion said, what if they were to change it?And does this topic REALLY belong in the vent?sheesh...

[elaks 0]

What on earth have you been smoking kid?

Salvia

First of all, it's a pain in the *bottom* to make a unique signature, and even harder to find one off the internet that fits you well. I think it's silly that you have to have images to remember such things!
Besides, alot of times sigs can start to look alot alike.

And like truefusion said, what if they were to change it?

It's not that hard to make a unique signature. Even if it's just your name and a picture of 2pac (As many are) it's still unique. On TrueFusion's point, I find that people change their avatars more regularly than their signatures, I know lot's of people- like Block9 for instance, who only have signatures; avatars aren't that important, as long as something makes that user recognizable. If they do change, it doesn't take more than a few seconds for your mind to reallocate their new avatar to their name.

But the lack of avatars and sigs usually (and I mean, 'usually') imply that the person is not a frequent user of the forum. Usually members with more presence have avatars and sigs, while members who just registered or who lurk don't bother to do so.

Exactly my point. Earlier on when I was mentioning seeing topics with nothing but usernames, the people were all just scavenging for credits and had only 8 posts or so. Edited July 21, 2007 by elaks (see edit history)