hhoope01

I've always thought that avator was somewhat humorous and added a little individual flair.

I've always been on the side of a "light touch" for rules (or moderation if you prefer). So if it were decided to expand the use of avators, I would think we would keep the same rules we have today in place for avators (that can already be seen in the user's profile.) Adding more "rules" to limit what is and isn't appropriate just makes for more "administrative" (or moderated) overhead.

SkiAdcock

I was leaning slightly against this to begin with, but the above puts me more into the not supporting it especially given an avatar/pic/whatever can be found by clicking on their handle.

Cheers.

javabytes

Apparently I shouldn't try to do math at the end of the work day.

The numbers I posted actually multiply out to 150MB, which would be 7.5% of my iPad's data allowance. Perhaps 50MB will be a more likely figure given adoption rate and multiple posts from the same member on a given page, but either way I don't see the value.

Perhaps if avatar visibility could be off by default, but users could turn it on? Then I wouldn't have a problem with it. I guess I'd be okay with opt-out too, as long as there's a way to easily do so, but I could still see users being put off by this if they don't know how to toggle the setting.

jackal

That 150MB or even 50MB assumes that your browser performs no caching and that every page you load contains the same number of posts from new members you've never seen before. That's not the case in real life.

FWIW, two forums I was looking at yesterday have tasteful and fairly unobtrusive use of avatars. Sample threads:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...6083-post-icon
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=309065

(FWIW, the former forum is running vBulletin 5.1.0, the latest version--we here on FT are stuck on vB 3.something...)

Here's another take on avatars that I think actually looks nicer:

http://slickdeals.net/f/6836652-best...y-april-6-2014

And another take where some users have opted for an avatar but many haven't:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2021998

On balance, though, a site like this one certainly does look clean:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=720465

Many more examples out there. Try looking through the various forums listed at http://www.thebiggestboards.com/ (how a site titled "Diaper Swappers" can beat FlyerTalk leaves me scratching my head about the Internet...). Note I have no affiliation or connection with any of the above sites (I might have once registered for The Straight Dope and/or SlickDeals but, if I did, I only have a couple of posts to my name, if any, on those sites); I found them via searches and just picked example threads from the thread listings.

javabytes

Yes, I noted in my original post that adoption, caching, and multiple posts from the same user on a page would likely lower the overall size. I really have no idea how iOS handles Safari caching. Either way, I still consider it a waste of bandwidth... if I want to see someone's avatar or profile details, I can easily find it, without wasting screen real estate and bandwidth the other 99.9% of the time when I don't want it.

jackal

Indeed.

nerd

Do whatever you want with avatars as long as there is the ability to hide them.

(Like with signatures -- I can't believe some people don't have them turned off...)

jackal

Some of us actually enjoy fellowship and community with our fellow FlyerTalk members. I can't believe some people turn signatures off. It saddens me.

Besides, how would you know about the Do I'm hosting in Alaska this summer if you have signatures turned off?

tom911

Why? Tell me what's wrong with my non-commercial signature link, please.

CMK10

I can see why some are annoying, maybe it's a quote you don't agree with, or you don't care about someone's upgrade percentage or their trek towards MM.

oliver2002

With the upgrade of the site last month, avatars are showing on the mobile skin:


View Screen Capture

JDiver

Interesting!