I cannot view avatars although it's enabled in MyFlyerTalk
 

What the subject says, I am unable to view avatars, although I've checked the box that says "view avatar" in MyFlyerTalk.

:confused:

Even though there is a box you can check which says "Show Avatars", blissfully and thankfully FT has not yet allowed avatars to be displayed.

Choulula,

Why would you mind if FlyerTalk gave those of us who like looking at avatars the ability if you have the option to not view them yourself?

We're an altogether too creative and contentious lot, I think :D

There's gotta be another reason. Maybe FlyerTalk officials fear the extra bandwidth??? All I'm saying is that I'd love to spice it up a bit. :D

Another vote for no avatars. PLEASE

After reading some of the location statements (rather than locations) I can only imagine what kind of avatars people use :eek: :eek: :eek:

Can one of you please explain why you are against a feature that once you disable, won't affect how you use the forums? Please?

How would you feel if by default, accounts were set to not show avatars? If you're against that, then you're just being mean. ;)

History, nothing more than history.

Why is having them enabled so important?

Mary, of what history do you speak? Did something horrible happen on FT with avatars in the past?

And although it's not "so important", I will say I do enjoy looking at avatars. I think it adds rather than takes away from the forums.

In general, I like having options rather than restrictions, and I consider this, one of the more mature and responsible (as well as interesting and fun) forums I visit, the ideal place to give users more options rather than restrictions when it comes do this kind of stuff.

What do you think?

Thread ratings were discontinued due to misuse by a handful of members.

Reputation points were discontinued due to misuse by a handful of members.

Signatures have been on again and off again over the years due to misuse by a handful of members.

The OMNI forum has been switched on and off over the years due to misuse by a handful of members.

Avatars and image attachments would have a life here measured in hours and those features, trust me, would then be switched off.

In a perfect world, we'd be able to have all these features and more.

But FT is not a perfect world.

How were people abusing avatars? Posting inappropriate pictures? What a shame.

I am also a firm believer in keeping things simple. So perhaps it's for the best.

Well said. ^

I'd love to see avatars however. Could be nice to see the face behind the posts. Why not simply enable this option for those who want, and immediatly suspend misuseing members? People with real interest in FT should be able to handle their own avatar no?

Yeah, what he said! I'm sure people felt the same way about giving women the right to vote, but in the end, it worked out, right?

And this is why I do not support avatars. Any special features we have had in the past have been abused within a short period of time. The features are not essential to a rich FT experience, but rather become divisive and contentious. It's baffling, but that is the reality.

The majority of people probably don't bother fiddling with thier settings in the first place, so as long as FT keeps the default setting to not show avatars but gives those who want to the option to do so, I really don't see why this would be such a big problem.

Is anybody willing to address this idea? SanDiego1k? I'd love to hear your thoughts. :)

Thanks.

Because as many people have said already, with stuff like this there has always been abuse or claims of abuse. And in such situations, it doesn't matter that most of the people won't be looking at avatars - action would have to be taken to remove abusive avatars.

Additionally, although we can make rules about what is and isn't appropriate, there are always going to be those who will ignore them and the system would always be reactive, with more than 100 000 people registered. And there is going to be a massive grey area as well - so for example, poster A has an avatar which poster B claims is a direct attack on them.... it would happen! Who has to decide if poster A was actually attacking poster B or poster B was being over sensitive or looking for trouble where there was no intent? As birdstrike says, we are a pretty creative lot and we would probably have both situations occurring.

Additionally, what is work appropriate in some areas/regions/countries may not be in others - look at the reaction to Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" in the US as an example, whereas many other parts of the globe have more explicit tv ads! Or, someone puts up something which may be distasteful or insulting to a group of posters - for example, many Americans revere the US flag, and would be insulted if it were to be insulted - but for most non-Americans, it's just a flag, nothing more, nothing less and has no special meaning to us so deserves no special protection.

I think you are looking at this question through the rosy tinted spectacles of you thinking it's a good idea, when you have never seen what goes in OMNI, or seen any of the furore which has been generated previously when systems have been abused.

what about avatars for member with more than 500 posts, and at least 1 year activity or something in this direction?

Seems like a good idea to me f4freeJunior, but I am
wearing rose colored glasses...

I just stumbled across a suspended handle with 4 years of activity and a couple of thousand posts. So longevity is no guarantee.

end of the world
 

I'd surmise from this thread that the majority of FTers don't care, and the ones who probably have the power to make decisions are against it.

Worse things have happened.

Bingo.@:-)

See Cholula's posts.

Avatar enabling would likely be a Talkboard vote/input type deal IMHO.

I support him in that I'd vote against them based on the proven past behaviour of a small group who have derailed and actively abused all the other features that Admin installed hopefully for the common good.

All that group are still active and often very senior FT'ers. Nothing will change if they get Avatar access IMHO.

Glen

I see all your points.
But I wouldn't have a problem to suspend those who abuse the avatars, even if they are senior FTer with many posts.

That has been done, but there are too many edge cases and not enough time for the moderators to adjuticate them all.

NO Avatars! Why Avatar Choice Box Then?
 

Interesting first post. Welcome to FlyerTalk, focusoninfinity.

The software used by FlyerTalk is a commercial, off-the-shelf application.

While it can be customized, I don't think anyone thought it worthwhile to make the avatar option checkbox itself optional.

Ridiculous. Really infuriating.