Poll On Avatars - Please make your views known

I find that the flashing, overly colorful avatars are an unnecessary distraction from the content of people's messages. I find them inappropriate for this site, which is after all dedicated to reflection on themes associated with ultimate truths. I have no objection to humor, but would prefer that people's "look at me" tendencies be curbed. The desire for individual expression should be kept to the quality of one's postings.

Thank you for voting "yes."

There was a brief exchange of opinions on this thread a while ago

http://www.gaudiyadiscussions.com/index.ph...wtopic=1230&hl=

My vote continues to be: YES

I know that animated gifs can be done very tastefully and become attractive and yet non-distractive peculiarities, and therefore I am not against animated avatars per se. Most of the time they seem to be misused though. Just yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing someone use a 500KB animated gif as his avatara in one forum. That kills modem users.

I certainly am against overly flashy, fast-moving "look at me" avatars. Therefore, "yes" will be a good general policy, and exceptions should be very carefully thought of.

I notice that there seem to be some avatars in use with several members, and that many of the old avatars have never been used. I'll create a new set of avatars today, so you can all pick whichever you like from a broader and better selection.

Personally speaking, if I ever meet betal_nut and she does not look like Catwoman, I will be slightly disappointed.

And for the record, yes, my avatar is really me being a goof in a New Jersey photo booth circa 2000. If people are distracted by it, just let me know.

I'm distracted by it.

Say no more.

I was just joking, Sweetheart.

If this is too much I will remove it ya'll..

It does look like me however, I want to stress..!

Before you send it back to where it belongs, can you give me an idea what it is that you wish to express with something as silly as this, other than catching attention?

I voted 'yes' but I don't have an actual problem with animated avatars. I feel that they just distract me from reading the messages, though. Many people tend to write quite a lot and I would like to do justice to it by reading, but the avatars tend to distract my attention and I cannot concentrate.

No offence.

Namaste.
Forgive my ignorance, who is the person in your 'avatar' picture?
He/she has a strong resemblance to a live personality I know of,
Susri Raaseshvari devi, a female pracharak didi of JKP mission in Orissa.

Is this better..?

I've been thinking of this problem throughout the day, how can we get rid of these ridiculous animated gif's, so I'm delighted that someone has seen the sense to poll the audience. It's not just a problem here but throughout the internet, for gods sake we have Flash, who needs them except for agitated teens?

Middle-aged teens like Sheeva.

That would be Srinivasa Acarya.

Thanks, Madhava.
Yes, the picture also looks like "an embodiment of Gaura-sakti, the energy of Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu" indeed.
I have always enjoyed listening to his beautiful 'Shad Goswamyashtakam' kirtan.

I have now updated the avatara-gallery with 30 new avataras. The old avataras can be found in a subfolder in the gallery. To change your avatara or select one for yourself, go to My Control Panel > Edit Avatar Settings.

If somebody has inspirations on new avatars to be added, let me know.

Oh by the way, when you add your own avataras, please try to ensure that the file size is below 10 kb in size. If you really can't figure out how to make a picture smaller, send it to me and I'll upload it for you.

I think we've pretty much reached a consensus here with 16 for and 0 against a reserved policy on animated gifs.

So let's put it in the Forum rules.

Would that be jargonsome enough?

Why not put it to visitors straight? Only still avatars should be used.
I'm also in favour of getting rid of rainbow text.

Spelled it out now.

Images like this should be used with caution.