[Scribe]

Dear all,

Over the weekend we will be removing all the selectable avatars from openscrolls.net (i.e. the ones you could choose in the drop-down menu).

There are three reasons for this:

The main driver is that we are noticing more and more avatars being used by our members but on other forums. Among the culprits we have "Gwahir" (on e-boadcast.com.au, e-mail theentertainercalledjem@hotmail.com), "Flow" (on simonandpaula.proboards2.com, e-mail eac_dudette@hotmail.com or lchinting@yahoo.com) and MomAndI (on mama-drama.com, e-mail db_plumfan@yahoo.com), who manage to get so high on our stats they stick out like sore thumbs. Bandwidth theft is never nice but when it's by your own members? Well, you feel like kicking 'em out our little community.

The second reason is that avatars are supposed to be unique and easily identify the poster. With everyone selecting the same avatar this is a bit of waste of time. (We know the number we're offering is limited and, as such, we're bound to have repetitions, but at the time we started this, we never though we'd get so many members.)

Thirdly, we need to keep bandwidth down. December and January have been very popular months and we will exceed our bandwidth limit this month unless something is done about it.

Rob the Programmer Guy will follow this post with instructions on creating and uploading your own avatar; it's actually very simple. Apparently!

Sorry for the announcement, but this won't affect your browsing in any way.

Scribe

P.S. If you have an avatar on this forum hosted on another forum, please follow the instructions below. Thanks. It's courtesy to other webmistresses/masters.

[Robbie]

How to have an avatar, and this applies to any forum.

1) Get yourself a little drawing package. There are many applications you can do this on; MS Paint, MS Imaging are included in Windows, or you can download a thirty day trial of PaintShopPro from www.jasc.com, or download the Gimp from www.gimp.org for free; this also work on Linux....

2) Create yourself a small picture; this is actually the hardest part. Be creative. Some poeple use pictures of themselves, dogs, cats etc. Others draw silly images (like my sweaty green thingy) , some draw their own (check out DoLarabee's)... If you're really stuck, you can copy from someone else and then tweak it.

3) If you want moving avatar, that's a bit tricker.

4) Make sure the picture is a neat size, I suggest 75 x 75 pixels.

5) Find somewhere to host your avatar; your ISP (how you connect to the Internet) will usually have a bit of space for free that comes with your account; check with your ISP on how to upload pictures.

6) Go to your profile, and point to the new picture.

If there are any problems, post below and we'll talk you though it.

[miriel361]

Don't you just love it when they talk technical like this?

Seriously though, thank you for telling me what an avator is. I will however remain avator-less. And thank you for all the time you put into keeping this site up and running.

[Viv]

[Kalythianna]

Hey Robbie,

I've got an avator already and on my own site. I had a problem trying to use it when I joined it said that it wasn't the proper file. I tried jpg's and gif's, but neither worked. I could see my image... but it wouldn't let me join.

I was going to email, but since this thread was started...

Kaly

[Ellbee]

I had a problem as well. When I tried to point to the picture, it shows the picture on my profile update page, but there's a message up top that says something like, "Not a valid avatar." If it isn't meant to be, it's no big deal, but I thought I'd give it a try.

Thanks so much for your help.

-Ell

[Viv]

Note that you have to host the image from a site that allows hotlinking. Geocities and angelfire and a lot of other free site hosts do not allow you to hotlink, so that could be a source of those errors.

[Kalythianna]

Yeah, I know geocities and angelfire won't let you hotlink. I have my own website and domain. And I've used the avator on a different forum.

http://www.nelsonsbay.com/images/eowyn.jpg

Kaly

[Ellbee]

Yeah, I've got a paid Villagephoto account, and I've got pictures from it up elsewhere. Let me try it here.



Hm. Dunno. Maybe it all won't be live until they take off the existing avatars.

-Ell

[dolarabee]

[Robbie]

There had been problems with the Avatar stuff, and a new one appeared to stop the avatars.

Tweaked something pulled this (my hair) and prodded that and it's working for both your avatars...

Anyone has problems, post below.

Friday night = drinkies night

[Kalythianna]

Hey Robbie,

Thanks ::bows in reverence to your superior knowledge::

Kaly

[nillaithial]

Hi,

Just thought I'd add in my two cents worth. I'm regretting your decision to remove the avatars. Don't you hate it when someone ruins a good thing for everybody else? However, this DID bring up a good point, namely, we, the sites members, need to actively support our site (ethically and monetarily).

I don't know about the rest of you, but I still remember the several OTHER sites that refused my work because it wasn't "Tolkien" enough, or I was short one vote from the committee, or I didn't make it a slash fic or something else that was equally as ridiculous. There are alot of fine writers out there, and we need to support and mentor one another, and this includes the fine venue for our hard work that Open Scrolls provides.

I'm not rich, but neither do I want to see our site go the way of all good things. I've bellied up to the bar with my donation....how about everyone else? Just some food for thought.

Nillaithial

[Andreth]

[queenoftheshire]

I dont suppose there will any chance that you can just upload a pic by file