View new posts | View your posts Avatars and Signature Rules - Updated Oct 2012.

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Lately I have seen a lot of people with huge Avatars or Signature images, and have been having moderators remove the large images and files. Please adhere to these rules for Avatars and Signatures... if your images need to be removed more than once or twice, you will loose the privilege to have one.

Avatars

ucp.php?i=profile&mode=avatar

Maximum Image Size: 125 pixels x 125 pixels.
Maximum Image File Size: 25kb.

The most common thing I see with Avatars is when someone uses a HUGE regular sized image that is several hundred KB in file size. Even though the images are resized, the file still takes a long time to download. The other one is when users have an animated Avatar. These are absolutely off limits. There is no way to make one small enough, I have seen some users with an animated Avatar (or Signature) larger than 1 mb.

Signature

ucp.php?i=profile&mode=signature

Maximum Image Size: 500 pixels (wide) x 100 pixels (tall).
Maximum File Size: 30kb - 50kb.

Again, the biggest problem is with animated signature images. They are annoying and end up being large in size. No more than 1 image in a signature.

Avatars that are too big are automatically removed every few days. Do not ask me if I deleted it, or why. If it was removed it was either too big, or not working at the time the script was run.

ok il edit my signature get rid of the wood sign, and squeeze up the rest,

otherwise, is mine ok.

Yes it is fine.

Should I swap out mine?

I take it there's no way to make an image automatically convert to your requirements?

Seeing as how your image is broken.... yes.

There is no way for me to resize your images... it is up to you.

What do you mean my avatar isn't broken? I'l fix the signature.

I'm glad I'm too old to know how to install and animated avatar (although some of them are cool)

Yeah, large avatars and large sigs equal longer load times. Luckily, my avatar works within the set guidlines and is 125x125 and 9.77kb. Cool thing is that it's animated too.

They're out there. You just have to look for them.

I don't know where you got your information.. but your avatar is 140kb. 14 times the size of the biggest avatar that is allowed.

I am working to delete all offending avatars. Out of the 700 users who have avatars, I can only forsee there being less than 100 that will remain.

Unbelievably.. I just came accross an avatar that is 2.6 MEGABYTES in size.

what about signatures with multiple, bare chested men looking longingly at you?

BANNED FOR LIFE!!

AJ, I thought I'd figured out a way to make mine work. Is it also an offender?

--- never mind.

If you're only noticing this now, why is avatar size a problem? Nobody's complained, and it's the user's bandwidth being consumed, not your website's.

Also, for the record, I saw the 10kb size limit, but when I realised I had to host the avatar off site, I thought that was just a relic of a time when you hosted the avatars yourself. That's usually why there are limits on avatar size.

You miss the point....

Should any user have to download a 2.6mb file while visiting one page of the site? Just because someone thought an animation would look cool scaled down as their avatar?

I have removed 40mb of files by removing offenders avatars. If everyone of them with large avatars posted in a row, there would be 2-10mb of avatars alone on a single page. Even at highspeed that would take 15-20 seconds just to load the page.

Oh god, is mine gone?!

EDIT: mine needs to get resized, I'll fix it at home tonight.

AJ...question for you. When I uploaded my signature before a few weeks ago, I wasn't aware of the rules. Now when I try to just put simple text into a signature, I get: "You are not authorised to define a signature".

Now that I am aware of the specifications, how can I get authorization back....or is that not an option at this point?

Just wanted to know...thanks!

Ludy

P.S. I PMed you about this a few weeks ago but never heard back, so that's why I'm asking here. FYI.

I resized my pic. Can you let me know if it doesn't work?

Perfect.

Actually.. let me reiterate that all Avatars must be under 125 x 125 pixels.

Why did my new picture get removed? The file size was under 10k.

Read the rules.

Aj for a moment pretend like I don't know anything about photo shop, signatures or avatars and just tell me what the hell I did wrong.

Seriously though the dimensions were 80 by 100 and the file was around 9k. I'm stumped.

The image was actually twice the size of that.

Well over the 125 x 125 limit.

Oh i see whoops. I thought the size rules referred to when you were sizing it up for this board.

I just updated the part where you fill in the numbers to make it more clear. Leave them blank and they should now tell if your image is too big.

I am also in the process of removing all large (in file size) avatars. Keep in mind that I have programs that do this automatically and have no control over who's avatars make and it an do not. If it is over the limits, it is gone.

I guess I just misunderstood the meaning of "Current Image" in the edit avatar section. At the time it said:

Current image:
Maximum dimensions; width: 125 pixels, height: 125 pixels, file size: 9.77KiB.

I thought that was the current image I had uploaded. Maybe that's just stating a maximum.

Oh well, whatever. New one uploaded.

if you right click your avatar and choose "view image" it will show the actual size of the image and even list the pixel dimensions - you can also right click it, choose "properties" and find out the kb size and pixel size...

AJ, was my avatar too large? I sized it for 125 x 125 - its almost impossible to make an image 10 kb or smaller and keep the quality...

Its actually extremely easy.

I see you have done that now..