lmao...

I was seriously considering writing a thread suggestion to allow our avatars to be fed real-time through our webcams... but I guess I know what the ATS community would think of it! hehe

Anyways, I can honestly say animated avatars has never bothered me. Meh.

The op has a point, they CAN be annoying, but most are not.

I was considering... FLASH avatars! SWF's, that would be neato

Originally posted by labyrinth101
If the flashing is bothering you or you feel it may induce an epileptic episode press the 'esc' key to freeze the animations on the page. This works in IE and Firefox, not sure about other browsers. Hope this provides some relief until a solution is worked out.

*Applauded* - That's a fantastic compromise.

For me, one of the greatest features of ATS is the diversity of people's avatars, and the degree of work that goes into some of them is incredible. In fact, the awesome animated avatars of ATS members was the entire motivation for me to eventually start bettering my own attempts.

I agree that some avatar animations are annoying, but likewise there are unanimated avatars that make my skin-crawl or quickly scroll up or down to get them out of sight, even at the loss of some of their post. That doesn't mean I'm prepared to go about telling people they can't use images of stuff that I don't like, unless it violates the TAC.

But the fact is, the avatar is, in many ways, the very representation we see ourselves as, or who we wish to present ourselves as, to the rest of the community at large. It is the image we most identify with, and in some cases, the best way to present that identity is with animation.

Originally posted by sherpa

I am afraid I have to go with the OP here I do find them distracting to the eye and either read very quickly or scroll past the post.

There is one in particular that gets me for a couple of seconds that resides in their signature I believe it is actually black birds in flight but because it is so small my initial reaction is to bugs on my screen

Haha yes that has got me a few times! Damn!

I thought there were a whole bunch of insects on my screen!

WOW! Just found out about the esc key thing!

That solves the problem then I guess!! Whoever has a problem simply press esc.

Good job guys!

Originally posted by thelibra
If the flashing is bothering you or you feel it may induce an epileptic episode press the 'esc' key to freeze the animations on the page.

Amazing! How did you know that? So that's been sorted out!

Now the next question. How do you blanket out those sexy looking avatars? Though I love sexy lookin' women, but darn, it's a real distraction here on ATS!

Cheers!

Originally posted by mikesingh

Amazing! How did you know that? So that's been sorted out!

Now the next question. How do you blanket out those sexy looking avatars? Though I love sexy lookin' women, but darn, it's a real distraction here on ATS!

Cheers!

There are some solutions to that particular problem I can think of. Make sure you unload your gun before surfing to ATS. This will deal with a good percentage of the distraction.

Is this not working enough for ya, I recommend a pile of little yellow post it papers.

Originally posted by Conspiracy Theorist

Using the ESC key will also stop any animated gifs being posted in threads that require them to make the point.

Hmm... I have never actually seen anyone use an animated graphic in their posts to further a point...

I'm glad I clicked on this thread. That Esc key is definetly the solution. The sad thing is I read the whole thread and ended up finding the answer at the end. Oh well, still a good read and was just wondering if we stop people from having flashy avatars then whats gonna stop us from not having any avatars or let's stop the animated smileys next etc...
I did learn something new though, thanks Labyrinth101.

No if you cant read then cover up the avatar and quit bitching and moaning.

Well, IMO most posters take themselves a little to seriously, and animated avatars help lighten the atmosphere. With mine there is no
guessing where I'm coming from and what I stand for. However, from
some of the responses I've gotten to my posts; I'm quit sure it has induced a seizer in a few posters!

i know couple of forums (famous ones) where animated GIF as avatar or sigi are not allowed...