Forum feature request: Avatar acceptance queue.

Because, for some people, myself included (before you get any funny ideas), we actually consider our avatar galleries to reflect our personality, interests, general attitude, or other aspects of ourselves. I know I have checked avatar galleries to get a first impression of what a fellow poster is like.

Now, with the advent of avatar sharing, I already knew of the possibility of avatar-spamming. Now, I never yet had any grounds for making a serious complaint about this, since people rarely sent me anything, as I didn't participate in avatar-sharing activities, I only rarely requested others' avatars, and I simply deleted what I didn't like if people sent me stuff I didn't want—and yes, it's happened a few times. Maybe about four or five avatars, two from Louie W, one from Anonymous User, and maybe one from Black Dove but I don't remember the rest.

Additionally, I know that avatar galleries actually matter in the "Make a Five-Man Band from the above troper's gallery" forum game, and while I don't post all that often in it I think it is one of the best, most intellectually and creatively stimulating forum games we have. I've not only created Five-Man Band sets but also Five Bad Band sets as well as sets with other assorted members (the mentor, the sixth column, the sixth ranger, etc.), and additionally, themed sets wherein I choose only from a certain subset of the above gallery (e.g. only birds, only different pictures of one certain character, etc.). So it's one of the best forum games. But it's really awkward when someone sticks an unwanted avatar into my gallery, and then someone else picks it up and puts it in a set. Imagine, if you didn't like, say, Touhou (as I don't, before you get any more ideas), and someone made a Five-Man Band that had "your" Reimu avatar as The Hero! How would you feel?

Or worse, one person bombs your gallery with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers—and then proceeds to post said power rangers!

Incidentally, that other thread got locked before I could respond to it, so here's my (relatively insubstantial) response:

Okay, who sent him this?

Because whoever did that needs to be punished. Even if I stretch my rules, I can accomodate Touhou crap, but...this just takes the cake. Animesque, Moe, Chibi, EXCEEDINGLY large eyes, and on top of everything and most importantly: Uncanny Valley.

Quoting rallyfan 9000:

Napalm, I'm a participant in multiple "Pick the avatar" threads and don't want any evidence of ones I don't like anywhere on the internet. Thus, I'm always checking to expunge the ones I don't like. There's nothing you can change about that.

This I actually agree with. This is yet another reason why I think there should be an avatar-acceptance step.

^^^^^ No. I just partake in them. I'll certainly pass over a user if I find nothing in their gallery to my tastes. Others should do the same, but as is obviously the case, they don't.

I certainly do that too. Though for the "sexiest" or "cutest" ones and others of that sort I do try to pick the foo-est from the avatar above me no matter what it contains. And sometimes I try to avoid picking the one stereotypically obvious answer.

I also refrain from posting too often in the "Make a Five-Man Band" thread or responding to the same person in said thread too often, so that there's some more variety. I like that Make a Five-Man Band thread. I've made lots of very interesting sets of Five-Man Band and Five Bad Band groups.

Re Demongodofchaos2's posted video (instances of "fuck" in Black Lagoon)

ROFL. 259? The word lost meaning after about 15 of them.

edited 12th Oct '10 8:01:36 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

I think this would be a pretty good idea, actually.

I think being notified would be a good idea, at least.

Louie W had a tendency to give out avatars at random, for some reason. I admittedly did that recently, though I judged by what was in their gallery already and what they liked.

If this is implemented, I'd like an opt-out feature, I really don't want to be presented with "New avatar! Accept (Y/N)?" every time someone sends me avatar.

A simpler solution, I would imagine, would just be a feature to turn avatar sharing on and off on your profile page. Those who are really upset by this could then turn off all sharing, and turn it on again temporarily if someone has something they really want.

Seconding Meeble.

Well, in the IJBM thread, it's been pointed out that this system could be used to harass and troll someone without consequences because of its anonymity. Whatever new system emerges will also have to be able to track who sent the image. Otherwise, if a troper has avatar sharing turned on, he or she could receive something as disturbing as death threats without knowing who it came from.

That's one of the big problems I still have with the system: total anonymity. If we could trace these shares back to their source, we could ban those that abuse the system.

edited 13th Oct '10 11:17:15 AM by rallyfan9000

Fast Eddie is putting in, or has put in, tech to resolve some of these concerns, due to the flap that occurred yesterday. I'll let him discuss the details if he chooses to do so.

Until I know for certain that a tracing system has been implemented, I'm opting out of avatar sharing altogether.

Okay.

You know, this way it could be more like Fast Eddie mentioned it being when he came up with this. If you want an avatar from someone, you PM them and take off the block for a bit so that they can share it, then put the block back on. No unsolicited shares.

^^ If such a system is implemented, though, let's be careful not to start any witch hunts. Not everyone can be expected to read every thread, and someone may accidentally send some avatars to the wrong person despite their good intentions.

edited 13th Oct '10 11:35:16 AM by Meeble

Yes, opting in long enough to receive a shared avatar then opting back out is the simplest solution.

However, if you do choose to stay opted-in all the time, we are now collecting audit trail info on the sending party. Handle, IP address, other connection identifying stuff, date/time of send, etc., so finding the spammer and crushing their skull should be easy enough.

Do you need any help with that last bit? I might know someone who knows someone who sells skull-crushing hammers, for instance.

Ah, good, I think I'll go ahead and open the floodgates.

Come and get me!

rallyfan9000: You may want to check out the Yukikaze series—specifically the MA Ds (i.e. AM Vs) that some people have made of some of the insanely awesome aerial combat sequences. You should be able to find them rather easily on You Tube.

There's also an extremely awesome one involving music from Pirates Of The Caribbean.

I don't really recommend the Yukikaze OVA itself, though, since the plot is rather boring and slow, and not quite worth the five episode-lengths.