AVATARS !?!?

Avatars.

Well...

At the moment, there are no avatars to select from. The problem regarding avatars is that it's difficult coming up with an assortment of avatars to use on the site. Yes, there are a ton of avatars out there - a search for buddy icons for AIM results in many, many results. However, the goal is to find icons which we can use here on the site. Icons that look good and are relevant (ships, planes, cars, etc - but nothing like cats, dogs, celebrities, animie, etc.).

I would be interested in hearing any feedback regarding avatars. Do you like them, hate them? Do you have any suggestions for what you'd like to see here?

Avatars are neat, but I agree with your comment about relevance. It just wouldn't do on this board to have a Scooby-Doo or Henry Kissinger avatar (for example) when all we talk about is modeling. My only suggestion would be to have avatars that people can select that represent the things that they like to model most. Something that would represent the genre they like as a whole without singling out a particular model so you can tell at a glance what someone's favorite subject is. For example: WWI planes, WWII planes, Korean War, HO scale trains, WWII Armor, Present day Armor, Figurines, Airliners, Sci-Fi, etc. I don't suspect that this would balkanize the boards, and I hope it wouldn't. If I knew that it would, I'd be against it.

Dan

Although I am ambivalent towards avatars, D-Fens' idea of offering avatars based on modelling preference sounds appropriate and I support the idea.

Someome enlighten me, what's an avatar?

While looking at the Krispy Kreme site, I found the perfect avatars.



Seriously though, I haven't had a lot of luck in finding a large assortment of appropriate avatars. If we wanted anime, Pokemon and such, there's no problem finding those types of avatars, but that's not what we want here. I have a bunch of cool avatars I would like to use, but until I can find more variety, I'm going to wait. Once I have enough and they're approved by the FSM staff, I was thinking of posting them here first and get some feedback from everyone before enabling them.

Now what did you go and do that for,dvoss???????????? I'm gong to have to go now and blow hard earned hobby cash on KK's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

QUOTE: Originally posted by dvoss Seriously though, I haven't had a lot of luck in finding a large assortment of appropriate avatars. If we wanted anime, Pokemon and such, there's no problem finding those types of avatars, but that's not what we want here. I have a bunch of cool avatars I would like to use, but until I can find more variety, I'm going to wait. Once I have enough and they're approved by the FSM staff, I was thinking of posting them here first and get some feedback from everyone before enabling them.

Why not allow us to upload our own Avatars from photos we have?

Mike

Well...

Part of it's a copyright issue. I would have to make sure we would have permission to use the images and keep track of where the images came from.

Also, it's kind of an aesthetic issue too. I would have to make sure they would be appropriate and are somewhat related to modeling.

I'm still waiting to hear back from a couple of people before I can do anything with Avatars.

Avatars would be cool but definitely keep them relevant. I agree with Dan, it would be nice if they reflected specific modeling interests.

Ray

Aesthetics is a big issue, it's just plain tough to make a good-looking avatar sometimes. I'm a grunt-modder for an online game that I play (Medal of Honor) which uses avatars as an ID system for team-mates. I've tried more than a few things and very few of them look really good.

Relevance is also an issue, but less so than appearance. Nevertheless, if anyone has any suggestions for relevant images for use as avatars, why not post your thoughts? This way we can all get an idea of what others are interested in, what their preferences are and hopefully come up with a happy medium.

Here's some of my suggestions;

Simple pics of modeling subjects; tanks, a/c, cars etc.

Manufacturers' logos (Ford, Chevy, Grumman, Curtiss - copyright issues here, of course!)

Modeling-related objects; paintbrushes, X-actos and the like

Markings avatars;

For Aircraft - maybe US stars and bars, a German balkankreuz, British roundel etc. Simple unit insignia such as 8th AF, 9th AF and the like. Rescue arrows, ejection seat warnings etc.

For Cars - flames, or checkerboards.

For Military Vehicles - a simple white star on an OD background (with or without surround), unit insignia.

And let's not forget ships and sci-fi and anything else!

Historical avatars; many possibilities here, from simple photos to stylized graphics of almost any sort you could imagine and related to any modeling genre.

By no means is this intended to be an all-inclusive list. It's simply meant to get some gears turning. Sources for any avatars deemed appropriate, of course, would be another matter! If anyone has ideas on this issue, I'm sure that we'd all like to hear them.

Fade to Black...

Here's some samples of avatars. Some of these may be kinda small, but they're intended only as examples.











Some of these, quite frankly, are bad-looking avatars. But they give an idea of some of the basic things that could be done.

Fade to Black...

Good idea, but make it relevant to the hobbies represented on the site. Bad ones are worse than none at all.

Yeah I think pictures of the subjects (aircraft, armor, cars, etc.) would be good. unit insignias of aircraft and infantry would be neat too. but can we have a timetable as to when you might have some that we can use, david. (if it's going to happen)(yeah I know I'm impatient) oh and my suggestion for avatars: medals, have a bunch from a bunch of countries like a VC, DSC, Bronze star, con. Medal of Honor, purple heart, iron cross, blue max, croix de geurre, legion de honor, medaille militaire etc., etc.

At the risk of being totally out in left field, someone please educate me:
Why are avatars necessary to a forum such as this? I've seen them, and find that all they really do is take up space. If everyone is interested in them, then they must serve some useful purpose, given the depth of discussion this thread is involved in. Please understand I am not against having them, I guess I just need to understand their validity.
Thanks for the help,
Gip Winecoff

Neat gimmick. would probably dress up the site from the member's perspective. Is it necessary? No, but it could be fun :) - Ed

Every time I visit this discussion, I get hungry for some reason.

Avatars...Well...it will happen. As for when, I don't have a timetable at the moment. The support time required for putting the forums on our www.trains.com site required more time than expected. So right now, I'm kind of behind. I think before the avatars are available, I would like to see the forums here brought up to the same version we have on our trains.com site.

ok the forum is upgraded, what's happening???

I don't think anyone mentioned what an avatar is... If i understand it myself correctly, an avatar is a small picture usually below someone's name. It helps in the identification a person (especially all of us who are bad with names). I think avatars are alright, but I think the signature on the bottom works just as well - everyone has a unique picture that can be used to idetify them.

Oh, and dave, how do you get it so that the picture in your signature is on the same line with your text???

yeah the sig works just fine, I think. I was just curious if he was going to go through with it.

yeah the sig is better

I haven't talked with Dave about this yet, but I'm inclined not to have avatars. Back when we discussed adding them, people hadn't really started making full use of the signatures. Having avatars as well would make the pages a bit too cluttered with images.....

that was my thoughts too.