Post by CampKohler on Apr 16, 2013 15:18:05 GMT -8
An avatar is the image that displays in each of your messages in the left-hand panel beneath the your display name. The size of the displayed image is adjustable and will affect the space occupied by a minimum-length msg, such that the largest image will add about one inch over the smallest.
The settings and fields for the avatars are found on the Modify Profile page, obtainable by clicking your own display name.
Selecting Avatars
The AVATAR field is used to choose the image that is to be used for the current avatar. The field, by means of a drop-down menu allows choosing from a list of various canned images, or if set to None (the default selection), enables a custom image.
Note: The items in the Avatar menu can be added or deleted by admin, although there seems to be no reason to do so.
Uploading a Custom Avatar
With the AVATAR field is set to None, the AVATAR URL field is specifies where on the Web the image is to be obtained. This can be your own site, another site or a picture service, e.g. Photobucket.com and the like*. After a URL is provided, the image is uploaded the first time the MODIFY PROFILE button is clicked.
When an image is uploaded, it is forever associated in the forum with its source URL. For example, once www.images.com/foo.jpg has uploaded, the forum need not ever upload it again. If the URL is ever again called, the image cached in the forum will be delivered to the reader and the URL will not be sought out on the Web.
Should the image on the Web be modified, the modification will not reach the forum. To make the modification take affect, the modified image must be given a new URL and the new URL must be entered into the AVATAR URL field to re-load the image. Thus, once an image is uploaded, with respect to the forum (only), there is no point in maintaining it on the Web with the original URL.
If for example, two URLs for previously-uploaded images are alternated, the alternating images are called up from the forum cache. Only a URL that has never previously used will cause a new upload.
"Poisoned" URLS
Some photo services deliver a canned error image should a URL no longer be valid, say, because an image has been deleted, or because it is no long deliverable due to a change in permissions (marked private). This is an example from Photobucket.com:
Once the error image is uploaded to the forum, the URL used will always produce the error image from the forum cache, even if the image subsequently becomes valid. Thus the URL is "poisoned." This can only be corrected by uploading the image to the service a second time to obtain a new URL, which can then be used by the forum. (The "poisoned " URL could be used elsewhere other than the forum, or it could be deleted.)
Adjusting the Avatar Size
Once the photo is uploaded (which is visible full size on the Modify Profile page), adjust the AVATAR HEIGHT and AVATAR WIDTH fields to achieve the desired size of 0 X 0 (nothing) to 100 X 100 pixels. The default setting appears to be 65 X 65 pixels. Specifying a size larger than the uploaded image will enlarge the uploaded image, but results in a poorer image, so this is to be avoided; load a larger size—105 X 150 is recommended—and then use the height and width fields to scale down to the desired size. Uploading an image larger than 150 X 150 may result in a spotty image (missing pixels) when appearing in the forum.
Larger avatar sizes on the forum page result in additional white space in minimum-length forum messages, appearing to be about one inch maximum on the average-sized screen. You may want to set your avatar to 50 X 50 pixels as a compromise between displayed image size and added msg length. If the msg contains five or more lines of text or is later edited to do so, the text exceeds any whitespace contributed by the avatar and its size becomes irrelevant. Likewise images or other space-consuming material in the msg will override this behavior.
Storing Valuable URLs
URL's that have been used to upload images and which therefore may be useful for entering into the AVATAR URL field at a later time may be conveniently written to and saved in the USER NOTES field of the Modify Profile page.
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*The forum is not set up to receive Gravatar.com's images. Nor can links to them be used, because the protocol used is https, which the forum does not accommodate. However, Gravatar's images can be copied and stored on other image services, and the links to them used in the forum.
Backup file: HFW_avatars_YYYYMMDD.txt
The settings and fields for the avatars are found on the Modify Profile page, obtainable by clicking your own display name.
Selecting Avatars
The AVATAR field is used to choose the image that is to be used for the current avatar. The field, by means of a drop-down menu allows choosing from a list of various canned images, or if set to None (the default selection), enables a custom image.
Note: The items in the Avatar menu can be added or deleted by admin, although there seems to be no reason to do so.
Uploading a Custom Avatar
With the AVATAR field is set to None, the AVATAR URL field is specifies where on the Web the image is to be obtained. This can be your own site, another site or a picture service, e.g. Photobucket.com and the like*. After a URL is provided, the image is uploaded the first time the MODIFY PROFILE button is clicked.
When an image is uploaded, it is forever associated in the forum with its source URL. For example, once www.images.com/foo.jpg has uploaded, the forum need not ever upload it again. If the URL is ever again called, the image cached in the forum will be delivered to the reader and the URL will not be sought out on the Web.
Should the image on the Web be modified, the modification will not reach the forum. To make the modification take affect, the modified image must be given a new URL and the new URL must be entered into the AVATAR URL field to re-load the image. Thus, once an image is uploaded, with respect to the forum (only), there is no point in maintaining it on the Web with the original URL.
If for example, two URLs for previously-uploaded images are alternated, the alternating images are called up from the forum cache. Only a URL that has never previously used will cause a new upload.
"Poisoned" URLS
Some photo services deliver a canned error image should a URL no longer be valid, say, because an image has been deleted, or because it is no long deliverable due to a change in permissions (marked private). This is an example from Photobucket.com:
Once the error image is uploaded to the forum, the URL used will always produce the error image from the forum cache, even if the image subsequently becomes valid. Thus the URL is "poisoned." This can only be corrected by uploading the image to the service a second time to obtain a new URL, which can then be used by the forum. (The "poisoned " URL could be used elsewhere other than the forum, or it could be deleted.)
Adjusting the Avatar Size
Once the photo is uploaded (which is visible full size on the Modify Profile page), adjust the AVATAR HEIGHT and AVATAR WIDTH fields to achieve the desired size of 0 X 0 (nothing) to 100 X 100 pixels. The default setting appears to be 65 X 65 pixels. Specifying a size larger than the uploaded image will enlarge the uploaded image, but results in a poorer image, so this is to be avoided; load a larger size—105 X 150 is recommended—and then use the height and width fields to scale down to the desired size. Uploading an image larger than 150 X 150 may result in a spotty image (missing pixels) when appearing in the forum.
Larger avatar sizes on the forum page result in additional white space in minimum-length forum messages, appearing to be about one inch maximum on the average-sized screen. You may want to set your avatar to 50 X 50 pixels as a compromise between displayed image size and added msg length. If the msg contains five or more lines of text or is later edited to do so, the text exceeds any whitespace contributed by the avatar and its size becomes irrelevant. Likewise images or other space-consuming material in the msg will override this behavior.
Storing Valuable URLs
URL's that have been used to upload images and which therefore may be useful for entering into the AVATAR URL field at a later time may be conveniently written to and saved in the USER NOTES field of the Modify Profile page.
----
*The forum is not set up to receive Gravatar.com's images. Nor can links to them be used, because the protocol used is https, which the forum does not accommodate. However, Gravatar's images can be copied and stored on other image services, and the links to them used in the forum.
Backup file: HFW_avatars_YYYYMMDD.txt