Well for one ting people could put any kind of pictures there, nasty...dirty and all kind of "not good". One thing that could be done...is the request...a new category of avatars with some that users request...but not costum...that is a bit to "free" and it could also bring bad parts...

I agree,

We wont enable custom avatars and let users upload there own, for the simple fact we did this in the past and it was abused.

We re-enabled BB code and html because we have moderators now to check for abuse in the forums.

It would just cause more headaches for the forum admins.

Sorry, but that's incorrect. People CAN abuse the forum as it is, because they CAN post messages. Nothing is stopping them from using foul language or posting links to adult sites. It's the moderators who keep an eye on such troublemakers; how is it different to control the content of a custom avatar?! Maybe someone will use something inapropriate, but most people will understand to obey the rules, just as they do in their conversations. Why block something to everyone because of a few idiots? And if that's your position, why not K-line *.ipt.aol.com, for example? Or 213.233.*, or non-idented clients because they may indicate an insecure proxy, thus a potential spammer or bot or whatever?

I'm getting to the point of tagging some sections of this forum as "useless", because the answer seems to be "no" each time. Progress was made by taking risks, evolving, adapting to new situations. As much as I'd like to see some things mature on this network, the extreme conservatory management keeps Undernet chained down.

[Later edit] I forgot to mention this. Is Undernet adopting measures thinking of its users, or its moderators? Are you considering a change for the sake of people who visit Undernet, or thinking about the extra load for the small group of moderators? If moderating is a possible problem, then Undernet either didn't select the right people for the job, or there aren't enough people to take those attributions. Don't say "no" to a suggestion just because the current moderators don't have enough time to monitor this forum. Besides, I've seen plenty of forums allowing custom avatars, either by direct upload from members or by emailing them to a moderator/admin, and they're doing just fine.

I`m not saying to let users upload their own avatars. They can send their avatars to an e-mail and then if you (webmasters) think is ok, upload it.

Moderators can remove/edit posts, but they can't change the avatar a person uses

a) Disabling BBCode can be done in the administration interface (RTFM)
b) Custom avatars would indeed be nice, but in the previously described way this would be better, issue is -> could take a while when
c) Images in signature -> depends on the size, bannerstyle *censored by user himself*, especially since most of you post romanian style.. as in...
do
you
know
what
I
mean ?

Which creates small posts where the image in the signature wastes more space then the text itself.

yes, that's right. But what if a forum admin takes a look once a day in here and see if there are any abuses?

Nobody is forum admin in here or what?


Regards,
uNiXfReaK

Where did you get that idea from ? In this forum we have some great moderators that take care of each section...olso simba is the administrator who has done a great job...all this volunteers are working hard to maintain this forum "abusefree" by the way try to look under each section of the forum to see who moderates that part...and then jump in conclusions...

Best Wishes,

No, i was trying to say that I guess u can enable custom avatars and a forum administrator should take a look once a day on the new posts and if he/she finds any avatars that are spam delete them.

Regards,

You could always make custom avatars available in a moderated fashion.
Client uploads avatar which will await acceptance from a forum administrator. If granted he could use it.
Simba, make some page where ppl could upload avatars Might work better then using the email method, as more ppl could check on a centralized location, also you could implement a method where ppl can click on a post to report it as offending.

I do not think we will enable custom avatars, it will only result in a lot of images beeing uploaded to our server.

If signatures are beeing abused I am sure we will disable that too.

- magic

Well, you can limit that, for example:

- put limits on the filesize someone is allowed to upload
- limit the amount of uploadable avatars per authed user to one
- put timelimits on when someone can upload an avatar, for example, only allow one avatar upload / week, month / authed user

I think custom avatars is one way to make the website more attractive to the users. As mentioned in above posts, the abuse and overload of website space can be prevented by:

- requiring an approval for each user-uploaded avatar from the forum administrator
- limiting the dimension and size of avatar to 80 pixel x 80 pixel and <= 6k

The signature images are mostly annoying (no offence to anyone .. some are cool though) and if file dimensions size is not restricted, sometimes the images occupy a lot of area of the page. May be the signature images should be disabled totally or restricted to a maximum dimension.

But your idea also requers the Administrator to be here and check all the user-uploaded avatars. That is one hell of a job. And I am sure that the Administrator cannot be on every day, which would be kind of vital if many users decide to upload a new avatar every day.

Well, if the user wants to upload a custom avatar every day or every hour then the possible workaround could be:

- yes, the administrator can not be present all the time.. but when a user uploads a custom avatar, then the user can wait for a day (ok a week maybe) till the administrator finally approves the avatar and it starts showing below your nick.

- just because you can upload a custom avatar doesnt mean you need to change it every day.. so select an image and stay with it for sometimes happily : ) and to save the administrator from approving a new avatar from same user every day, it can be restricted for "custom" avatars to be changed once in every three months for each user. Ofcourse, users can choose the pre-provided avatars anytime.. For custom, they can choose cleverly or wait for a few months to change it.