AVATARS and USERNAMES ... what's going on?

[Astro14]

Exactly! Hence my disclaimer that maybe you owned the company since I didn't recognize the name. I certainly wasn't trying to pick on you. But my point remains, there's a HUGE gray area in what is allowed and what is not. Your avatar is a logo, and ONLY a logo, and it's OK. My avatar was a photo which I took myself, which had a logo only a few pixels high and it wasn't even an important feature of the picture, but it was removed.

I love the bike frame and color! Are you a custom builder? I'd love to see the whole bike.

I have a couple Bianchis but as you can probably guess, they're the same color as all the others (Celeste green).

There is no grey at all. It’s been explained over a dozen times now. Your avatar is either compliant, or it is not.

However, this continued argument and nitpicking certainly is pushing us towards the elimination of all avatars.

If we are already spending hours every day reviewing, and perhaps investigating, Avatars, and now, we have to spend hours every day publicly explaining policy, over and over, and having to answer questions, in public threads, then my vote is simple:

No personal avatars.

Because that dramatically reduces the moderating workload.

 

[6.7 CTD]

We should have to use a picture of ourselves for the avatar…people will be begging for avatars to go away then

 

[hemioiler]

Exactly! Hence my disclaimer that maybe you owned the company since I didn't recognize the name. I certainly wasn't trying to pick on you. But my point remains, there's a HUGE gray area in what is allowed and what is not. Your avatar is a logo, and ONLY a logo, and it's OK. My avatar was a photo which I took myself, which had a logo only a few pixels high and it wasn't even an important feature of the picture, but it was removed.

Can I ask you to stop complaining please. You've been answered multiple times, this isn't rocket science, and more complaining will just shut down avatars completely for everybody not just you.

I happen to like custom avatars, and one big "pro" of having them is that it's easier to visually remember an image and remember that person's previous content/leanings (do you like the person and spend time reading the post, or do you just skip over it etc), then just the username itself. The downside is I can get terribly confused when they swap out an avatar.

 

[dnewton3]

Let's not let this topic become a reason to generate a divide between members.
If member A has a concern about member B's avatar, the right thing to do is to contact a Moderator and have that path play out.
The rules and logic have been laid out; I think most folks "get it".

Just please be aware that if you're contacted about your avatar, it's a matter of keeping BITOG alive.
And as always, BITOG staff decisions are final.

 

[Elkins45]

My avatar is a photo taken by me so I’m the copyright owner and I give myself permission to use it. Lucky was a good dog and he deserves to live forever on the Internet.

 

[goblin]

My avatar is a photo taken by me so I’m the copyright owner and I give myself permission to use it. Lucky was a good dog and he deserves to live forever on the Internet.

Ditto

 

[#18FAN]

Easy solution no Avatars you don't like to bad see ya.

 

[Zee09]

Ditto

@Elkins45
Much respect ..... so was my Georgia

 

[walterjay]

And my Zoey

 

[slick1]

I'm glad I'm not the only one experiencing this problem

I was wondering if Bob was being a bit heavy handed.

Forums that censor too heavily don't have anything interesting in them.

Generally it's easier to go somewhere else with less censorship.

You end up losing a lot of your specialists.

 

[slick1]

"...must comply with our Avatar and Standard of Conduct policies;"

Can someone supply a link to the Avatar and Standard of Conduct policies.

Using the search feature only provided a lot of links discussing avatars.

 

[dnewton3]

"...must comply with our Avatar and Standard of Conduct policies;"

Can someone supply a link to the Avatar and Standard of Conduct policies.

Using the search feature only provided a lot of links discussing avatars.

Uhhhhhh ...
They're right in this same sub-forum.

In fact, if you had also quoted the end of that sentence, the answer to your question was already included in the PM I had previously sent you ...

... but it must comply with our Avatar and Standard of Conduct policies; found in the User Information section of the site.

 

[dnewton3]

I'm glad I'm not the only one experiencing this problem

I was wondering if Bob was being a bit heavy handed.

Forums that censor too heavily don't have anything interesting in them.

Generally it's easier to go somewhere else with less censorship.

You end up losing a lot of your specialists.

I'm not sure what "problem" you're experiencing, but if it's that your avatar (which you stated you cannot even remember what it was) was removed, it was removed because it was a violation of our policy.

If you think this is "heavy handed", then you apparently didn't fully read and comprehend the legal issues we face regarding avatars and other images. This is being done as necessary for the site's survival.

Forums which don't censor well end up with tons of bickering, name calling, taunts and lose all sense of direction. They crumble under the weight of their wild-west mentality, and end up failing. BITOG, OTOH, continues to add members and grow; a true unique experience when social media platforms typically rule over websites. Our rules and policies contribute to our strong search engine presence results. We get the metrics every month; we're doing just fine.

If it's easier for you to go somewhere else, then that is your choice. We will not compromise our standards to fit your desires.

On the contrary, the "specialists" who are truly interested in tribology topics will stick around, as will those who want to learn from them. If someone is here because they cherish their avatar more than the knowledge base, then they're in the wrong place to begin with.

 

[goblin]

Without wanting to turn the thread in a different direction (I wouldn't be able to if I wanted to, but I genuinely don't want to ) - from the information revealed by the forum management on the reasons for this happening, it sounds to me that the forum is being targeted.

I am no pro, nor a business strategist, but another comment above really clicks: if some predatory entity is trying to hostile takeover the forum, I wouldn't put it beyond them to go in precisely such a pincer movement - pressure on the current ownership to spoil the ownership experience, and overall degradation of the forum experience on the other, graciously passing the blame on the mods and management.

Forums are communities, and communities' interpersonal relationships in a text-based media are heavily dependent on visual cues. We very quickly learn to recognize other forum members by the images we associate with them. For example, I have caught myself in the past unconsciously disliking forum members in forum A because they had the same avatar as forum members from forum B that I had arguments with. I recognize members XYZ by catching their avatar with my peripheral vision, not reading their names.

We're all adults and we'll survive self-discipline, but to me personally - I have to insist that dropping avatars to generic ones or none at all is not trivial. It would be a substantial "quality of forum life" matter.

 

[dkryan]

Hmmmm……..

My “quality of life,” BITOG or otherwise, is not negatively affected because we have generic avatars.

Sure, I want my two previous avatars that were sent to the “penalty box” back. But, if it’s a choice between having those avatars on this site versus BITOG being sued out of existence, I will take the generic avatar and hopefully continue to learn useful information about a lot of things automotive related (and some non-automotive related).

Yes, I find the generic avatars boring, but personally I’m more focused on receiving constructive feedback and accurate information and advice I can use rather than who has the “prettiest picture” next to their forum name.