Munir wrote:Can the moderator explain to "ignorant" people like me what the abbreviation QR means?
BTW, after many attempts by this novice to create an avatar, it was judged to be distracting and was deleted. Why would a wagging dog be distracting, and distracting to whom? A cat?
The suggestion to have the moderator (or the advisory board) propose acceptable avatars that pass all the rigorous criteria to choose from is a good idea.
Sure. A QR (Quick Response) code is a barcode in the form of a square. The bottom line is that you can download an app to your smartphone to scan it. It's useful just about anywhere; such as storing contact info, linking to a product's website, or receiving promotional offers. Here's a tutorial:
QR code
I originally had a QR code as my avatar because I thought it looked cool and was "techy." Since others wanted to use one, I removed mine to avoid confusion. I really was looking to change it and this was a good opportunity.
(Update: I changed the color to match the text under the avatar - it provides a better balance.)
As to the animation (wagging dog), the guidelines are set by the site owners, Alex Frakt and mingstar. They want this forum to maintain a low-key simple user interface. Part of that approach is to remove all distracting formatting in the avatars and signatures. I understand that animations are used in many forums, but that is not the case here. Here's the user profile guidelines:
Avatars - Avatars may be deleted by a moderator or site admin at any time if it results in multiple complaints from your fellow members, if it duplicates an existing member's avatar, or if it includes any of the following:
- animations
- ads or commercial messages
- misleading photos
- offensive or disturbing images
Signatures, Location, Website, etc. - To keep the forums readable and the signal to noise ratio high, all profile information, including Signatures and Locations must be free of commercial messages, non-controversial, short, and normal text only (no external links, no images, no line breaks, and no distracting formatting). Locations must be physical locations such as city, state, country or region. The Website field may only be used for your blog or other personal website.
The above is for content. The avatar limitations are:
Minimum Width x Height in pixels: 20 X 20 px
Maximum Width x Height in pixels: 100 X 100 px
Maximum file size: 8192 bytes
Acceptable avatars: Unless you find one that's against the guidelines, I would just scan the threads for examples.
IMHO, having a "standard" set of avatars would limit creativity. Note that the policy also says "no duplicates" which makes this a moot point.