My Penguin to remain Static.

[caddmannq]

A good friend recently asked me what I thought of his new avatar. I thought it was very nice. Like a lot of avatars here it was an animated gif too. Or maybe a jpeg.

And I like them. They're fun.

But don't all these animated avatars create a problem for people on a slow connection? Am I storing a bazillion downloaded animated gifs in my internet temp files? I've got DSL at work, but at home, I'm on dialup. Even then, it's fast dialup. I'm getting 48k+ right now. But what about those members (especially new members) who come here on a slow dialup, because that's all they can get or afford? Will they come here and think, "Gee, this place loads sloooow."?

Yeah, the avatars are nice. Espcially if you pick a recognisable one and don't go changing it all the time. They help you quickly spot the people you want to see, (and those you'd rather ignore.)

But for myself, I refuse to get an animated avatar until the telecos start providing this nationwide broadband that they promissed Congress they'd deliver just as soon as Congress relaxed the laws in favor of the telecos. It ain't here yet.

So really, this is a rant about the telecos. Where's that broadband? Whaddaya mean it's too expensive to upgrade the system? What did you guys do with all the windfall profits from those years when you had a monopoly?

[Thud]

I'm stuck with dialup, too, but the animated gifs don't slow down the pages any. I guess mine's pretty fast, though...normally 46-52kbps.

Normally, when I open up a topic, the text loads almost immediately, then the graphics come up pretty much all at once. That includes all avatars, and even the smilies. I doubt if it would be much fun on 33.6 or less, though! But at least the text loads up quick.

More a broadband rant than an avatar rant.

Any case, all avatars, animated or static, need to be below 10KB in size. So while a static one may vary in size from 2KB to 10KB an animated one, per force, will be below 10KB.

What slows the page loading are the ads/pop ups and the number of users connected to the server concurrently. If 2,000 members, for example, log on, TECHIMO or any site will become slow no matter how large the pipe.

But, yeah, broadband needs to get less expensive. The trend has started with Verizon giving me 4 months free DSL while I already have Road Runner Cable. And the prices are falling atleast on the East coast-around $40 per month - I think they'll fall another 25% in the next 12 months but then unless they upgrade their systems, the service will slow down as more and more people log on.

[Martoch]

I like your penguin just the way he is now Cadd!
Plus like you said, avatars help you avoid certain people...like that guy with the exploding monkey head!

Some avatars just don't need animatin'. I remember when I was the avatar changing champion of TechIMO county...until Knothead & CrystalDragon created this one...it's here to stay!

[howste]

What do you think, Shahani and Martoch... Maybe we could animate his avatar in such a way that he can't resist using it...

I think I'm the biggest loser in this. My telco counts downloads AND uploads into our capped allowance. I haven't yet verified it, but I think surfing TechIMO uses WAY too much allowance mainly because of the pop-ups. I may have to turn them off to survive my monthly allowance. Don't want to, 'cause I know they are there to help TechIMO stay alive.

It's a pain, this capped broadband.

Cheers
Mick

[Warthog]

I'm stuck with dialup, too, but the animated gifs don't slow down the pages any. I guess mine's pretty fast, though...normally 46-52kbps.

Same situation for me.

Warthog

[OuTpaTienT]

Since I've been using Mozilla I haven't seen a single pop-up. Might want to consider it Mick.

However, if surfing web pages (here or anywhere) is pushing you over your byte allotment for the month, then you need to seriously consider why you are doing business with them. I could understand if you're downloading tons of files or mp3s or stuff like that...but just surfing web pages should not even bring you near whatever your allotment is. That's ridiculous. I'd rather be on dial-up than put up with that.

Plus Mick, I believe all web browsers have an option to turn off images all together.

[originel]

i'm changing mine, but hopefully only once. mine looks too much like cadd's.

[OuTpaTienT]

Yes! It does! I always have to do a double-take to see which of you it is.