Hi. Great work on getting the forum back up and running in such a short time. Quick question. My avatar has vanished. How can I get it back please.
Words of one syllable please. Thanks
Mel
Words of one syllable please. Thanks
Mel
Avatar
- Thread starter Mel
- Start date
SHaines
Staff member
Welcome back! If your avatar didn't make the move with you, you'll want to add it back to your account on the new forums. The steps should be pretty painless, so let me walk you through it.
- Click your username at the top-right of the forums
- Hover over your current avatar (in your case, the letter M)
- Click Edit
- Select Browse and find the file you want to use on your PC.
- If you don't have the image handy, try finding it via Google, if it's an image from online. If it's a personal image, you will need to track it down to upload it again.
Hobbyt600
BANNED
Raywood
The reason why your avatar is squashed is because your original image is wider than it is tall, but the area that the avatar occupies is square. So the forum’s software attempts to convert a rectangle into a square.
If the image chosen as avatar is not square, the result seems to be ‘squashing’ or cropping and I’m not sure if there is any simple way to overcome this. The simplest solution is just to choose as an avatar an image that is square to begin with. There seems to be no size limitations for the file that is to be chosen for an avatar.
A file to be attached to a posting is evidently restricted to a maximum size of 2Mb.
The reason why your avatar is squashed is because your original image is wider than it is tall, but the area that the avatar occupies is square. So the forum’s software attempts to convert a rectangle into a square.
If the image chosen as avatar is not square, the result seems to be ‘squashing’ or cropping and I’m not sure if there is any simple way to overcome this. The simplest solution is just to choose as an avatar an image that is square to begin with. There seems to be no size limitations for the file that is to be chosen for an avatar.
A file to be attached to a posting is evidently restricted to a maximum size of 2Mb.
Last edited:
SHaines
Staff member
That is the case. Just for visibility into the reasoning, the avatar resolution is, in general, fairly low. This works out for forums because the avatar is just designed to help identify a person within their community.
If we had folks using very high resolution images, they'd get no added benefit from the massive file size, plus we'd have to dedicate actual art storage space to holding massive files. In time, that makes things more difficult as data tables being read in ten years will be much bigger than they are now, so normal operations would become slower (since it takes longer to access all data).
So, we just keep a respectable file size as the maximum. That said, I can help format images for folks who want to use specific pictures for avatars, but can't get them to show properly.
In this specific case the issue is exactly as Hobbyt600 called out, with the image needing to be square. If a larger format version of the image is available, Raywood, feel free to send it over to me and I'll do my best. The version currently used is a very small file size, so it'll be tough to properly edit it.
Hobbyt600
BANNED
Regarding the 2Mb limit, I was actually referring to files for attaching to/inserting in a posting rather than to ‘avatar’ files.
It is certainly possible to rework a rectangular image so that it will display accurately as an avatar without squashing or cropping.
My (temporary) avatar is the result of taking Raywood’s squashed avatar and ‘squaring’ it. As will be apparent, the image now displays properly.
If Raywood wants to replace his squashed image with my squared version, he is very welcome to it.
It is certainly possible to rework a rectangular image so that it will display accurately as an avatar without squashing or cropping.
My (temporary) avatar is the result of taking Raywood’s squashed avatar and ‘squaring’ it. As will be apparent, the image now displays properly.
If Raywood wants to replace his squashed image with my squared version, he is very welcome to it.
Attachments
Last edited:
Hobbyt600
BANNED
OK, but if you want your avatar to look ‘normal', it should be a simple matter to replace the present squashed variant with the avatar.png file in posting #7 above.
(My own avatar has now been changed, so there will be no potential confusion with yours.)
(My own avatar has now been changed, so there will be no potential confusion with yours.)
Facebook
Twitter