Avatar Abuse By Mods?

[RobWin]

There has been a recent, rampant abuse of the Avatar System here in the forums of late and I'm sure that I am not the only one who has noticed this either.

It has clearly been out in the open and for a lack of a better phrase, actually thrown in our faces here!

Now some of you may say, what's the big deal? Well, I'm glad you asked. It is purely a reality viewpoint in a virtual world as one example I can give you here for simplicity sake:

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, especially a virtual woman with the power of a password at her fingertips. She logged into her husband’s Maple Story account and killed his avatar. He went to the police and she ended up in the big house.

Now that was just merely one example of many that you can read about nowadays on many virtual boards and news headlines going around.

The one's I want to discuss here, I will list below as Exhibit A and Exhibit B as follows:


Max's' Avatar

Exhibit A

277px × 175px

Attachment 21984


Exhibit B

Webzcas' Avatar

300px × 243px

Attachment 21985


Those two examples above are the blatant "Avatar Abuse" that I am referring to here. TWICE the size of the normal avatar allowed for the lowly pheasants of this community. (That's the rest of us)

Squires and Dukes they both are for sure, I am not arguing that point, we all can agree on that one I am sure.

But still, it boggles the mind how seriously people take this avatar business. When major companies like Spacely Sprockets or Cogswell Cogs encourage their partners to take part in Second Life (SL) by creating a partners only "island", all I see is a transparent attempt to gain points for being "hip" and "with it". Now don't get me wrong, online video games are great. MMORPGs are insanely popular as most of us know very well. But trying to legitimize it by saying that it's for business purposes? Give me a break.....

Actually, I'm not really sure if that is Maxs' and Webzcas' intention at all but whether it is, or is not, is of no concern at this juncture. No one in their right mind uses avatars for business purposes anyway, at least not in this virtual reality world we all find ourselves in here. But I'll also be the first to admit that it's a great chance for partners to meet other partners in scheduled events.

The problem with that though is the fact that neither Max nor Webzcas ever schedules any events for us all to attend here. Some of you are probably thinking, yes...you are correct, I remember no events here either!

But when you really get down to the nuts and bolts of it all, who's going to take anyone seriously that spend their off time negotiating contracts for Spacely Sprockets or Cogswell Cogs or even having (no pun intended) animated business discussions when it's through a cartoon doppelganger? I mean really!

If this is the future of business, then you can count me out. And if arresting people for killing other peeps avatars is the future of police work, then ION's Criminal Minds is going to get really boring fast!

Now to get to the main point...why are we lowly forum pheasants limited to a 150 x 150 avatar when the Dukes and Earls are allowed much, much larger ones?

I would like to take this opportunity to lodge a formal complaint here...
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[bb28]

Gee with my 4th grade education I had to read that twice.

Well Laurie is going to send me one of her happy pills, how about you sending me some of the smoke you were puffing on when you wrote that?

[maxd]

I'll dig up the details -- avvy size is dependent on seniority AFAIK -- but I just like dicking around with them. They're the forum equivalent of a mood ring for me, that's why I do it.

Now I admit I have taken a wee bit of liberty in that what was originally granted to my 'Indentured Servant' status here at CM was an avvy 300x300. Just so happens I don't fancy tall avvys very much because I think it makes the post header too top heavy. Turns our 175 px tall is about right, given the text on the right which I have no control over, so I figured "ok, what if we keep it within the original __area__ limits?" IOW, 300x300 px a total of 90,000 square px. If we cut the height down to 175 that means we can go ... 514 px wide and still be within the area limits.

Turns out 514 wide is pretty ugly so i'm trying to keep it at 300 wide or less, with occasional exceptions.

Besides, I like the wider look on the avvys, uses up some of that dead space up there in the header and gives one some creative room to play around with.

So yeah, guilty as charged: it's avvy abuse and I'm enjoying it. Next?

Later:

Nope, turns out I was dead wrong. This is from the User Group Permissions page:

[RobWin]

I'll dig up the details -- avvy size is dependent on seniority AFAIK -- but I just like dicking around with them. They're the forum equivalent of a mood ring for me, that's why I do it.

Now I admit I have taken a wee bit of liberty in that what was originally granted to my 'Indentured Servant' status here at CM was an avvy 300x300. Just so happens I don't fancy tall avvys very much because I think it makes the post header too top heavy. Turns our 175 px tall is about right, given the text on the right which I have no control over, so I figured "ok, what if we keep it within the original __area__ limits?" IOW, 300x300 px a total of 90,000 square px. If we cut the height down to 175 that means we can go ... 514 px wide and still be within the area limits.

Turns out 514 wide is pretty ugly so i'm trying to keep it at 300 wide or less, with occasional exceptions.

Besides, I like the wider look on the avvys, uses up some of that dead space up there in the header and gives one some creative room to play around with.

So yeah, guilty as charged: it's avvy abuse and I'm enjoying it. Next?

OK...but what about the events? ...that was a multi-faceted post ya know. Hope I was clear regarding the business aspects as well. I do understand though if you don't want to discuss your off time at Cogswell Cogs Max, it's probably none of our business anyway...
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[Webzcas]

In the process of changing mine. In the meantime have removed the legend that is Gary Johnson.

[RobWin]

In the process of changing mine. In the meantime have removed the legend that is Gary Johnson.

GUYS!!! I'm kidding here...it was a joke to try and lighten the mood of the forum...read my post again and in depth...I think you will get a laugh. Well, you also need to know who Spacely Sprockets and Cogswell Cogs are too though...
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[maxd]

OK...but what about the events?

Chez Max is an event-free zone.

And I have no intention of changing my avatar. Well actually I have every intention of changing my avatar, I always do, but not to conform or be a better citizen or anything. Perfectly whimsical and as the moment takes me.

Complaints are of course always welcome. Down the hall, 2nd door on the right. Flush twice, it's a long way to the 'complaints distribution center'.

[Jasminebed]

I ain't changing these purple hips for any stinking mod!

And even if I had bigger privileges, I don't need bigger hips

[Webzcas]

GUYS!!! I'm kidding here...it was a joke to try and lighten the mood of the forum...read my post again and in depth...I think you will get a laugh. Well, you also need to know who Spacely Sprockets and Cogswell Cogs are too though...
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Alas I know

But wait until you see my next avatar

[Simmo!]

They've been getting away with it for far too long IMO. So well said Robwin...

TWICE the size of the normal avatar allowed for the lowly pheasants of this community.

...you pheasant