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GIF Advertisments as a Prospective Member


StormyWays13
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GIF Advertisments  

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You'd have to give an example of subtle @Stat I do know there was a member forever ago that used a gif as an avatar here on the Initiative and I didn't realize it until they changed it to a new gif avatar.

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@Morrigan, something like the flixel examples on this article (there are four gifs in that page, one of them not so subtle, so be careful before clicking!). 

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They aren't particularly subtle though. They are still moving really fast there's just NOT a lot moving and the top problems with gifs are things like:

  • Things moving really fast.
  • Jumping around (normally because most gifs are clips of something).
  • Flashing and poor transition choices.
  • Size to download (gifs are NOT mobile friendly).

 

In the end using a gif, at least to me, is just a poor choice and detracts from what we're here for, reading/writing. I think if it draws your attention away it can cause people to skip items to try to get away from a gif.

I actually recently worked on a possible gif advertisement for my own site and it was subtle (at least compared to most that I've seen) but even using smaller versions and compressed versions of the gif I couldn't get the size under a meg (and I'm talking about on my little tiny 88x31 button) it was pretty and pretty cool but ended up being impractical.

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I tend to avoid sites with GIF adverts because they’re usually overly flashy and often painful for me to look at as I tend to have sensitive eyes (and poor vision) so it tends to really mess with me. Not only that though, I feel that GIF adverts are often done in poor taste. I don’t need the image to be flashing, moving or jumping around for me to find it interesting.

 

As a side note, this is goes for sites with GIF affiliate buttons, avatars and signatures.

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I've never really had a preference. It's all about the content of the site for me. What I don't like are all these sites where absolutely everything is moving or sparkling or flashing or raining down over the page, and sometimes that's what an animated ad entails. Not always, just sometimes. I don't use gif ads, myself, but I do use gif avatars and very occasionally gif signatures. I think they're fun and can express a character's demeanor/mood better than a still image. I don't find animated avatars distracting, unless they are flashing super fast or gaudy (the ones with sparkly glitter words... ugh... I hate those kind). I'm also not much for visiting sites on mobile. On the rare occasion I do check my sites on my phone, I'm on wifi so I don't worry about data.

 

However... After reading through this thread, I am reconsidering using gifs altogether. I figured there were people out there that aren't fans of gifs, but I never thought anti-gif was the majority, considering how ridiculously popular those 'everything is in motion' boards are. Now that I know people find it so off-putting, I'm wondering if that's why people are passing us over. Maybe they visit and check out the threads and see the animated avatars and say 'nope!'

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Don't really care to be honest. The topic description of the ad is usually what draws me in rather than anything else. If the genre is something that interests me then I don't really pay any attention to the ad, I just click and check out the site itself. 

Edited by Rivfader
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I'd honestly never given it much thought! A good-looking image advert is just as compelling as a gif one, in my opinion, but I don't dislike gifs. I'd never really considered the idea that some people had such strong feelings for them one way or the other. I suppose it does signal that the admins/graphic designers of the site put in some level of effort to look a certain way, but I feel the same about intricate images. A cluttered image gives me the same impression as a moderately flashy gif, and I don't think either would give me an immediate 'will not join' reaction.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I really don't see how it would ever be a deciding factor, for me. It's an ad. The image file type doesn't matter. An animation doesn't really have any relationship to whether or not the game would work for me. It doesn't have anything to do with the game's rules, genre, players, etc. 

 

Worst case: I'm a motion graphics designer by day, so maybe I'm snobby if your animation is horrific or the GIF is super compressed. That doesn't mean anything about the game, though, and a good administrator isn't necessarily great at marketing or design.

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GIFs give me none of the assumptions mentioned by others in this thread, and having used GIFs as adverts for my sites in the past I can also say that those assumptions are just that- assumptions. Not all sites that use gifs in their adverts are focused only on graphics or shipping; in my case, I used a gif to attract to my SW site because the site itself wasn't designed in any particularly flashy way, but instead in a very practical way. The site itself wasn't very eye-catching, so I felt the ad needed to be.

 

An interesting gif might make me click on it to follow through to the site, but the gif itself isn't going to be the determining factor in whether or not I join LOL.

 

Also would like to note @Snickerdoodle that this is a thread that's only 2 pages long- this doesn't accurate depict the "majority" of how people in the RP community feel about GIFs at all.  (Though that is not to say that the opinions of the people who dislike gifs should not be considered! Great points are being raised.)

Edited by Josie
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I answered no because I rarely click on Gifs because I simply cannot read them.  On the rare occasions that the site link is added under the button or a description is under it, I might go browse the site. I don't hate sites that use gif advertisements, but if I go to the site and it has lots of moving parts - it's unlikely that I'll ask to join.

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Someone somewhere went to sleep and dreamed us all alive.
Dreams get pushed around a lot, and I doubt if we'll survive.
We won't get to wake up, dreams were born to disappear.
And I'm pretty sure that none of us are here.
~ None of Us Here by Jim Stafford ~

 

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