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Do you join sites with an over-abundance of gifs?


Morrigan
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Not only do sites like that load slow but for me, depending on the gif, it can be nausea inducing to see just a billion gifs especially as you're trying to read.

 

Gifs are fun and can add flavor in some cases (I love gif wars and I love to put gifs in posts here on the Initiative) but seeing them on every forum down the whole page makes me cringe. I normally don't stick on sites like that. It normally tells me, for the most part, that the community is more based around the playbys they are spewing out than the actual stories that they are spinning because if there are gifs everywhere (especially on post pages).... then reading isn't the priority.

 

Frustrated Emperors New Groove GIF

 

So questions:

How do you deal with gifs on your communities?

How do you feel about sites with tons of gifs strewn all over the place?

If you like the site, how do you ignore the gifs to keep from getting a headache?

 

 

How do you deal with gifs on your communities? For me I only allow gifs for secondary images that aren't displayed as the primary player/character image. This is especially important for

How do you feel about sites with tons of gifs strewn all over the place? Like I said, they tend to make me sick and are very distracting. I don't normally stick to these sites.

If you like the site, how do you ignore the gifs to keep from getting a headache? I close them. I don't have time to be annoyed by billions of gifs or to find them for my character so I can fit in.

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How do you deal with gifs on your communities?
We have two methods of dealing with it: gifs are not used on the main page of the forum and are not permitted in avatars (which also limits them on the main page due to last-poster images). However, we also have an accessibility menu that allows you to pause gifs if it is still a problem for people due to the fact that some people have issues related to nausea, etc.
 

How do you feel about sites with tons of gifs strewn all over the place? 
I'm not a huge fan of them everywhere. I don't mind them in member lists/profiles but I don't like them in every threat via avatars or strewn all over the front page of the site, etc. I even try to limit the number of affiliates we have that are gifs.
 

If you like the site, how do you ignore the gifs to keep from getting a headache?
I don't, I just close the site (or check around for some sort of accessibility option to pause them) if they are causing me problems. If that's what the community likes, cool, but it means that community is not one for me.

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I think that a lot of them just look really cluttered and untidy. So far it hasn't been an issue at all at boards I've belonged to, but I've seen it while advertising and it's always a big detractor. The most recent board I called home prior to making my own board required that all mini profiles include an animated gif (to the point that your application would be pended if you used a still image) and that level of preoccupation with appearances has always seemed absurd to me. 

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1 minute ago, Alea said:

The most recent board I called home prior to making my own board required that all mini profiles include an animated gif (to the point that your application would be pended if you used a still image) and that level of preoccupation with appearances has always seemed absurd to me. 

 

This seems so ridiculous to me 1. because not everyone can handle looking at gifs and 2. because not every playby has good quality images for gifs. Then again, I don't use playbys that are super mainstream all of the time (some I do, some I don't).

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20 minutes ago, NyxDarklore said:

 

This seems so ridiculous to me 1. because not everyone can handle looking at gifs and 2. because not every playby has good quality images for gifs. Then again, I don't use playbys that are super mainstream all of the time (some I do, some I don't).

 

That was part of my issue too. I know how to make gifs and when worse came to worst, I was usually able to download some kind of youtube video to make something work, but it was often just something low quality and easy just because I was required to. For example, I really dislike using interview videos for gifs because they so rarely suit the characters (in so much that they're obviously interviews, done on a sound stage or red carpet event, etc., where my character would never be) but for one particular playby that's all I was able to find at the right age for the character. I was at the board for almost five years before it shut down, but that as always one of the most ridiculous, distasteful rules in my opinion.

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I know I'm just old and cranky, but I really don't like gifs in posts, or like... on the site in general. I find them really distracting. The idea of REQUIRING them is blowing my mind.  For my own site, we don't allow them in signatures or avatars. The jury is out on posts themselves, because it's still brand new, but this was one of my first absurd demands. 

 

My way of "dealing with" a site that has an obnoxious (to me) number of gifs is to... not. I don't think a site that bugs me that much visually would be a good fit for me in general. Am I maybe missing out? Possible! But I think that's fine with me, haha. I'm not so keen to join a new site I'd put up with that. 

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No, and I also avoid using gifs whenever possible. It slows my crotchety computer down and, frankly, it's an eyesore to see so many moving images, one on top of the other. If I see a site that utilizes gifs in their board descriptions, I quickly leave the site. As other people have pointed out, it's also a source of distraction for people that have trouble focusing. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

We added an accessibility widget to our site that will actually pause the gifs (among a ton of other cool stuff like font size changes, dyslexic friendly font).

The one we use is called UserWay, we just have the free version. It works pretty well and I highly recommend it. I hope more sites use something like it. (I apologize, I'm not skilled at coding so I can't really help with the setup.) 

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  • 1 month later...

NOPE.  Not a loading issue for me, just a preference. Aesthetically, I find it distracting, and from a practical standpoint, I hate the idea of having to find gifs for all my characters (in communities that require this).  Occasionally in the cbox? Sure. On a Discord server? You do you. On the index and/or in every thread? HECK NO.

 

We actually label some of our OOC chat threads as image-heavy so that those who do have slow loads know to steer clear, though. 

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I'm a bit mixed on the subject. Personally, I prefer having gifs on site, but not in the posts themselves. Instead, I like them when they're included as mini-avatars or something similar to that sort of thing. They can actually help me stay focused too as I have a terrible attention span. It gives my eyes something shiny and moving to watch, while never bringing me too far from the site so the post gets done faster. 

 

However if there are an overabundance of gifs or one in every post, I probably won't stick around. That's just too much movement and I'll never be able to focus on writing properly if my eyes are being constantly drawn away.

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I think part of this depends on what the overall site looks like. I sometimes see sites with lots of gifs that aren't overwhelming, and some that are IMMEDIATLY overwhelming. I like the option to make them stop though, that's fantastic and I clearly need to look into accessibility widgets.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I meeeaaannnn . . .

 

I'm not afraid of animated GIFs. I'm a designer/AD professionally. I know better than to think they're universally Great or Terrible within the context of forum-based RPGs, but I also recognize how problematic they can be from an aesthetic and technical standpoint, and I'm not eager to see a bunch of them interfering with the user experience for forum-based players.

 

In my current game, I haven't fostered much of a culture around them but I personally toss them into some character requests and suggest a spot for one in the miniprofile. The spot where a GIF can be placed in account miniprofiles is hidden unless someone hovers/clicks to reveal it, which means it wouldn't normally create visual noise to distract folks who are reading through a thread. A still image can just as easily fill that spot, or folks can leave it blank entirely. The idea is that there are opportunities to use them sparingly for whatever purpose a little animation or looping footage might serve. I wouldn't personally toss one into a thread, where folks are trying to read hundreds of words at a time and focus on formulating a response.

 

 

Sites with a bajillion GIFs everywhere are a nightmare, and I know it. I don't want to deal with frequent loading issues or animations that will interfere with my ability to just write, so I'll personally avoid joining any RPGs littered with them. If someone wants to include them in posts sometimes in my game, I'll probably find it annoying, but I can get past that. It's the games with animated GIFs on every post and page that I'm likely to avoid.

 

There are too many options out there for me to compromise on this one. I won't find a clever workaround. I'll just look elsewhere if a game is poorly designed to the point of really being bothersome.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

How do you deal with gifs on your communities? 

We keep them to a minimum. They can be irritating to the eye- and in my case head. They give me migraines in excess. Sure one or two are cute- but an over abundance is not worth all the excedrin in the universe to me.

 

 

 

How do you feel about sites with tons of gifs strewn all over the place? Close em and move on. If I am looking to write somewhere and there is a bunch-I leave. Once I see them on the front page its not worth it. I would be reading with a migraine and that is not fun at all.

 

 

If you like the site, how do you ignore the gifs to keep from getting a headache? IF the site seems worth it I try to close them. But honestly I usually just go elsewhere

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A bunch of gifs wont stop me from joining a site I like. However I would prefer there were not an overabundance of gifs.

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How do you deal with gifs on your communities?

 

If I'm a staff member it's limited to sub-sections such as application, character development threads, and so on. If I'm a member - I usually don't stay. Not because of nausea, mind you, but because of the fact that I personally don't use super popular PB's a lot of the time. So I don't usually have access to tons of ready-made gifs nor do I feel like putting in the effort to create my own out of youtube interviews. Plus I just don't always like clashing medias --- but that's another argument.

 

How do you feel about sites with tons of gifs strewn all over the place?

 

To each their own, I guess.

 

If you like the site, how do you ignore the gifs to keep from getting a headache?

 

I feel like this goes back to point one, really.

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