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Circles vs Squares: The Most Pressing Migration Concern
- Thread starter AngerDanger
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I haven't voted because I don't really care either way. I've been visiting these forums since long before I ever signed up, and have been a member for a few years now. Since I've always read what other people have to say way more than I ever posted, I still hadn't accumulated enough posts under the old system to have an avatar, so I benefitted regardless.
Either way, most people will adapt in due time.
Either way, most people will adapt in due time.
A perfectly valid approach! I think you misunderstood my size comment, but in any case, I agree with nearly everything you're saying.
I'm simply looking at it from the other direction—that the purpose of forum avatars is a user experience function: to tell people apart and spot individual posters at a glance. Directly related to the purpose and usage of a forum.
Individual expression is a fun secondary purpose which I enjoy very much. (Individual expression IN your posts is clearly a primary purpose of a forum; while expressing yourself without limits placed on signatures, or limits places on avatars, is secondary. It's metadata.)
It would be VERY good, in some ways, to have NO limits on the shape, size, or position of signatures and avatars. The ideal: every post you make fits a template you have created, with your own colors and font sizes and placement of elements. A thread would be like a stack of mini-webpages. It would be awesome--albeit extreme.
Another extreme would be to have only posts and usernames--no avatars, no signatures. Many forums are that way. I find that extreme cold and boring.
But the current system is a happy medium I can be on board with--and I like the resulting UI experience: looking at a bunch of consistent circles. (People can and will use other shapes. But they'll be rare, not a constant disruption of anything important. Not a problem in need of a solution. The current "mostly circles" result seems fine to me.)
I understand that you may not care, but (gentle hint) there's something untrustworthy about your avatar: a green alien hiding its back feet.
When a human being can't maintain eye contact during a challenging conversion, I become suspicious; is hiding of the eyes a sign that the person is concealing something? Is what's spoken by that person not entirely truthful?
I'm the same way about green four-legged aliens not keeping all four feet in my field of vision throughout a conversation. Is the author truly a four-legged alien from Long Island and Houston?
Jun 8, 2007
Hahaha thanks for the giggle. Though I do agree with the bolded statement.
Is it not possible for the coders at XenForo to make the placeholder dynamic and adaptive to the shape the user wants it to be at any point? Circle when you want a circle, square when you want a square?
And animated GIFs seem to be distracting at times. I have, on multiple occasions, been distracted by that moving bug animation. I think XenForo's philosophy is towards a simpler, no-nonsense design than a design with all frills, and hence.
And animated GIFs seem to be distracting at times. I have, on multiple occasions, been distracted by that moving bug animation. I think XenForo's philosophy is towards a simpler, no-nonsense design than a design with all frills, and hence.
From what I've been seeing, I think a lot of members have taken to the circular avatars and really made some artistic and well thought out 'Tars. I was against them as I mentioned in the past but I think at this point its a nice addition and a great change.
I spent three days with avatars suppressed probably everywhere except the user's profile page.
Then, a short while with a different browser. Seeing all the colours, shapes and overlays – after the break – was really weird.
In retrospect: when I chose to view avatars, the preference for squareness was probably hand-in-hand with a preference for things being well-proportioned, clean lines and so on. With the following screenshot as an example –
![2015-06-14 23-41-54 screenshot.png]( "2015-06-14 23-41-54 screenshot.png")
– I can imagine something discreet and square in that free space.
A big round avatar of someone else's face, in my face? No thanks
Then, a short while with a different browser. Seeing all the colours, shapes and overlays – after the break – was really weird.
In retrospect: when I chose to view avatars, the preference for squareness was probably hand-in-hand with a preference for things being well-proportioned, clean lines and so on. With the following screenshot as an example –
– I can imagine something discreet and square in that free space.
A big round avatar of someone else's face, in my face? No thanks
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I assume you mean something like this. An option for smaller avatars on threads actually isn't a bad idea, and is achievable through a little CSS tweaking.
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@grahamperrin, on a note somewhat related to your post, I'm actually starting to favor browsing threads with generic avatars for users who don't have one. This makes for a more consistent size of posts, since every person (including yourself) has an avatar.
The generic avatar I use is custom and mostly transparent with a border around it, not the ugly gray one the forum currently uses.
The generic avatar I use is custom and mostly transparent with a border around it, not the ugly gray one the forum currently uses.
I don't care either way since I don't have an avatar. However, if I was planning a site like this, I would go with the square it is easier for users to work with and not feel their image is slighted by a circular crop. It is not always about how it looks but how it functions for end users. If someone absolutely likes a circular crop, they can always put a circular frame within the square.
I can understand that. but I think that's more about sizes within the metadata areas to the left of posts.
For me the overall consistency is greatest when there's least likelihood of inconsistent depths of space beneath the content of each post.
I get that. For you it's not about the total size of the post or the user info area being inconsistent, but the amount of wasted space underneath it.
I assume you have signatures turned off and the join date/location info hidden as well?
In lieu of any substantial statistical analysis, I'll admit that I'm fairly surprised by the results. When this poll was first started, it showed almost unanimous preference for square avatars, and votes for circular avatars climbed up alongside votes for square. They were almost equal for a time, but the gap has since widened slightly.
Surprise how? Now that the migration has taken place, more people are getting used to circles, more people are choosing/optimizing their avatars for circles.
These factors aside however, circles are more restrictive and less aesthetically pleasing (at least to me). And avatars can be chosen/optimized for squares as well.
I find it surprising when people prefer restriction over choice. The common rational seems to be that restriction leads to UI consistency, which makes me tempted to write a script that replaces avatars with the average of the colors present in their original images.
Sort of.
I'm most interested in reading content, not what's to the left.
Yes.
If there's a way to do so, it should be under XenForo Tips and Tricks – thanks.
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How about a Yosemite style frosted glass effect on all the avatars? Or better yet no custom avatars at all?
I agree, avatars shouldn't be consistent and restrictive. They should be unique and open.
It's possible with CSS, I can post it there if you'd like.
How about a Yosemite style frosted glass effect on all the avatars? Or better yet no custom avatars at all?
Bahaha, I think the frosted effect might be a bit above my skill level, but until then, I've dramatically improved UI consistency with JS:
So have I, with a small amount of CSS:
I'm sure if MacRumors switches to a Yosemite-style blur for the avatars in the next forum migration, most people will adapt in due time.
Name: AngerDanger.
Avatar/face: pale blue, rectangular.
Eyes: green:
Hair: green, short, flat-top.
Profile: viewed from the side, it may appear
as if he's blowing a small kiss to the right.
Cheek colour: blushing a little,
from being caught blowing a kiss.
That might be a bit of an overstatement given that it's one line of code (presuming you don't account for multiple browsers) in a CSS selection you probably already had. I'm envious of your solution's elegance. But it's a small price to pay to live in the future, and with such a uniform and blurry UI, I can assure you that is exactly where we are.
![477903-4c5abf01fefd2e82b77ecc8cfa3229f8.jpg]()
Name: AngerDanger.
Avatar/face: pale blue, rectangular.
Eyes: green:
Hair: green, short, flat-top.
Profile: viewed from the side, it may appear
as if he's blowing a small kiss to the right.
Cheek colour: blushing a little,
from being caught blowing a kiss.
Hmm, you raise an interesting point; perhaps this tweak still allows for too much individualism. I mean, that's me to a tee.