Gif Avatar help

[cyco]

Well hello. I just created a new forums using Proboards and I love it! Its my first one in awhile and so I'm trying to pick up all of my old tricks as well as some new ones.

Anyways, this one should be fairly simple. The forums say the support gif and other file types, but when I upload a .gif as my profile avatar it doesn't move like it's supposed too. Is there some option i need to turn on or a plugin i must set up for this feature? I would love some feedback on the issue! Thank you very much.

-Cyco

[Chris]

Oct 17, 2018 16:21:31 GMT -8 cyco said:

Well hello. I just created a new forums using Proboards and I love it! Its my first one in awhile and so I'm trying to pick up all of my old tricks as well as some new ones.

Anyways, this one should be fairly simple. The forums say the support gif and other file types, but when I upload a .gif as my profile avatar it doesn't move like it's supposed too. Is there some option i need to turn on or a plugin i must set up for this feature? I would love some feedback on the issue! Thank you very much.

-Cyco

Hi Cyco,
there are imposed limits on the dimensions and file size of the image when uploading directly to Proboards, as long as you avoid surpassing those limits then your image will not get that automatic resizing treatment which usually results in stripping your animation to get the size down to acceptable levels.

Mar 25, 2018 6:29:42 GMT -8 Scott said:

Make sure the gif image you wish to use is under the 1MB size limit and does not exceed the dimensions of 150 x 150 pixels.

Apr 19, 2018 8:44:05 GMT -8 Brian said:

Animated GIFs are stripped of their animation because when an animated GIF was resized the servers had to process every single frame which was extremely taxing on GIFs with dozens of frames.

If you exceed either of those limits then you could also choose the "linked" option where the file is hosted via another site where the limitations might be a bit looser. 

[Teg]

I'd like to add, since I've tried this myself and it works, that if you input a URL instead of trying to upload the .gif file, (host it externally like with imgur or something), the animations will work. But, you do want it to be normal avatar size just to be on the safe side.

[Retread]

Oct 18, 2018 13:59:53 GMT -8 Teg said:

I'd like to add, since I've tried this myself and it works, that if you input a URL instead of trying to upload the .gif file, (host it externally like with imgur or something), the animations will work. But, you do want it to be normal avatar size just to be on the safe side.

Hello Teg.

Mostly good advice but I'd suggest using something else rather than imgur. Their TOS has some pretty harsh restrictions on hotlinking.

Oddly enough, they provide BBCode and HTML IMG links for their images but their TOS prohibits usage in forum or website delivery. I had an extended dialogue with them via email. From our extended dialogue, they don't seem bothered by the use of images hosted on their service being placed in posts but each time I asked if they would be willing to reword their TOS they changed the subject and avoided replying to the question. That's unfortunate because they are a rather popular service.

One thing they were very adamant about (in our email exchanges) was not using their service to host avatars or anything that would require large numbers of hits and the associated bandwidth.

There are several image hosts listed in the External Resources article of the Help Guide. Those hosts tend to be very forum-friendly, although we should always look at the TOS for the particular host and make sure avatars would be an acceptable use.