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Unify Avatars and User Photos


MageLeif

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Posted

I would also like to request at least the OPTION for admin to set Avatars as the default member's image across the board: Forums, blogs, chatbox, etc. You don't have to eliminate Member Photo - that can still be there, but when they comment on Blogs, Gallery, Forums, Chatbox, use avatars so in case members don't upload a photo, they don't come up as an empty person face.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Same problem here.

I don't want to confuse my users. Everybody knows what is an avatar and it is associate to an identity in a community. Now in IP Board 3.1.1 an user has two identities and the most visible is user photo.

That is the situation now.

I would like an option to only use avatar everywhere.

And i would like not to upload images to my server. Only from external urls like flickr or picasa ...

Now i am thinking about removing all photos references in the code and replace them with avatars references. And then remove the profile link which is used to add a photo.

Posted

Same problem here.



I don't want to confuse my users. Everybody knows what is an avatar and it is associate to an identity in a community. Now in IP Board 3.1.1 an user has two identities and the most visible is user photo.



That is the situation now.



I would like an option to only use avatar everywhere.



And i would like not to upload images to my server. Only from external urls like flickr or picasa ...



Now i am thinking about removing all photos references in the code and replace them with avatars references. And then remove the profile link which is used to add a photo.




If you're that set on changing it, you don't need to go through all references in the code. Just edit admin/sources/base/core.php buildProfilePhoto() to return the avatar instead of the photo.
Posted

Well, I don't have the code sitting around. ;) I just meant that instead of editing 1000 calls to buildProfilePhoto() (or where the photo is displayed to point to the avatar instead), editing this one function to return the avatar data instead of the profile data would be easier.

Posted

All I did was query avatars into the photos table, rebuilt thumbnails, modified the topic view template to show the users photo, and viola~! Unified avatars and photos, haha. I had to do this for an SMF-to-IPB conversion which worked out fine.

Posted

If you're that set on changing it, you don't need to go through all references in the code. Just edit admin/sources/base/core.php buildProfilePhoto() to return the avatar instead of the photo.




Anyone have any suggestions on how/what to change for this?


All I did was query avatars into the photos table, rebuilt thumbnails, modified the topic view template to show the users photo, and viola~! Unified avatars and photos, haha. I had to do this for an SMF-to-IPB conversion which worked out fine.



Is that something you have to do continually, or will it now happen automatically for any new member that uploads an avatar?
Posted

I'd make this a setting so people who want the current behavior could keep it. But, if the "unify avatar/profile photo" setting is enabled, then the avatar should be a cropped version of the profile photo.

That is, users would upload a full-size photo of themselves and perhaps with others in the photo and this image would be scaled down for the profile page automatically. The user should then have an opportunity to crop this uploaded photo to be used as their "avatar" or posts photo. The cropper would allow the user to select just their head and shoulders from the photo like for Gravatars. The original photo and the center of the avatar selection would be saved just in case the profile and avatar photos would need to be regenerated (possibly at a new size).

Posted

I'd make this a setting so people who want the current behavior could keep it.



I don't think I've seen even one person say that they'd like to keep it the current way, why bother having a setting if no one's going to use it?
Posted

I don't think I've seen even one person say that they'd like to keep it the current way, why bother having a setting if no one's going to use it?




Well I step up to the plate. I like to keep it the way it is but the picture be on the profile page only and the avatar everywhere else. For the reason that it depends on the community if real life images are important then where many community are not.
Posted

Will there be changes made in another, later release?




Possibly



Please!!


I don't think I've seen even one person say that they'd like to keep it the current way, why bother having a setting if no one's going to use it?



I think a setting is probably the closest thing we'll get to fixing it, since the dev team seems pretty keen to keep the current setup (there's got to be a reason they set it up this weird way, and haven't changed it yet). A compromise is our best hope. :) Plus, there's less chance of a backlash from folks who like the scattered profile picture, who are silent because they aren't even aware it's an issue for others.
Posted

Is that something you have to do continually, or will it now happen automatically for any new member that uploads an avatar?




Nope. In the postview template, I replaced the code for outputting avatars with code for photo(as everywhere else displayed the photo anyways), and then I disabled avatars.
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Nope. In the postview template, I replaced the code for outputting avatars with code for photo(as everywhere else displayed the photo anyways), and then I disabled avatars.



I did this as well, it's an easy workaround. Only downside is that there's no access to the built-in selection of avatars.
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I did this as well, it's an easy workaround. Only downside is that there's no access to the built-in selection of avatars.



Yeah. It's a real trade-off :P. Hopefully IPS will eventually unify or add in the option for the user to have a photo/avatar separate, because it should be their choice to begin with.
  • 1 month later...
Posted

I did this as well, it's an easy workaround. Only downside is that there's no access to the built-in selection of avatars.




How exactly did you do this?

I could not find any 'postview template'. Where is it located?
Posted

To me it makes absolutely no sense why there is an avatar used next to our posts but everywhere else there is this "photo" used. Most users in my forums had this "standard-image" in their profiles, because no one ever knew what the "photo vs. avatar" thing was about. (And this looked crap and inactive as everyone used the same "photo")

I think this is solved well in vBulletin. There you have an avatar that identifies you within the forums, your blog and everywhere else. But you may upload a personal photo as well, this is kept in your profile so only people who wanna know who's behind your avatar may see this.
With IPB it's a bit strange. I mean I often identify users by their more or less unique avatars. Now I go to some blog and read something interesting and there is this photo of a member I've never seen before, then I find out who it is buy hazard when I see the name and remember it.

The Avatar was meant to be the image you indentify yourself with in the internet, a photo should only be an addition. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against the photo per se, I'm against this higgledy-piggledy use of both.

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

I think both have a different purpose, but I feel that photos should only be shown on profiles and avatars should be shown everywhere else. The way that it's currently done with avatars only on posts and photos everywhere else is confusing and makes very little sense in my opinion.




Oops; I hadn't seen this thread before posting on the other one. But this essentially is my thought as well. The current arrangement just doesn't make sense.
Posted

The current arrangement just doesn't make sense.



I agree and many of us have said this before. Let's hope IPS starts listening as the current setup doesn't suit many of us.

3DKiwi
  • 1 month later...

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