To admin staff
I dont want to cause a fuss, but why have you disallowed these?
Surely if its not offensive or discriminative then i cant understand the reason for the ruling.Some of them can be comical and surely that adds to the fun??
Please help me understand your reasons?

Cheers
Tidnab

Well, maybe the site has enough lag as it is!

behave dave

sha la la.

Tids...come on...me??? behave MWAHAHAHAAAA isn't gunna happen teeeheeee!!

Basically we think they distract you playing in a game if you are chatting aswell, so all types of animations are not allowed.

Yea fair do's.

But wouldn't it also slow the game down?

oh come on m8......if ur chatting in a pm window and playing pool then the last thing to distract you is an animated gif.....if you dont want to be distracted then dont chat,and if you are chatting and playing then you cant be that bothered about winning or losing....simple as that! I can hardly believe a humble basic gif will be off putting and as long as its in the file size required then what is the problem? I dont,for 1 second believe mr mcq's theory, i've known him long enuff to take his theory with a pinch of salt

hey i am just saying what rules have been set and why, i do not make the rules

Tids...behave :lol

Note the word 'we'...

I want to protest! An animated gif would virtually destroy my soul, please do not introduce them!

Before we know it there will be crazyfrog's and dancing emotes popping up everywhere, the credability of this site will be in severe jeopardy!

If im playing a game and i click on my opponents name to check his/her stats and BANG! There in front of me it's an animated gif on a crusade to TAKE MY RANK!!!

Ohhhh what a world, im melting, im melting......

Well if a pic of someone's ugly mug doesnt put you off...then nothing can

Nice post above

Edited at 01:49 Tue 2/01/07 (GMT)

LMFAOOOOO!!! put this up for post of the year!!! lmfao hahahahah

I 2nd that, LMAO...

I put we as in the moderating team as a whole just to clarify

I like animated gifs, but only for about 20 seconds.

Then they lose their appeal, so overall they may as well be still pics, which can be just as inventive and funny.

We (mods/admins) discussed the pros and cons extensively, and the main opinion was that they were generally just an irritating flicker in the corner of the eye - especially when you have a whole page full of them.

When will you ever have a page full of them? There's one image on a player's profile and one on the chat window.

What Martin said in the above post is true though. Animated gif images were discussed amongst the staff and the conclusion was that some people may find them irritating, so we've been told to reject animated gifs.

Personally, I don't mind the animated gifs. If there's a problem with being irritating, then I feel rather than blocking them altogether, I feel there should be a limit on the speed of the animation (no fast animations allowed).

Edited at 19:17 Tue 2/01/07 (GMT)

When will you ever have a page full of them?

Sorry nicknax, should have made that clearer for you I mean right here, on a forum page!

There could feasibly be moving gifs all down the left side. And to add to that, gifs within the text boxes too.

The consensus was that whether one animated gif, or whether ten, we needed to make a decision on them. And the decision was basically that, for what short-term novelty worth they had, we could do without.

And if you allow one (tidnab's)...you have to allow them all, if not, thats pretty unfair to be honest, so im sure we can do without anyway!

I think they would be nice, anyway if the staff change their minds there is something you can do if you find animated gifs annoying or distracting.

Internet Explorer Users:
go to Internet Options < Advanced < Multimedia
unselect Play animations in web pages.

Firefox Users:
go to about:config
set image.animation_mode to none.

Hope this helps