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Unrestricted GIFs, yay or nay?

Davkaus

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Davkaus Grand Master

Davkaus

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This has been brought up several times in off topic, and I thought it was worth there being a serious discussion about it. We've always had the odd GIF or picture posted, but with the GIF button being integrated into the forum, it's getting absolutely ridiculous, especially in on topic. They have a time and a place, but they're so overused now I feel it genuinely detracts from discussion. If I wanted to just scroll through memes, I'd browse Reddit.

I'm not sure how configurable it is, but if I had the below options, I'd personally go for B:

A. Continue as things are

B. Limit GIFs in some way (x per day, like reactions, but a much lower number?)

C. Remove GIF button entirely

In fact, I'm going to post each of those as it's own answer so people can vote on it :D 

Vote Voting GIF by The Drew Barrymore Show

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tonyh29 Grand Master

tonyh29

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20 hours ago, darrenm said:

Clint Eastwood Coffee GIF

I really like them. I think it adds to the joviality of things. Reaction gifs can add much more than smileys or emojis.

this 

 

I would have said continue as things are , but someone has removed the gif button  , so " continue as things were , before they were changed"

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CarryOnVilla Grand Master

CarryOnVilla

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As a firm gif user, I’d be happy to keep it as it was. 
 

•More often than not, a well placed gif can say a lot more than well written a paragraph. 

•They also convey tone of voice when accompanied with a well versed paragraph. 

•Also they add to the banter which I find a particular highlight of this forum. 
 

I’d say the real issue is not necessarily the gifs, but the administration of some threads. In particular the speculation threads. In these threads the lack of news gets a lot of users bored and most often those threads revert to trivial levels of content. Pages of pages of off topic content such as puns, reoccurring jokes and gifs as replacement to on topic conversations.   
 

This would be solved with admin doing a bit of tidying up and a “stop it” in particular when it’s excessive. Or have time limits of the speculation threads. Such as, if there hasn’t been any press news about a player for a set period time the thread closes. 

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Phil Silvers Grand Master

Phil Silvers

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How difficult is it to scroll past some gifs.

Comes across as some spiteful kids stopping some fun loving kids having fun. 

Having fun generates more traffic which I assume is better for any website, who wants to log on to something boring.

There is an ignore function, if you do not like what people post then use the function that is already there for that purpose.

 

 

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Rds1983 Grand Master

Rds1983

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A. Continue as is. 

I'll use them occasionally and can see that they're becoming a lot more common which I'm not overly keen on, but firstly as limpid pointed out I'm not sure how you could enforce that rule and secondly I think it's just the way the Internet is going these days and you'd just be fighting the tide. 

I might be wrong but I suspect those that post a lot of them are relatively young and those who object to them are mid 30s or older. 

By limiting it would you just be sending the younger posters elsewhere to another forum?

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HanoiVillan Grand Master

HanoiVillan

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A gif is a punchline. If you have a rule forbidding responding to posts with only a gif, and saying they need to be accompanied by a sentence of some kind, then you effectively have a rule that demands people write a sentence explaining their punchlines. Since explaining jokes is the antithesis of humour, that means the only people using gifs will be people who are not actually able to use them to make a joke, which seems like all you would be doing is lowering the average quality of gif posts.

13 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

I have a much bigger issue with puns than I do GIFs. 

I agree, which is why 'leave things as they are' is the right answer IMO.

I don't find fish puns funny. I just don't. They're repetitive, they are mostly not used in a way that makes any sense, and for some reason when one person does one another 40 users *always* feel like they need to add one. I generally have to stop reading any thread when they start, and return about 72 hours or 3 pages later when they've stopped.

But so what really? People clearly enjoy them, they're not doing any harm. It's not just a forum for me, what I enjoy, what I find funny; it's about the maximum level of satidfaction for the largest number of people. That means I have to ignore some threads sometimes, but I'm not here demanding a rule forbidding fish puns. Let people have their gifs, and if it's too annoying, put them on ignore.

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sidcow Grand Master

sidcow

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A. Leave as is. VT is much more fun than most other sites.  There are just a few dicks at the moment going OTT as it's silly season with transfers. 

As @limpid says, just block them.

I see the GIF button has been removed. Whilst my keyboard has a gif button built in it doesn't work for me.  It just brings up the long link in text format so I'm sad to see that go as the VT gif button did work for me. 

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ciggiesnbeer Grand Master

ciggiesnbeer

Posted
Posted (edited)

A & D

A = Keep the functionality

D= Increase the allowed size of gif uploads.

More gifs the better imho. This isnt a scientific community. What we write is all for fun.

If gifs bother people well maybe they should be given tools to not see them? Feels weird to punish the rest of us who are just fine.

Edited by ciggiesnbeer
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Mark Albrighton Grand Master

Mark Albrighton

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I’d have said B limit it some way. Like the data limit thing for images attachments, but it sounds like that’s not feasible.

A well chosen gif reply, whether an old favourite or one less used can be excellent and add a bit of visual levity. But some of it has been overkill. Too many images/gifs isn’t as visually interesting. Less is more kinda thing.

The gif button also made things too easy I think. Make people work in posting a witty visual reply I say.

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StanBalaban Grand Master

StanBalaban

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On 27/07/2021 at 20:24, blandy said:

My thoughts are that for ON Topic (only) we could encourage posters to limit the use of Gifs/images within the threads to those relevant to the topic. When on topic threads become basically Gif-fests they are, if not ruined, no longer able for discussion to be followed easily, for people who want to read or talk about the board, or this player or that player, or finances or whatever. I think the VT posters are a good bunch who could perhaps accept that type of encouragement.

 

Encouragement to consider the discussion is the way forwards IMO. GIFs are like treats - they can be great, but too many will make you sick. 

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GarethRDR Veteran

GarethRDR

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Posted

Absolute lightweights complaining about the loss of the .gif button.  I was ruining threads with excessive .gifs for years before that button was even a twinkle in the developer's eyes; back in my day we had to Google the .gif we wanted and copy/paste it, sometimes even re-host it elsewhere.  Good, hard-working, honest .gif posting it was, that turned boys into men and men into gods.

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Phil Silvers Grand Master

Phil Silvers

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Posted
55 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Because I don't want to never see posts from valued users just because they post too many gifs.

There are various rules on this site that "dictate" what people can and can't post to improve the enjoyment for everyone. 

I think it's fair enough that if there is a genuine complaint about the amount of gifs, which clearly there is as there's plenty of people mentioning it, that it's raised as potentially something that needs to be addressed.

 

And all I and others have suggested is let people carry on as normal and if anyone *cough* Jas10 *cough* is going a bit over the top then give them a friendly nudge to maybe go easy on the gifs for a bit

I think there are more people that want them than don't. Hopefully a compromise is reached that's keeps everyone happy.

I still think it people are overreacting though, if someone is going a bit over the top, is it such a big deal. 

I can live with it no problem but the endless repetitive going over the same thing day after day and getting nowhere, makes thread worse then gifs..

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