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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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Phil Silvers Grand Master

Phil Silvers

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1 minute ago, Stevo985 said:

Not really. 

Most people are saying keep gifs, absolutely. Just maybe encourage posters to not overuse them. Seems fair to me

Disagree, why dictate to people, as long as its clean let it go and for people like yourself why not just hit the ignore button from a serial offender that passes you off.

I've never used the ignore function but I've  read others say that it improves the VT experience for them. I'm easy going and unlike plenty on here who get pissed off multiple times daily, there is a whole thread of people being pissed off at the slightest thing. Gifs are the slightest thing, ignore the poster or just ignore the gifs.

I think you misunderstand why people use gifs, it's just for fun and and people have different personalities. I can't think why people would want to up their post count, there is absolutely nothing to gain from it. 

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Stevo985 Grand Master

Stevo985

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Just now, Phil Silvers said:

Disagree, why dictate to people, as long as its clean let it go and for people like yourself why not just hit the ignore button from a serial offender that passes you off.

I've never used the ignore function but I've  read others say that it improves the VT experience for them. I'm easy going and unlike plenty on here who get pissed off multiple times daily, there is a whole thread of people being pissed off at the slightest thing. Gifs are the slightest thing, ignore the poster or just ignore the gifs.

I think you misunderstand why people use gifs, it's just for fun and and people have different personalities. I can't think why people would want to up their post count, there is absolutely nothing to gain from it. 

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

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osmark86 Grand Master

osmark86

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On 29/07/2021 at 11:02, GarethRDR said:

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.

Underrated comment XD. Well played good sir, well played.

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limpid Grand Master

limpid

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They are just embedded images. There isn't a way to limit them other than the number per post or not allow images at all.

The GIF button is largely irrelevant as many mobile keyboards have GIF built in. (certainly Gboard does).

If people are posting too many GIFs, add them to your ignore list.

5 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

OT is a minefield at the best of times. At the moment it's unreadable

I've barely seen them in Off Topic.

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limpid Grand Master

limpid

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40 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

Remove it entirely, you want a gif you can old school it and link the URL. If it's worth it you'll go to the trouble, if it ain't worth it then you won't.

...and if it ain't worth it stop spanning the thread with your gif!

It's one or two taps on Gbiard. It's easier than finding the GIF button. And the majority of users are on mobile.

2 hours ago, Davkaus said:

Personally, if enforcing limitations of it isn't technically feasible, I'd support @blandy's suggestion of tightening up the site guidelines to reduce low-effort GIF posts, but I recognise this is your site and not a democracy :D 

If we amend the rule about single smileys to include single images, that removes all the KW posts, or GIFs where they would be appropriate,  or celebration GIFs in post match threads. Unless we make the rule really cumbersome and full of exceptions. Which means everyone will get upset when they are warned (they get upset now when simply defined rules are broken).

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Keyblade Grand Master

Keyblade

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2 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said:

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.

Too many unfunny ones being used simply in place of words and not because they're interesting.

Gifs in general are pretty boring and thankfully the internet has largely moved away from using reaction gifs to convey humour. Seems like it's an older generation that treats it like some new candy they discovered and overuse it.

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blandy Grand Master

blandy

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44 minutes ago, limpid said:

If we amend the rule about single smileys to include single images, that removes all the KW posts

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.

 

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Stevo985 Grand Master

Stevo985

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I vote for limiting them. But I think it should just be at the mods discretion. We have a rule about not just replying to posts with emojis, something similar for gifs would be helfpul.

OT is a minefield at the best of times. At the moment it's unreadable

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