Images, User Names & Avatars

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

I know that it's normal on most bulletin boards to use meaningless user names and random avatars (the little picture under you name), but this board is different. (Sometimes very different.)
Almost every new member is now registering with an anonymous user name and they are getting increasingly absurd. As repeated all over the place, members of this board often meet up and it's just friendly to know peoples real names and recognise them.
It also makes more work weeding out the Trolls and Spammers, who always want to be anonymous.

So your displayed name must include your real first name, or the name people down the pub know you by (you know what I mean).
You can still use your Internet 'handle', but then add the real name, maybe in brackets.
It must also all be pronouncable (a-z,0-9,(), space)

The same sort of thing will apply to avatars. They must be a photo of yourself, or not have one.

Don't overreact, we're not asking anybody to give full names and these rules will be adapted if you have a good reason to be totally anonymous (work, fame, infamy). Just have a word with Nick or Colin.

Also please no silly jokes, clever remarks, or rule bending. This is just intended to be factual. The admins have enough to do without chasing that as well.
Anyway there is now a new easier way to upload an avatar picture. To read all about it please click here.

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

A couple of notes:

Avatars: Please use the above link the send me pictures for use as avatars.
However I will not process it until you have at least one post on the board, as there is no point. About 50% of the avatars requested are currently never being used.

Images in posts: Please do not insert images into your posts using the IMG code. Only attach photos using the 'Additional Options'

Hot-linking: That's what it's called if you insert an image hosted on another server. Most importantly this includes avatars. Unless you are paying for hosting the image, it is almost certainly not allowed. TAW will generate thousands of accesses to the file every day, the hosting company will spot this and break the link. Then we have to go to the bother of removing it at this end.
In the worst cases the hosting company will blacklist TAW and send me a complaint. So don't do it.

[MikeB (Mike)]

Have the username rules been relaxed?

[Nick]

Colin and I have a system going now for getting user names sorted out.

New members are encouraged from the outset to use sensible names so that is going ok. There are still a few longer-term members though who maybe are infrequent visitors to the board, and hence may still be going under an anonymous name when they return. We're getting those sorted out as and when they come along.

Cheers

Nick

[Richard C]

I loathe, hate, detest, despise and don't actually like very much the contemptible and ridiculous names that normally relatively intelligent people seem to feel obliged to adopt when posting to forums (or fora if you prefer) and in similar contexts (Twitter springs inexorably to mind). Are people ashamed to reveal who they really are? I want to discuss with genuine people, not elves, extraterrestrials, various low forms of plant and animal life, soft toys, etc. So more power to your elbow.

While I have your attention, can someone tell me whether it is possible to have my photo permanently on this forum, so that each time I post it automatically pops up? I have looked at all the profile settings but unless I've missed something there is no provision for this.

Richard,
now drinking coffee (my favourite Ethiopian fair-trade arabica) from my new Liege and Lief mug, bought at Cropredy last weekend.

[jude]

Have you sent your avatar to Colin (look at the first message and click on the 'please click here'?

If you have already done that, then probably a bit more patience will be needed as he's been stuck on a field in darkest Oxon for a few days and so has been unable to process the avatar requests..

Jude

[Richard C]

Thanks Judy. I've loved you since 1967 and I see no reason to stop when you are so helpful and so rapid!
Richard

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

Richard, it is a rule of this board that your displayed name must include your real first name. This was introduced when it became obvious that the more anonymous people felt, the less they felt responsible for what they said.
This is enforced with all new members and slowly sorted out retrospectively.

It's a simple rule, but you would be amazed how many people think it's their duty to waste admin's time by arguing about it (even when they use their full name on FaceBook).

As for avatars. Again they must be a recognisable photo of you, or not have one.
If you hot linked in an image they tend to very quickly break.
If you send me one as Jude suggests, it will get done, but I have a backlog after Cropredy.

BTW Hate is a truely dreadful thing.

[Red Shoes (Caz+Mark)]

I was wondering why some folk still don't have mug shots?

C x

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

I was wondering why some folk still don't have mug shots?

You can chose not to.
Otherwise it has to be a reasonable photo of yourself.

Very rarely exceptions will be made.

[Red Shoes (Caz+Mark)]

I was wondering why some folk still don't have mug shots?

You can chose not to.
Otherwise it has to be a reasonable photo of yourself.

Very rarely exceptions will be made.

Ta, I was just wondering why some folk still don't have pics up after many posts. It's nice to be able to put a face to words

C x

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

All outstanding avatars have now been processed.

When submitting please remember that they are displayed in portrait mode and are only 100 x 80 pixels. When reduced to this size they must still be a vaguely recognisable image of yourself.

Avatar images can be submitted here: Click here.
This isn't an automatic process, so has to wait for me to have some spare time.

[Shelley]

Many thanks for updating me Colin!

[Brendan]

Yes belated thanks, although perhaps, some may wish they were spared my chilling visage.

[Zoe]

Thanks Colin.

[musketeer john]

I hope this is the right place to post this (and apologies if it isn't).

I am writing this in response to the debate regarding anonymity that has reared its head in a number of threads.

I have been an anonymous member of the forum for the best part of a decade. Please note that I fully understand the rules on this, and this is why I have contributed but a post-a-year or so since joining.

However, I do lurk read the discourse regularly, a little miffed that I can't join in but delighted in the general vibe. I felt so incensed by what was reported regarding Richard Digance's slot at Cropredy this year that I felt I had to contribute my tuppence. My apologies to anyone who was offended by this flagrant bending of the rules.

This is a publicly viewable forum. And I think, therefore, that everyone should understand that there are really genuine reasons why some people simply have to remain anonymous. I am also fairly certain that most people in this position do not want to remain anonymous from their fellow 'chatters', just the web to some extent. Ironically, the more one argues against anonymity the more some voices are stifled.

I've been going to Cropredy for over two decades. I'm a major Fairport fan, and folk/roots music in general. I would LOVE to join in, and maybe even hook up in that wonderful corner of Oxfordshire one day. But that isn't possible under these rules, obviously.

Anyway, I just thought I might raise the obvious flaws in the current arrangement. I'm not asking them to be changed. Most people seem happy with them. Every single reason put forward for them is utterly valid.

But just in case anyone might wonder why someone might wish to remain anonymous, here ye go: Firstly, if you live in England and you have a reasonably regular name, you can remain pretty much anonymous anyway. If, however, you don't live in England, or/and you have a fairly unusual name or unusual address, then you can be pretty much instantly recognised - your views, your movements, everything. And there are people, for reasons of work, personal lives, experience, whatever, who would be uneasy about this. I'm one of them.

So there are flaws. Chat and friendships are lost. Lose-lose, I think. There we go.

I'll carry on reading your thoughts on what is a great forum, one of the great survivors of the facebook cull. But I'll live in hope, too, that the rules, one day, might be revisited and relaxed a little.

No real criticism intended. Just explanation. Keep up the good work!

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

These rules were set up for several reasons, but mostly to keep it friendly and stem the flow of increasingly absurd names and avatars.
People were also taking advantage of anonymity. The extreme example being a member who faked his death and then logged on as somebody else to read and join in the eulogies.

As an Anonymous Member only you and admins can see a topic with huge red print inviting you to introduce yourself.
Use some imagination.
For example you could say my first name is very rare, I don't want to use it. I might then say, well keep your nickname, but add your first name anglicised, or a different spelling, or something.

The admins, GlowBalls and moderators, spend a lot of time making TAW run smoothly, keeping out the Spammers and making it a safe place to be. It helps a lot if people just 'go with the flow'.

Also if you look at the stats we have 3233 new members this month. Actually we have about 30 new members and the rest are rooms full of students in China, India and Russia (mostly) trying to register for Spammers. All we see is the user name, email address and IP.
Nick and I make a very quick judgment based on that.
Real first name in the user name is a real help.

[jude]

Hi Musketeer, there is a section of the board that is completely private and which is hidden from the search engines and public view, (I am right in saying that aren't I Colin?) And that is the Corporation Arms Section.

You have to ask to be admitted, but you must be unanonymised before you can do that... There are some shenaningans that go on in there ...

Jude  

[Jan_]

With regard to the spammers, is it not possible to include one of those 'verifiers' that require potential members to copy displayed numbers and letters, thereby proving that they are a real person?

As for the person who faked their death, I don't understand why someone would do that. Incredible!

[RobertD]

With regard to the spammers, is it not possible to include one of those 'verifiers' that require potential members to copy displayed numbers and letters, thereby proving that they are a real person?

As for the person who faked their death, I don't understand why someone would do that. Incredible!

Could be wrong in this but I think spammers have even managed to evade those 'captcha' verifiers. I seem to see more and more security questions now.