Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Suggestion GIFs as Backgrounds

Hoooy boy this is a hard one to type,but after a few weeks of struggling with it and the increased frequency I'm noticing them, I'd like to bring something to mind:

Gifs as backgrounds are super neat-- very pretty, give a lot of potential for creativity etc. But for a small minority of people on the site, they have a downfall. The abrupt movements and flashing, swirling colors on such a large scale trigger a health problem of mine. I simply cannot look at these types of gifs blown up across my screen without being triggered. I've been hearing from others that, even without health problems, the movement can be a doozy.

I'm not naive enough to think the whole site will be changed for my ailment, but I do hope that by bringing forward my experience people will start to think twice about the type of gif you're using-- and the size you blow it up to.

All I can say is that restraining the places we use gifs is vital if you want people like me to be able to read your content.

Thanks guys-- Love seeing your stuff out there.

Stay creative.
 
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A personal view, not an answer or critique from an RPJ standpoint.

I avoid using templates, as opposed to typical writing methods of posting, due to the difficulty and strain in reading some of them. Fluorescent colors on top of dark backgrounds for example tend to make my vision blur and strain the eyes to quite a degree.

It's totally a me-problem, but has deterred me from looking into templates of my own.

There's been some amazingly creative content out there, and I'm not at all discouraging that side of our community like Kyra's mentioned above, but vibrant colors can be quite harsh on the ol' eyes. I guess I'm getting old...
 
Annasari Annasari Not directed at all! No! I love your content-- it's extremely creative! I would have messaged you personally if I thought that would be a solution to my experience, but at the end of the day you're just one of the many that make this awesome content. I truly meant this to be directed at the community. <3

I appreciate your warm response. I look forward to seeing more of what you do! (I figured out some cool new tricks for div code and floating pictures OVER a div box :D! HMU if you'd like the code so you can play yourself! )
 
Annasari Annasari

Really want to reiterate the above, absolutely not directed at anyone in particular. I've not been following who creates what, whereas I'm only speaking of what I've come across when perusing threads. There's absolutely no criticism here, just voicing a personal struggle on my own behalf. Like I said, the creative content we've seen across this community is wonderful and I'll always encourage people going the extra mile for Chaos as many of you do.

No worries Annasari :)
 
Bunker-level Normal
A personal view, not an answer or critique from an RPJ standpoint. (Shamelessly stolen from WolfMortum WolfMortum )

I've long-admired the creativity of GIFs but I've found it hard to stare at one repeating on my screen for a long time. It's especially distracting when I'm trying to read long posts. That's not an attack on writers who use GIFs as avatars or signatures or templates, you guys do you.

For anyone who is like me or anyone else who wants to chime in here, I've found some hacky solutions:

One is an extension for Firefox that disables all GIF animations with a click. It's not as elegant as some past solutions but it works if I need to focus.

There's also Reader View in Firefox (and some extensions for Chrome) that strips a ton out but not always the offending images. This is kind of like a feature the old board had, a mode that would hide all avatars and signatures for pure reading, which was super nice.

There's probably a few other extensions out there for your browser of choice if you're in need of it. Hit me up if you're not finding something useful for yourself, I love testing things.
 
Seconded. The rapidly flashing colors can be a bit... hazardous for people with certain health problems. Its a downer, for sure, but they can cause effects that go beyond a minor headache or some discomfort, at least in my case. I know some people like to use rapidly flashing colors and psychedelic animations, but for safety reasons, they should be put inside a spoiler, with an epilepsy warning, due to the risk of them causing seizures. This way, people who like to use them can still do, while those who have certain health problems that are affected by this, can avoid the risks.
 
NGL it's not a secret I love these crazy colors. But yesterday was a good experimentation day. Those who insist on crazy gifs, I recommend putting that under a spoiler, and leaving a gif-clean version outside of it. Best of both worlds. Make life sparkly! But only with consent ♥

(yeah yesterday wasn't that - learn through experience! next one will be :) )
 
Scherezade deWinter Scherezade deWinter Yeah I think the epileptic death sentence of a rave you've got going on in one of your random generator sigs is exactly what OP is talking about.

Also it's not just the visually impaired that find it debilitating, most of us are just too polite.

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Jsc

Disney's Princess
This was a great read. +1 rep.

And yeah, half of the people on my block list got there just because I got tired of their GIF avatars. I might need to do a little house cleaning of my blocked list if people stop using GIFs again. Lol. :p

I'd also like to promise that myself will never use a flashing or transitioning GIF avatar or sig on any of my characters ever again. :D
 
Chancellor Emerita / Advisor of State
I use gifs as an aesthetic thing for the start of my posts, but I try to keep them fairly small in size and fluid so it doesn't create problems like this for people who can't take flashing etc. That being said, I'm always all too happy to not use gifs in posts if anyone like this is participating and it does cause irritation.
 
My eyes are shite, period. Its why i got a huge TV as a monitor. Personally i do not like the Templated Posts and try my best avoiding them for they seem to be hard to read even with a larger screen and glasses. Again, that is me straight up having bad eye sight.
 
I really appreciate this overwhelming support. The fact that so many have already gone out of their way to adjust and accommodate this suggestion means the world. Thank you guys for all the thought you put into it this week-- it's shown a great side of this community.

I think spoilers are a great solution those that want their extra 'oomf' in design. I did use use the suggestion to block gifs but i will warn that it did on occasion block a whole post instead xD

Simple moving avatars or other small do dads are not a problem for me personally, as I'm pretty use to just averting my eyes. Its anything large/ fast/ using lights. I'm not trying to set standards-- just help clear the confusion about what type of gifs one might personally want to be careful with in the future.

Any effort you put into using community friendly gifs is greatly appreciated. I'm a bit without words actually. Love your faces. <3
 

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