External Avatars

[NetNessie]

I have a quick question regarding how avatars are handled by vBulletin:

When I set my avatar to an external URL, such as one hosted on my own site, does vBulletin download the avatar to the 3DR server and then this copy is used on the forums, or does vBulletin directly link to the avatar and its retrieved from my site?

[ADM]

It downloads it to the 3DR server.

[NetNessie]

It downloads it to the 3DR server.

Does the 3DR server routinely download the avatar, or is it a once only occurrence?

[Joe Siegler]

Just when you do it.

Disallowing external images is a good thing. Because relying on external images is iffy - never know when the server might be down, creating broken images.

[NetNessie]

Good point. It's a shame though.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

What does it matter? If its on the 3dr server its only down when 3dr is down. There will never be little red x's in the forums. What benefit is there to hosting it on your own site? None, it still has to fit into the specs that allowed by this website.

[Scotty]

It matters because trolls can't register with a legit avatar on an external server, and then swap said avatar for "hello.jpg" after they get banned. :)

-Scotty

...ppl have switched their avatars and profile pics for such things in the past... :)

[Rellik66]

What difference does it make if someone switches their avatar locally or externally? Probably little or none.

Anyway, the only "potential" benifit of an external avatar would be the ability to have a dynamic avatar controlled by a PHP script or something(much like those "now playing" sigs you sometimes see on other boards.) But that would be negated by the fact that vBB downloads the avatar only once to the 3dr serrver.

[Joe Siegler]

What difference does it make if someone switches their avatar locally or externally? Probably little or none.

Did you miss the bit about downed external servers? That's why.

Plus forcing it to be on the server makes sure people don't post incorrectly sized images and making things look bad. Come on. Think about it. It's not as clean cut as you might want to make it out to be.

Plus as was said above, it prevents people who are banned from replacing their avatar image with something obscene (it's happened).

[Damien_Azreal]

What does it matter? If its on the 3dr server its only down when 3dr is down. There will never be little red x's in the forums. What benefit is there to hosting it on your own site? None, it still has to fit into the specs that allowed by this website.

I actualy like the little red X thank you. I use it as my avatar on purpose at Ritual's board. :p

[Misel]

When external links were still possible I used my webcam image as avatar. That was kinda cool, I think. But I can see the disadvantages of a possible (and most likely :rolleyes: ) abuse.

[NetNessie]

I was hoping to use a dynamically changed avatar, so that every day it alters slightly. Would have been really cool to implement, but the risks of external avatars does outweigh the coolness of a ever changing image.

[Qbix]

and gather all the ips of the people who visit a thread with your post in it.
Performing some statistics on it or maybe even attempt hacking them.

No thanks.
Putting the on the 3drealms server is the only sensible thing to do.