Where to find an avatar that doesn't end up broken?

[Arkhios]

Hi,

I've had several attempts at finding an Avatar (other than the OotS pictures that is), but all seem to deteriorate or something before long and I end up with an avatar showing the icon of a broken picture or something.

Could someone point me at a direction where would be a good website to look for such an Avatar that the forum accepts and doesn't fall apart? Feel free to send me a PM, because I probably won't remember to check on this post as often as I should :smallbiggrin:

Thanks!

PS. if all else fails, I guess I could after all this time petition for a unique avatar in the OotS Style :smalltongue:

[Metastachydium]

You could try grabbing the desired avatar and uploading it somewhere safe and under your control. I have an ImgBB account for that purpose, for instance; it served me well enough so far.

[137beth]

You could try grabbing the desired avatar and uploading it somewhere safe and under your control. I have an ImgBB account for that purpose, for instance; it served me well enough so far.

An ImgBB account is not under your control: it's under ImgBB's control. They could decide at any time to prohibit you from using an image on their site as an avatar, and then you'd have to move it somewhere else

Ultimately, unless you own your own your own website, there's no way to guarantee that whatever site is hosting your avatar won't shut down or change their policy to prohibit using it as an avatar host.

[Metastachydium]

An ImgBB account is not under your control: it's under ImgBB's control. They could decide at any time to prohibit you from using an image on their site as an avatar, and then you'd have to move it somewhere else

Well yes, but that's splitting hairs. Because compared to "something I found through a google search somewhere"? It very much is.


Ultimately, unless you own your own your own website, there's no way to guarantee that whatever site is hosting your avatar won't shut down or change their policy to prohibit using it as an avatar host.

I mean, with the same breath, you could say someone-someone could just decide to alter the pricing on the domain you use; or do something about the sever or… You get the point. Yes, an account on a reliable image hosting site is not the Perfect Solution Forever. But it demonstrably provides a long-term solution.

[137beth]

Okay, that's a fair point.

[Jasdoif]

I have an ImgBB account for that purpose, for instance; it served me well enough so far.Same here, except without an account. If I was doing something remotely serious it'd be another story, but this is fine for one avatar on one large forum.

[TaiLiu]

As others mentioned: it's nothing to do with the avatar itself. It's about image hosting. Find an image-hosting website. That could be DeviantArt or some other art website. Or it could be something like the aforementioned ImgBB. They've been hosting my avatar for years.

[Lord Torath]

I'm currently hosting my avatar on Dropbox. There are limits to how often it can be viewed, but I'm using it on four different websites and have never hit the limit.

Discord is another option. I've used it for hosting some of the images I've posted her in the Playground.

[Arkhios]

I'm currently hosting my avatar on Dropbox. There are limits to how often it can be viewed, but I'm using it on four different websites and have never hit the limit.

Discord is another option. I've used it for hosting some of the images I've posted her in the Playground.

Interesting! Thanks for the tip!

As for you others, thank you, too. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, it's just that Lord Torath's reply was by far the best I've seen here (because for both options I wouldn't need to create a new account somewhere) so it deserves a special mention.

[Arkhios]

I'm currently hosting my avatar on Dropbox. There are limits to how often it can be viewed, but I'm using it on four different websites and have never hit the limit.

Discord is another option. I've used it for hosting some of the images I've posted her in the Playground.


Interesting! Thanks for the tip!

As for you others, thank you, too. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, it's just that Lord Torath's reply was by far the best I've seen here (yet) so it deserves a special mention.
Follow-up question regarding dropbox: do I need to have paid subscription for dropbox for it to work for this purpose, as I was unable to get a link that would work for the avatar. I'm positive that the avatar was small enough in both height and width as well as in file size (also didn't have any moving parts, and I have the full legal rights to use said picture).

Dropbox generated a link that had a string of text after the file typification, and while I was able to open the picture in a separate tab both before and after removing the extra text, forum wasn't able to open it with said link, even though it accepted the link address normally.

...or is it a regional issue, myself being located in Europe, with all the nonsensical Personal Data Act issues between USA and Europe.


As for using Discord for hosting, I haven't done that before so any tips are welcome how should I proceed.

[Lord Torath]

I only have a free dropbox account.

I would recommend opening your image file from Dropbox in a separate tab, then right-click on the image itself and select "Copy Image Link". That should give you a link ending in a .png or .jpg or .bmp or some other image format that you can then paste into the Avatar spot on your GitP profile.

As for Discord, copy/paste the image into Discord (I've got a Private Message I started with myself for this). Then click the image, which will pop it up. Then you can right-click on the "Open in Browser" link at the bottom-left of your avatar, and paste that link into your GitP profile.