quote:
Originally posted by ICD
and even if they are on dial-up one TINY, LITTLE image like that isn't really going to slow it down is it?
It is not about one tiny image, it is about all the images and bits and bolts together.
1 tiny extra line underneath all the info isn't going to do much. But what is going to be suggested next? And after that? And then what? etc.. etc...
This already happened in the past with the size of avatars and signatures. First it was X then it was a bit larger because what would 10px more hurt, then it was again a bit larger, etc...
What I find important is the usefull information, the info which, when put together, could give an idea of what the person knows or what his background is and how much he/she is familiar with the forum. This is a support forum in the first place, so I find such info more important than knowing from which country he/she came or what their gender is. Such info includes postcount, time of joining(!), rep, and maybe age.... All the rest is just 'interesting'...
As a last thought, you can not say to people if you don't like it don't show it. That is way too easy and cheap... People who like to see such things should not be punished because other people abuse it. Aka: it is not because I do not like SonicSam's random avatars sometimes containing +100 KB animated gifs, and thus slowing everything down, that I should disable the view of avatars.
I wouldn't mind the country flag being there as long as it does not add any more height (not one pixel) to the whole user info column.
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