Avatars

[Arjayay]

Jules
Don't know if it's just me, but all the avatars have disappeared - all except Barry Island playing with his ball

[Barry Island]

Some things never change fnaar fnaar!!

[Dave Bardsley]

It may be machine specific.  I was showing the board to a mate on his laptop and there, in all its glory, was my avatar.  But on my machine it wilfully resisted to be anything other than an X in a box.  And that is still the case.

[Jules]

Dave, thanks for that. I still haven't been able to fix the problem yet, so all clues are useful.

[Allan Heron]

All are working fine on my laptop

[Jules]

I've copied, deleted and then reloaded all the image files. All now working in Firefox, Chrome and Opera. I don't have Safari installed but if anyone does I'd appreciate a shout as to whether that's ok too.

IE 11 (maybe in earlier versions too, feedback welcomed) does not work for anything except png files, which is why a minority of avatars are showing up, but many aren't.

I'm not suggesting anyone change their browsers, that's a personal choice and I'll be persevering with IE myself, but at least now I know it's not a problem with site integrity or the image files themselves.

Very recent notes on the SMF support forum, which I'm monitoring daily, are suggesting this is may be a bug within the forum security checking code. There's no work-round offered yet which doesn't compromise site security to a greater or lesser degree, so I'm loath to apply the hacks suggested so far.

I'll update when more news available. 

[Jules]

Ok, I think I've got this cracked now. Mostly fixed by correcting the file MIME types for attachments, which in older versions of the Forum weren't set when the avatars and attachments were first uploaded. Not significant in earlier versions, but seems to have become so with the last revision. Fortunately the MIME type could be derived from the file extension in most cases.

A few of the more reluctant avatars (e.g. mine, Rob's, Ron's, Arjayay's) needed some more specific surgery. I've recreated these images as pngs rather than jpgs or gifs and have updated the database links to show the revised files. Mine wouldn't respond to treatment at all, so I took the path of least resistance and re-loaded it.

If your avatar or attachment isn't displaying, please let me know. If you right-click on the faulty item and choose 'properties' the info useful to me is the value shown for "attach=xxxx", towards the end of the string.   

[Rob W]

Jules. If you'd have asked me, I'd have told you straight away. Pfffft!!!   

On a more serious note, I notice my name mentioned as having a particularly reluctant avatar. Whatever that means.

My apologies and thank you for doing whatever you've done.

 
 

[Dave Bardsley]

Now I know that I am a special one.  Every avatar works except mine!  (Including those of Jules, Rob, Ron & Arjayay - the awkward squad!).  Still, it was a time for a change; which gives me something to do later...

[Dave Bardsley]

Job done.  Welcome to my world...

Jules: The original file for my old avatar had been deleted  from the PC after a "crash".  It may be that it didn't show because I never bothered to retrieve those particular files.

[rockprof]

Avatar....from Hindu mythology....the return of a spirit back to earth in bodily form, a reincarnation no less. The new Bard returns in the guise of a man and his missus behind a bar.....tremble brethren, tis a sign I tell you...

[Dave Bardsley]

An inspired, if not correct, guess dear Prof.  The picture is a montage made up by a mate with a talent for photography.  He spent a weekend snapping bits and pieces from in and around Bardsley Towers and mashed them up into a single piece with Mrs Dave and me stuck in the middle with the obligatory inane grins.

In a material world we are defined by our possessions (or so he said).  As an avatar, being stuck behind a bar might have been more appropriate...  I'll look for something more suitable in the archive

[Barry Island]

An inspired, if not correct, guess dear Prof.  The picture is a montage made up by a mate with a talent for photography.  He spent a weekend snapping bits and pieces from in and around Bardsley Towers and mashed them up into a single piece with Mrs Dave and me stuck in the middle with the obligatory inane grins.

In a material world we are defined by our possessions (or so he said).  As an avatar, being stuck behind a bar might have been more appropriate...  I'll look for something more suitable in the archive

As we seem to be in some kind of hostelry allow me to get a round in. What are you drinking everyone? While you are there landlord Dave I'll have a crocodile sandwich and make it..............