Two Forum Questions

The forum rules are found in the Terms of Service (TOS). There's a link to the TOS in the blue tool bar at the top of the screen. You can also CLICK HERE to get there.

The Avatar rules have not changed. However, we have been extremely busy with the Forum Upgrade issues and are a little behind in moderating the Avatars. That's why you may see a few that aren't head shots. We'll get to them soon.

Thank you Rich for the very fast response.

Rich,

   Hay Boss, IMO everyone should be required to have a decent Avatar Picture, so we can see & identify who we are talking with on the OGR, to me not having a picture makes the member even farther away, than the distance Avatar shots. 

Merry Christmas buddy, I have always like the discipline that your run your OGR forum under, it truly is the best & most well run forum on the Net.

PCRR/Dave

Pine Creek Railroad posted:

Rich,

   Hay Boss, IMO everyone should be required to have a decent Avatar Picture, so we can see & identify who we are talking with on the OGR, to me not having a picture makes the member even farther away, than the distance Avatar shots. 

Merry Christmas buddy, I have always like the discipline that your run your OGR forum under, it truly is the best & most well run forum on the Net.

PCRR/Dave

If an Avatar was a requirement, you'd lose over half of the members.  Some folks have no desire to have an Avatar.  I can't argue with that.  I've gone without one from time to time.

another requirement,i would like to  see is a email in the profile ,when you post anything for sale.also require any questions, offers and replys  be done via email to keep from bumping other ads .also ,when you sell something,edit your original ad, instead of adding a reply. ok, end of rant-Jim

We will never REQUIRE a member to post an Avatar. Privacy is very important for many people, me included. We have a lot of very active members here who prefer not to post an Avatar. That's totally fine and we respect that.

With regard to "non-compliant" avatars, the best way to make sure we see them is to use the ALERT icon to report the post to us. When the little box comes up where you enter the reason for the alert, just put the word Avatar there. We'll know what to do.

As I said above, we are a little behind on this right now due to the overwhelming amount of time it has taken to get this Hoopla upgrade running right.

OGR Webmaster posted:

We will never REQUIRE a member to post an Avatar. Privacy is very important for many people, me included. We have a lot of very active members here who prefer not to post an Avatar. That's totally fine and we respect that.

 

Thanks for clarifying THAT! Besides, some of us have no clue how to transfer a color slide of ourselves to digital, then have it turned into an avatar.

I'm not sure there was a clarification needed.  Rich and OGR have always maintained that an Avatar was not required but if one were to be used it had to be a recognizable picture of yourself.  Whenever this comes up Rich is very up front about the policy.  It's a good one to have.

I know for a fact many have worked for the post office and they had to incognito a lot to protect themselves and their jobs. 

Hot Water posted:

Thanks for clarifying THAT! Besides, some of us have no clue how to transfer a color slide of ourselves to digital, then have it turned into an avatar.

Send me the slide. I'll take it from there.  Just remember, Photoshop can only do so much...

If you can have someone take a shot of you with their phone and then email that to me, that would be easier.

Hey Rich, I took the time to read the rules on avatars. I would like to make a polite suggestion. I suggest you re-write that section of the rules so that it states clearly and concisely what you want in an avatar. As I am sure you know, the rules say nothing about a "head shot". All it says about the actual picture is: "Please make sure that, if you choose an avatar,  your face appears in the photo."

According to that my avatar should never have been deleted since my face was in the picture. Yeah, my face was kind of far away but it was in the picture. Guys at York recognized me from that photo so it wasn't indistinguishable. I'm just curious but look at the avatars in this thread alone. Do you consider Pine Creek Railroad's avatar a "head shot"? I'm not trying to start any trouble, nothing personal against PCRR, nor am I a professional photographer but his avatar would not fit my definition of a head shot. What's your opinion on that?

The reason I say all this is because once you guys get caught up and start deleting avatars you can send the people who got their avatar deleted a link to the rules that will explain clearly what you want. Or hopefully they will read the rules on their own. Once they read the updated rules on avatars they will know what type of avatar to post if they decide to post another one and WHY their avatar was deleted in the first place. 

Thanks for your consideration.

Phil

The wording which I use in the emails I send about this says this:
If you choose use an avatar, make sure that the photo is a RECOGNIZABLE picture of yourself. The photo should be square - the same dimension horizontally and vertically, and no more than 300 pixels on a side. You can upload your avatar photo to the Forum directly from your computer. Avatars that do not adhere to these standards will be deleted.

The wording in the Registration welcome says this:
Just a reminder...if you choose to post an Avatar (a small picture that will appear above your Display Name in all your posts) please make it a recognizable picture of YOU. We have this rule so that members can put a face with a name and perhaps enjoy meeting fellow forum members at train shows and other events.

The wording in the TOS (which I just changed, thanks to your observation that it was different)  now says this:
Please make sure that, if you choose use an avatar, it is a recognizable image of YOU. Please ensure that the photo is square (the same dimension horizontally and vertically) and that it is no more than 300 pixels on a side. Avatars that do not adhere to these standards will be deleted.

Thanks for taking note that the TOS was different. They all match now.