An avatar for starters, is a little image you can set by your name to sort of personalize yourself or what you want others to think of you, that will appear in the posts of the members Q&A forums. There are two ways of using an avatar, either use one that is on the Growkind server (in your profiles), or you can upload your own. There are several to choose from, but if what you like doesn't appear, you have the option of making your own. An added feature to Growkind allows you to use animated avatars. You can use programs Like Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, just to name a couple, to create these images. However there is a size limit, and a filesize limit. The size of the image cannot be larger than 120x120 pixels. And the Filesize cannot exceed 20.0 Kilobytes. Limits are made due to those who connect with 56K modems so they can browse through the pages eaier without having to load tons of images. The file type must be a GIF (Compuserve Graphics Interchange File) image. It can be any type of GIF.
There are some rules as well for What kind of images to create. This is not a porn site. Growkind will not allow nude images to be used. Even though this is an adult site, pornography of any kind has nothing to do with what this site is about. Keep in mind that Growkind attracts people of all races, religions, gender, and age, from all around the globe. Most of the member community is made up of people who might be offended by nudity, racism or anti-religion. All avatars are reviewed and can be rejected for ANY reason.
Other than Nudity, Racism or AntiReligion or Discriminatory Ideal, you are welcome to create anything you would like. Whether it's describing you as a person, or showing off your kind bud, or a hobby you like to do, avatars make a good personalization tool for members to get a better understanding of you.
To Upload An Avatar, got to the Main Board Page and on the top of the page you will see a HTML tool bar click on Upload Avatar. A small screen should pop up, which asks for you to login. Only members may do this. Click on login and the next screen will take you to a disclaimer note, and two input boxes and a upload avatar button.
Type: Private is all that can be selected here.
File: enter the address to where the file is located. click Browse to search your computer for it.
you will also see this message at the bottom of the page:
If someone has made you an avatar, or you have found one on the net you would like to use simply right click on the avatar and choose "Save As" or "Save Image As" and remember the file name you save it as.
Then select a save location you can remember, something like the Desktop or "My Documents" or the root of your hard drive. Once you have saved the file come in here and hit the 'Browse' button and go find the file you saved. Then hit 'Upload Avatar' and you should be set.
Finally Click Upload Avatar. Another screen will popup. If you filesize exceeds 20K, you will get an error screen. At that point you must "go back to the drawing board" and see where you can make the image smaller. GIF images at 120x120 really aren't that large of filesize. If you are trying to upload an animated GIF, you might need to get a graphics program (like Animation Shop, with Paint Shop Pro) and reduce pixels, delete frames, or Optimize the colors for lower filesize.
If your avatar is accepted it will automatically be uploaded and ready for your use. However if the Webmaster finds your avatar unsuitable then you will have your avatar deleted and be notified. Further abuse can result in loss of privledge.
Next check your profile. In the avatar selection section, private avatars will be the first ones on your list. If you wish to have a private avatar, and have no idea how to do it you may present a request in the Smoker's Lounge Forum or the Pot Shot's Forum. Someone may be able to fulfill your request. It also helps if you know what you want. If you want a certain picture, logo, Words, and style of lettering, weed leaves, if you want your name to be on it.. If you still can't think of any ideas maybe just tell a little about yourself or what you like and that may help. Someone may be able to do your request, but there's a chance that it won't always happen. As long as I'm here though, I do my best to create avatars for everyone.
you can contact me by PM , just type ClayStreet
updated 5/30/04
(Edited by ClayStreet at 10:50 pm on May 29, 2004)
