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 each member that chooses to display one. There are two ways of using an avatar, From your USERCP, under Control Panel, Edit Avatar... you may provide a link (URL) to an image that is hosted on another site, or you can upload 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. Normally, the size of the image cannot be larger than 100x100 pixels. And the filesize cannot exceed 19.5 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. If you do not want to view avatars, or find that the avatars are making the pages load slowly, you may turn off the feature by going to your USERCP, Edit Options, and unchecking the Show Avatars button in the Thread Display Options section. Since high speed internet is becoming more prevalent, some exceptions have been made regarding avatars. If you have a tasteful animated avatar that is larger than allowed, a moderator may change it for you upon request, as long as you do not abuse this priviledge, or make repeated requests in a short period of time... Again, if you do not want to view avatars, you may turn the feature off. There are some rules as well for What kind of images to create. This is not a porn site. Growkind will not allow pornographic, inflamatory or blatantly offensive images to be used. Even though this is an adult site, pornography is not allowed. Keep it to a "PG-13" or low "R" rating. 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 "X-rated" nudity, racism or anti-religion. All avatars and other images are reviewed and can be rejected for ANY reason. Other than Nudity, Racism or AntiReligion or Discriminatory Ideals, 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. If the Webmaster or other GK staff find that your avatar is unsuitable then you will have your avatar deleted without notice. Further abuse can result in loss of the privledge. If you wish to have a personalized avatar, and have no idea how to do it you may present a request in the Smoker's Lounge 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. There is a member called ClayStreet that will do his best to create custom avatars for everyone... However he is not always around. Any other member that has the ability to create custom avatars is welcome to do so.
