Please Add This Function To The Forums

Is there anyway you guys could allow the use of .swf files in this forum...

I have seen in other bullitein boards that they allow flash extension to show...but they do have a limit so that someone cant crash some other persons computer and flash play 8 detects looping codes and stops them from going.

Here is what I think the limit should be...

550 x 200 MAX
No games but can be banners and the banners could have links to other posts and websites and what not..

Of course I know this might overload the server but DONT allow the uploading of .swf files onto this server...let the person upload there .swf files at ImageShack or FileBucket...

And I also realize that if everyone had put a flash banner on ever one of there posts it would SEVERELY hinder the speed of someones comp...but of course thats why we have moderators to watch out for those....PLUS many .swf animations longer than gifs can be A LOT smaller!

Just dropping a suggestion...if I am wrong on some things PLEASE correct me
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EDIT:
I am an avid Flash Designer thats why I am kinda asking for this cuz I dont play civ much anymore but I like to hang out in these forums

Heres my webpage to view my work (I know I am kinda plugin my own site here...I'm concieted)
http://www.freewebs.com/widereceivernumber89/flashdirectory.html

 

No ad banners. please .

 

What he said.

 

What you said.

I hate animated images. Enough said.

 

What all three of you have said.

 

lol I like the responses I got...classical.

WEll I do agree with the avatar limit...but that does put enough stress onto the server as it is. Cuz people are dumb and upload there images to this server, when instead you can upload them at imageshack or something

 

I wouldn't mind it. Assuming they were on topic, they would be a nice addition to some posts.

 

I wouldn't mind it either. Just don't allow animated avys and only allow animated pictures in posts. Do it quietly and I doubt many people would notice and I don't think there would be much abuse of that feature.

However, we do have to think of our friends with dial up and remember that it takes forever for flash images to load...or any image for that matter. But I can see some use of flash images, especially in C&C and other civ forums including storytelling.

 

That's the other thing - bandwidth. Large .swf files on a busy forum = a ton of bandwidth. Not good for the host server. (too many connections, or too much bandwidth typically knocks the server offline momentarily).

 

The first post advised forcing them to use an offsite host.

 

No, bad idea. Animations are generally annoying, and there is no need for them.

 

These would be only in every other odd thread, and it might be more illustrative then a regular .gif.

If it gets too annoying we can easily shut it down.

I bet noone would even notice.

 

Ya but when I ment a flash banner I ment something for like Mods for Civ 3 and what not...And I dont make annoying flash anims...

but anyways thanx for the feed back

 

I would say no. In flash you can have sound with no way of turning the sound off, and it gets annoying when listening to music or watching a film whilst browsing and hearing some random sounds in the background, which you then have to find and then leave the page or put up with the sound.
Annoys the hell out of me sometimes.
An animated gif can easy be used as a link in a page, theres very little times when flash would be actually needed.

 

but still whats the point in them?

 

@bob

I understand man...I dont do that...I have a mute button whenever I have flash banners and the only way the sound is activated is when you press play or some other button

 

They, when done properly, would look cool and enhance posts.

 

Might end up looking a bit tacky though.

 

SWFs are useful, but have vastly too much potential to be horribly obnoxious. Obviously nice, respectable SWF animators like you wouldn't be so evil as to put an SWF on a page that screams out "I LOVE GAY PORN!" at max volume as soon as you open the page, but somebody might.

Actually, even if you remote-link, the board just copies the link and hosts it anyway. This is, in theory, to prevent abuse of certain kinds of dynamic images. Of course, why this logic doesn't apply to signatures Jelsoft has never explained; for signatures, not only can users remote-link images if the code is enabled, there's no built-in hosting mechanism at all. Which is fairly ridiculous, one way or the other.

Not if they're remote-linked. Then the CivFan server just provides the (very small) link to the client, which goes off and downloads the actual (very large) file from the appropriate place to display it on the page. The main bandwidth problem with allowing large files is dial-up users, who might run into difficulties if someone links to a full SWF reproduction of The Fellowship of the Ring (copyright issues aside). However, that applies just as much to GIFs and other potentially large files.