I noticed over the last day or two that the animated avatars don't seem to be working all the time.

For example, mine quit this morning, so I closed my browser (FF v26.0) and restarted CF. Animated avatars worked fine. A couple hous later they quit. Exited FF, restarted my PC, loaded FF and they worked for maybe 45 minutes then quit.

FWIW, I never had a problem with the "old" CF

Ideas??

 

The animated avatars are simply animated GIFs - as uploaded by members - that are stored on the servers in file format (normal). Nothing changed with them.

The issue you describe is a browser issue. A few years ago, using an older FireFox browser, if I'd leave my browser open for a length of time all animated GIFs would stop working until the browser was completely closed and reopened. I haven't seen that issue with Firefox for some years.

 

I recall similar issues with the animated gif's from a few years ago, but this just started to happen within the last week. Today, when I booted my PC and loaded my browser (CF is the default page), the gifs worked fine. An hour later, the animation stopped.

I got the FF v26.0 upgrade about a month ago and there was no problem at that time.

I can understand if the browser is a problem, but there has to be something else there given the time frame between the last FF upgrade to what I stated seeing just a few days ago.

Edit: restarted browser again and the gifs stopped within 10 minutes.

 

I know you don't want to hear it, but it's a browser issue (or possibly other software issue) on your computer for the animated GIFs to stop playing after a period of time.

You can view an article about animated GIFs in Firefox and how Firefox, and even other software on your computer, can change the behavior of how they work:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Animated_images
and
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Images_or_...ns_do_not_load

By the way, the redesign was basically (in a over-simplify terms) a facelift on the same code and structure. Colors were changed and status icons were also changed. No major software updates or maintenance was performed. The biggest change was eliminating all the skins when each skin was the same minus the logo and sidebar links. None of that would have had any impact on GIF files, stored on the server, to suddenly become corrupt or altered.

By the way, my Firefox has been open for over 3 days and your avatar is still animated as are the similes (they're also GIFs). Which I would expect.

 

It's interesting that I don't see my flag avatar moving, but I do see the animated icons in the selection box moving.


I also followed the links and checked that config file and everything mentioned there is what I saw in my file.

Oh well, guess it's not that big of a deal but when something changes, I do get curious if it's nothing I have done. I also use the same animated gif as my avatar in another forum (The Garage Journal Forum) and it's working fine.

 

The reason why I linked those documents was to show that the browser (and software on the computer) plays a large role in what happens with the animated GIFs (working correctly or not).

You might try rebooting your computer after clearing all browser cache but I'm not sure if that will fix your issue.

Unfortunately there isn't much CorvetteForum can do. In short, your browser downloads the animated GIF from the server and it's up to your browser from there.

 

I will note that I downloaded your specific avatar and it shows a loop of about 1001 times. After that, it will stop animating. Animated GIFs can be programmed to loop indefinitely or only X amount of times, which is saved in the animated GIF's file. Whoever made your avatar set it for 1001 loops before stopping.

By the way, I noticed you've had this issue before:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/help...my-avatar.html

 

I have noticed that CF member "LTC Z06" is using a similar avatar and I see it working properly when mine is stopped. I just reloaded my avatar file from my PC and I get the same thing; works for awhile then stops. The same file works without stopping on two other forums (both are using vBulletin software).

As far as # of loops, I guess I don't understand that. If the same .gif guy is being used in other forums, shouldn't it also stop after the loops value has been met?

Maybe I can try to find a similar file somewhere and download it to my PC and try to upload to CF and see what happens.

Thanks for the time and effort!!!

 

LTC Z06's avatar is also set for 1001 loops. There's about 8 frames that make up both your avatars. Each frame plays in one cycle for 1001 loops before it stops animating. That's the way your avatar was created by whoever created it. It can easily be changed to loop (never stop) indefinitely through a GIF editor.

What you describe is a cache concern. I also seem to recall you having weird issues with your browser's cache when the new design was released. Remember you said the source code shown a C3 logo but you got a C7 logo instead? Your browser ignored what it was supposed to have loaded and must have used cache instead.

Once the 1001 loops have completed for your avatar, the avatar will stop. A "hard-refresh" (shift+F5) or clearing your cache manually will reset that as the file will be re-downloaded to your browser to begin the 1001 loops again - as set in your avatar by whoever created it. I find that your avatar, with 8 frames and 1001 loops, take about 13 minutes before it reaches the end and stop animating.

So if you hard-refresh any page that has your avatar on it, or someone else's avatar that also has X amount of loops, or if you possibly reach the max amount of your browser's cache, you will likely see the avatar re-downloaded - which will then reset the loops that the avatar runs through as defined when it was created.

As far as it working on other sites, if you're using the same file, it will still have 1001 loops as defined in the file of your animated GIF. Why it may continue to work on other sites is they may have a "no-cache" header which may force your browser to keep your avatar fresh (re-downloading). Each vBulletin software and installation can be quite different. I checked the old skin/templates and the new skin/templates and nothing has changed on CF's end in regard to cache and the skin/templates.