Why aren't avatar ad clickable?

[QueenVera]

Good day everyone, it just came to my noticed that the avatar members of the forum wear either for their personal pleasure or as a form of advertisment isn't clickable. I noticed this after I tried clicking a user avatar that caught my attention but it wasn't clickable. I had to use the web to look for the project but immediately lots interest as it was looking impossible to find them as a result of disturbing ads. Also I noticed some users have different ads as their signature and avatar, now what benefits is the avatar to the companies buying the space if their ad aren't clickable, how do they monitor the success rate of their ad. Forgive me for my ignorance but is there some reason why this feature isn't allowed on the forum?.

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[Upgrade00]

Avatar is a personalized image of the member, it is not typically used for ads and a member could use an image they like or to portray a message, reason why it is not clickable, same way personal text isn't.
When used for promoting a website, it is usually combined with a clickable signature (here the Avatar would serve as a the logo of the service).

[jackg]

When used for promoting a website, it is usually combined with a clickable signature (here the Avatar would serve as a the logo it the service).

Yeah or it'll be in their personal message (seen below the Avatar).

It's just a different desugn feature the forum Software doesn't implement. I doubt it was created for ads exactly in the original smf code...

[FFrankie]

Letting avatars be clickable and link somewhere would just open up more possible bugs to be exploited, avatars used to be animated until they got too annoying, you can look at VODs avatar and see its animated.

And accidentally clicking on an avatar and it taking you offsite to who know where isn’t really that great either

[LTU_btc]

It's not supposed to be clickable. I haven't seen any other forum which allow clickable links in avatar. And actually, avatars weren't made to put advertisements there. It's personal space where you're supposed to upload image which will respresent you on forum.
About last part of your question. Yeah, there is no way to check success rate of such ad and how many people saw it. It's something similar like billboards in the streets. You also can't click on it, but people see it, content of ad stuck in their head and this is how it works. Maybe some PR experts can explain this thing better than me .

[Myleschetty]

Avatar is purposely a profile picture or image that can be used to represent particular users of the forum and if it has an ad clickable then it no longer an avatar anymore but an ad design/banner.

[hilariousandco]

You could put the link in the website field and it will show up as a globe under your avatar and on your profile. You could direct people to it via the personal text. Maybe the personal text could be clickable but most people just use their signatures for that.

[OcTradism]

Also I noticed some users have different ads as their signature and avatar

There are not many campaigns on the forum don't require participants wear companies' avatars. Some campaigns allow participants to be free from avatars: ChipMixer, Bustadice but not all of their participants wear advertised avatars. They'd prefer to wear their personal avatars.

now what benefits is the avatar to the companies buying the space if their ad aren't clickable, how do they monitor the success rate of their ad.

Because of less traffic from avatars, there is very limited companies hire people to promote their companies through avatars. If they hire someone for this, the employees will be very good members on the forum that make sure for eyes attention from their posts.

Payment for avatar is low if you compare it to signature.

HQ posters renting out their signatures, avatars and p. text.

[Upgrade00]

now what benefits is the avatar to the companies buying the space if their ad aren't clickable, how do they monitor the success rate of their ad. Forgive me for my ignorance but is there some reason why this feature isn't allowed on the forum?.

There's something called KPI ~ Key Performance Indicators which companies use, it is usually used to measure the success or otherwise of the company in various areas where it can be measured. This means if a company has been running an ad using maybe signature promotion, for a couple of months they would know the success of it by checking traffic, number of unique visits etc, and overtime they would be able to build an average reach of that ad.

If they add a new promotion campaign which can not be directly quantified like Avatar, it would be possible to measure its influence by checking any changes in overall average reach; no change means no impact, an increase would mean a positive impact and a drop in the average reach would mean a negative impact. For example:

• Project X gets averagely 20,000 unique clicks monthly and 2,000 new registrations.
• After running an ad campaign, the average clicks after a couple of months increased to 30,000 and new registrations to 2,500. This indicates a positive impact.
There is a slight possibility that the change may have not been caused by the new ad and maybe better reach of the initial promotion, but as long as there was an increase it means the promotional campaigns are working and the company is satisfied.

[UserU]

Yeah or it'll be in their personal message (seen below the Avatar).

It's just a different desugn feature the forum Software doesn't implement. I doubt it was created for ads exactly in the original smf code...

So far the forums (not just SMF-based) I visit never had clickable avatars. My guess is about the norm of associating clickable usernames with the avatar, instead of making both of them.

[Harlot]

now what benefits is the avatar to the companies buying the space if their ad aren't clickable, how do they monitor the success rate of their ad.

I think for projects who also have personalized avatars the idea is if their participants are wearing not only their signature but also there avatars it makes them more noticeable even if the the avatars aren't clickable they still have the whole space of the participant's signature area to be clickable. Also for people who are aware at a forum signature spaces are something that is known to be clickable so I really dohbt that thry would expect avatars to be clicable as well.

[hilariousandco]

Yeah or it'll be in their personal message (seen below the Avatar).

It's just a different desugn feature the forum Software doesn't implement. I doubt it was created for ads exactly in the original smf code...

So far the forums (not just SMF-based) I visit never had clickable avatars. My guess is about the norm of associating clickable usernames with the avatar, instead of making both of them.

I've used forum's before where clicking the avatar is like clicking the username and it takes you to their profile. Whilst it makes sense from an advertisers perspective I doubt it's something theymos will do. Maybe they Personal Text could be hyperlinked as that could be useful, or maybe it could be a paid perk of one of the new donator ranks I've proposed before.

[Jet Cash]

I believe that an avatar should be something that is unique to the poster, and help to identify him/her. An avatar was originally the incarnation of a deity, but it has developed a few additional meanings on the Internet. All of them seem to relate to a description, or the ideology of a poster. An avatar mouse is a mouse impregnated with cells or tissues to test various pharma products. If you wear the avatar of your sig campaign, you run the risk of being considered as an impregnated mouse testing a product. I believe that people should have enough self-confidence to stand up and be counted, and not hide behind some commercial product that they may not even understand.

[UserU]

I've used forum's before where clicking the avatar is like clicking the username and it takes you to their profile. Whilst it makes sense from an advertisers perspective I doubt it's something theymos will do. Maybe they Personal Text could be hyperlinked as that could be useful, or maybe it could be a paid perk of one of the new donator ranks I've proposed before.

Ah, okay.

While I like that suggestion on being able to hyperlink the personal text, limiting to Donators-only is kind of a wasted opportunity unless there's some additional (maybe some monthly membership) or it's incorporated into the existing Copper one, or the 10 BTC is revised. While some might argue the status should serve its original purpose and not meant to be available too freely, most, if not all of us may want the hyperlink feature at some point.

I believe that an avatar should be something that is unique to the poster, and help to identify him/her. An avatar was originally the incarnation of a deity, but it has developed a few additional meanings on the Internet. All of them seem to relate to a description, or the ideology of a poster. An avatar mouse is a mouse impregnated with cells or tissues to test various pharma products. If you wear the avatar of your sig campaign, you run the risk of being considered as an impregnated mouse testing a product. I believe that people should have enough self-confidence to stand up and be counted, and not hide behind some commercial product that they may not even understand.

You are right. Even after hanging around here for almost 3 years, I have not been able to truly establish my identity no thanks to the powerful forces of capitalism!

[CryptocurencyKing]

It's true that avatars aren't click enabled and to me, it doesn't matter much. Where it could have mattered is for signature and avatar campaigns but, the signature has got that covered and a link to download avatar is always available on the thread.
Some other users have their unique avatars but the idea might also follow on letting it stay unique or private and as such, it would feel wrong for another user to use their trademark or identity so, it's cool. Avatars we be barely of no use to you @OP on the forum as your yet to be a full member+ to be able to use avatar on your user.

[Welsh]

This forum is primarily used as a discussion forum for Bitcoin, which has largely been expanded to everything involving cryptocurrencies, it wasn't designed, and founded as a place where others can advertise in anyway possible. I think, like some here have touched upon, linking a profile avatar to that persons personal profile page would be a nice feature, but overall pretty unnecessary. I don't think we should be pushing new implementations to the forum, to better allow people to advertise, and earn on the site. Although, the attitude has probably changed from many years ago, this is primarily used as a discussion place, rather than some place where people come to earn money.

Also, I personally like that users have their own identifiable profile avatars, as it makes it much easier to remember a user.

[Mpamaegbu]

Avatar is a personalized image of the member, it is not typically used for ads and a member could use an image they like or to portray a message, reason why it is not clickable, same way personal text isn't.
When used for promoting a website, it is usually combined with a clickable signature (here the Avatar would serve as a the logo of the service).

Honestly, I have wondered why avatars aren't made "clickable" and I have come to believe that having "nonclickable" avatars aren't helping push projects any further to investors like the signature logos do. Nothing stops projects from making them clickable and theymos coding this forum to allow its use. Just click on a fancy avatar and it takes one to a site should be better than having a fancy dormant avatar. Even the personal text area can be made to contain a URL.

[FullNode]

In my opinion, the avatar would have to be each user's own and without the option of replacing it with an advertising avatar, the reason for this opinion is that it is really annoying to identify a user who constantly changes his avatar and at the same time other users share  that same avatar with advertising, if you are reading a long thread with many answers you have to look very closely at who is the user you are reading at that moment, for me it is annoying and also causes distraction.  Regarding whether the avatar has to have an active link, I think it is not necessary

[sujonali1819]

This question arrived in my mind several times in the past. And I thought if it were clickable then It will give an extra dimension of advertisement. But what the Welsh said this forum was not created by thinking about the advertisement, it was only for discussion about bitcoin. Lately, it comes to a crypto advertisement channel too.
btw I don't think this feature will not come because animated avatar also disabled here.

[shield132]

It's very curious. At some point, we see threads where signature campaigns and those who wear it are blamed and then - why don't we have more benefits.
OP have you ever seen such option on any other forum? Personally - not. I think it's not necessary too. I understand the point but forum needs it's income from advertisement too. If we allow image banners and clickable avatars on this forum, I think it will have a negative effect on the usage of forum ads. It's still amazing that we have so various options to promote things.