Strobing Avatars

[ThistleWeb]

What's the policy on strobing avatars in this forum? I ask because I've noticed some users have animated gifs, which have a frame rate enough to appear to flash. Most aren't too bad, more irritant than dangerous, but one drew my eye this morning which would cross into "potentially dangerous".

http://forums.linuxmint.com/memberlist. ... le&u=65458
http://sanclaudia.free.fr/Mes%20documen ... e48x64.gif

I am not picking on this user, but pointing out that the choice of avatar they use is an example of something it'd be a good idea to address on health and safety grounds. For most people (myself included) strobes don't present any medical issue, for epileptics it's a whole different story. A mate of mine is epileptic, so I have to think through anything I recommend to him, and censor stuff that could trigger a seizure.

Epileptics, at least some of them (including my mate) are drawn to the source of the strobe. They can't help it. It has the effect of educing a trance, which in turn leads to a seizure.

I've lost count of the number of TV shows or movies I've thought "oh, he'd like tha.....hmm.....no, better not", because of the fast strobe effect of a scene or more than one scene. I'd love him to experience the Matrix for example but I'm not gonna have a seizure on my conscience if I can help it.

I never thought of it applying to avatars until I saw that one. It is easy enough to ask the user to change their avatar. In this users case it does appear to flash REAL quick for a bit, then end on a transparent frame with no loop on.

[richyrich]

http://forums.linuxmint.com/memberlist. ... le&u=44545

[GigaVex]

I'll go ahead and bump this forum, as I feel it's pretty important as well.