How do you put on an animated gif file Avatar?

[Carole]

The Avatar I currently have on is animated but just comes up as a stationary image.

Carole

[Tony G]

Speak to Mike or Mac, as I'm sure this was one of their Avatar's at one point, and they had the animated one.

Tony G

[Rick]

Personally, I'd prefer you didn't^*. If you must, you'll have to make sure the image you upload is 80x80 or smaller, or the forum software will re-size it and destroy the animation in the process.

^{* In general, avatars should be small files, and animations often aren't. They also sometimes slow down page displays, and some are just plain irritating to watch even for as long as it takes a page to load.}

[Mike]

It must be less than 80x80 before it is uploaded otherwise it won't work.

[Mac]

Aye i did indeed have the animated one.
In fact i might still have it.

[Carole]

Thanks.  I didn't realised this was one Mac had used before, will change it.

Carole

[Mac]

Thanks.  I didn't realised this was one Mac had used before, will change it.

Hmmmm why, there's nothing stopping you using it.

I always thought it looked quite good actually,

Mac.

[Carole]

Well just that I always think an Avatar should be personal to that person. 

Carole

[Rick]

I always thought it looked quite good actually,

I first saw that spinning globe over a decade ago. It's had lots of time to get old. I find animated avatars tend to decay through stages something like this:

"Oh! That's cool!" --> "Ok. It's boring now." --> "Ugh. That's getting irritating." --> "Argh! Make it stop!"

...and I've seen a few particularly dire examples which skip the earlier stages of the decay path.