remote hosted avatars mod request
 

Good afternoon,

I have see a couple mods to add this feature for board members, however they don't seem to work properly. One replaces the upload feature and there for disables the ability to upload. I want to keep the option to select member groups to upload their images. Can we add a remove avatar field, below the Pre-defined Generic Avatars, offered to all members who can access the Pre-defined Generic Avatars.

Most, if not all my members host their own avatars and would like to use them at my site?

I have seen remarks made that hot linking is frowned upon, and yes they are right, but these are legitimately hosted images, just like my members images used in their signatures. I mean, why do we have the VB code [img] if it's not to link to images?

My members are screaming to get their avatars back, as I recently moved to VB from another board, where they could link to their avatars.

Any suggestions, ideas, or the mod itself would be very much appreciated by me and many others who are seeking this hack.

Thanks in advance,
CL

I would love a good working hack for this. I need to upgrade my vb 2.3.5 board to a 3.0.7 and my users will go nuts without the ability to use avatars. I've installed a hack on a test vb 3.0.7 that i've installed that I found from searching but it doesnt appear to work well, the user can not see the current avatar in the user control panel. And I want to be able to change the text and remove the upload avatar box from the user cp.

This is something that is needed for those that can not afford the bandwidth to host users avatars. I hope someone with ability can come up with a well working hack. I would be willing to pay up to $15 for the hack in US funds

Does anyone have any input on this request?

thanx

Its a huge security risk you know...

I guess I don't know... how so?

How do you verify that the external host is now allowing gif or jpg files to be run as php or asp files?

How do you ensure that a user doesn't first upload a small clear gif file, then after he submits it it doesn't become a 1600x1600 clear gif file?

not sure what you mean by the first one,

Image file extensions allowed: jpg, gif, jpeg
of course width and height limits (65x65)

How do you check to make sure a user didn't change the image between the time they submitted the link and the time they have it dispaly on the forums? unless your going to check EVERY avatar before it loads in EVERY post, which would drive the workload on php up insanely.

Basicly what if someone could make thier server have .jpg files, be recognized as .php files...

well, I don't really care what avatar they have, so checking them isn't an issue... as for ".jpg files, be recognized as .php files"... then why does the board allow [img] tags in users posts and signatures? What is the difference where the picture is loaded, as an avatar or in the post and signature? Why do ALL other bulletin board software have the remote avatar hosted option if it's such a security risk?

I don't really see the big deal... seems a lot of people would like to see this addition to the board.... at least let it be an option one can turn on or off per usergroup.

anyhoo, just my 2 cents... :ermm:

good point that being the case, you may be able to make the mod where it processes it via the bbcodeparse function, that way any security checks vB do for [img] would be carried out for your off-site avatars :)