Animated gifs should be available on cache paged

[+KittyKatCaches]

Now linking images to external sources Is not allowed on the editor

 

But animated gifs are still allowed on the forums

Edited April 26, 2022 by KittyKatCaches

[+TriciaG]

Why? Are they required for solving a puzzle or finding the cache?

 

They don't work on GPS devices, nor in many phone apps. They would just clutter up the web page

 

IMHO, of course. As an old curmudgeon, I tend to hate animated gifs on websites - or anywhere, really.

[+barefootjeff]

1 hour ago, KittyKatCaches said:

Now linking images to external sources Is not allowed on the editor

 

They are if you use one of the approved hosts. See this Help Centre page.

[+cerberus1]

15 hours ago, TriciaG said:

Why? Are they required for solving a puzzle or finding the cache?

They don't work on GPS devices, nor in many phone apps. They would just clutter up the web page

IMHO, of course. As an old curmudgeon, I tend to hate animated gifs on websites - or anywhere, really.

 

Yep. Icons in cache names, animations... all wasted carp for GPSr users.  

Back in '10 we know of a cacher that had a seizure from an animation for a mystery we did.  It made a few people queasy watching it...

[+kabouterer]

Is it possible to put animated gifs in a listing? It seems the system has changed a short while ago.

[+TeamRabbitRun]

21 hours ago, kabouterer said:

Is it possible to put animated gifs in a listing? It seems the system has changed a short while ago.

 

Did you read the post immediately above yours?

 

Even for people who cache with phones, extra data, extra time, extra BS on the page.

 

Don't try to entertain me with moving flashy things, I'm busy cachin'.

[+the Seagnoid]

There are many puzzles that actually rely on an animated gifs as a core part of the puzzle. A still image breaks this. As a result, many puzzle caches broke when Groundspeak suppressed animated gifs a few years back.

[+TeamRabbitRun]

18 hours ago, the Seagnoid said:

There are many puzzles that actually rely on an animated gifs as a core part of the puzzle. A still image breaks this. As a result, many puzzle caches broke when Groundspeak suppressed animated gifs a few years back.

 

So, doesn't that suggest that caches and puzzles SHOULDN'T rely on animated gifs?

[niraD]

39 minutes ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

So, doesn't that suggest that caches and puzzles SHOULDN'T rely on animated gifs?

Meh... There are plenty of puzzle types that can't be solved while viewing the listing on anything but web browser. That's never been a reason (or even an excuse) for banning those types of puzzles.

[+TeamRabbitRun]

1 hour ago, niraD said:

Meh... There are plenty of puzzle types that can't be solved while viewing the listing on anything but web browser. That's never been a reason (or even an excuse) for banning those types of puzzles.

 

Darin, I'm not talking about banning; I'm just sayin' that if I was to put a puzzle out there, I might not include too many elements that would exclude some people, unless I made the explicit choice to go that way.

 

Like, maybe I'd think twice about opening a lunch counter that exclusively sells BLTs in Haifa!

 

(I know, I know, but I'm making a point here!)

 

[+ChriBli]

If animated gifs are banned, they are banned. Nothing we can do about it. But the way I see it, we need to preserve what little freedom that remains when it comes to creating varied puzzle caches, otherwise all interest for the cache type will die out. Same goes for the now severely crippled challenge caches. If someone doesn't like gifs, images, lengthy descriptions then just stay away from those caches.

[+barefootjeff]

20 hours ago, the Seagnoid said:

There are many puzzles that actually rely on an animated gifs as a core part of the puzzle. A still image breaks this. As a result, many puzzle caches broke when Groundspeak suppressed animated gifs a few years back.

 

Animated gifs still work in old puzzles, for example see GC6XVK3. You can still put an animated gif in a new puzzle if you host it on one of the approved sites (see this Help Centre page for the list). What you can't do is upload an animated gif to geocaching.com as it now re-encodes all image uploads (be they gif, png or even jpg) as progressive jpg but images that were uploaded before they started doing this a few years back remain untouched.

[+thebruce0]

4 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

Animated gifs still work in old puzzles, for example see GC6XVK3. You can still put an animated gif in a new puzzle if you host it on one of the approved sites (see this Help Centre page for the list). What you can't do is upload an animated gif to geocaching.com as it now re-encodes all image uploads (be they gif, png or even jpg) as progressive jpg but images that were uploaded before they started doing this a few years back remain untouched.

This.

I still have a puzzle with an animated gif hosted on my site. I haven't edited the page otherwise it would no longer be 'grandfathered'.

The alternative is always there to simply link to the GIF to load in a new tab or window. Not as pretty as embedding, but they can still be used.

That said, I still believe they should incorporate the GIF format into the 'trusted' image formats without hammering it to conform to the oddities of the proxy hosting that can mis-name file types it converts.