Forums » Suggestions & Development Discussion » Gut Tag ^^

Hey, I'm new, and I was wondering if there was any possibility that you can embed a little flash music icon into the character's profile. Kidish yes, but I love it, I think it draws more atmosphere and detail to the character. If not; is there a possible way we could change that? Should I put this on the discussion board? What do you think?

Please refrain from text bashing me (aka 'being mean')

This is more of a suggestion, so it's been moved to the suggestion board.

I wondered when this would come up! The answer is no, there is no current possible way to embed flash tags into character sites. It's unlikely that it will be added at any point in the near future, either.

It's pretty rare that I just say "no" to a request, but the reasons for disallowing music are sort of overwhelming.

• The music that people tend to pick is almost always illegal. Copyright infringement issues are huge.
• Most people use their computers as a multimedia station, and are already listening to music. Playing more music they didn't ask for is just going to produce auditory chaos and result in a swift click of the back button to make it stop.
• Most people don't expect their browser to be a jukebox, and are startled and jarred unpleasantly when unexpected sound comes flying at them.
• If you have more than one page on your character site, the music will annoyingly restart (and get resent!! More bandwidth!) every time someone clicks a link.
• The general opinion of the site's users seems to be staunchly against unrequested music suddenly playing at them. Since opening the site, I've been contacted literally at least once a week and sometimes much more by people specifically thanking me for not allowing music.
• It slows down the site for everyone, and sucks up a lot of bandwidth.
• I'm currently paying for bandwidth out of my own pocket, and I'd rather not pay to send music that is only going to be muted in annoyance by the majority of people it's sent to.

This is one of those things that people tend to either really love or really hate. I can see how music would create a more immersive experience, which could appeal when you as a creator are trying to set up a site that gives an accurate flavor of a beloved character. When building a site, though, it's not only about the character the site is about; it's equally about the people who come to learn about that character. This is difficult to explain, but as a designer I feel it's a matter of web-etiquette, and that there's a sort of social contract not to overstep the boundaries of what people have asked for. Usually when you are browsing the web, what you expect from a browser is pictures and text -- you do not think you are inviting sound intrusions by visiting a web site, so if it is forced on me I consider the site rude and get off it as fast as possible. It's the digital equivalent of personal space -- I might like hugs, and hugs are usually very friendly, but if I'm just walking around and I'm not expecting to get one, a sudden tackleglom is going to alarm and upset me!

If it finally turns out that music is something that is desperately wanted by so many people it can't be ignored, and somehow the legal issues can be worked around, it will never be auto-starting. Users who actually want to hear it can click a start button.

Kim I cannot possibly thank you enough for NOT ALLOWING MUSIC. Seriously, I always have my own music playing and getting assaulted by some any time I click a profile would drive me nuts. I pretty much instantly close a browser or hit back if I go to a page with any kind of noise playing that I didn't ask for.


MY SUGGESTION: If you really want to give music atmosphere to your character add a text box and title it 'theme songs' or something then either list the songs or give youtube links. That way people can choose to go listen to it or not and it'll be some other site's problem if it sucks bandwidth or is copyrighted!

Kim you gave good reasons. Music in the profile is why I hated Gaia online. It often froze or crashed my older computers or just caused problems loading. In fact it was the main reason I stopped messing around on Gaia. I was sick and tired of being blasted with music or having my computer crash. (I have a new one that won't crash but still the idea of being subject to someone else's musical tastes isn't a pleasant one.)

So mainly I second Helix's suggestion for people who want the music idea. Even if there weren't legal issues, or technical issues, not everyone wants to hear the music of the other. Personal tastes could turn someone off your characters and not realize that they would be adequate partners for you.

^--- Embed a youtube video automatically that won't play until clicked. Solves the legal issue because Youtube is responsible for hosting it (or the user who uploaded it), won't cause heart attacks by people who don't expect music and doesn't eat up any of your bandwith. Links tend to look really lame and don't interest people too much because they have to open ANOTHER tab or window and I can already hear the "Grooooaaan" for that echoing everywhere.

So simply embedding the youtube video (possibly with tags to allow adjusting height/width?) would be nice. It's done in forums a lot too and I don't see why it wouldn't be a good addition to char pages. It's just another converting BBC to HTML thing..

"You've won a free iphone!"

That alone is reason enough to ban auto-start sound from the whole of the internet.

So, just wanted to say, thanks.

Youtube tags are already underway! They just haven't managed to migrate to the live server quite yet.

@mross - You're welcome!


Edit: Since you reminded me, I've migrated youtube tags to live. I tested them briefly on this side, and had no problems, but of course let me know if you run into one.

http://www.rprepository.com/help/bbcode.php#youtube

Seconding a thank-you-thank-you for the 'no embedded music' thing. There's nothing I hate more than opening someone's Freewebs or Wix page and getting aurally assaulted by music that, very often, isn't to my tastes or doesn't even seem to fit whatever character a person is trying to portray.

Now, I do have something of a habit of going 'hey, this piece of music fits [character] awesomely!' - but, if that's the case, I can always link to it, or even just give the title and artist and leave the curious visitor to work Google magic, and that way it doesn't irritate anyone.

@Dragonfire - A second you're welcome to you, too. I think it's a matter of internet etiquette that's being sorted out as people get used to the technology. People do it with the best of intentions, thinking they are sharing something awesome, but in a way it's kind of like getting into someone's personal space without permission. To me, browsing the web is not implied consent for my computer to squawk at me.

WOMAN. Not only are you AWESOME for getting that code in so quickly, you're also AWESOME for the choice of sample video!!

It seemed appropriate.