I’d also die on the hill that just a meme replies also deminish a forum into just a slideshow
Is there a way to just filter them out, moderate them, or force the posters of such to type some effort out with their recycled content before they can hit post?
On one hand, I agree with you. Gifs can be very annoying, especially when you can’t make them stop. If there was even a way to just make the things stop moving, that would be enough for me.
When I use them, I generally try to pick the ones that are longer and slower because the ones that are fast and short tend to get old in a hurry. However, a well-placed meme can be entertaining and the perfect reply, especially if you have the tone.
That being said, except for in the meme thread, I don’t tend to fall back on memes in order to reply.
IMHO, any effort to enforce a global ban on GIFs in an environment where memes are baked directly into the core subject matter, i.e., the Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie riffs themsevles, would be rather unpopular. I don’t see it happening.
On the other hand, I can see the value of adding some sort of option to user settings to stop the autoplay of GIFs, or the autoloading of images in posts in general. The latter would also be of use to people accessing the forum through a low-bandwidth pipe or on data plans with small quotas.
Thankfully, there’s also the option of muting a thread if you feel like it’s all hat and no cattle. Or muting an individual poster who seems too GIF-happy.
For me (on Chrome) the gifs don’t even play automatically, I have to click on them if I want them to play. Not sure if that’s a setting somewhere but I didn’t change anything… But I don’t mind it like this.
In case the OP was serious (which I’m still not sure of), I’d like to thank @Nicholas_Johnson for bringing forth a position that might not be popular. Open discussion of frustrations helps the forums grow. Also, this sets an example for lurkers who might be interested in speaking up. Thank you Nicholas!
In a forum like this where clever pop culture references are a way of life, a GIF is often a better reply than “Hey, you 'member what that one guy said in that one movie…?”
Every time I see this painting now, I’m reminded of THE most butt-headed art critique in human history. But we need an Arts thread for me to post it in.