Animated site icon is REALLY annoying

[Ahri]

Please can you stop using an animated site icon? It's really very annoying and benefits nobody. Have you tried opening up a few pocketgamer tabs in firefox? One alone is annoying, but with multiple tabs running it's patently ridiculous!

As a stopgap can you pinpoint which file I'd need to block to save my sanity?

[Fraser]

Hi there Ahri,

We do have a couple of animated icons for ads and such, but as long as you are packing a standard broadband internet connection, everything should be just fine.

To be honest, we'd be surprised if after an hour of searching, it would be possible to find even ten sites that don't contain at least one animated icon these days. Ahh the internet, it moves so quickly, I remember when it were all green fields round here...

ps We're flattered that you have so many PG tabs open all at once btw

.

[Ahri]

Hah, I actually meant the little icon displayed in the tab, usually called a "favicon" (and usually located on the root of the website as favicon.ico, but I don't know about an animated version).

I do generally have a lot of PG tabs open as I tend to open up all the DS news in the newsletter, one of the few such mailing lists I'm subscribed to. Unfortunately this has the effect of usually 6-10 green icons animatedly turning into blue icons every few seconds, even whilst I'm reading my email in another tab or browsing the news in another.

I really do think that this is exceptionally bad form; the only big website I've heard of having this "feature" is DHL (the commercial US postal service), and I only know that because there are numerous complaints around the internet concerning this.

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum21/11870.htm -- discusses how to achieve an animated favicon, and annoyance enters the discussion: perhaps if you took the original poster's advice and only animated 1-3 times it would be more acceptable.

http://lifehacker.com/5036881/how-to-bl ... d-favicons -- speaks for itself, and perhaps the prospect of people installing adblocking software just to get rid of the irritation I'm complaining of, might nudge you into action (this is not a threat nor a statement of intent; I merely point out that people do consider these options)

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 3&t=665596 -- more people wanting to stop or remove animations in their tab bar

http://radar.oreilly.com/2005/12/does-f ... rld-r.html -- as far back as 2005 people were noticing and being annoyed by them

Google does not have one. Facebook does not have one. Microsoft does not have one. Reddit, Digg, Slashdot, Ikea, eBay, The Times Online, The New York Times, the Guardian, YouTube, Blogger, GAME, Abandonia, DailyMotion, Wordpress, Nintendo: none of these sites have an animated icon.

It's not a popular thing to have despite having been available for at least three years; there is a reason for this. It's REALLY annoying.

[Fraser]

Ahh, I see what you mean. My bad, I didn't realize you meat the tab icons...

But then, I actually don't know what you mean if I'm honest (sorry). What is it about the animated tab icon that annoys you specifically? Is it just that you don't like the look of it, or is it for a technical reason?

All of us here at Pocket Gamer really value any feedback you can give us, so the more specifics we get, the more easily we can set about improving the site

[Ahri]

I like the look of it, I just don't appreciate it looping infinitely; if it just did a loop or two (Blue-Green-Blue-Green-Blue) and settled on whatever colour it is that you feel best, that would solve my problem with it. As it is the sheer eye-catching irritation value of it changing every 10 seconds is enough for me to give up and close the offending tabs.

Limiting the number of iterations is quite possible with animated gifs from what I recall!

Possibly the best way for you to understand what I mean is to do the following:

1. Open up Firefox
2. Open 5 tabs of PG pages, whatever you like, they'll all have the same animated icon in the Firefox tab ribbon
3. Open up another tab, something you need to read for a couple of minutes; ars technica perhaps
4. Read

During the course of reading a news article for, say, 2 minutes the 5 PG tabs you have open will animate approximately 12 times. This is what I find annoying. I've actually found it annoying writing this post for the past few minutes with the icon animating, and that's only with one PG tab open!

[Fraser]

So it's an aesthetic thing then.

Anyone else feel the same way about this?

[danskmacabre]

I haven't really thought about it, but now Ahri mentions it, it probably WILL be annoying

Seriously though, meeting in the middle would be a good idea, let it cycle a few times and stop, it is possible with animated gifs to do that.

[Leulier]

I agree with Ahri.

When you have a couple of tabs opened and you are reading/writing a long text, having an really eye-catching thing on the top of the window is pretty annoying.

[Fenrir]

I actually really like the animated icon in the tab/s. I can see why it might be annoying to some people since they rotate and change colour (seeing it out of the corner of your eye may irritate some people) but just thought I'd let you know at least someone doesn't hate this!

[Ahri]

Well, that's cool. It's interesting to see how many people care enough to comment on it.

It's quite possible that I'm just intolerant! I still think the compromise of animating a few times before becoming static is the best solution, though

[lekky]

I'd probably disagree, I think its quite a nice touch. Especially when you have a couple of tabs open and they all "dance" together. Cracks me up everytime!

Maybe the addition of a couple more colours would help? Add a bit more variety

[Ahri]

My final appeal to sanity is merely to counteract the previous reply to this thread. After this, I give up

"lekky" [17:13]:
lmao
"lekky" [17:13]:
i can see how that would get annoying fast
"lekky" [17:13]:
especially if your whole tab bar does it at hte same time
Piper, Adam [17:13]:
yeah
Piper, Adam [17:13]:
anyway, good, don't do it
"lekky" [17:13]:
like some freaky dance to applease the gods
"lekky" [17:20]:
hahahahahaa
"lekky" [17:20]:
hhaaaaaaaaaaaahahahaa
Piper, Adam [17:21]:
?
"lekky" [17:21]:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52140
Piper, Adam [17:22]:
what?
"lekky" [17:22]:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52140&sid=ca595c75f1c04334bdb3c49018f6d378#p91995
Piper, Adam [17:22]:
you're a wan*er.
"lekky" [17:22]:
lol

[braver]

.

I support the Apple

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