I was half asleep and kinda just babbling without thinking. It wouldn't be hard to detect a file type though, right? Just turn gifs into a still image, and have them play/looped with clicked on.
The server actually doesn't process any of the images (when loading a page), even those that are uploaded here. When you upload anything on this site, it goes to an external storage system (Amazon S3). The page is loaded by the browser, the image is loaded from an external location and the server never processes it, only your browser. We could still-image all gifs uploaded here (through conversion), but that wouldn't actually solve the problem as most images are from external sites.
We could stop all images in signatures, but that's definitely not a solution.
There is no
viable automated system and the problem is not a large enough one to try as far as I'm aware. Manual moderation can do this, however specified dimensions and rules will need to be made.
Here are the rules:
6. Avatars and signatures need to be of a reasonable size. Abuse of any of these privileges will result in revocation of them.
Our system will resize any avatar that is submitted without a chance for cropping. If you don't like this, or would rather have a more advanced system, we also support Gravatars.
Signature Rules and Guidelines:
- You can link to your homepage or favourite site, but you can not use it for advertising.
- Limit your signatures to several lines.
- Please keep the coloured text to a minimum (and your signature readable).
- Please make sure your signature adheres to the other rules and guidelines found on this page
- We reserve the right to edit signatures that we consider (but not limited to): too big, flashy or inappropriate.