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What good are those things, really?
"This profile is protected by ____" and all sorts of other messages that make me laugh. How're you going to "protect" someone else's profile, save hacking (which is not legal)? Rate an offending person with a 1 several times in a row?

I mentally wince every time I see someone's profile spattered with these types of images. They seem to be a large waste of space that will slow down loading times. I understand the basic concept -- it's not entirely useless, I suppose, but realistically it doesn't do anything except make the e-peen of someone (or someones, perhaps) larger. Which is in itself lul-worthy.

Come on, people, you're cluttering up a perfectly good profile with near-senseless banners.

On another note, while I'm in Rant Mode, what's with all the generic "your profile has been fairly rated by ___" images? Has anyone ever heard of constructive criticism, or do they not care and are only rating people to get their bonus points? It's 5% at most. Surely you don't care THAT much, where you have to copy/paste your little banner into everyone's profile that you come across?

An don't tell me "if you don't like it, then don't look." I've been "not looking" for months upon months now, and it's a terrible argument for you to use anyway.


If I offend anyone, I don't apologize, because there's no way a perfectly rational person will be offended by what I've said here.

I have protection stamps. For me they are creative pieces created by a friend to show their love and affection for me. I see them more as friendship tags than protection tags. I consider a protection tag from a friend as a gift. I personally have mine in a scroll box so unless you go to the scroll box then it shouldn't be of a bother for anyone.

As for stamps on profiles. After trying several times to come up with a personal word of encouragement or praise for a profile, it becomes time consuming. As a coven master I don't have that much time so stamping is my way of offering my approval for the said person's hard work. After an hour of reading profiles you can run out of things to say... and especially when the profiles offer little in the way of information or colour to show the person's personality. So sometimes if you don't have something nice to say. A stamp comes in handy.

As I create stamps I like the chance to create these stamps both for myself and my friends. I also like to show them off and display them.

We are well within the right and rules to use such stamps to rate profiles. If you don't like them then I suggest you just ignore them.

And being a vampire website. A protection tag is as good as a tattoo, piece of jewellery or style of dress that announces to the world that you are part of this particular clan, or related to this particular person. It is a display of our colours. The same goes for many stamps, they announce who you are and that they have been in your neighbourhood.

This subject has been rehashed time and time again. There are the majority that are for stamps... and the majority against.

Ok I have said enough.. next.

Not offended here. As a PM I don't have to copy and paste as I have the little stamp thingy that I can use so I use it.

I can understand your being bothered with a tags that take time to load... but what is the difference between a protection tag and a picture they put on their profile.

Some are proud to put their friends tags on their profile. I for one also use a scroll box and have my coven mates tags in it as I am proud to be associated with them and love them like family. Its like a photo album to me.

I only keep my 'Protection' stamps (we really should change the names to Friend stamps) to only my most favorite few. They tell people who I like and love me back. I agree with Rogue. They are about friends, family, loved ones or Tattoos.

As far as the stamping goes, I couldn't have summarized it better myself. I think you are reading my mind again Rogue...Lmao. Get out of my head.

She is right, though. After rating people with two words on a profile...a stamp is quick and easy (just check a little box). After reading a huge profile that you loved, the hard work you did to make your stamp perfectly personal and unique is a compliment to you.

If we want to leave real words, we can always go back after stamping to add and hit submit again, but that takes forever...I like my stamp. I drew it. Do you have any idea how hard that is to do? Much less editing it in a paint program after loading it. I would like to see it where you can both stamp AND comment a page, though. That would be better. Perhaps I could suggest it to Cancer...Then, you would have the option of stamp, comment, or both.

Jenna Karro

Just like posted above My tags are to represent my friends. and my rate tag is just another greeting to teh person I am rating

i agree,i think that a profile with too many stamps is lame and should deserve a automatic 1 in my book.

I love stamps and I actually enjoy making them. I feel they are a expression of friendship and yes sometimes some people have way too much but if the person wants to display them all that is their right. Yes, it can be annoying lol

I suggest a scrollbox for your tags if you have a Premium Profile. That's what I do :)
It's just a fun thing to do if you like that kind of stuff.

Actually, they serve no real purpose other than to show off friends who care about each other. I myself have them but they are in a scrollbox and not all over the page haphazardly and there isn't 50+ on there...

Mine are in a little box out of confederation for those who have dial up.Or do not care to look at them I give people the option to see my friends.When I am no longer a PM I will have them in another proper place. MY journal I am very proud of my Friendship stamps I do not have a pretty stamp to place on peoples profile.But As been stated before after rating profiles for a long time you do run out of things to say.And some profiles do not even deserve a kind word so a kind worded stamp is handy.

My opinion is , people stamp because theres around 15000 people on VR so , reading 15000 profiles , specially when u have a slow computer that freezes when the profile has more than 2 images , ull get pretty desperate , because everyone wants to be a sire!

Protection stamps , im not a big fan , never really understood the point...

Haha ~MaximusPain~ I could relate, sometimes people have more stamps than personal/profile content, is quite annoying scrolling things you tend to ignore in profiles. So I guess people should do what few have mentioned here, a scrolling box for a more minimized section for your friends, then again not everybody has to accept your way of designing your profile. But the 1 can be reasonable for some individuals judgments and is not something to be taken as offensive.

it just pisses me off when you get into someones profile and the reading is all good and dandy then bang... 30 stupid protective stamps..........................i mean, what the hell are they good for anyways besides annoying the piss outta someone?

I think Rogue said it best. For me it is much the same. These are my closest friends here on VR, they don't have much to do with "protection" except in the way that friends will be there for each other in times of need. I am honored to have them and many are quite artistic. If you have one of mine it means that I hold you in high esteem. I keep my protection stamps in a slideshow on my profile with the exception of my boyfriends and in no way do they deter from the rest of my profile, just glide on by if you don't like them, 2 seconds of your time.

I have to agree with Rogue also.

But, I can understand how it can it can be utterly annoying.

I like protection/friend stamps. I appreciate all the work and love that goes into them, and I hope people come to appreciate mine as well.

I try to limit how many I put on my profile by putting my closest friends or family's stamps on my pro.

I'm thinking about putting the other ones I receive in my journal.

But if they annoy you as badly as you say, don't look, skim through, or go to another profile.

You shouldn't make someone feel like crap or give them a low rating on a personal basis. And not liking the stamps would be a personal basis.

I don't like having too many stamps or pics or whatever on my profile. In fact if there are too many on someones account I do rate them lower. All though I do tend to change my rating policy to kinda go with whatever coven I'm in.

Look, now...I condense all of my stuff to small sizes.
I have a balance of everything on my page not a lot
of any one thing. I have 3 on one profile and 6 on another
but they are small and at the very end. I even condensed
the few quizzes I refuse to take off of my page. I put
all of the others away due to complaints. Mine stamps are
so small you can have your screen half sized and they
don't get in the way. And I have hand-drawn stamps, so
I have it on my page too, because I love it and I want
it there. I don't think my page deserves a bad rating. I
am sure it loads slow. I have a playlist of 20 songs on it
that I listen to every single day when I am on VR, so dial up
people are just screwed anyhow. I can't help that.
They are phasing dial up completely out and DSL costs
the exact same price and still goes through phone lines.
I suggest they upgrade and stop complaining. I did...Lmao.
I got tired of not being able to load pages. I don't think it
is fair to tell me I have to take things I want off of my page.
So there you have a Mexican Standoff if I have ever seen
one. I get bored and change my page often, but these
are the few things I am not removing.

At the end of the day here is what it boils down to.

1. Stamps are a premium perk (however non premi members do this by pasting an image code). It is something Cancer has used as a perk, it does indeed help a great deal seeing as you do run out of things to say and if you didnt already know this you will now...... You CAN NOT use the same comment twice for example... you can not go to one profile and put.... very good, and then go to another profile and put very good as it will not let you.

2. The tags..... I have one, I give it to VERY few people. I have the ones given to me, which do go on my profile..... Ive not put them all up but none the less I have them. They are creative to me. They are also allowed on the site.

To be honest this is better suited as a journal entry instead of a forum thread.