Replace red x with gray square?

[Jasonwclark]

It just seems like it would be so much nicer, to see an occassional gray square here and there, as opposed to the standard issue red X that everyone else uses. Red Xs so hiddeous and draw attention away from all the other thumbnails that surround them.

Sure, everyone else on the net might use this symbol to represent a broken image link, but we're an image site. I don't see any reason why CA can't break from the back, instead of diving off the cliff like a myspace or forum laced up imageshack links.

Why a gray square? Well the design for the red X is already a square so its not a huge change. Vitruvius recomends it (a point Briggsy schooled me on shortly after arriving here) so more squares couldn't hurt.

The essential point though is to make it gray, or at least some color or pattern that will allow it to slip into the background instead of jumping out at you like they do now. Because honestly, if a thumbnail link goes down, wouldn't it be nicer to have them sort of tucked away and made discrete, instead of flagged up in red so everyone notices? Especially given how long it usually takes for someone to notice/correct the issue.

I think it would be a lot more aesthetically pleasing. Anyone else agree?

[Arshes Nei]

Right now the broken images are showing up in certain browsers. Other browsers like firefox doesn't show them at all. I've already told Jason that the VB is missing images that should have been uploaded with the upgrade. I don't mind the red boxes. In firefox I wasn't even noticing the broken images until I switched to Google Chrome.

[Jasonwclark]

I also just noticed that whenever a thread is moved, the redirect thumbnail shows up as red X too. Not sure if that has anything to do with why the FF stickies are showing red X as well, but thought I'd toss it out there.

I'm using IE 8