I've often wondered why Discord is the only major platform client that provides an option to play gifs only on mouseover. It's incredibly effective at solving for the problem you describe.

They're probably not GIFs, and I have to say this because it bugs the hell out of me.

Half the """GIFs""" you see online are webm. Just put a webm. They work great.

It's possible to stop gifs if the domain framed them with the proper code. Unfortunately many people believe gif = png,jpg and exert zero effort to handle them differently.

Depends on your browser, I guess?

Unconditionally, for all websites. I suppose nothing of value is lost.

I beg to differ: hamster dance.