Author Topic: Forum avatars and titles  (Read 31881 times)

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Offline General Battuta

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Offline niffiwan

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
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Debian Packages (testing/unstable): Freespace2 | wxLauncher
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m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...

 
Re: Forum avatars and titles
Here you go!

Oh noe. Hit your afterburners pilots! DIVE DIVE DIVE!

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
Regarding layout choices.  Spoon 2 wins my favour still.  Regarding coloured identifying text for administration staff, if everyone's happy with a subtitle as well as a custom title then that's fine with me.

Regarding MLP.


:snipe:

I think I'll be drafting a contingency avatar inspired by the dogs.

I really do think that a avatars help give a bit of character to the individual postings.
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
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Offline Lorric

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
I think I'll be drafting a contingency avatar inspired by the dogs.

I really do think that a avatars help give a bit of character to the individual postings.
Well I know Spoon likes Suikoden II so...



General Ridley. Badass extraordinaire.

 
Re: Forum avatars and titles
*snip, don't mind me!*

I am minding you so hard right now

Somehow I cant'delete my own posts in this thread, and I decided to edit my post instead.
For some reason SMF has decided that that edit, the wiping of my entire post and replacing it with a *snip don't mind me* does not warrant as an edit.

... Please stop staring at me like that!

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
It depends on how quickly you edit a post. You have a short grace period after a post is made in which you can edit it without SMF flagging it as edited. It generally allows you to correct typos and spelling mistakes, etc. without it appearing as an actual edit.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline Axem

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
So uh, any more comments or mockups people want to do? How does everyone feel about it?

 

Offline Scotty

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
I would like to have an avatar.  That's basically the whole of my opinion, or I'd have chimed in with an argument earlier.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

  • I reject your reality and substitute my own
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Re: Forum avatars and titles
I feel generally positive about it.
"Load sabot. Target Zaku, direct front!"

A Feddie Story

 

Offline The E

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
Same
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline MatthTheGeek

  • Captain Obvious
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Re: Forum avatars and titles
As long as they can be disabled, and it doesn't accidentally break the forums, who cares. I've been adblocking the admin avatars since forever anyway.
People are stupid, therefore anything popular is at best suspicious.

Mod management tools     -     Wiki stuff!     -     Help us help you

666maslo666: Releasing a finished product is not a good thing! It is a modern fad.

SpardaSon21: it seems like you exist in a permanent state of half-joking misanthropy

Axem: when you put it like that, i sound like an insane person

bigchunk1: it's not retarded it's american!
bigchunk1: ...

batwota: steele's maneuvering for the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: you mispelled grâce
Awaesaar: grace
batwota: oh right :P
Darius: ah!
Darius: yes, i like that
MatthTheGeek: the way you just spelled it it means fat
Awaesaar: +accent I forgot how to keyboard
MatthTheGeek: or grease
Darius: the killing fat!
Axem: jabba does the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: XD
Axem: bring me solo and a cookie

 

Offline jr2

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
As long as they can be disabled, and it doesn't accidentally break the forums, who cares. I've been adblocking the admin avatars since forever anyway.
 

Bwahahaha.

I find that amusing.  I don't know why.  :nervous:

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
I did some historical research on the justification for avatars.  Looks like the current situation came about as follows:
  • Users who participate in a project were entitled to have an avatar next to their name.  (See the original FAQ.)  Users in multiple projects could have multiple avatars.  "Being an admin" counted as a project.
  • Nearly all avatars were created by Setekh (who at HLP's founding, and for many years afterward, was a prolific graphical contributor).  Avatars were specific to the projects: all users who belonged to a project could use that project's avatar, but users did not have the option to upload custom avatars.  Admins were an exception to this rule, but notice that even with admin avatars, the HLP logo is prominently featured in some way.
  • At first, avatars for different projects were different sizes.  Eventually, due to the proliferation of avatars, they were standardized to a maximum size of 65x25.  (I think it was WMC who had one of the last 65x25 avatars.)  Admin avatars were allowed to be the exception to the maximum size rule.
  • Avatars were further standardized at 25x25.
  • HLP moved from vBulletin to SMF in 2006 or so.  SMF only had the capability of having one avatar per person.  Thus everybody's avatars were dropped except for the admins'.
  • I figured out how to modify SMF's badge system to function like the old vBulletin multi-avatar system.
  • Hosted project "avatars" are now known as badges, and the original association with avatars was forgotten.

So in the current vernacular, admin avatars are really an extra-large badge for being in the admin usergroup.  Therefore, allowing everyone to pick an avatar is tantamount to giving everyone an admin medal, which dilutes what the actual admins have.  Other users get the reward without the responsibility.

Alternatively, we could go back to the original point #1 and say that the privilege of wearing an avatar is contingent on being a member of a hosted project.

 
Re: Forum avatars and titles
Alternatively, we could go back to the original point #1 and say that the privilege of wearing an avatar is contingent on being a member of a hosted project.

I think this would be a great middle-ground solution that both increases individuality as well as rewarding those who participate in creating the content that draws people towards the site.

 

Offline General Battuta

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
HLP's history with avatars is immaterial: the point of this thread is to decide to do something other than what has always been done.

 

Offline AdmiralRalwood

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
allowing everyone to pick an avatar is tantamount to giving everyone an admin medal, which dilutes what the actual admins have.  Other users get the reward without the responsibility.
with a giant picture under your name comes giant responsibility
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Codethulhu GitHub wgah'nagl fhtagn.

schrödinbug (noun) - a bug that manifests itself in running software after a programmer notices that the code should never have worked in the first place.

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<MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".
(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

<IronWorks> I am useful for FSO stuff again. This is a red-letter day!
* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.

 

Offline Axem

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
I don't quite see why it would dilute what the admins have. There is already the administrator badge. That and the title under our name serve as the symbol of our authority, and I think that's all we should need.

And I don't quite agree with only allowing people part of projects to have avatars. What would be the criteria exactly? Hosted HLP project only? What about the people who release a wonderful campaign that didn't need HLP hosting? What if they're hosted elsewhere? What if someone's done a lot of work on project, and then leaves the project afterwards? What if they're part of an archived project now? What if they're prolific in works that aren't exactly modding related, like fan fiction or just amazing drawings? If we're talking whimsical perks for starting a project on HLP, then we already have our neat badge system.

There's so many ways to contribute, and I don't think being part of a project should entitle you to an avatar. Just joining and becoming part of the community should. It shouldn't be a status object, it should just be.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2016, 08:42:27 am by Axem »

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
I did some historical research on the justification for avatars.
Thanks for the history lesson but to quote a wise man: "HLP's history with avatars is immaterial: the point of this thread is to decide to do something other than what has always been done."
It's 2016 now.

So in the current vernacular, admin avatars are really an extra-large badge for being in the admin usergroup.  Therefore, allowing everyone to pick an avatar is tantamount to giving everyone an admin medal, which dilutes what the actual admins have.  Other users get the reward without the responsibility.
Sorry but, this just seems so very petty and is honestly kind of childish. We're an community of adults playing and modding a space game from 1999, this notion of having avatars as 'rewards' or as 'status symbols' is just so  :blah:
Everyone can still see you are an admin if other members have avatars too, nobody will suddenly think less or more of you.

[snip]
Good post, sums it up pretty well.

So uh, any more comments or mockups people want to do? How does everyone feel about it?
Should I make a poll for those layout examples? They might be getting a bit lost in the current thread.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Lorric

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Re: Forum avatars and titles
So uh, any more comments or mockups people want to do? How does everyone feel about it?
Feel? Apathy. I feel I will be shocked if anything actually changes. You lot always keep the status quo. You say you will do things then you don't. You break your own agreements. You lie with impunity. You break your own rules with impunity. The last time was especially egregious, as you actually gave us what we wanted, then you took it away with no notice or explanation and locked the thread so we couldn't even seek one. Thanks for wasting my time there along with everyone else who participated there in good faith. I'm amazed that people are still even bothering with you. Numerous people were saying things such as I have just said back when I was new to the site. And I've been here well over 4 years now, and it hasn't changed.

Even if this does go through, honestly I'll only see it as virtue signalling. Or perhaps part of the proxy war Phantom Hoover speaks of. Magnanimously giving us what virtually every forum on the internet gives it's users by default. Or a pretext to score points on the old guard. Even you Axem, were keen to show off your new avatar to us when you became an admin. And I notice now it is your two friends, Spoon and Battuta, who are the primary agitators for change. I wonder if you'd have been the same if it was two random people instead. It won't be because you lot want to do it for us, at least primarily. There'll be another reason why now it changes, where before when people wanted it to change it was smugly thrown back in their faces.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2016, 09:33:43 am by Lorric »