Bigger avatars

[porsch1909]

More people browse sysopt with high speed connections than with dial-up I'd imagine.

A bigger avatar would be nice I think :)

64 x 64 is oh so very small :(

100 x 100 would be good :)

[Steve R Jones]

64x64 is pretty much the magic number for all of JM sites....Besides, yours would look even worse if it were larger :x

[porsch1909]

:p

I would have a much nicer avatar if I had the oppertunity :)

It's just that you can't really do much with 64 x 64.

Even if most JM sites are 64 x 64 can't we be different and move forward from that?

[Bigjakkstaffa]

I'd personally also be in support of larger Avatars (within reason of course).

Of course a lot depends upon the technical limitations of VBulletin as to wehter that could be implemented

--Jakk:t

[porsch1909]

I'm at a VBulletin board which can have 150 x 150 avatars!

I think Jupiter Media would have implemented the 64x64 rule when dial-up was king to be a bit more user friendly! But dial-up is no longer king :cool:

[JPnyc]

It's less about the bandwidth than about the length of the threads. Now that we've enabled sigs, they will grow considerably horizontally. Increasing avs will make that worse still

[Bigjakkstaffa]

I dont know the ins and outs of vBulletin that well, but i am aware that a lot of other boards display their avatars/user info to the "side" of posts (i.e. imagine a left hand margin on the page, thats where it goes, see http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=48334 for an example) to circumvent such issues

--Jakk:t

[Strawbs]

while we're on the subject of avatars - I'm hoping we're all up for a little contructive criticism. ;)

Porsch: you have what is probably the worst avatar I have yet come across on the net! to say it is "infuriating" and "cheap" has to be the understatement of the millenium.

with that said - Have a GREAT day. :p

[JPnyc]

Jakk, that requires all the user info to be at left, which means the message area will be further narrowed. I didn't think that was such a good idea here.

[Strawbs]

OK ...OK! I said "constructive criticism".

take your pick - 64x64 avatars (http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=+64x64+avatars&ndsp=20&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&start=0&sa=N). :t

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Porsch: you have what is probably the worst avatar I have yet come across on the net! to say it is "infuriating" and "cheap" has to be the understatement of the millenium.


Buy that man a beer :t

--Jakk:t

[porsch1909]

:(

[porsch1909]

Actually......I would have a much niver avatar if I had more than 64x64 to play with...

Point taken...I am on the hunt for a new avatar :)

[porsch1909]

That better folks? :)

[JPnyc]

Better!

[Strawbs]

much!

[porsch1909]

This is actually my favourtie av :D

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/1120/av450pl.gif

But at 64x64 it doesn't look as cool.

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/8691/av45321984kx.gif



For the record I only like it because the graphics are pretty cool. Not because of the message (if any) it sends out.

[JPnyc]

Sure it does. The one atop isn't an av anymore, that's a full fledged picture.

[porsch1909]

Hmmm....buttttttt.....

This avatar at a bigger resolution would be perfect :)

http://img461.imageshack.us/img461/4907/av4525186ys.gif

[MJCfromCT]

Larger avatars and pictures in sigs should be dealt with very carefully. Too many forums allow users to put whatever size avatar they desire, and as many images in their signatures as they want. It ends up taking 90% of the page's loading time just to download their garbage.

I'd be all for larger avatars if a size limit was in place. Maybe a 12kb limit, 100x100 size. Also, if space for a 100x100 size avatar was used, the "join date", "location", and "posts" could probably all fit under the username and member status, making the info be displayed much more compactly.

[mireland]

keep the avatar small I say..and for gods sake limit the signatures.... :mad:

[porsch1909]

I'd be all for larger avatars if a size limit was in place. Maybe a 12kb limit, 100x100 size. Also, if space for a 100x100 size avatar was used, the "join date", "location", and "posts" could probably all fit under the username and member status, making the info be displayed much more compactly.


OF course size limits are essential...without a size limit on avatars there would anarchy!! :p

[JPnyc]

The sigs are limited, no images, and the avs shouldn't get any larger. They're not supposed to be anything but a little blurb of an image.

[MJCfromCT]

I don't think this would be too bad for avatar size:

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1889/newforum7bl.th.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newforum7bl.jpg)

I'm not sure if the whole scrolling argument is that valid when it comes to a forum. If you were talking about the main content of the webpage (something I mention in my SysOpt Makeover thread), then I would agree with you. Having a user need to excessively scroll to get to content on the main page is not acceptable. However, for a forum, I don't think it is as important. By now, most people are familiar with internet forums, message boards, or mailing lists, and know generally how they operate. Even if they don't, glancing at them for a few moments can generally get them up to speed. Forums are designed to make the user scroll down, anyways, they don't want to have a ton of information crammed into a small vertical space.

Of course, like I said, there need to be limits. Having a user scroll halfway down a page just to get past porsch1909's avatar would be unacceptable, too. ;)

[porsch1909]

That looks a tad big IMO MJC...


And what's with bashing my av today :(

[MJCfromCT]

How on earth did I make it that big? lol...heck, I print screened the page and just photoshopped it...oh well, I meant for it to be 100x100, not that giant size. :p

*Edit*

Ahh, I see, I print screened your larger image, not the smaller one. ;)

[Bigjakkstaffa]

On MJ's train of thought, my personal preference woudl be something alogn the lines of (All hail the might MS Paint Skills):

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/4894/layout2pr.th.jpg (http://img113.imageshack.us/my.php?image=layout2pr.jpg)

EDIT: Changed Avatar to appropriate size

--Jakk:t

[porsch1909]

Except....you posted the giant version....

100x100....is what we are trying to presuade admin for I think :)

[JPnyc]

You want the details on the left instead of above? I can do that but be aware that it'll squash the message area more than it is, and you're all already complaining about the width of the forum

[Bigjakkstaffa]

It's just a suggestion, see what people make of it.

I know what you mean about the width issue though. It strikes me at present that we're not really making best use of space in regards to the full width of the page, for instance check all of the "white space" (even with text size set to smallest) in these screens:

http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/4600/whitespace4bv.th.jpg (http://img236.imageshack.us/my.php?image=whitespace4bv.jpg)

I think a bit of fung shui would be in order to make both better used of the availiable space and to enable any layout change to be effective.

--Jakk:t

[JPnyc]

Sorry, imageshack takes longer to load than my patience max. But I can see the page as it is. There's not much I can do about that except maybe extend the forums list on pages longer than a certain length, using javascript

[porsch1909]

So who can do something about that?

[JPnyc]

Only me, using the method I outlined. That right column isn't going away no matter what anyone does. That's out of the question. However, I might be able to fill in the space with things if the space is what's bothering everyone or anyone. It's a lotta work but I think I know how to test for height, and extend portions of the forums list onload if the height is above a certain number of pixels.

[porsch1909]

I just don't understand why the items in the right hand column can't be moved to a different part of the page. If it is out of your hands....fair enough....then who's hands is that in?

Anyway...what you're suggesting is that where there is blank space on the right hand side that the posts in that area will be extended to fill that blank space?

[JPnyc]

That would be my boss's boss. But trust me, that column will remain there. Most of our users are techies and the avg. user's screen res. is now 1024 wide. Ours probably avg. higher than that, since we specialize in techies. I use 1152 width, on a 20" monitor. The right col. is about 1/3rd of the screen or a bit less.

No, vbulletin uses tables for the forum display, and I would have to rewrite the entire software in order to allow posts to expand into the empty space at the lower right hand column. It would take weeks of just working on that to the exclusion of all else, and that's if I can even do it.

[porsch1909]

You got an e-mail address for your boss's boss? Better to have tried and failed than to have never tried before :)

[JPnyc]

Not if I wanna continue in this job LOL. Sorry man, ya have to trust me on this, that column is there to stay. It's on most every forum we run.

[porsch1909]

Bleh....fair enough....

Can't say I never tried :)

[JPnyc]

But I'll do what other things I can do.

[JPnyc]

That's what it'll look like vertically, details at left. Personally I like it better the other way

[Bigjakkstaffa]

See how people react to it.

I've not been a fan of the UI really since the update to vBulletin occured - may as well give some alternatives a try

--Jakk:t

[JPnyc]

You mean from vb2 to vb3 or from whatever was before that to vb2?

[mireland]

That's what it'll look like vertically, details at left. Personally I like it better the other way


uhhh do we have to have it in this form.....??? :(

[JPnyc]

No, it's on trial. IF you're saying you dislike it, I agree with you. But majority will rule.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

You mean from vb2 to vb3 or from whatever was before that to vb2?

The most recent one IIRC

I'll open a vote thread up in Off-Topic (thats where most people seem to congregate) about the change, see what peoples opinions are

--jakk:t

[porsch1909]

So no chance of a bigger avatar?

[mireland]

So no chance of a bigger avatar?


god I hope not..those things would be too obtrusive and take up too much space... :p

[j.m@talk]

64x64 is pretty much the magic number for all of JM sites....

Thats it blame me why doncha :rolleyes:



:t

[_Mystical_Night]

maybe 80x80 :) ?

[fizur2002]

why not use the scrolling advertisements i see on some webpages where the advertisement follows you up and down the page you are viewing?

[The Triangle]

Oh god, those ads are horrid.
I don't see what's so bad about a 64x64 avatar anyways...
It limits you, yes, but big flashy avatars are... well, obnoxious.

[JPnyc]

So how bout a compromise, say......75x75?

[j.m@talk]

call it 80X80 & yas gotta deal ........ Wiv gif's obviously :t

[mireland]

what the hell is wrong with the way avatars are...NOTHING. have a good one... :D

[j.m@talk]

cann it

[mireland]

cann it


well??? I think they're fine the way they are. One little punk whinning about it concerns me not in the least... :D

[BadDriver]

I think we have a little avatar envy going on here. :r :r

[porsch1909]

So how bout a compromise, say......75x75?


Sounds good :)

[BadDriver]

well??? I think they're fine the way they are. One little punk whinning about it concerns me not in the least... :D

Shut up Peppy, aka Darth Vader. You haven't been ol Darth for a long time now. Couple of years hey?

[Bigjakkstaffa]

I propose that we delete mirelands user account and all his past posts in order to balance-off the added load on the servers that larger avatars would bring... whose with me?

--Jakk:t

[BadDriver]

I'd go with it but then he wouldn't be here to kick around anymore. It would be like playing kickball without the ball. :D

[porsch1909]

I propose that we delete mirelands user account and all his past posts in order to balance-off the added load on the servers that larger avatars would bring... whose with me?

--Jakk:t

Here here!

[JPnyc]

You guys. I can just feel the love. Btw, it's 75x75 now

[porsch1909]

Three cheers for democracy! :p

Wait till I go home to change it :)

[mireland]

I propose that we delete mirelands user account and all his past posts in order to balance-off the added load on the servers that larger avatars would bring... whose with me?

--Jakk:t


woddadik... :D

[porsch1909]

Thought I'd go for something a bit controvercial this time ;)

[mireland]

Thought I'd go for something a bit controvercial this time ;)


:rolleyes:

[Strawbs]

Thought I'd go for something a bit controvercial this time ;)Firefox v.2 has a built-in spell checker y'no! ;)

[j.m@talk]

Firefox v.2 has a built-in spell checker y'no! ;)

Yeah but its cock to do stuff with

[mireland]

it's not the size of your avatar...it's how U use it... :)

[j.m@talk]

JM = Badly :(

[JPnyc]

Ya just can't please some folks :|

[Strawbs]

means more work to stretch my avatar. :(

j\k.

[Baddog]

it's not the size of your avatar...it's how U use it... :)
You and Bush have something in common.
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/i/bush_darthvader.jpg RITFLMAO :D

****Baddog gets ready to duck*****

[porsch1909]

Firefox v.2 has a built-in spell checker y'no! ;)

You just peeved cause I'm not drooling over your motor ;)

[Baddog]

*****looks around the corner to see if Mireland is coming****:D

[mireland]

You and Bush have something in common.
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/i/bush_darthvader.jpg RITFLMAO :D

****Baddog gets ready to duck*****


nice job.... :t