# Site supporter 'avatars' to big.



## Walking Dad (Jun 28, 2008)

Sorry I have to say this, but I don't like the big, colored 'community supporter' signs around the avatar. Something more that distracts from the text and decreses the text space.

And I prefer to be able to read my posts in 'standard' color before I post them.


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## Mark (Jun 28, 2008)

There should be a way for Community Supporters to switch them off or back to the standard avatars.


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## WhatGravitas (Jun 28, 2008)

Mark said:


> There should be a way for Community Supporters to switch them off or back to the standard avatars.



I think a smaller badge above or below the avatar would be better, something about 100 px wide and 20 px high.

Then there would be no need to switch them off.

Cheers, LT.


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## Psion (Jun 28, 2008)

(Shrug) I like it. Maybe shrink down the "EN" logo a bit?


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## Nifft (Jun 28, 2008)

MUCH TOO BIG.

Jesus, are you people being paid off by widescreen monitor manufacturers?

It seems like every change so far has decreased my ability to view EN World in anything less than 1024-wide window. I have other uses for my screen real estate, you know.

Even Gleemax isn't this bad anymore.

 -- N


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## WhatGravitas (Jun 28, 2008)

Nifft said:


> It seems like every change so far has decreased my ability to view EN World in anything less than 1024-wide window. I have other uses for my screen real estate, you know.



What about the alternate postbit style, where the user info is above the post? That should save real screen estate (though it increases scrolling).

Cheers, LT.


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## Knightfall (Jun 28, 2008)

Psion said:


> (Shrug) I like it. Maybe shrink down the "EN" logo a bit?



Shrinkling down the logo would be the best option, IMO.

However, it might be a good idea to tone down the logos' colors a bit. They're almost neon and contrast too much with the background. Just my opinion.


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## Mark (Jun 28, 2008)

If someone nudges someone else to remind them of something, suggesting that the someone else be nudged less significantly to the point that they do not notice rather defeats the purpose.  Allowing them to avoid being nudged altogether once they no longer need reminding, however, seems like the way to go.


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## Nifft (Jun 28, 2008)

Knightfall1972 said:


> Shrinkling down the logo would be the best option, IMO.
> 
> However, it might be a good idea to tone down the logos' colors a bit. They're almost neon and contrast too much with the background. Just my opinion.



 I agree with both of these.

If you must highlight mods & community supporters, *and I don't think it's universally good to do so*, there are many less visually intrusive ways to do so.

For mods, the giant glowing logos may hinder their ability to participate in conversations as normal posters. I'd much rather see red text as their exclusive domain, since it's visually arresting and available on a voluntary basis.

Cheers, -- N


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## Cat Moon (Jun 29, 2008)

One thing to possibly do is to seperate the badge from the avatar, and half the width of it.

Code it to be above or below the avatar.


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## cougent (Jun 29, 2008)

I actually like them for now, but can see where eventually they will get old.

I have noticed that Mark and Nift (and others in other threads) have a 'Community Supporter' link under their titles.  Currently none of them seem to work (404 errors), but is this something they have done themselves in their title boxes or is it a board feature?  If nothing else, it would be nice to have that link to the community supporter sign up page [my guess as to where it is intended to link] even without the badges.  Smaller badges with muted colors would still be nice though, kind of nice to be noticed.


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## Pbartender (Jun 29, 2008)

Nifft said:


> I agree with both of these.
> 
> If you must highlight mods & community supporters, *and I don't think it's universally good to do so*, there are many less visually intrusive ways to do so.




On the previous boards, mods were distinguished simply by bolded usenames.


I tend to agree, though...  The badges are too large, and in general don't fit the visual style of the default skin.  Something a little more discreet would be nice. To use Mark's analogy, nudging as a reminder is fine, but shouting in my ear is a bit much.

In addition, not everyone who has a Community Supporter account seems to have a badge -- I don't -- which reduces their effectiveness.


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## Haffrung Helleyes (Jun 29, 2008)

Nifft said:


> MUCH TOO BIG.
> 
> Jesus, are you people being paid off by widescreen monitor manufacturers?
> 
> ...




I agree with Nifft, though I still think the site is way better than gleemax!

But on a scale of Craigslist to Gleemax, your site just moved way closer to Gleemax.  And in my opinion, that's a bad thing.

I also completely agree with the comment regarding the neon colors, and the size of the community supporter badge.  To me, the size of that bade is actually a disincentive to become one.

Ken


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## Umbran (Jun 29, 2008)

Haffrung Helleyes said:


> But on a scale of Craigslist to Gleemax, your site just moved way closer to Gleemax.  And in my opinion, that's a bad thing.




In terms of "has graphics" I would have to agree with you.

In terms of "usability", we may have to agree to disagree.  Craigslist is hardly a poster child for good web design.  Craigslist is analogous to a warehouse-store:  sure, the thing you need is there, but actually being there and wandering around is not a pleasant experience.

This is not to say that EN2 is perfect, of course, but I think you'd find that if we were like Craigslist, we'd lose posters in droves, and the things you wanted wouldn't be here any more.


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## Michael Morris (Jun 29, 2008)

The badges were designed for another stylesheet that was abandoned back in November.  They aren't perfect, but there are issues that adversely affect usability to take care of and frankly this isn't one of them.

If any of you can design a better set of badges do so and I'll upload them. Otherwise you'll just have to wait.


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## WhatGravitas (Jun 30, 2008)

Michael Morris said:


> TIf any of you can design a better set of badges do so and I'll upload them. Otherwise you'll just have to wait.



Well... done. I tried to keep as close as possible to the current colour scheme, but also tried to incorporate the current badges' colour, as well as the ENWorld logo and, of course, the text.

Judge for yourself - I've got the PSD, if needed - and can do changes, obviously.

I've attached the badges with a grey placeholder, since I'm hitting the attachments-per-post limit, I'm doing the badges without placeholder in the next post.


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## WhatGravitas (Jun 30, 2008)

And here the next ones, without placeholders. Please note that the strange greyish colour is due to the fact that I've used the background colour of the postbit - it only looks strange on pure black (as here as attachment) - in the postbit, it will look better.

I wanted to avoid a full transparency PNG, as older IEs cannot deal with it properly, plus the boards don't support PNGs as avatars, so I don't know what it will do about such badges.

Cheers, LT.


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## Mark (Jun 30, 2008)

Those are nice, too.  Also, not as wide, I guess.  If I use one as my avatar will it shrink down and fit inside my Community Supporter Badge?


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## Knightfall (Jun 30, 2008)

Lord Tirian, those are excellent. Well done!


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## Michael Morris (Jun 30, 2008)

Lord Tirian said:


> And here the next ones, without placeholders. Please note that the strange greyish colour is due to the fact that I've used the background colour of the postbit - it only looks strange on pure black (as here as attachment) - in the postbit, it will look better.
> 
> I wanted to avoid a full transparency PNG, as older IEs cannot deal with it properly, plus the boards don't support PNGs as avatars, so I don't know what it will do about such badges.
> 
> Cheers, LT.




The boards include an adjustment css stylesheet for IE < 7 to deal with this - those browsers are fed gif images.

Also png images can be avatars - my avatar is a png. The board includes a correction javascript for IE 6 and 5.5 that allows them to show png's correctly.

If you could reupload the backgrounds without the ENWorld logo or words - the word "world" in that logo is too small and might as well be dropped. I'd also like to experiment with other fonts position.


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## WhatGravitas (Jun 30, 2008)

Michael Morris said:


> If you could reupload the backgrounds without the ENWorld logo or words - the word "world" in that logo is too small and might as well be dropped. I'd also like to experiment with other fonts position.



Done! 

Cheers, LT.


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## Blackrat (Jun 30, 2008)

Very cool Tirian. Those look much better IMO.


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## Angel Tarragon (Jun 30, 2008)

Nicely done LT.


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## wedgeski (Jun 30, 2008)

Can I just say that I like the design of the new avatar borders very much. My only problem is in their size relative to the avatar space of someone who doesn't 'qualify' for a graphic.

And speaking personally, selfishly, wholly for myself, differentiating Community Supporters is a nice nod to those of us that have contributed a bit of cash to the site and while the graphic is a little too intrusive, the *idea* of a graphic is, I think, a good one.


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## Dinkeldog (Jun 30, 2008)

I've got mixed feelings.  It's kind of nice to have a moderator/admin background that sets things off.  We do two types of participation here--the first is using "moderator voice", the other is as a poster.  The advantage to participating as a poster is that it allows us to establish a sotto voce type presence in a thread that may be starting to stray, but isn't quite to the moderating stage yet.  An obvious bright visibility can have a calming, rationalizing influence, which frequently keeps us from needing to moderate later.


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## Michael Morris (Jul 1, 2008)

Ok, new ones up.


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## Mark (Jul 1, 2008)

Michael Morris said:


> Ok, new ones up.






I think they are excellent!  Well done!


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## Nifft (Jul 1, 2008)

Better.

They're still wasting vertical pixels on short posts, but at least they're no longer
*BAAAARGH* PAY ATTENTION TO ME
to a degree that detracts from the poster's actual content.

Thanks, -- N


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## Michael Morris (Jul 1, 2008)

Don't make short posts


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## Blackrat (Jul 1, 2008)

I think part of the reason these new ones are not so obnoxious is the color-scheme. The old-ones were bright neon colors that hurt the eyes. These darker ones don't. I like them . Big hand for LT. Thanks for accepting them MM.


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## Nifft (Jul 1, 2008)

Michael Morris said:


> Don't make short posts



 Stop channeling *hong*.

Cheers, -- N


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## Jdvn1 (Jul 1, 2008)

Hey, I like the new tags. Very stylish.


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## Khuxan (Jul 1, 2008)

Agreed, I think they are a big improvement.

Thank you!


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## Angel Tarragon (Jul 1, 2008)

Lookin' good.


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## Plane Sailing (Jul 1, 2008)

Thanks LT and Mike for the new 'Site Supporter' backgrounds.


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## Chacal (Jul 1, 2008)

Michael Morris said:


> Don't make short posts




Yay, the rule against brevity is back !  

Chacal


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## Najo (Jul 1, 2008)

I liked how noticeable the old ones were. They were to big and a bit to vibrant, but the new ones are too washed out looking and the font at the bottom is weak.

I say go for a slightly brighter color that still fads from color to black like teh new ones do, and then use a bolder font for the title at the bottom. Right now, the title does not stand out.


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## Thanee (Jul 1, 2008)

Well ...



Lord Tirian said:


> Done!






Bye
Thanee


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## Walking Dad (Jul 1, 2008)

Najo said:


> I liked how noticeable the old ones were. They were to big and a bit to vibrant, but the new ones are too washed out looking and the font at the bottom is weak.
> 
> I say go for a slightly brighter color that still fads from color to black like teh new ones do, and then use a bolder font for the title at the bottom. Right now, the title does not stand out.



I see and read them without difficult.
BTW: Why should the title stand out? If I want to know the title, I can still red it. We are all humans or rogue AIs...

Good work! Thanks for sparring us neon on black. 

I think the new ones standing out enough, that you have to notice but not so much, that they disrupt me reading the thread.
(Or getting a small cardiac arrest seeing moderators red, who only make a normal post in a thread  )


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## Merkuri (Jul 1, 2008)

The new badges look great!  But I think there's an avatar or two that causes it problems.  For example, check out Thunderfoot's avatar in this thread.


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## Inferno! (Jul 1, 2008)

I like to new design too, good job.


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## Jürgen Hubert (Jul 1, 2008)

I like the new style as well. However, was it just my imagination or wasn't there a line below the user avatar that listed how many blog entries a user had (complete with a link to the user's blog)?

That line seems to have gone now.


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## Merkuri (Jul 1, 2008)

Jürgen Hubert said:


> I like the new style as well. However, was it just my imagination or wasn't there a line below the user avatar that listed how many blog entries a user had (complete with a link to the user's blog)?




I thought that only showed up if you were looking at a blog.


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## Goddess FallenAngel (Jul 1, 2008)

I love the new backgrounds. 100% better than the default ones were. Great job!


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## Jdvn1 (Jul 1, 2008)

Merkuri said:


> The new badges look great!  But I think there's an avatar or two that causes it problems.  For example, check out Thunderfoot's avatar in this thread.



I'm not sure I follow. What's the problem with Thunderfoot's avatar?


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## Jürgen Hubert (Jul 1, 2008)

Merkuri said:


> I thought that only showed up if you were looking at a blog.




Strange. I could have sworn I've seen it on a forum. But perhaps it was just my imagination...


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## Merkuri (Jul 1, 2008)

Jdvn1 said:


> I'm not sure I follow. What's the problem with Thunderfoot's avatar?




It's too tall for the badge.  It obscures the "community supporter" logo.

...or at least it did.  It looks like that was fixed.


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## Kheti sa-Menik (Jul 1, 2008)

I'm really groovin' on the new community supporter/mod/staff badge color coded avatar frames.  They're nice, and unobtrusive and look cool.
Thanks a lot.


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## Haffrung Helleyes (Jul 2, 2008)

*I liked them so much*

....I became a community supporter!

Ken


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## Merkuri (Jul 2, 2008)

Merkuri said:


> It's too tall for the badge.  It obscures the "community supporter" logo.
> 
> ...or at least it did.  It looks like that was fixed.




Ack, no, it's not fixed.  Thunderfoot's avatar looks fine in IE7 (which I use at work) but now that I'm home and using FF3 it's too big for the badge again.

Haffrung Helleyes avatar is doing the same thing.  I'm guessing this is just a FF3 problem.

Edit:  I attached a screen clipping of what it looks like to me.


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## Intrope (Jul 2, 2008)

Merkuri said:


> Ack, no, it's not fixed.  Thunderfoot's avatar looks fine in IE7 (which I use at work) but now that I'm home and using FF3 it's too big for the badge again.
> 
> Haffrung Helleyes avatar is doing the same thing.  I'm guessing this is just a FF3 problem.
> 
> Edit:  I attached a screen clipping of what it looks like to me.



I'm using FF3 under WinXP, and I don't see the overflowing avatar. 

Many thanks to MM & LT for the new badges. And I suspect that more people will be making their avatar backgrounds transparent now...


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## Merkuri (Jul 3, 2008)

Intrope said:


> I'm using FF3 under WinXP, and I don't see the overflowing avatar.




Okay, NOW it looks fixed.  Yep, definitely using FF3 this time and don't see overflowing avatars anymore.


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## Darkness (Jul 3, 2008)

Nifft said:


> Stop channeling *hong*.
> 
> Cheers, -- N



I'm channeling hong _right now_, IYKWIMAITYD.


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## genshou (Jul 6, 2008)

The new badges look snazzy, especially the staff/moderator ones (*points at self*).  I feel like I've been picked up, dusted off, and sprayed with some nice finish.  Can't wait to try an avatar with transparency.


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