What should be done about the avatar and sigs?

Post by **Femto** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 10:38 pm

As I've said many times before, I think sigs are unnecessary, avatars are too big and both of them hinder readibility in the forums. I've taken screenshots of how posts look on my computer to prove my point.

A post with full size avatar and sig:

It's even worse when a post has no sig:

I'm sure everybody can see the problem here, these huge avatars are increasing the length of pages for no good reason, they could easily be reduced to half the size. As for sigs with images, they just break the flow of a thread, plain and simple. I'm sure most of you get tired of seeing them everyday too, I know I do. I ask you to think about this before you vote. I know, it's cool to have a nice and detailed avatar, shit, I love mine, but it just gets in the way and, as I said, it's really unnecessary. If this goes well, I'll PM psi about the situation and we'll see what can be done.

Post by **Buzkashi** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 10:39 pm

I dislike sigs and prefer the avs the way they are. But i think we should just let people make that decision on there own.

Post by **Femto** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 10:50 pm

Buzkashi wrote:I dislike sigs and prefer the avs the way they are. But i think we should just let people make that decision on there own.

Well, it's a democracy here and if too many people disagree with something, then I see no problem in changing it. That's what the poll is for, to see how many people agree/disagree with this. You however, have just wasted your vote by saying neither when you clearly say you dislike sigs. If you had you voted that you didn't want any sigs like you always say, then maybe you wouldn't be bothered with them anymore. Based on how quickly you voted, I bet you didn't even read my post.

Thanks a lot for being completely useless in this matter.

Post by **Ayanami** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 10:50 pm

I run at 1600 x 1200 on my PC, and let me tell ya, there is a lot of empty space some times. I do like the avatars a whole lot, how ever, when I am gone for 3 days doing what ever and then I come back to post, it is a pain to try and catch up because of the long pages. I really enjoy the avatars but it may be a good idea to reduce the size for function. And sigs tend to get old after a while, I am thinking about either getting rid of mine or reducing the height some more. Perhaps that should be an option for sigs, not to get rid of them completely, but make them not as tall. I think 160 pixels is huge and looks odd, I run at 150 but I am thinking about trimming it down to 100 pixels.

Post by **LordMune** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 10:53 pm

I think the avatar size restriction is one of the things that set this forum apart from others- in straying from the square avatar norm. Of course, they could and perhaps should be downsized, but I think we should keep the aspect ratio. As for sigs, just make them 140x400 instead of 160x600 or something.

Post by **Buzkashi** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 10:54 pm

Femto wrote:
Buzkashi wrote:I dislike sigs and prefer the avs the way they are. But i think we should just let people make that decision on there own.
Well, it's a democracy here and if too many people disagree with something, then I see no problem in changing it. That's what the poll is for, to see how many people agree/disagree with this. You however, have just wasted your vote by saying neither when you clearly say you dislike sigs. If you had you voted that you didn't want any sigs like you always say, then maybe you wouldn't be bothered with them anymore. Based on how quickly you voted, I bet you didn't even read my post.

Thanks a lot for being completely useless in this matter.

Actually i read your whole post. And i but neither because i do dislike sigs but i dont want to force anyone to do something they dont want. So =P

Post by **LordMune** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 10:57 pm

I've changed my signature to my 400x120 (XxY, not YxX as I erronously wrote previously) one.

I think it looks quite good in 1280x1024.

Post by **Femto** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:04 pm

Buzkashi wrote:Actually i read your whole post. And i but neither because i do dislike sigs but i dont want to force anyone to do something they dont want. So =P

So, in your would, if eight out of ten members do not want sigs, then you'd still keep them because you don't want to force anyone into doing something they don't want, even if the majority is unhappy by this decision? That's what the majority is all about, if more people want sigs, then sigs will stay, but if more people want them removed, then they'll have to go.

As I said, you just wasted your vote by saying something that goes neither way.

Post by **Libaax** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:30 pm

I voted niether cause i like the current sizes of the avatar and sigs. Things are perfect as they are now,i dont mind the pages becoming longer if it allows us to have larg avatars and big sigs.

I like the avatar sizes in this forum very much cause in 99% other forums they have tiny avatars and thats very ugly and boring.

Post by **MrFelony** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:31 pm

but elrik wouldnt look as cool with his legs chopped off :'(, though i do agree that my avatar is really tall. tall avatars discourage 1 word spam though

. and ayanami, just because the pages/avatars are long, does not change the amount of reading you would have to do to catch up.

Post by **halfnhalf** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:39 pm

we can always just make the sigs super small. i know mines somewhat big. The one reason i love this forum though is the size of the ava we can have. most forums only allow those tiny square bullshit. i like what we got here. The sig's, bleh can careless (what a hyporcite of me.. i have a sig..)

Post by **Libaax** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:44 pm

I have also a sig but i like the ava size much more i can live without sigs but not the current ava size.

Post by **arke** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:47 pm

I *so* win.

I personally don't like images in signatures and small images for avatars helps identify the poster faster.

Post by **Femto** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:53 pm

I'm not saying to make avatars 64x64 like in other forums, only to reduce the size a bit. I'm pretty sure we can reduce the sizes for most of our avatars without worrying about cropping stuff.

These look great IMO:

Those were reduced to 60%, which is around the area I think we could go with. They're easier to read, take up much less space and are much cleaner. Seriously, Mune's avatar looks horrible at 150x300, it's completely unnecessary. And it's not so mucht he width that is the problem, it's the height that messes everything up. We could even try with horizontal avatars and see how that works.

Your avatar is pretty small compared to the rest anyway Libaax.

Post by **Eldo** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:55 pm

Since I change avatar's and sig's regularly, I'm afraid I'm against reducing avatar's and sig's. The problem is with the Aeonlus skin, Evanidus has mentioned this before. I use the BBtech skin, and no excessive scrolling like with the Aeonlus skin is necessary.

So, blame Aeonlus. Or whatever how it is spelt. *sigh*

Post by **Libaax** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:57 pm

Thats why i dont want it to become smaller?

If you dont make avatars smaller than mine cause my size is the perfect size i will change my vote, i voted niether cause i was afraid that my av would become even smaller.

I dont care much for sigs so you can do what you want with them.

Post by **Femto** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 12:00 am

This looks just as bad as far as I'm concerned. Besides, some of us prefer Aeolus over BBTech, there's no point in sacrificing readibility for looks or viceversa. Easier scrolling is something that benefits all of us.

Libaax: I don't think you can change you vote, but you wouldn't have to reduce you avatar that much I think. As I said, it's the height that really screws everything up. This has been reduced to 150px height, a couple dozen pixels less compared to the other ones I resized, and it still looks good.

Post by **LordMune** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 12:04 am

Femto: Well, no signatures do not look as good as signatures.

BBTech works just fine most of the time.

Although I must say I like the resized avatars, we shouldn't have to resize them because of a broken forum skin.

Post by **Femto** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 12:09 am

Yes, I've always known that using BBTech fixes the problem with sigs being at the very bottom of Aeolus, but what about those that don't have sigs? That's why I screencapped that Buz post, because that's where the problem lies. And there is still extra space underneath the sig in that image that is unnecessary. That would not be there if the avatars were shorter.

I'm curious to see what psi and Starnum have to say about this. I knew Eldo wasn't going to be down with this, knowing his avatar fetishes.

Post by **LordMune** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 12:16 am

*nods

+1

Post by **Eldo** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 1:45 am

Femto wrote:I knew Eldo wasn't going to be down with this, knowing his avatar fetishes.

Heh, that's right.

I was never bothered by the space. In fact, I never began to notice it at all. I love this forum the most is because of the avatar sizes (less restrictive than other forums), really. So I voted neither.

Post by **Buzkashi** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 2:59 am

Damn how many forums are you guys part of. This is the only one im an active member in.

Post by **Libaax** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 3:06 am

This is only the second forum i'm active at right now cause i dropped several when i found this forum.

But before finding this forum i was in 4-5 other.

Post by **Ayanami** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 5:02 am

This is the only forum I am active on right now. I wanted to get on SRK but they need a email that is not free to join. I used to be on the SCII forums, but that got boring fast.

As for the ava re-size. I am pretty down with it, all the avatars you posted Femto still look good re-sized. I think it would make the flow of the forum a bit nicer. Even with a change in size this forum would probably still have the largest avatars I have ever seen. Right now I am on the computer in my father's office because my room is an oven right now, and his comp is on 1024 x 768, and the huge avatars are horrible for flow on this thing. I don't know what the standard resolution is for every one here, but I can't imagine the forums being attractive to any one with such large avatars on this resolution. On my comp I am running 1600 x 1200, so the avatars and sigs don't effect me as much, but that is my two cents on the opinion.

Post by **MrFelony** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:07 am

Ayanami wrote:
Arresty wrote:Some sigs are good, some are bad. I am indifferent, but don't like one for myself.

Now ava size I like, but scrolling is no issue for me. I run 1600x1200 and if card/monitor supported it I would run higher.
Express your opinion in the help and suggestions thread, if we can get all the veterans to speak out where they stand, it will help in making a decision for the forum.

And 1600 x 1200 is the shit. But for those less fortunate I can see the forum being a pain in the ass.

running 1024X768 as well but they dont bother me anymore, you get used to it. also using page up/down help a lot