| Author | Comment |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 8 Nov 2003
18:12 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | Okay, it's time to announce teh upcoming forum update. Its been a long time since people were asking for these feature and soon they'll be available. Below is a list of new features:
Avatars (size is fixed at 48x48, but feel free to vote for a different size, maybe I'll drop in a size selector. sizes should range from 48x48 to 100x100)
Signatures (HTML allowed for now, but this feat will be disabled if people start abusing it)
New user profile fields feature timezone, alternate contact, calculators owned, operating system or platform you run and bio.
For those who don't like avatars and/or sigs as well as those who are on dialup, avatars and/or sigs can be enable or disabled.
Avatars are remotedly hosted ONLY, so don't ask CG to host it. Only admin avatars will be hosted by CG, maybe some select mod/user avatars.
To conserve server resources and once again keep the site speed in good shape avatars and sigs will only be drawn on normal forum view. They will not show up in post edit and other misc forms.
This also applies to the optional profile fields listed above since we notice most users only registering to vote/review files. If you think some fields should be included in registstration form, please let us know.
All these changes affect a large portion of the forum and are still being tested internally, we'll inform everyone when they're ready for a release. This will be very soon though. Also, the forum will have to be taken down for upgrade and you'll see a notice when we're ready to do so. This will most likely be some monday evening when site activity is lowest for the week.
Anyway, please post any comments or suggestions so that anything good can be still added along with this update. Questions are welcome too. I hope this makes everyone feel better knowing that long requested updates are finally coming through.
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calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 8 Nov 2003
18:36 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | No, it's okay, I already know my avatar, and it's fully hosted too.
This sounds AWESOME!!!!! Yes, finally, a little color at calcgames!!
So, you think it'll happen next week maybe? Sounds great! |
Zootch
Goliath
Posted: 8 Nov 2003
23:47 GMT
Total Posts: 146 | I suggest you increase the size to 80x80 pixels, any smaller, and the avatars start to loose quality. |
calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 9 Nov 2003
10:39 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | Yeah. I guess that would help.
Anyways, during that period of time when calcgames isn't going to work-how about we all come to my site!
*silence.* *cricket,cricket* *hay rolls by* *cricket,cricket*
Okay, I guess not. |
calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 9 Nov 2003
13:48 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | *Cricket, Cricket.* |
calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 9 Nov 2003
14:05 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | I have one more suggestion-and I think this would ROCK!!!!!
Okay, how about an inbox for everyone, it's like an e-mail service, but here at calcgames. i've seen loads of sites with it, like I think www.pcclub.com might have it for forum users.
I REALLY think it would help. |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 9 Nov 2003
14:13 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | Not just yet calcfreak. This update is already big enough and we need to roll it out moothly. Maybe sometime in future and with high enough demand inbox thing will be considered, but not right now. Besides, most of us already have more than one mailbox to check. Also to mention, this forum was intended for public discussion so adding a local email service will ruin that. Many will keep sending private messages rathenr then posting on the forums and this will decrease the forum quality. Consider this fact please.
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calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 9 Nov 2003
16:36 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | Oh, yeah hun. Guess you're right, and with these new updates no one wants to have a bad forum!
Good for you Z! You're actually willing to donate so much time to enhance caclgames-I'm proud of you!
Anyways, with these new updates-calcgames will be, *gasp*, prfect! |
Zootch
Goliath
Posted: 9 Nov 2003
16:57 GMT
Total Posts: 146 | I always wanted a user CP when you go on, it automatically searches the entire board for your username and displays the threads. |
Digital
Guardian
Posted: 9 Nov 2003
18:56 GMT
Total Posts: 1051 | YEAH! W00T! Man Z, I think this is a record turn around. Congrats, I'm glad to here about this. I vote for 90x90 avatars! |
spiral
Wraith
Posted: 9 Nov 2003
22:57 GMT
Total Posts: 958 | I prefer 96*96 or 100*100.
And if we do 96x96, we can just double the current 48x48 ones, so if peopel already have one it won't get broken by a change.
oh btw D, Z said me might allow admins custom avatar sizes (4 megapixles anybody, jk jk) |
calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 10 Nov 2003
17:48 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | Well, I know at some forums admins ahve like giant sigs and avatars, you guys could do that, you work so hard . . . . |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 10 Nov 2003
18:02 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | okay ppl, we'll just have a size selector for each user's account. it'll feature the following sizes: 48x48, 48x64, 50x50, 64x64, 64x48, 64x96, 80x80, 96x96, 96x64, 100x100. Everyone will get to select their preferred size. Feel free to vote out any other sizes you think should also be included, these should range from 48x48 to 100x100. Please let me know what you think of the current feature list so far and the avatar sized I came up with. Thanks.
To calcfreak: I and many others hate giant sigs, if this persists we'll limit the sig size. Also, everyone can toggle sigs/avatars on and off from their profile depending on their personal preference. I think this is fair enough, at least to start with.
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calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 10 Nov 2003
19:00 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | Yes-I hate it when people have mile long animations, or their favorite PC game logo or something-you have to scroll through pages and pages of sigs-when the people who replied sums up to about 7.I totally understand- I post alot at pcclub.com, and I've seen some ridiculous sigs. Below is a link of some sigs I think are getting alittle out of hand-decide for yourself.PcClub siganture example (P.S. I'm Sergent York) |
spiral
Wraith
Posted: 10 Nov 2003
23:29 GMT
Total Posts: 958 | ooh, we could do like more senior status, people w/ less than 50 or maybe 100 posts get small avatars, and people w/ more can get big ones.
Woudl it be a good idea to have so many different sizes? it seems it would just be more complicated and look too uneven (esp. 64x96). |
Zootch
Goliath
Posted: 10 Nov 2003
23:54 GMT
Total Posts: 146 | a little box for us to type in a small phrase above our avatars, some need explaining. |
calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 11 Nov 2003
10:09 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | Well, avatar sizes for the people who post more make since, but theres a downfall to that:
People post junk-real junk. You know at pcclub.com? They have forum stats-so people post crap all over the board to look like a forum whiz, so they sound more important .. . .`.
But you admins work so hard! You deserve something to ease the pressure. . . .
Bedies guys-quanty is not as good as quality. |
Zootch
Goliath
Posted: 11 Nov 2003
11:11 GMT
Total Posts: 146 | I don't think their should be a limit to pixels, only size (in memory). |
spiral
Wraith
Posted: 11 Nov 2003
17:40 GMT
Total Posts: 958 | You can't limit to only memory size...a 2000x2000 uni-color GIF fits in about 5 kilobytes of space, which is about the same as a 100x100 color jpeg (most avatars are like ~7 kilobytes I've seen). The only things that cause really memory size besides more pixels is saving as a .bmp or a large moving GIF.
Memory size and pixel size are both important. Pixel more imo. |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 11 Nov 2003
21:00 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | if we make avatar sizes related to one's number of posts, then some people will start posting too much crap. yes, i'll limit the sig length to 100 chars, which is about one line of the post, or 2-3 if you only put a few words on each line and use a break.
Well, not everyone has a square picture for their avatar spiral, some people have a photo and they'd just wasted space by putting blank corners around it to make it square. This's what I was thinking about when I came up with these sizes.
No zootch, there's already going to be a lot of clutter from avatars and sigs. Though if people like really want an avatar description I can add it as mouse-over text. That's as far as this will go.
Admins should have huge sigs either. Every normal person who comes to forums to hang out or look for help is annoyed by huge sigs, that's why no one should use picture or huge sigs. We'll keep html enabled in sigs for now. This is only for text markup purposes, if people start using it to post huge pics then we'll have to turn off the html or disable their sig.
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Zootch
Goliath
Posted: 12 Nov 2003
12:41 GMT
Total Posts: 146 | so... Avatar must be throug HTML? |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 12 Nov 2003
17:31 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | avatars are separate from sigs. since we will only support remotedly hosted avatars, you'll get to type in a link to a place where your avatar is hosted. we will not support uploading and hosting of avatars due to our already high bandwidth usage.
sigs will be allowed to have html (i've already mentioned that above) so that people can use html markup in their sigs (like bold, italic or a link). though, if we people start abusing this feature or we feel that people start plugging their website links and such we'll disable that feature. that's about it for now. the new system is still being tested and we'll inform everyone when its ready to roll out.
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calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 12 Nov 2003
18:12 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | Where do you suggest we host these avatars? I'm treying to host some on my site, but it comes up as a pic with a big red X in it. : ( Know how I fix? Thx.
[Edited by calculatorfreakCG on 13-Nov-03 03:13] |
Zootch
Goliath
Posted: 12 Nov 2003
19:39 GMT
Total Posts: 146 | Tripod doesn't let you direct link images, oh, and calc.Freak, you don't have to host my image, I found another site to host it
[Edited by Zootch on 13-Nov-03 04:43] |
calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 12 Nov 2003
20:06 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | GREAT!!!!!!!!!
Where? I have my avatar too . . . . . . |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 13 Nov 2003
17:04 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | Yeah, Tripod doen't allow remote loading. Avatar hosting will be up to you though, we can't waste our bandwidth on that. There are still many hosts that allow remote loading. To test it you can find some site on some host, post a dummy pic linked to that "some" site and see if it loads. if it does, then you can go ahead and sign up for an account there. this shouldn't be too hard.
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calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 13 Nov 2003
20:06 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | Where can I find a good avatar hosting place? |
calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 13 Nov 2003
20:07 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | Anyways-Z, theres updates will be soooo cool. |
Zootch
Goliath
Posted: 13 Nov 2003
23:28 GMT
Total Posts: 146 | I just put up some crappy AOL Hometown site. |
calculatorfreakCG
Wraith
Posted: 14 Nov 2003
06:35 GMT
Total Posts: 739 | Oh. Hahaha, yeah, that works! |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 15 Nov 2003
17:14 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | Okay, the updates is SOOOOO close!!!We have a running beta (link is below). Please go ahead and check it out. Test out all of the new features and please let me know what you think or if you find any bugs/typos. We want the update transition to go as smooth as possible, so its important for all the updates to work correctly.Also, the test forum is temporary, so don't post anything you want to keep or work hard editing your profile since none of the temp board will transfer to the official one. Also, those who registered before today will have a temp account at the test board. Though, I'd appreciate if some folks can take the time and sign up for a dummy account on the test board to make sure everything works find. I did however tested everything many times and everything seemed to work but I may have missed something.Alright, enough talk and here's the link: UPDATE BETA
Edit: Just to mention something, all updates we've been asked for and everything we decided to add are there. If for whatever reason you don't see something you asked for added in, it maybe that we decided not to include it or will work on it later. Feel free to ask and comment though.
[Edited by zkostik on 16-Nov-03 02:16]
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