Suggestion: A shift from the traditional icon avatar

[Her]

While I'm not 'officially' putting forth a suggestion, I am curious about something. The icon avatar (or large square, depending on avatar size) has been the traditional avatar format for users since the forum's inception. It's been the staple of the postbit, no matter how it has changed or been rearranged over the years. But with the near-mythical PC5 in the works, I'm just going to throw around something that's been in my head over the last few days. As the postbit is (iirc, with the little information that I actually know of) getting updated along with the rest of the forum, I'm wondering if perhaps there is a market for rectangular avatars.

As far as I know, only Steve has an avatar with the shape I'm interested in. Naturally, such a large avatar for any other member isn't feasible. But it's an example of the move that I'm thinking about. I'm particularly interested in what potential dimensions there would be for the average, non-supporter member, as their avatar size is utterly pathetic.

While the current icon-centric system isn't broken, it is rather stale. I'm just interested in possibilities.

- Would the server itself be able to handle such a format change?
- Is the postbit on the side of the page the default/only postbit? I'm only suggesting this with the side postbit in mind.
- How many of you (anyone can reply) are interested/would support this if it were feasible?
- Will there be any info about PC5 by the time Hillary Clinton is elected?

 

[donavannj]

While I'm not 'officially' putting forth a suggestion, I am curious about something. The icon avatar (or large square, depending on avatar size) has been the traditional avatar format for users since the forum's inception. It's been the staple of the postbit, no matter how it has changed or been rearranged over the years. But with the near-mythical PC5 in the works, I'm just going to throw around something that's been in my head over the last few days. As the postbit is (iirc, with the little information that I actually know of) getting updated along with the rest of the forum, I'm wondering if perhaps there is a market for rectangular avatars.

As far as I know, only Steve has an avatar with the shape I'm interested in. Naturally, such a large avatar for any other member isn't feasible. But it's an example of the move that I'm thinking about. I'm particularly interested in what potential dimensions there would be for the average, non-supporter member, as their avatar size is utterly pathetic.

While the current icon-centric system isn't broken, it is rather stale. I'm just interested in possibilities.

- Would the server itself be able to handle such a format change?
- Is the postbit on the side of the page the default/only postbit? I'm only suggesting this with the side postbit in mind.
- How many of you (anyone can reply) are interested/would support this if it were feasible?
- Will there be any info about PC5 by the time Hillary Clinton is elected?

Can't answer 1, but it's probably not a serious strain on the server to up the dimensions at least a little bit, though the last dimension increase across all usergroups was sometime last year, iirc.

2. The default postbit is called "Standard", which is where the postbit sits on top of a post rather than to the side, which is known and "Legacy".

3. I'd be interested in seeing more variety of styling, but I think it'll just be a sea of avatars that exactly match the max dimensions for each usergroup.

4. Can't answer that formally, either, but probably.

 

[Rukario]

You do know that you can use any part of your allowed avatar space for your avatar/icon, right? Well you can.

the postbit is, by default, across the top of the post on almost every new style but there is a selectable item in your settings to use the the "legacy" side post-bit.

pc5? Unknown, but coming soon™!

 

[Her]

You do know that you can use any part of your allowed avatar space for your avatar/icon, right? Well you can.

Yeah, I know. I'm just interested in extending it.

Hmm..

So we currently have two postbits, vertical and horizontal. User info is either along the left of the post, or along the top, right? So the problem is if we make it possible to have either super-tall avatars or super-wide avatars, it'll always mess up some users who are browsing with the opposite type.

Short of getting really complicated, like having two avatars uploaded at once (one for wide, one for tall), it'd be hard to really implement this in a logical and usable way.

That said, I'm personally very open to changing the traditional paradigm of a "postbit" and if anyone has further suggestions on things they'd like to customize, I'm all ears.

I like the idea of being able to define a "background" image, either tiled or otherwise, to apply to the user part of the postbit. Not where the actual post content goes, but where currently the username/avatar/info is. Of course, let people who would be annoyed by that/find it cluttery disable it. Yay toggles @shenanigans.

I also want to bring back the default font style settings.

As far as PC v5 info goes, I'm currently actively working on it. 8) Real life obligations come and go and I have had a lot on my plate lately, so development has been slow. Same with Jake/Hiroshi Sotomura. Both of us have a lot of stuff happening and PC, as a hobby, takes a back seat to that. In an effort to speed things up, however, I've been talking to some PC members who have experience in the programming language PC is written in and I hope to add more people to the team very soon.

The easiest way I see of solving the vertical/horizontal postbit problem is to simply remove the Standard postbit option and go with Legacy.
Though you'll definitely have to get back to me with that background photo option as I've seen that implemented in other places and it usually looks great.

 

[Gardevoir the Dragon Slayer]

Bigger Avatars are a must.

More info about each member on the postbit would be great to.

 

[Hikamaru]

The thing to also consider is some people actually use Standard postbit as well as those who use Legacy. I agree with Gardevoir's suggestions as well.

 

[antemortem]

I... honestly have pushed for taller avatars (and some sort of workaround so that they aren't huge as fuck on the horizontal postbit) for going on like two years now :( and by that I mean a STANDARD, universal space for larger icons.

 

[alisaie]

There's already a toggle to where if you don't want to see massive sized avatars you can make it so you only see the avatars up to a certain size and if they're any bigger they're resized to something smaller. So with that already in place it's possible to upsize the avatars, I believe.

 

[Universe]

While I don't see the point of having a bigger avatar space (bar non-supporter users because that is TINY okay), I'm no stifle on creativity.

However, I definitely think before anyone else: non-supporters need an upsize. Because frankly everyone who's supporter and up get perk after perk. We really need to allow non-supporters adequate space before we give anyone else excellent space.

 

[Mana1]

More information? Bigger post bits?

Honestly, I'd prefer the opposite.

 

[Hikamaru]

While I don't see the point of having a bigger avatar space (bar non-supporter users because that is TINY okay), I'm no stifle on creativity.

However, I definitely think before anyone else: non-supporters need an upsize. Because frankly everyone who's supporter and up get perk after perk. We really need to allow non-supporters adequate space before we give anyone else excellent space.

^ This.

I feel like 130x130 is still too small of an avatar size, and to be honest in the 18 months I spent as a regular user prior to getting supporter in October 2012 I was not usually happy with how tiny and low-quality my avatars were. After supportership I had 150x150 which is bigger but the current supporter system now gives me 180x180 which is quite a jump.

Looking at things with each usergroup now, it stands as this:

Non-Supporter: 130x130
Silver Tier: 150x150
Gold/Crystal Tier: 180x180
Platinum Tier: 200x200

I feel like buffing up the pixel and size limit for non-supporters would be a good move, but I'm not sure if I'd want it to be on the same ground as Silver Tier supporters at the same time. 140x140 will be a bit bigger but still make it below the Silver Tier dimensions so that the bigger size can still serve as an incentive to want to donate.