is it just me, or my avatar selection is heavily limited.
I can't seem to find any avatar with roman units in it, only some eastern and barbarian units, plus some dipomatic and spy ones.
What's the deal?
Using Firefox...
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is it just me, or my avatar selection is heavily limited.
I can't seem to find any avatar with roman units in it, only some eastern and barbarian units, plus some dipomatic and spy ones.
What's the deal?
Using Firefox...
Hello player1,
The current system is one of an increasing pool of avatars. The more posts you have, the larger the pool becomes.
You should see the Roman Rogue category?
Elitist avatars?
Grrr.... :whip:
I hate such things.
*cooled down*
Anyway, is there FAQ or something where I can see when better avatars are available?
-
When you become an elite spammer. ~:joker:
-
We do have an emerging Guild FAQ, although it is not yet complete. Any suggestions for inclusion would be gratefully received.Quote:
Originally Posted by player1
i quite like the way that you get more avatars, the more you post! pretty cool ~:cool:
I don't.
That's why I'll use the "default" avatar all the way, until sutable roman units appear.
When are more avatars coming? MAybe throw in some of those sexy Eastern Rogues?
I remember the old days when you had to get 1.000 posts just to choose your avatar.
On my 994th post, they changed it to anyone can pick avatars.
GAH!
I thought it was 500 not 1000 posts, are you sure?
-1999 echelon board: no avatars, no signatures.
-2000 another PERL (?) board: no avatars, no signatures.
-2000 a PHP board. A few avatars used in a ranking system. 1,000 posts [b]could[/u] give a custom avatar. Text signatures, but no pictures.
-2000-2002 UBB PERL. Idem avatar and signature system. I recall that pictures up to the size of a stamp got allowed. This is the first forum that got backed up and the topics are imported into this one.
-2002. Watchtower created and one of the first topics was about avatars. https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=23578 There were a few other topics and opinions differed. Staff had to implement a compromise, but this could only be used after the change to Ikonboard 2002-2004. It still used the rankingsystem like in the previous systems, but a user could select an avatar from a pool after 500 posts. There were some specific accounts like clan that could select an avatar right away.
The no sig pic/stamp size sig pic policy was dropped too. 10 kb, no sound and size restrictions were arbitrarily set by me and haven't been changed since (except some measures to enforce it).
-2003 added a custom avatar skin to Ikonboard. People could choose between system icons or upload any picture.
-2003+ the 500 posts requirement was dropped, but there was protest. The increasing pool system was proposed and used in 2004 with this board.
Uploading avatars is currently not possible at all due to this server configuration.
I don't know whether I can make a custom avatar skin for this board.
Dropping the increasing pool system and making all avatars available at once is possible. Just agree about it.
when do you get the option of greek general avatars?
400 posts Craterus.
Sooo, it's a loooong way to go.
Pity I'm such poor spamer.
P.S.
Anyway when Roman units aprear (like Hastati)?
400? ouch i'm a long way off and there the ones i want because of my username... lol i'll have to stay active i guess..
32 posts per day ~:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by Craterus
You'll be there in no time.
You will get there, even if your post rate slows down you will be there a lot sooner than you think.
I think there are a few more Roman Avatars if I'm not mistaken. Bravo. ~:)
Bah! Ranking system! 400 posts!!!
Oh well, not anybody's fault...
So poor Antiochus has to be Antiochus III the Mongolian for a while... :charge:
edit:
SPAM!
I think my post rate will slow down, I've started playing RTW again now.. after a weeek off..
I like my avatar. ~:cheers:
I have no need to change it even if I could.
I've got 400 posts now and I've unlocked the Greek generals so I'm happy! ~D ~:cheers: ~:cool:
So you get new pretty pictures, the more posts you make, that are restricted to those lifted from total war games? What about externally linking to your own avatar for the more personal touch, is that out?
They say that this server doesn't allow custom avatars.. unfortunately.. it would be good if you could have your own personal, custom avatar.
Some mods do. Also JAG has his saying SPAMMER on the top. I wonder if I could get one like that if I spammed.
Maybe one day... :wiseguy: :grin3:
Well users' own avatars would not be located on the .orgs server(s), so would not consume any of their bandwidth. The images could be offensive but so could any images, or text, posted normally or in a user signature. So I can't see any reason why outside linked avatars have been disallowed... other than some reasons I won't mention.Quote:
Originally Posted by Craterus
Todl you you would get there soon. Congratulations on your 400th post.
vBulletin doesn't seem to support outside linked avatars, so it's a rather moot point.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beorhtwulf
For those interested, you can get a full rundown of all avatars available to your usergroup, and the necessary postcount required to get access to them, here. One word of warning though: it's an image heavy page.
:eyepop: didn't even know such thing was here, lol. Must be 12 meg of images.
Thanks, I was quicker than I thought. ~:cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Uesugi Kenshin
Loaded pretty quickly for me! ~DQuote:
One word of warning though: it's an image heavy page.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TosaInu
i really hope you get that working. that is by far the coolest avatar feature to have. but once it's working you should make it so that one needs 1000 posts or more to choose a custom avatar just so they don't become an epidemic
I agree that custom avatars are nice addition to a site. I had a quick gander over at the vBulletin modification forums to see if anything over there would help. It seems that someone did attempt a off-board custom avatar hack for v3, but it apparently ran into problems. There doesn't seem, despite a fair bit of interest, to be a follow up attempt. :sad:Quote:
Originally Posted by Navaros
I suppose it's possible that someone will release a hack to do the trick, Jelsoft will add the functionality in a new version (plenty of other boards already have it), or the host will allow uploads. So all is not lost. ~:)
Ugh...
I need over 500 posts, just to get Roman soliders.
That's way unfair.
P.S.
Hmm...
Maybe I'll take some pikemen for 250 post.
phpBB supports outside linked avatars, so does YaBB, and so does Vbulletin. I know because I've set up all those types of boards many times. Outside linked avatars have been disabled on this board, simple that. As to the reason... well that's anyones guess.Quote:
Originally Posted by therother
It seems to be yes and no Beorhtwulf.
vBulletin supports outside avatars, but not just like that (it doesn't just store the url). Instead it uploads the image to this server. And uploading files is not possible with the PHP settings made by the host.
We'll need to modify code to do real external linking.
When we'll manage to do that, it will become like the skin system we had on Ikonboard for the simple reason that several users voiced their preference for internal avatars and a ranking system.
Well can everyone above postcount like 2,000 have a custom avatar uploaded? There's not to many of them lying around.
The hack you referred to is to stop the user avatars uploading to the db, (user bandwidth protection) the hack makes it like any other board and shows the direct link to the avatar not a php script.Quote:
Avatar Options
* Admin Defined Avatars
* Custom Avatars - upload from your own computer or specify a URL
http://www.vbulletin.com/features.php
this happens when you try to link to an URL. Profile pictures have the same problem.
I'm interested in the hack.
Tosa, welcome to the club of the avatarless, even if you are only passing through! :medievalcheers:
Edit: Yes, the primary purpose of the unfinished hack I mentioned was to conserve the bandwidth of the forum – it replaces remote avatar upload, with remote avatar linking. I installed the v2 version a while back for a friend for just this reason. The reason why it would be useful here, as TosaInu points out, is that the host does not allow uploads to this server: both the methods you highlight are just different ways of uploading the avatar to be stored locally on the server.
The default vBulletin custom avatar system, by design, does not allow remotely linked avatars. This allows a forum administrator to control the dimension and file size of every avatar on the board. I think we'd all like it if signature pictures had a similar option (such as this hack) as it would make enforcing the current restrictions much easier. Unfortunately, we can't have that hack, for exactly the same reason as the custom avatar system doesn't work.
Hello,
I had some time to look at this custom avatar for a skin. The basic things that have to be done are so simple that I'ld hardly call it a hack. :embarassed: There are a few things to sort first though.
-First, it's going to be used on a new skin, people who like the theme skins will still be able to do so. Which skin is going to be used to start this?
-Two, in the basic form it will be possible to use huge pictures (2,000 * 2,000 pixels and up). There's possibly a clumsy way to code in limits and use extra fields, but I prefer to keep it simple at this stage.
It seems to be possible to set just one fixed width and height (HTML) to prevent display of oversized pictures, but that takes away from the custom picture (any picture larger or smaller than the set size will be distorted).
So, it will be better to allow all sorts of sizes, but agree in advance about sizelimits to prevent topics looking bad or slowing down browsing too much. Consequences for people not abiding this (take away the toy) and maybe a limit when it can be used (give user a chance to know how it works).
Custom pictures also have to abide the forum rules of course.
I'm awaiting some feedback from the users.
so can we?
And can I use my rommel avatar?
Hi Tosa,
I'm not sure how this works. Can we upload our own avatar? And are everyone allowed to do so without deference to postcounts? ~:cool:
Also, the maximum allowable size is up to 2000x2000 pixel (and maybe even higher)?
If so, that great!! :charge:
edit: is that 200x200 pixels instead?
Woo Hoo I would be able to use my Sohei picture, or my Kenshin picture, but I would need an image editor to make it work...
Wohooo!
I finaly got Hastati avatar!
Hello,
Kaiser of Arabia yes we can, it's not added yet to this board. Just to the board I use to see the effect of hacks/tweaks before they get added here.
I'ld guess Rommel is ok. He was 'just' a general, or am I wrong?
Quietus no, you can't upload your avatar as that is still not allowed by the PHP settings (vbulletins default url linking, uses file upload as well). What you can do, is enter the url to a picture, and it will be loaded from there and displayed here. Different details, but result for the user will be the same. So, you're right too.
The org has a hosting space for users custom avatars and a PHP script to upload them (different server, different PHP setting). Those scripts recently broke down and will have to be fixed though.
No, the point is that users could perform such things like uploading a 2,000 * 2,000 10 mb image and render the whole skin useless for other users.
Some members will use the system, and it's their free choice to use it, so I ask them for fair limits. Staff will only patrol to spot those who breach it in order to demolish the system for others or post pictures that (could) cause a big uproar (18+, vulgar, hateful).
So, it is possible to make a custom avatar (your choice: red firetruck, purple orchid, a general, a panzer, picture of yourself..) but to keep it working we need agreements from the users about max pixel and byte sizes, animations, sound and which skin will be used (it should be possible to make another option toggle in UserCP and use it with the current skins, but I'm not there yet). First things first.
I like the idea of custom avatars.
I think it's important to make sure that custom avatars don't adversely affect performance for us 56K users, and also that they don't distort the dimensions of posts.
I have never liked the idea of the privilege to use special or custom avatars being linked to a patron's post count. This encourages spam. I have been a board member for a while now, and have contributed my fair share to the board, particularly to the Sword Dojo. Yet look at my post count--I refuse to make a habit of spamming just to get my postcount up.
Because custom avatars are so desireable by the younger, rowdier folks in particular, I think one way to leverage them is to use them as an incentive for gentlemanly behavior on the board. This doesn't require a judgement call up front--maybe once you become a regular member you can have a custom avatar. If you ever get a serious warning, your avatar would be suspended for a period of time, the worse the offense, the longer the time. This would be in addition to temporary banning etc. I think this would encourage good conduct a bit. Maybe it would be funny to make a special avatar for those who are "in jail" because they behaved badly, like a person in jail clothes or wearing a dunce cap or something like that ~D .
I have mixed feelings about leaving it up to patrons to make sure the dimensions and file sizes of their avatars comply with forum standards. You've had problems with this regarding sigs in the past, and I think you will have problems with avatars too if you don't build in some automated controls. I think it's important to balance usability for the patrons with manageability for staff. If you don't think it wil be a problem to shut down custom avatars that exceed the standards before they mess up the experience of board users, then I'm fine with it. But if it's going to take days to correct abusers, then I think automated dimension and file size management would be better.
My two cents ... .
Okay, I say that dimension limits should be encouraged to be around, but not significantly bigger than, the current size of avatars (about 50 by 70). So I think perhaps 100 by 100 is a fair upper limit, assuming it does not distort the formatting.
Current avatar image size is ~4.5KB. Current signature picture limit is a maximum of 10KB. So I propose that we should have a maximum image file size limit of 15KB. So you can have a 15KB avatar, but no signature picture, or a 15 KB signature picture, but no avatar (custom or system), and various combinations of the two (e.g. 10KB sig pic, 5KB avatar). This means that the overall download for narrowbanders will remain the same.
As for the other restrictions, I'd say no sound but gif animations should be fine as long as they are within the file size limit. IIRC, solypsist's custom avatar was animated.
Tosa, thanks. This is awesome! ~:)
IMO, the rules of posting avatar should given to members as soon as it is determined. Perhaps, an announcement at the colosseum for current members and maybe another thread at the new members section.
This way, Togakure's concern is addressed right away and there are no ambivalence.
I also agree with therother's assertion of 100x100 pixels and 15 kb max (sounds reasonable enough).
:charge:
As Quietus has solicited opinions from the Colosseum, I'll venture mine. I like the fact that these forums have a consistent themed look and so I'm not in favour of custom avatars. They'll also make more work for the moderators, undoubtedly lead to disputes regarding inappropriate images and a slew of 'I can't get my avatar to work' threads.
That being said, I appreciate that posters who are active on several different forums would like to use the same picture across them all and that there are some brilliant custom avatars out there. I always have avatars switched off anyway. ~:)
It's a matter of choice now Epistolary Richard. I've been experimenting a bit, and one simply gets another toggle in view options (where the toggles for displaying avatars, signatures and pictures are). Toggle URL avatars and normal avatars on, and you'll see both images (there's a size limitation now to prevent huge pictures, but we'll have to find out which limits we'll use). Turn one or both off if you like that.
The question about which skin to apply it to is no longer valid, as it's pretty easy to apply it as option to any skin. There's a toggle in your UserCP Edit Options/Thread Display Options called DUA. Check that and you can see an URL avatar in my posts, together with my normal one. You can turn either on/off.
This option isn't available for you yet as we haven't set the limits right here, I just serve as example. It is using a box that provides room for a picture up to x00-x00 pixels, so the software will protect us from that side. A check for byte size won't be possible afaik. We'll also have to see whether we should display a default image for people having no image?
I'll wait for some more feedback to finish this.
There's something you can use right now though, and that was disabled for the same reasons: a profilepicture. UserCP/Edit Profile. It will display on your profilepage.
I apologise for holding this feature back for so long, if only I had seen this easy edit before :embarassed:
I've been fiddling with it for a bit. I can see your url avatar in your profile, but only your usual system avatar with your posts.Quote:
Originally Posted by TosaInu
http://img193.exs.cx/img193/9470/tosa10to.gif
I see the empty space whether I check the DUA box or not.
I'll go check this out.
Been having a wee look at the source inbetween the "Tosa Urlavatar" comments, there seems to be a bit missing - the "" after img src is empty. Meaning no piccy.
I manually inserted http://www.mizus.com/hosted/TosaInu/TosaS.gif in there, and this is what it looks like:
http://img60.exs.cx/img60/5930/tosaedit9hp.gif
Which looks excellent. :thumbsup:
Edit: And it now looks perfect on the forums too. :2thumbsup:
Edit2: Just got the profile picture to work. To save confusion, follow Tosa's instructions, i.e. insert the url under the PP heading in the Additional Information section of your Edit Profile link. Don't use the now somewhat misleading Edit Profile Picture link! :embarassed:
Disabled the normal Profile Picture link.
The " issue is strange. I could see the avatar when logged as TosaInu. I removed some stuff around it, it did look ok and the normal avatar uses it as well (link to profile and alt tag). Now it seems to work in Experimental. No idea why.
Right now I see a similar thing with your not selected default avatar. I'll have to see what changed this.
To say I understand it is claiming too much.
When you don't have a normal avatar it displays an empty image. It also does that when the urlavatar is empty. For some reason it can't pull that off when both are empty. It doesn't make any sense here either.
hmm the DUA option is doing something.
Theother's rationale for dimension and filesize sounds good to me. End-user flexibility with limits that guarantee reasonable performance for "lowest common denominator" patrons ~:).
Once/if this goes through would I need a picture editor to use a custom avatar? The picture I am currently looking at is one of Kenshin on his horse at a battle and is much larger than the current avatar size. If anyone would like to see it here it is http://www.sinister-designs.com/grap...rutora2-2.html
Is this something that the rest of us should be experimenting with yet, or is it still just Therother and Tosa figuring it out?
I turned the DUA switch on and added a .gif file URL (in an [img ] bracket, but this changed nothing.
Can we help test or should I just go back to the Main Hall and wait for further orders?
ichi :bow:
The basics all seem to be in place and working well. My understanding is that Tosa is just waiting for us to decide on fair limits for the new system before putting it live.
In the meantime you can preview what it will look like by activating DUA and looking at Tosa's posts. You should see two avatars, exactly as in the pictures above: his normal system one, and a url avatar (the top one).
You can also have a look at his profile to see a profile picture (just a larger version of his url avatar). All members can all add profile pictures now; I have one in my profile also.
Yes I see two avatars when I view Tosa's posts, so the DUA switch is working.Quote:
Originally Posted by therother
This is great, something I think many Organs will enjoy.
Is there a 'best' format (jpg, gif, tif) for the custom avatars?
ichi :bow:
It's a great feature, I agree. Adds a little flavour to the boards.
As for the best format, I don't really know, but the current avatar stock are pretty much all gifs. I don't suppose you can go far wrong with png or jpg either. The exact formats that will be supported will depend on how Tosa sets up the system.
Hello,
You can turn on DUA (used short names only atm and no descriptions) and system avatars off and then you'll see only the urlavatar (full custom look for those who want so).
My guess is that any webformat will work, except flash as that requires extra code in html (would require to strip the extension and check that, then an else statement and the special display commands. That was the case the last time I checked this with PERL, and I assume it's still that clumsy. I may get tempted to 'perfect' it to that level, but it's not working now). Gif (animated), jp(e)g, bmp and tng should all work.
You don't have to use the image bracket Ichi, just insert the URL to the image, the little code will do the rest.
We can help resize that image Uesugi Kenshin and we can host it on this server (the old space reserved for that is still there).
Talking about it, it is possible to serve everything from there and mix that with some control to ensure pictures are not overly large or 'shocking'.
I'll insert some picture sizes so we can get an idea how things will look.
Didn't know avatars depended on post count, now let's get spamming in frontroom!! ~D
(this post: +1)haha! ~:cool:
I had a go at "avataring" it, although I'm not particularly skilled with image manipulation. Specs: 75 by 100 pixels, 7500 bytes.
This is how it would look on Tosa's profile:
http://img181.exs.cx/img181/2735/kencustava2ld.png
How many posts until u become a member?
I want Greek generals but thats 400! posts
Too much time
Quoting from the new Guild FAQ in the Entrance Hall:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guild FAQ
Hello,
Uesugi Kenshin is volunteer.
I've adjusted code, for the better I think. The URL avatars now take up as much room vertically as needed, instead of just using a fixed box. But maximum of 200 pixels high. What really gets displayed of the image is about 180 pixels afaik (is because of some linespaces). The box is also 150 pixels wide, and it appears to be no problem at all for the topicdisplay. But that's really up to the feedback, is width fine, too small or too large? The picture is over 10 kb right now as it's just a quick resize to get 150 pixels wide.
400 posts only took me about 8 days... Just keep active on the boards..Quote:
Originally Posted by imdWALRU5
You'll be there in no time.. (that's what they told me) Good Luck! ~D ~:cool:
I don't know. Looks great on the LHS, but seems to make posts, especially smaller posts, harder to read. Not such a good thing on a forum.
Perhaps if you have a url avatar, you should not have a system avatar?
Edit: On the plus side, I see that you've been able to reduce the default spacing between the avatars.
I like custom avatars, it makes it much easier to find my last post on a thread and it adds some variety to the threads.
For me, the ideal solution would be an option (or combination of options) that would allow you to view the custom (url) avatar if used, or the system avatar if the user has no custom avatar. If possible, that should cater for all tastes.
It's already possible therother: what any user wants to see is his/her choice. The UrlAvatar, the systemavatar, both or none.
What's possible is that some users are perfetly happy with the systemavatar and won't bother about adding an url one. People using the urlavatars only, will see some empty posts then. Do we leave it just empty, will we display a generic picture then or what?
Ah, I'm talking about a fifth option: seeing a maximum of one avatar, with the url avatar taking precedence over the system. So you want to see url avatars, or their system avatar if they don't have a url avatar, but you don't want to see both at the same time. AFAICT that's not currently possible via the options.
Edit: Yes, I know I'm being picky, but if we are going to have url avatars of ~185 pixels in height, along with system avatars of ~75 pixels, we're only going to be able to fit a few posts in a screen, even if they are just one liners.
Is there a reason why my post isn't showing up, look to yesterday 18:11..
Yes. You used the "< " symbol in a manner that vBulletin thinks might be html code. This is considered a security risk for forums, and so everything after it is usually chopped off.Quote:
Originally Posted by Craterus
If you want to use a < in a post, always remember to put a space after it, as I have done in this post. ~:)