[Updated on: Tue, 15 September 2009 23:24]

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Cooler? A forum for a decade old PBEM, and you want it to be cool?

At least we have some nice smilies

[Updated on: Mon, 14 September 2009 01:44]

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Dogthinkers wrote on Mon, 14 September 2009 07:43

Cooler? A forum for a decade old PBEM, and you want it to be cool?

Couldn't have said it better.

The forum reflects Stars! in several ways.
Stars! still excels in gameplay above many new games without the need for fancy graphics.
I find this forum a kind gesture to people with small bandwith, since afteral to play Stars! you don't need much of it.
Also the lack of eye candy keeps the forum clean and focussed on the content. I visit other forums where there are posts like: "yeah, cool!!!111!!" followed by 4 pictures in the sig that fills up the rest of the screen on my 22" ...

mch

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You earn an avatar when you get to Lieutenant I think.

Inline pics were generally banned to limit bandwidth needs. Stars! is very playable over even a 9600bps modem...it makes sense to me that HWF works nicely at 28.8bps or higher

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slimdrag00n wrote on Mon, 14 September 2009 06:46

Looks so plain and boring...

You wouldn't say that to the nose of a max-tech Nubian, sir, you wouldn't!

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slimdrag00n wrote on Mon, 14 September 2009 20:07

It would be cool to have an alien avatar, and make a signature for my favorite race/ship. Making posts fun and interesting.. Not having anything is boring, lame, and an eyesore.

I don't see why this would make the forum more "fun" ...

Quote:

... anyways can anyone answer my question on why we don't have them?

*) All of the above.

mch

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gible wrote on Mon, 14 September 2009 03:07

You earn an avatar when you get to Lieutenant I think.

Huh. I get an Avatar! I didn't notice that... I'll have to think on that one for a while.

-Matt

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Micha wrote on Mon, 14 September 2009 16:31

slimdrag00n wrote on Mon, 14 September 2009 20:07 It would be cool to have an alien avatar, and make a signature for my favorite race/ship. Making posts fun and interesting.. Not having anything is boring, lame, and an eyesore. I don't see why this would make the forum more "fun" ... Quote: ... anyways can anyone answer my question on why we don't have them? *) All of the above. mch

how can you not see how it would make it fun? hmm it wouldnt be so boring looking. As individuals we can be unique.

All of the above?? just because a few people post saying they like the site simple and boring isnt a good reason. should allow sigs and if you dont want one then you dont have to. I wasnt asking for all your opinions I literally want to know from the big man at the top why its not allowed.
http://www.sc2armory.com/forums/topic/4017 heres a good forum example. theres sigs for sc2. it would be cool to make Stars themes.

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[Updated on: Mon, 14 September 2009 19:57] by Moderator

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[Updated on: Mon, 14 September 2009 20:07]

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slimdrag00n wrote on Mon, 14 September 2009 23:48

how can you not see how it would make it fun? hmm it wouldnt be so boring looking. As individuals we can be unique. All of the above?? just because a few people post saying they like the site simple and boring isnt a good reason.

"All of the above", just kidding. However keeping the site simple *is* a good reason.

Heh, you should have seen the old forum. This one *is* fancy compared to that one.

Quote:

should allow sigs and if you dont want one then you dont have to. I wasnt asking for all your opinions I literally want to know from the big man at the top why its not allowed.

As long as it's possible to turn off image ridden sigs than I could live with it.


As for the "big man", this is what I remember as his last comments:

Ron wrote:

I think avatars would slow down page views, and I'd rather not have HWF get as slow as Star Base Delta seems to be, which is why avatars are disabled.

Ron wrote:

If ever allowed, they would be limited to 64x64 pixels. This is a Stars! oriented message board, and I really don't want to have graphics that don't go along with the 'space' or 'Stars!' theme. <shrug> just me, I guess.

Can be found in the thread Military cutback in the Questions about Stars Autohost forum.
Does that answer your question? (at least until Ron gets back from his vacation holiday ...)

Quote:

http://www.sc2armory.com/forums/topic/4017 heres a good forum example. theres sigs for sc2. it would be cool to make Stars themes.

Well, that thread just proves my point, took 2 minutes to load all the sigs and while loading the screen kept resizing so I couldn't even start reading!

mch

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When you said to keep the site and simple just seemed like an opinion.

But ok now I got it from the big man. Because it would be limited to 64x64 pixils and we dont want it to slow down the page.

Thats a good answer.

Id rather have speed then have it look all pretty anyways.

EDIT: yeah it takes me about 5 to 10 seconds for all the images to pop up for me on the SC2 web site even with wireless. Though dial up might take at least a good two mins. I guess its been so long sense Iv used modem so I forgot how slow it really was.

[Updated on: Mon, 14 September 2009 20:33]

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slimdrag00n wrote on Mon, 14 September 2009 20:07

"I like the simple look" lol how about simple look with sigs.. anyways can anyone answer my question on why we don't have them?

Probably the best answer is that if the Forum was too pretty then nobody would stand anymore the "plain old looking and boring" game of Stars! itself.

By the way, ever tried to add icons to your in-game messages?

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m.a@stars wrote on Tue, 15 September 2009 07:20

Probably the best answer is that if the Forum was too pretty then nobody would stand anymore the "plain old looking and boring" game of Stars! itself.

The "plain old looking and boring" game of Stars! is more of an issue than the forum right now. It's the game itself that needs to be updated and possible improvements tested.

Although in its multi-year glory it has shown me the short-comings of my current approaches to strategy.

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This old version of the forum software does not give me an option to limit filesize/dimensions of sig pictures. I can limit the number of pictures allowed in the sig. This is why I only allow text sigs. FUDcode is allowed in sigs. Even if the forum code allowed it, I would not turn them on.

In the Profile controls, each user can set whether they want to see users' sigs or not, but thats the only control.

Personally, I see no reason to allow image sigs. The ones I've seen on other boards are usually large (filesize), flashy (animated), and distracting -- none of which I want on this forum.

I seriously doubt that allowing them would attract more players.

I don't mean to be rude, but it's my decision and my forum. Thank you for asking the question and starting a discussion about it, but this is my final say on this matter.

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Ron wrote on Tue, 15 September 2009 20:50

Personally, I see no reason to allow image sigs.

Me neither. Avatars at least are small, off to the side and unobtrusive - while still helping to differentiate users.

Now to make my way to full Lieutenant so my avatar will appear, hmm?

[Updated on: Wed, 16 September 2009 23:05]

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Coyote wrote on Thu, 17 September 2009 13:04

Now to make my way to full Lieutenant so my avatar will appear, hmm?

You get to set an avatar at Lt? *looks to the left of his own post* Ooooooh.

*Get's all excited...

*Thinks a little...

*Can't think of an avatar worth putting on...

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Dogthinkers wrote on Thu, 17 September 2009 15:50

*Can't think of an avatar worth putting on...

That's how I ended up with the wiki logo

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