Suggestion on avatar size with ATS 2010

I like the new layout, but it seems to be uncomfortable for me personally to see that there is so much black, blank page between posts. The larger avatars leave a really large gap.

Could it be changed so that avatars are horizontal rather than vertical banners? something like 200X500? And centered? It would fill up the blank space, and not leave me scrolling for days to get to that next post on the page.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Well I can see your point. The new you would look kind of cool.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d696ed1c3de9.jpg[/atsimg]

The thing that pisses me off the most about ATS apart from the morons is the size of the avatars. Apart from anything else it just means you have to spend longer scrolling past the morons posts. Seriously why do they need to be so huge?

reply to post by SLAYER69


LMAO!

reply to post by SLAYER69


That was funny indeed.

Ontopic;

Why indeed such a huge size?

I just changed my avatar and background layout, do I have top change it again in the new layout?

reply to post by SLAYER69


HA! Now THAT is sexy. LOL...no, i would likely redesign it quite a bit. Maybe actually take the time to do a decent job with it this time.

reply to post by Arkady


One of the best part of this site to many is the ability to see so much artistic expression from the membership here. The avatars and signature banners, to me, are one of the best parts of ATS. I believe, if you are not as big a fan as i am, that you can turn off avatars and such in your preferences page...you might U2U a mod for help.

I tend to identify posters by their avatar. Which is a problem for me with the ATS 2010. People that i MUST make sure i read what they say, i have them friended. But in ATS 2010 there is no friend feature like that, so i don't get the little green banner across the top.

Of course, my system doesn't work when i don't tend to it. And i often miss Shrodingers Dogs posts just because i was too lazy to go in and friend him. But that is one person that i love to read.

ETA, i am gonna fix that right now.

[edit on 7-5-2010 by bigfatfurrytexan]

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Yeah, but SD changes avatars rather often, but with a general theme (more so that I do with no real theme). Yours on the other hand has had a basic premise and evolved over time.

I do however, like the idea of changing the avatar size/location with the 2010 redesign. But I would think that the friend/foe buttons will be in the final release or some other personal identification system.

reply to post by Ahabstar


on my windows machine i am on the 2010 version (still using the old version on my linux machine, so i can go back and forth to compare).

I think i found a bug here. On your post, there is no information about who posted it. It just starts with the grey window containing your post, showing the timestamp. To know who you were, i had to reply to you (ahabstar).

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


now the post i am replying to above, of mine, is doing the same thing. No user info or avatar is there. Just the post.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


now the post i am replying to above, of mine, is doing the same thing. No user info or avatar is there. Just the post.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


This happened to me earlier tonight. I thought I had accidentally logged out somehow, so I scrolled up to check, and nope... I was still logged in.

So the thread I saw was just like I was logged out... with the 2 google ads at the top of the page, no avatars or user info.

It only happened to me once though tonight.

As far as the size of the avatars, most are okay. It took me awhile to get used to seeing the avatars once I registered, because I was so used to not seeing them.

I don't know....the layout is needing some work. I think with a radical redesign of the site, there needs to be a radical approach. Hunt differently. The color scheme is...ok. I like it, but it looks scifi and won't help legitimize our fields. But that isn't as important as the layout of the threads.

There is a lot of horizontal space that is left empty, and it is worsened by the continuation of the vertical concept of the user info/avatar. If you would take the information contained in that section and make it a horizontal banner across the top of the post, the layout would look MUCH sleeker. You could center the avatar, and ahve the user info and all that on either side of the avatar. With a nice signature banner, it would frame the users posts very, very nicely.

Take the user stats (P/F/S/W) and add in Applause. Put that information horizontally right beneath the avatar, as a small break between the user avatar/info and the post.

Other than that, the 2010 site is still buggy.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan
Yeah I see what you mean. I just had my first real look at the new version and my avatar&background will have to change. Dumb question...what's the W in the stats? Is it 'warns?' I've only had about 5 that I was aware of and the number is 14.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

I like the new layout, but it seems to be uncomfortable for me personally to see that there is so much black, blank page between posts.

Am I missing something? What new layout?

Originally posted by jinx880101
reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

 

I like the new layout, but it seems to be uncomfortable for me personally to see that there is so much black, blank page between posts.

Am I missing something? What new layout?

2010.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Kandinsky
reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

 

Yeah I see what you mean. I just had my first real look at the new version and my avatar&background will have to change. Dumb question...what's the W in the stats? Is it 'warns?' I've only had about 5 that I was aware of and the number is 14.

i think it is WATS points. it equates to the green line in the old one.

how did you get warns? you don't conduct yourself a whole lot differently than i do, and i have never been warned. i must be missing something.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

how did you get warns? you don't conduct yourself a whole lot differently than i do, and i have never been warned. i must be missing something.

I was mixing my warns with my 'post removals.' Completely different things! I'm a warn-free zone. Yeah, I used to like that green line...there was quite a fuss when it was replaced.

Btw I'll take that as a compliment as you're a pretty decent member

ETA: NVM.

Is this the beta or something??

~Keeper

[edit on 5/8/2010 by tothetenthpower]

reply to post by Kandinsky


W is your Way Above Top Secret WATS index.

Once upon a time WATS was a member vote button that could be used on any post that the member felt was exceptional. A member had three votes per month to give out (or not give out depending). At the end of the month, the votes were manually tallied and a member was awarded the WATS for the month that included the addition of a badge to a member's profile avatar. It sort of looked like the FSME badge.

You might think that determining a WATS award for the month that way would be impossible now with the volume of posts and members today. But the last WATS vote was maybe 300 votes between 20-30 posts, if my memory serves. So WATS was done away with partially due to low participation. But mostly because of it becoming time consuming and overall post quality as there were many months of no "super" posts compared to past winners.

WATS was essentially replaced by Stars and Flags. Flags remain how there are today, credit goes to the OP for starting a thread, but no real direction has ever been given as to why specifically to flag. We used to be able to see the last 3-5 thread that we recently flagged from our profile page (as could others) which was useful tracking threads that you wanted to keep up with that you had not posted on. Some people to this day will only flag a thread that they feel the OP is WATS worthy (which was my criteria for a time). Others flag if they feel others need to see the topic which is the only real official guidance ever given (and current criteria).

Stars on the other hand have changed. Originally a member could give 1-5 stars to any post. And there was a star rating in the side profile. Mine was 4.7 or 4.8 when that practice ended. Why so high? Most members would only star if it was worth 4-5 stars. The exception was the 1 star bandits. People would actually go back over old posts and drop 1 star on them to lower another person's Star rating. Star ratings were a simple average of total number of stars divided by total number of posts that were starred. complaints of the 1 star bandits and complete rookies such as myself at the time with high Star ratings forced the change to what we see today. One star per post per member. Which is much better than the old system in many ways.

So with that history out of the way, WATS or W for the 2010 redesign is determined by a formula that takes in account Stars, Flags, Total Posts, Total Replies, Threads Started, ATS points and Applause...any other criteria I may have left out. So W is a measure of total contribution to ATS in a way. Without knowing the formula (and I hope it is never released so there are not any arguments over it) I would guess that some variables have more weight than others namely Flags and Threads Started, then maybe Total Replies or Total Posts.

So what does W do for you? It determines where you fall in this list. A list ordered strictly by WATS index or W. And honestly, there are no real surprises on that list other than perhaps the order and seeing a couple that I still remember their first thread and think of how far they have come along.



[edit on 8-5-2010 by Ahabstar]

So, after using the 2010 site for a half hour or so, I have to admit the avatar thing is a little annoying.

Perhaps this is just because it's unpolished yet, but having your avatar *above* your posts as opposed to next is a bit silly IMO.

~Keeper