SEO-Board Forum Software Community / SEO-Board / Comments and Suggestions / Avatars and Signatures. Your opinion?
| Posted: 24 May 2005 11:09 | ||
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Some of you have suggested that I make avatars and signatures for the next version.
I want your opinions on these features. Do you think they are an unnecessary bloat? or are they needed? Here's my take: Avatars Pros - for quickly recognizing the poster - can be coded easily Avatars Cons - they take bandwidth - they occupy hosting space - the newbie webmaster may have some directory upload permission dificulties - members can abuse them Signatures Pros - can be coded quickly - encourage member registration and activity - sometimes signature links can be useful to some members Signatures Cons - members can abuse them - and because of that there's more moderation at work I have seen great communities without both of these features and I currently don't consider them essential. If I make these 2 it will be possible to turn them off by the admin and every member will be able to turn off seeing them to make the board cleaner for him. Your opinions please. __________________ Are you looking for an SEO Consultant?
Email me: hristo at seo-board dot com |
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| Posted: 24 May 2005 15:11 | ||
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I already made some comments on this topic... but now I am concluding that you are right and that both features are really not necessary at all...
it would just be extra wasted bandwidth and 'fat'. There is always a temptation to add more and more features and gizmos to everything.. but maybe it is better to keep with your original philosophy behind this forum software... that is, to keep it simple, clean and efficient. if you do put the avatars in then i would not make them greater than 40x40 pixels. but I definitely think signatures are not necessary and would be too much extra fat. afterall, the website www.webmasterworld.com does not have signatures or avatars, and yet it is one of the most popular forums on the entire internet... probably because it is so clean and has high usability.. |
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| Posted: 24 May 2005 19:14 | ||
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Avatars dont have to use space and bandwith my system you can only use avatars from urls so it doesn't take your bandwith.
You say more moderation work...you can hardly call seeing someones signature and avatar much work. They make a forum much more personal to the user you will find forums that allow signatures and avatars are much more popular than those without. |
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| Posted: 24 May 2005 22:54 | ||
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Quote:
you will find forums that allow signatures and avatars are much more popular than those without. you will find forums that allow signatures and avatars are much more popular than those without. well, webmasterworld.com forum gets millions of visitors and yet people CANNOT post links in the forum posts or use signatures... i think signatures make the forum too messy anyway. too busy. |
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| Posted: 25 May 2005 22:28 | ||
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use preset avatars? i like that idea
not much BW there...using small preset list of avatars to choose from maybe sigs/ i know that i like them and i know i like to have avatars |
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| Posted: 26 May 2005 00:30 | ||
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i think the bottom line with avatars is that it really depends on the topic of the forum you have..
professional business sites probably don't want them... but more casual or mainstream type sites probably want them... depends on the type of population u are serving.. if they are included i would not use preset avatars though, too boring and no personal expression allowed there.. i wonder how much slower avatars would make a site or how much more bandwidth waste they would actually do.. forget signatures.. all that info can be found in the user profile section.. |
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| Posted: 26 May 2005 11:44 | ||
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I personally don't mind if avators and signatures are embedded to seo-board as long as there's a switch to turn them on and off. 
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| Posted: 26 May 2005 18:10 | ||
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| A lot of 'proffesional businesses' use avatars actually check www.olate.co.uk forums, invisionboard forums, skyos.org (staff all have avatars) etc etc | ||
| Posted: 28 May 2005 16:01 | ||
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| I think they're good. Well, my community of radio-controlled plane bogans think that they are essential. So i have modded my seo-board. Check out some posts at http://www.iced.madcowinternet.com/f/forum/ | ||
| Posted: 28 May 2005 23:19 | ||
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There are obviously pros and cons (he says, hopelessly hedging his bets!!)
However, for what its worth, I use this board because it has all the features I need and none of the ones that I find nothing but bloat on other boards. There are many boards to choose from, and currently you dare to be different, and I think that's excellent. I agree with the previous post about preset avatars. The whole point of them is to personalise so if you were to go for it though, needs to be personalised |
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| Posted: 29 May 2005 15:59 | ||
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I admin two phpBB forums (get over 120GB of traffic a month) One uses avatars which is set to "from another site only" and the other uses Signatures which is restricted yet people still abuse them.
I think if possible for signatures to make it so the admin can choose to enable or disable pictures for the signatures. Avatars well it's really the admins choice to have it or not. |
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| Posted: 29 May 2005 21:15 | ||
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Avatars give the user a sense of identity on a forum. Like them or not a lot of users do use them.
I think the ability to have an Avatar should be enabled but with the option to turn it off. Signatures I find tend to be abused on the boards I have run and use. They are in some cases over long with large images, not really my cup of tea I am afraid. But again some people like them, selectable option may be worth considering. |
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| Posted: 04 Jul 2005 17:19 | ||
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yo hrists, are you going to include avatars in ?
i think it would make your software more popular... but of course its up to you. |
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| Posted: 05 Jul 2005 04:27 | ||
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unless you can prove it makes forums more popular, i dont think it is worth it to include them.
ultimately I think what makes a forum extremely popular is the written content, arguments, ideas and threads over time... the avatars images add maybe only 1% extra.. they are simply a means by which people identify the poster. this identification can be done by their name as well. i prefer not to see avatars in the next version. "just say no to avatars!" 
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| Posted: 06 Jul 2005 14:51 | ||
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| I say yes to avatars, the more features the better :P | ||
| Posted: 06 Jul 2005 18:02 | ||
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Quote:
I say yes to avatars, the more features the better more features does not necessarily mean better, sometimes less is more.... imagine if they made a cell phone whose ONLY feature was to answer and receive calls and do so better than any other cell phone on earth... What a concept! a cell phone WITHOUT 500 features, video games, address books, ringtones and all that other garbage... just crystal clear quality every single time and no dropped calls... if you do not understand this, then you will never understand SEO board... SEO board rocks because of its simplicity, daring to be different than other boards with 2 million features. and the speed if seo board is second to none! |
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| Posted: 06 Jul 2005 23:27 | ||
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Actually i think the way phones are now with calls is pretty good i dont think they need or can improve it :P
SEO board is good but its very bland and boring. Its is not all about what posts is on it, people like features there used to them. |
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| Posted: 12 Jul 2005 12:25 | ||
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| Heres a good one...why include smilies but not signatures? Why include smilies but not avatars...surly with your silly rules hristo smilies are bloat. | ||
| Posted: 12 Jul 2005 18:24 | ||
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| It IS what is all about the CONTENT of the posts. People do not go to websites to stare at a bunch of animated GIF's. They go to READ what is new and to become informed and entertained by the WRITTEN WORD. | ||
| Posted: 14 Jul 2005 14:20 | ||
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| exactly so why put in smilies then? idiot | ||
| Posted: 14 Jul 2005 14:52 | ||
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smilies put emotions into posts/part of posts without bloating the scene (tiny gif images/low bandwidth). Smilies are actually fun at times.
Signatures&Avatars have nothing to do with posts. __________________ Are you looking for an SEO Consultant?
Email me: hristo at seo-board dot com |
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| Posted: 29 Jul 2005 21:48 | ||
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| I'd say, put the function in. Let the forum master control it, Let's say I make a forum, let me be able to choose to activate it or not! | ||
| Posted: 31 Jul 2005 11:44 | ||
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| I thought about both options again and i am convinced Avatars are not for my site, they also can mess up the a nice quiet style of a site. About signatures i am not sure yet where I stand, they are abused a lot for spamming. | ||
| Posted: 31 Jul 2005 13:14 | ||
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Ok. Next version will feature avatars & signatures, but they will be turned off by default. __________________ Are you looking for an SEO Consultant?
Email me: hristo at seo-board dot com |
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| Posted: 08 Jan 2006 02:43 | ||
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Quote:
Avatars Cons - they take bandwidth - they occupy hosting space - the newbie webmaster may have some directory upload permission dificulties - members can abuse them Quote:
Signatures Cons - members can abuse them - and because of that there's more moderation at work I think there's a really simple solution for these Cons... You could make a avatar and signature forum, and another without that features. Then, when you wanna download the script, you have to choose between "Multimedia SEO-Board" or "Simple SEO-Board". And there could be a little description next to them. I'm waiting for the 1.1 version, I know which is your main idea, but probabbly more admins will use your script if it included avatars & signatures, and more people means more colaboration in the forums, etc... Some of my friends doesn't like your script because of that, and some many things. But don't worry, it's a "perfect script". PS: I hope you'll excuseme for my bad english, I tried to make it understandable. If you don't understand something ask me please. Thanks 
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| Posted: 08 Jan 2006 02:46 | ||
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Trying to modify my recent post, I thought you could add a function to modify "your" own posts although you aren't an administrator.
Adding a moderation section, to give special permissions to specific users would be great too! Hehe I know that's a lot of work, but I only want to help this project going on! |
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| Posted: 08 Jan 2006 02:49 | ||
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Sorry! The 3rd consecutive post... .
I'd like to update my version without needing to overwrite all my files, because i've done some modifications. I'd like you give us which modifications do we have to do to update it.. With instructions. For "intermediated-advanced" users[smirk] Hristo you are a nice php programmer.. 
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| Posted: 09 Jan 2006 10:59 | ||
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You are right about it. I will make the new version with truckloads of features (avatars, sigs, pm system, totally db driven admin). I will make a light version (the same as the current with rss added). This way we can have the best of both worlds. __________________ Are you looking for an SEO Consultant?
Email me: hristo at seo-board dot com |
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| Posted: 15 Mar 2006 19:45 | ||
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Sorry for bumping again.
My suggestion is quite simple and I don't think it's that hard to implement. The idea is use the color and bold (and maybe italics) tags in the Username and/or Title. This way, anyone will recognize an Administrator or Moderator at instant, without needing an avatar (avatars are becoming useless lately). So, this can be inplemented in lots of ways, but I suggest this ones: 1. Adding a Box (or a set of Tools for the Username/Title) in the Preferences, only for admins and moderators. Maybe using some CSS? We define a CSS Class in our style and then we call it with this function. 2. "Hardcoding" this with an option to customize the Username and Title with HTML, like vBulletin. Use a text box to open the HTML, let's say... Code:
<span style="color: red;"> And another for closing Code:
</span> |
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| Posted: 15 Mar 2006 21:34 | ||
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Hristo,
Looks like you are using a sig right now? Do you have code for it so I can attempt the same thing before the new version is out? I plan on keeping the site mostly bare, but the sigs would be nice. |
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