How about...

[felix]

How about we have just one thread for rating both Avatars & Signatures (rate avatar, rate sig and/or rate the combination).

Well there would be less of the "signal to noise" thingy. (as the Admin/Mods call it)
What the hell is "signal to noise" suppose to mean anyway?

[NightWish]

If you don't know what "Signal to Noise" is, how can you say merging them will reduce it?

Anyway, I'm not so sure it will reduce it. In fact, I don't really see any advantage to merging them... Please enlighten me? Why do you think it will help?

Edit: Do you really need to use that font/size combination >_<

[xris]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Two threads are fine.

[felix]

Originally Posted by NightWish

If you don't know what "Signal to Noise" is, how can you say merging them will reduce it?

I used my intuition...

Originally Posted by Wiki

Informally, "signal-to-noise ratio" refers to the ratio of useful information to false or irrelevant data.

In online discussion forums such as Usenet, off-topic posts and spam are regarded as "noise" that interferes with the "signal" of appropriate discussion, or Bugzilla, where "please fix this" comments clutter up the discussion without helping to solve the bug.[1] Many Internet users believe moderated forums offer an improved SNR.

The wiki collaboration model addresses the same problem in a different way, by permitting users to "moderate" content, adding signal while removing noise.

Hmm...
Damn intuition needs fixing again

@ eks-ris

ok ok
I never said there was a problem with how they are now, just thought it would make for more creative comments if it was just one.

All that would need to be done would be to create a new thread. It doesn't sound like a big deal.

Originally Posted by NightWish

Please enlighten me? Why do you think it will help?

Simple Answer : Since they're not doing what they're suppose to do.
(No I don't meant they're broken)

Lets take the Rate that Avatar thread.
The idea was to rate avatars you see and like on the forum... but everyone is just rating the avatars of the members that posted earlier... since that's the case what's the point of having two threads ?

Little bonus...
If there's just one thread people can rate the overall theme.
For example. Maybe I think someone's avatar is a 9 but his sig is a 3... but maybe I really like the way they complement each other and think the combination deserves a 10.
The current rules in the threads kind of prevent this kind of behavior.

[Catgirls]

Originally Posted by BlackCatXIII

The current rules in the threads kind of prevent this kind of behavior.

As long as someone makes an attempt to rate a person's avatar, they can combine ratings and rate the person's signature as well as a total package. I don't think any of us have deleted a post if someone gave a user's overall "theme" a rating.

The thread rules are there as guides. I see a lot of people rating a signature and then chatting endlessly about other stuff, so there are plenty of ways the rules can offer flexibility in rating and post content.

IMO, two threads are fine. There isn't a lot of "noise" in that forum to begin with.

[felix]

@ Catgirls

Really ? I have nothing to say if that's the case.
BTW is the number rating system really necesary.
I mean can I just say it's Perfect, Very Good or some creative version, instead of just giving people a random ugly number.
Like :
"@ RandomMember - <Inser Random Number from 9 to 10>/10"

[NightWish]

You can. Nothing says the rating has to be numeric, that was just an example.

Also, does your text need to be so... big?

[Catgirls]

Originally Posted by BlackCatXIII

@ Catgirls

BTW is the number rating system really necesary.
I mean can I just say it's Perfect, Very Good or some creative version, instead of just giving people a random ugly number.

Oh sure. You can use any rating system you choose as long as you make an effort to rate other people's work. I was using "smilies" () to rate Signatures the other day. The numerical rating system in the first post is only an example.

Really, the main thrust of the rules is to prevent or lessen "attention whoring". If we didn't ask people to rate signatures other than their own, the thread would be an orgy of "look at my avatar!!!111, look at my signature!!!" type stuff. As it is, we all know that everyone posts in those threads to show of their own work, but at least they have to make an effort to acknowledge sentient beings other than themselves.

=^.^=

[felix]

@ NightWish

Thanks for the ok.

I keep the text a little bigger so it's a little easier to read. It's not standard so at a normal size it looks annoying. In this post I made it smaller to illustrate. Well when I bold text under these settings it does seem to touch the limit. Especially if its a small post and I bold a lot. (like in the one above)

Ahh yes... sorry but there's no way I'll ever keep it at normal size.
This is how it looks at normal size (size=2). I personally find it really hard to read.

__________________________________________________ _____________
BTW, if you don't mind me asking, is the forum ever going to have a anime style skin. You know something unique and anime that we can chouse from in the little bar at the bottom left corner.

The current ones are all nice but I think there suppose to be the standard out of the box versions. Not really something designed with anime in mind. How should I put it... They don't feel anime enough.

I don't mind if the current skins are going to be the only ones forever and ever and ever and ever, just wanted to know out of curiosity.

@ Catgirls

Yaaayy

BTW I don't see catgirls ava, sig... guess there aren't any new anime with catgirls lately...
Hmmm... shortage of neko... can't have that... make sure to check the Rate Ava/Sig threads I'll try to make some later...
I think I saw some high quality pics yesterday while lurking the net.

[NightWish]

Originally Posted by BlackCatXIII

Ahh yes... sorry but there's no way I'll ever keep it at normal size.

Maybe if you use a different font ... rather than "Comic Sans MS" Or set your browser's font setting to something other than "normal"? You can up the text size in most (all?) graphical browsers...

...just a thought. I find your posts quite distracting/hard to read in that font/size/colour combination.

Originally Posted by BlackCatXIII

BTW, if you don't mind me asking, is the forum ever going to have a anime style skin... I don't mind if the current skins are going to be the only ones forever and ever and ever and ever, just wanted to know out of curiosity.

We're looking into the possibility. It takes a lot of time and effort to make new styles (that are any good) and if you're already busy (like most of the staff are) less important things like styles don't get changed very quickly.

[felix]

Originally Posted by NightWish

Maybe if you use a different font ... rather than "Comic Sans MS"

Originally Posted by NightWish

I find your posts quite distracting/hard to read in that font/size/colour combination.

I think I've posted with every possible combination, even the standard, and there was always someone to complain or derep me for it. Oh this is so hard to read, oh the post is too big, structure it more, oh why are you using indents they are so annoying... oh this oh that.

As I see it no matter how I post there will always be someone who doesn't like how it looks. So I just don't care anymore. It's easier for me to read my posts with those settings (when I check them after I write them) so they're going to stay for a while.

I'll just keep them plain when I'm replying to you so you don't find them distracting ^_^

Originally Posted by NightWish

Or set your browser's font setting to something other than "normal"? You can up the text size in most (all?) graphical browsers...
...just a thought.

I like to do that for sites that have articles written in really small fonts. (like some news sites)
I usually go for 150%. But what does that setting have to do with anything ?!

Originally Posted by NightWish

We're looking into the possibility. It takes a lot of time and effort to make new styles (that are any good) and if you're already busy (like most of the staff are) less important things like styles don't get changed very quickly.

Just a thought...

How about you have a permanent contest about it.
You know just challenge people to make a better skin.
To make it for everyone (and simple) you could just provide a DEMO Page. Basically just a page with some random content and enough code to make the current backgrounds and other elements show as they do.
People can just mess with the style of the thing. And post whatever they come up with.

Since you're providing the basic blueprint for the end result there's little chance of error.
Since you're providing JUST the basic layout theme code there's zero security risk.

If something really good comes up then you can just take the code and things and using the material create a new skin.

Well just an idea.

Originally Posted by eks-ris

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

That reminds me.
Can you fix the Fan Creation forum... its broken.

Under the title it says :
Forum for discussion, creation and feedback on Fan Art and other fan created works.

There are lots of people posting lots of stuff or posting some announcement or some other thing. And that's the problem there's no room for discussion and feedback. I mean lets face it the last discussion about something with some useful feedback was what... in 2004 Thread 01, Thread 02. I don't even think people know these threads exist.
IMO 90% of people that post or visit it think its a forum just for posting your stuff to get praise.

Any discussion thread that is created will get buried after... something like 3 days (If I take the Ava/Sig Tutorial as an example... and that one is/was pretty popular). Once they get buried they are forgotten and are completely lost... take the two examples above... the threads got buried after just one day. 6-7 replies in the firs hours and they just died. (look at the dates of the posts)

The problem is that "My Creation threads" or random creation threads that pop up every day as nice as they are they also are wonderful post generators and will burie any serious (but almost every time slow) thread with more complicated topics and serious discussion.

Little thought : How about you just split the Fan Creation forum into two sub forums. One for posting the things you make. Another for discussing how to make them or how to make them cooler.

The first forum would have almost everything that is currently in the Fan Creation forum ATM.

The second would have the Workshop threads the tutorial threads and two little stikys, something like "Help - Guide & Tutorial Requests thread" and a "General Discussion" thread. So that basically every other thread in that forum would be either a guide or a tutorial (and by tutorial I mean any kind of tutorial and guide not just those for avatars and sigs). No more confusing and annoying "40 tutorial in 1 - come and search your ass off" threads that no one likes to read

Well what do you say ... will you make everything nice and clean and return the original purpose and functionality to the Fan Creation forum.

[NightWish]

Originally Posted by BlackCatXIII

Since you're providing the basic blueprint for the end result there's little chance of error.

There are over 300 html fragments in the templates for the forum software, then you have all the different graphics, phrases, etc. Even a "basic" blueprint would take a fair amount of work to produce. Also, how do you see us providing them to a user? You need administrative permissions on a site running the same forum software to edit the templates... unless we made a completely stand-alone site, how would anyone be able to contribute to this directly?

Originally Posted by BlackCatXIII

Since you're providing JUST the basic layout theme code there's zero security risk.

Not so actually; there is enough in the template system to allow bad things to happen if a designer were so inclined. Basically there are too many technical hurdles...

In my opinion it would be far easier to just have someone design the layout, buttons, other graphics, etc. from scratch and we work out how to make a template from it later... if we think it is good enough. So far no one has offered such a design... but I'm sure we would listen if they did.

[felix]

Originally Posted by NightWish

There are over 300 html fragments in the templates for the forum software, then you have all the different graphics, phrases, etc. Even a "basic" blueprint would take a fair amount of work to produce. Also, how do you see us providing them to a user?

ok ok ok

Originally Posted by NightWish

You need administrative permissions on a site running the same forum software to edit the templates... unless we made a completely stand-alone site, how would anyone be able to contribute to this directly?Not so actually; there is enough in the template system to allow bad things to happen if a designer were so inclined. Basically there are too many technical hurdles...

That's not what I was thinking
Anyway it's not such a good idea anyway...

Originally Posted by NightWish

In my opinion it would be far easier to just have someone design the layout, buttons, other graphics, etc. from scratch and we work out how to make a template from it later... if we think it is good enough. So far no one has offered such a design... but I'm sure we would listen if they did.

You would ehh... hmm...
I'll give it a go... I've been bored lately anyway...
I'll see how hard it really is...