Cross-forum thing & user pics

I first noticed Spartan over at GalCiv2 and until recently he had different user pic over there. But here, he's been a leader in getting folks to adopt user pics that show an Elemental focus, so now, when you look at his old GC2 posts, they show a grab from the initial Fallen art.

The pic I'm using now is something I found on the net that another Master of Orion fan made. I don't want to change that for my posts over in the GC2 areas, but it doesn't seem to fit here. Would anyone else like to see the Stardock forum system support domain-linked user pics?

13,764 views 12 replies
Reply #1 Top

I'm not entirely sure that this belongs in the "Elemental Ideas" forum, but yes, I completely agree.
Even though mine does fit.

On the other hand, I always consider avatars to be one of those "easy to identify x" wherever I go.
So I'm a bit split.

Arrgh, ignore me. I wasn't much help now, was I?

:hugme:

Reply #2 Top

I agree on both ideas. :andrew:

In short I think the avatar should change according to the forum skin for aesthetic and identification purposes. :banhammer:

Reply #3 Top

I can hear SD's web-db programmers already... "What?! You want member records to have multiple images instead of just one? We've been over this!"

Reply #4 Top

I'm not entirely sure that this belongs in the "Elemental Ideas" forum, but yes, I completely agree.
Even though mine does fit.

This area of Stardock-land doesn't yet have an Elemental Site Issues or Forum Issues category, or I would have used them. And, yes, you are helpful b/c I hadn't thought about the pic as a multi-site ID b/c until now, GC2 is the only forum I've bothered with since my old days on BBS systems. I guess I'd say that I still like the idea of an option, and hope that people will still read by the time I keep my teeth in a jar.

I can hear SD's web-db programmers already... "What?! You want member records to have multiple images instead of just one? We've been over this!"

I apologize to the devs if I've tried to bring up a dead horse for more beatings. I have an impression that lots of the Stardock site functionality talk goes on via Wincustomize, but I never go there. Spartan's project just got me thinking...

Reply #5 Top

I would generally agree with/support this as well.

I'm curious as to how you're able to see Spartan's new avatar in older posts, as at last check older posts did not use the current avatar, but the avatar that the person had at the time (very confusing and I have no idea why, especially as this means it must already save multiple avatars in the system, most of which are not even wanted to be used any longer), but to be honest I haven't looked into this in more than a week so I suppose that it is possible that it has changed.

Short version: Older posts should show current avatar if they do not already. If they do, could someone link me to the update to the forums that specifies this, if there is one? It was not working like this for me as recently as two to three weeks ago.

On a completely different tangent, I'm curious as to why the karma is separated on a site-by-site basis. I would say I'm probably fairly well known on the GCII forums (I think I may have the highest karma of anyone without an avatar, haha), but when I went over to sins with a problem, no one knew me, and in fact the only people who responded were people I'd already seen on the GCII forums. This may also have had something to do with the fact that it was a problem most could not contemplate existing, let alone fixing, but I'm beginning to see the same thing here now as well.

Short version: I personally think the system might be improved if the karma was on a global basis. As the forums are all essentially one and all threads do actually exist on all sites (that I am aware of), this should not be terribly difficult, except for perhaps setting a [forumname] parameter before the [post number] in the link, which, no offense, but I can do that with my eyes shut.

EDIT: Apparently karma actually shows up in a user's profile regardless of site, but is counted on a site-by-site basis.  Isn't that silly?

Reply #6 Top

Do keep in mind, there are advantages of having it the way it is, like easily being able to identify users regardless of the site you're on. But given that everything else about accounts is global, I don't see this changing anyway.

+1 Loading…
Reply #7 Top

I apologize to the devs if I've tried to bring up a dead horse for more beatings. I have an impression that lots of the Stardock site functionality talk goes on via Wincustomize, but I never go there. Spartan's project just got me thinking...
Ah, I didn't mean that the devs had been over it with the user base, I meant that the web-db guys had probably been over it a few times with their bosses.  I do that kind of web-db thing for a living and it's a constant of life that you'll ask a question like "ok, so do we need to be able to have a single user account have more than one graphic, or is one enough?" about 20 times during the design process and have the client (or boss) answer every single time "one is enough", and then 2 weeks after final deployment of the product have them come back and ask for multiple images on a single user account (and you get the impression that they don't realize that's been covered before).

 

As long as clients understand the ramifications of those kinds of mind-changing-s at a late stage, it's just a matter of humor for the devs, but it's nearly impossible to avoid.

Reply #8 Top

Short version: I personally think the system might be improved if the karma was on a global basis. As the forums are all essentially one and all threads do actually exist on all sites (that I am aware of), this should not be terribly difficult, except for perhaps setting a [forumname] parameter before the [post number] in the link, which, no offense, but I can do that with my eyes shut.
I like that I can be a no-karma jerk on one site and a mega-karma hero on another.  ;)

Reply #9 Top

Quoting Zubaz, reply 8
I like that I can be a no-karma jerk on one site and a mega-karma hero on another. 

You would.  :P

 

+1 Loading…
Reply #10 Top

Quoting Sole, reply 9

Quoting Zubaz, reply 8I like that I can be a no-karma jerk on one site and a mega-karma hero on another. 
You would. 

 
No doubt. Like I said he is trolling here. :troll:

Reply #11 Top

Like I said he is trolling here.

Who? Where? Sniff-sniff...I smell a forum sprawl thing.

But given that everything else about accounts is global, I don't see this changing anyway.

Everything but karma, you mean. I've been trying to make myself stop disliking the karma thing by handing a lot out lately, but I still have the same kind of ambivalence about it that I do about sweating my score when I play GC2. Karma's a bitch.

Reply #12 Top

Quoting keithLamothe, reply 7

I apologize to the devs if I've tried to bring up a dead horse for more beatings. I have an impression that lots of the Stardock site functionality talk goes on via Wincustomize, but I never go there. Spartan's project just got me thinking... Ah, I didn't mean that the devs had been over it with the user base, I meant that the web-db guys had probably been over it a few times with their bosses.  I do that kind of web-db thing for a living and it's a constant of life that you'll ask a question like "ok, so do we need to be able to have a single user account have more than one graphic, or is one enough?" about 20 times during the design process and have the client (or boss) answer every single time "one is enough", and then 2 weeks after final deployment of the product have them come back and ask for multiple images on a single user account (and you get the impression that they don't realize that's been covered before).
 

As long as clients understand the ramifications of those kinds of mind-changing-s at a late stage, it's just a matter of humor for the devs, but it's nearly impossible to avoid.

The SDLC would be half as long, and cost half as much if clients had no part in it.  :P