Season 2011 - Site suggestions

[gh]

You only need to find your event once: with only 3 categories, you're going to remember which one it's in after the first time. It's educational.

[RandomPerson]

Can you set it so that the avatar image settings are less restrictive? I'm not talking about making us able to have gargantuan size avatars, just a little bit bigger (80x80 at the least, 90x90 or 100x100 ideally), and then the size restriction up by just a kilobyte or two as well. Its frustrating to people like me who like to have detailed avatars, the one I've just changed to is impossible to have a nice antialiased edge because of the size...

[paleonaps]

I agree, because I like to have very detailed Avatars. My dad is on a car forum, and his avatar is about three times the size of ours. I think it is too large, but a substantial size increase would be nice.

[amerikestrel]

I agree about the avatars.

Also, is it possible to have it so that when you're logged in on the forum, you're automatically logged in on the wiki? I'm thinking you probably can't, but it would make things easier.

[gh]

Your avatar wouldn't have clean antialiased edges anyways since GIF is at most 1-bit alpha but we have two different backgrounds on the forum. You can get better compression and more alpha depth if you use PNG, especially for images like that one where you'd want to preserve every pixel. JPEG works wonders for more photographic images, so try that if you're looking for more detail but are willing to sacrifice some quality.

At any rate, allowed avatar dimensions are not changing. Max size is a bit low at 6KB, but it's intentional, to limit animated avatars to simple, tasteful ones (e.g., Pleiades's).

[RandomPerson]

Your avatar wouldn't have clean antialiased edges anyways since GIF is at most 1-bit alpha but we have two different backgrounds on the forum. You can get better compression and more alpha depth if you use PNG, especially for images like that one where you'd want to preserve every pixel. JPEG works wonders for more photographic images, so try that if you're looking for more detail but are willing to sacrifice some quality.

At any rate, allowed avatar dimensions are not changing. Max size is a bit low at 6KB, but it's intentional, to limit animated avatars to simple, tasteful ones (e.g., Pleiades's).

PNG and JPEG are usually too large for the 6KB limit (for my current one not actually, but for others it has been), GIF has really been the only usable format.

I don't see how the avatar dimensions really help it be tasteful (like robodude's old avatar ), they can be plenty untasteful with the restriction as it is (I'm sure I could find some examples if you need them). In the same light, they can be kept tasteful even if you increase the dimensions, there's really only the potential for avatars to be annoying if the setting is ginormous (larger than 100x100).
No offense, but I really don't see that as a valid reason, especially with a modest upgrade to 90x90, or even 80x80. Even if you're right about the size being what keeps them simple and tasteful, either of those wouldn't make much difference. Especially in a laid back forum such as this, I don't imagine people would deliberately abuse their avatars.

[gh]

If your GIFs are the smallest, then you are not compressing your PNGs properly (e.g., with MS Paint). You can always play around with the DEFLATE params or use a palette. Also, JPEG allows you to exchange quality for file size, so there should never be a still image you can't compress further.

With that said, the limit on dimensions doesn't do much to limit content, which is good. The limit on file size does prevent people from copying & pasting animated GIF movie clips to their avatars:

Yeah, no.

[Dark Sabre]

I realize it isn't really a reason, but the limit is what it is because that's what it was on the OBB board. I guess we'll think about it.

... Also, is it possible to have it so that when you're logged in on the forum, you're automatically logged in on the wiki? I'm thinking you probably can't, but it would make things easier.

I think we looked into that originally and couldn't do it. I don't really know if that has changed.

[EpicFailOlympian]

If your GIFs are the smallest, then you are not compressing your PNGs properly (e.g., with MS Paint). You can always play around with the DEFLATE params or use a palette. Also, JPEG allows you to exchange quality for file size, so there should never be a still image you can't compress further.

With that said, the limit on dimensions doesn't do much to limit content, which is good. The limit on file size does prevent people from copying & pasting animated GIF movie clips to their avatars:

Yeah, no.

Awwww.... That would be awesome if we had movie clips on avartars... comon, why not?

[IdahoSciGuy]

Bringing up the topic of the Score Tracker/ Test Exchange bit again.

What if the study event scores on the Score Tracker came only from the tests in the Text Exchange? If that were the case, then we could have a common point to compare against, and it could easily provide a good gauge of the competition. Everyone could take the same test, and post their scores on the Score Tracker.

I also think that if we want to advertise the Test Exchange better, we need to think out of the box when it comes to what can be uploaded. Instead of relying on getting tests back from competitions, why don't we also consider making out own tests and posting them? I think I read about these daily practices(something foreign to my state) where half the team made a test, and the competition team took it. What about posting those? I know i will be getting more proactive and writing/adding tests this upcoming season.

To sum it up, I think that in order to better publicize the score tracker(especially for study events), we need to improve the use of the text exchange.

What would be really cool is if the Test Exchange was somehow linked to the Score Tracker, so that when you took a test, it automatically posts it. That's probably not doable, but i thought I'd throw that out there.