Active Smaller Banner Sizes!

[Matt_192]

Before I start this off, I just want to make it clear than I'm talking about banners that you can earn like 'Donor' and 'Trusted Seller' - not banners that you can put in your signature (as well as lowering the signature size). If you would like to read more about that, @Dom has a great thread made about that which you can check out here.


With the introduction of the new community achivements, it is now technically possible to have this many banners:

Donor
Trusted Seller
Team ____
Staff Member
Moderator
Unstoppable
Let it Reign
Tournament Co-ordinator (not exactly common, but I'm adding it on for the sake of covering all ground)
Journalist
Friendzilla
Smaug
Will Not Fall
Tournament Champion

13 banners? If you thought the badges took up space, I'll be horrified to see how 13 medium sized banners look when someone gets them all lol. My idea is to have either one of two things:

1. Make the banners smaller (like smaller squares) so they take up less room. This idea is very similar to how Smogon displays achievements, but it works pretty damn well. Their idea for displaying achievements is a marquee (scrolling) of their banners, but they are quite small as Smogon have a lot more possible banners than we do. Here are a few examples:
   
   
   
   
   . I'm not saying we should do a direct copy + paste of their banners, but it is something to consider to save space on posts. With @Dom 's recent idea of decreasing signature lengths, we may as well lower the size of the entire post, especially seeing as there are a possible 21 Gym Badges which take up a maximum of 7 rows. I'm not saying we need to have these scrolling images either, instead, we could fit 3/4 of these smaller boxes on a line and when you flash over them it says '... is a Donor' or something similar to that. This also means we would be able to have more banners, here are some I brainstormed the other day: Member of the PP Tiering Council, Nuzlocke Master (3/4 Full Completed Nuzlockes), Showdown Rank (i.e. it would literally state 'Showdown Mod' or 'Showdown Driver,' etc), Artwork Contributor, CAP Contributor, Gym Leader, Elite 4 Member, Champion, Viability Contributor (will become more valid an idea when all of the Rankings are released), etc.
2. Filter your earned banners and only display a few of these - I mainly added this one on due to request, and there definitely are upsides to this. Unlike the other option, this allows people to keep the same banner sizes as they are right now, but you may only display around 4 of them at one time. Whilst this does mean sizes are the same, it does get a bit difficult for users to decide which banners they want to display, e.g. what happens if one has a Team Banner, Staff Banner, Trusted Seller Banner, Mod Banner, a Tournament Champion Banner and Friendzilla? Most of those are quite nice to show off, so it would be difficult to only display a select few.

I was going to pass this straight on to doulie, but what do you guys think of the idea?


Addendum A: After putting in some more thought, would it be better to scrap the Staff Member banner and create two separate 'Moderator' and 'Administrator' banners? This way, we could keep the staff banners like they are, and then turn the rest of the banners into the smaller badge shapes. Thoughts?

 

[Sewage]

Before I start this off, I just want to make it clear than I'm talking about banners that you can earn like 'Donor' and 'Trusted Seller' - not banners that you can put in your signature (as well as lowering the signature size). If you would like to read more about that, @Dom has a great thread made about that which you can check out here.


With the introduction of the new community achivements, it is now technically possible to have this many banners:

Donor
Trusted Seller
Team ____
Staff Member
Moderator
Unstoppable
Let it Reign
Tournament Co-ordinator (not exactly common, but I'm adding it on for the sake of covering all ground)
Journalist
Friendzilla
Smaug
Will Not Fall
Tournament Champion

13 banners? If you thought the badges took up space, I'll be horrified to see how 13 medium sized banners look when someone gets them all lol. My idea is to have either one of two things:

1. Make the banners smaller (like smaller squares) so they take up less room. This idea is very similar to how Smogon displays achievements, but it works pretty damn well. Their idea for displaying achievements is a marquee (scrolling) of their banners, but they are quite small as Smogon have a lot more possible banners than we do. Here are a few examples:
   
   
   
   
   . I'm not saying we should do a direct copy + paste of their banners, but it is something to consider to save space on posts. With @Dom 's recent idea of decreasing signature lengths, we may as well lower the size of the entire post, especially seeing as there are a possible 21 Gym Badges which take up a maximum of 7 rows. I'm not saying we need to have these scrolling images either, instead, we could fit 3/4 of these smaller boxes on a line and when you flash over them it says '... is a Donor' or something similar to that. This also means we would be able to have more banners, here are some I brainstormed the other day: Member of the PP Tiering Council, Nuzlocke Master (3/4 Full Completed Nuzlockes), Showdown Rank (i.e. it would literally state 'Showdown Mod' or 'Showdown Driver,' etc), Artwork Contributor, CAP Contributor, Gym Leader, Elite 4 Member, Champion, Viability Contributor (will become more valid an idea when all of the Rankings are released), etc.
2. Filter your earned banners and only display a few of these - I mainly added this one on due to request, and there definitely are upsides to this. Unlike the other option, this allows people to keep the same banner sizes as they are right now, but you may only display around 4 of them at one time. Whilst this does mean sizes are the same, it does get a bit difficult for users to decide which banners they want to display, e.g. what happens if one has a Team Banner, Staff Banner, Trusted Seller Banner, Mod Banner, a Tournament Champion Banner and Friendzilla? Most of those are quite nice to show off, so it would be difficult to only display a select few.

I was going to pass this straight on to doulie, but what do you guys think of the idea?

If someone is diesel enough to acquire all of the banners I think they should be able to display them all. I mean be realistic here, how many people will get more than 5 or so outside of mods/staff who automatically get at least 2. If anything I think the staff and moderator banners are slightly redundant and one could be gone away with, or both of them be consolidated into a different title if your so concerned about the little banners under people's names.

 

[Cheza]

I'd be cool with either of these ideas, smaller banners or only having to display 4 at a time.

Another suggestion for option 2 could be that the banners you don't choose to show off could have a tab on your profile "achievements" similar to the gym badges tab.

Having to many banners looks messy imo

 

[Matt_192]

Added an addendum to the original post to try and separate the staff and smaller banner badges.

 

[Cheza]

If someone is diesel enough to acquire all of the banners I think they should be able to display them all. I mean be realistic here, how many people will get more than 5 or so outside of mods/staff who automatically get at least 2. If anything I think the staff and moderator banners are slightly redundant and one could be gone away with, or both of them be consolidated into a different title if your so concerned about the little banners under people's names.

Removing the mod banner wouldn't be a bad idea since it's basically irrelevant now due to all staff members getting the staff member banner and mods having a different name colour.

 

[doulie]

By the way, i don't have a problem with this. Although i think some people enjoy their banners. If most people prefer icons that is something that can be arranged.

To play a bit of devils advocate, it is very very unlikely that someone will earn all 13 banners currently available... and many community members talk about wanting something to work towards. After putting in the hard work of winning 3 official tournaments in a row, for example, i think most people may want to be rewarded with a banner over an icon.

One idea that may work well is maybe to put a maximum on the amount of banners someone can display, and allow them to choose from among all the banners they have earned ... with staff/mod taking priority. But this is something that i don't see as having a huge amount of urgency, unless there is an overwhelming demand for it.

I am interested in seeing what everyone else thinks.

 

[sebesmos]

I don't like the idea of making then smaller. The badges by far take up more space than the banners do. I think if we do anything, I'd support making it so maybe you choose to display 5 or so. So you have a collection but only get to show 5 at a time.

**edit- I rarely see a user with more than 3 banners... I don't honestly think this is even an issue.

 

[Cheza]

By the way, i don't have a problem with this. Although i think some people enjoy their banners. If most people prefer icons that is something that can be arranged.

To play a bit of devils advocate, it is very very unlikely that someone will earn all 13 banners currently available... and many community members talk about wanting something to work towards. After putting in the hard work of winning 3 official tournaments in a row, for example, i think most people may want to be rewarded with a banner over an icon.

One idea that may work well is maybe to put a maximum on the amount of banners someone can display, and allow them to choose from among all the banners they have earned ... with staff/mod taking priority. But this is something that i don't see as having a huge amount of urgency, unless there is an overwhelming demand for it.

I am interested in seeing what everyone else thinks.

The option to choose which banners you display out of all your banners is the second suggestion I believe, I'm all for it

Is it possible to have a profile tab for achievements / banners that you don't display?

 

[sebesmos]

By the way, i don't have a problem with this. Although i think some people enjoy their banners. If most people prefer icons that is something that can be arranged.

To play a bit of devils advocate, it is very very unlikely that someone will earn all 13 banners currently available... and many community members talk about wanting something to work towards. After putting in the hard work of winning 3 official tournaments in a row, for example, i think most people may want to be rewarded with a banner over an icon.

One idea that may work well is maybe to put a maximum on the amount of banners someone can display, and allow them to choose from among all the banners they have earned ... with staff/mod taking priority. But this is something that i don't see as having a huge amount of urgency, unless there is an overwhelming demand for it.

I am interested in seeing what everyone else thinks.

I really am in support of doulies devils advocate post. My above post is mostly to say "if" we did something what I would support but I really don't want any change. I have yet to notice anyone's banner amounts bothering me as much as other things on the site. The banners should be displayed because they are something you earn here that distinguishes your account from others, and it's the first thing people see about a user. I think they should stay the same, honestly.

 

[Ary]

I hardly see anyone with an annoying amount of banners lolz I don't think its really an issue or anytime soon... if anything the badges take up way more space

 

[Matt_192]

It may be a better idea then to have certain achievements displayed as banners, i.e. Moderator, Administrator, Trusted Seller (seeing as this is a core part of the site), but the other banners like Donor, Team, etc could all be displayed as icons IMO. It then allows for more variety in the achievements system - thoughts?

In response to @sebesmos , I see your point, but amongst the veteran members (or just anyone that has been here a long time) is now racking up banners pretty quickly. One that I have noticed lately is @Miles8088 who currently has 7 banners if I recall correctly, and IMO there is just a more efficient way of displaying it.

 

[Miles8088]

It may be a better idea then to have certain achievements displayed as banners, i.e. Moderator, Administrator, Trusted Seller (seeing as this is a core part of the site), but the other banners like Donor, Team, etc could all be displayed as icons IMO. It then allows for more variety in the achievements system - thoughts?

In response to @sebesmos , I see your point, but amongst the veteran members (or just anyone that has been here a long time) is now racking up banners pretty quickly. One that I have noticed lately is @Miles8088 who currently has 7 banners if I recall correctly, and IMO there is just a more efficient way of displaying it.

Sorry for overachieving But yeah I agree with the choosing which to show. Also it would be cool if some could be icons. Especially team

 

[sebesmos]

It may be a better idea then to have certain achievements displayed as banners, i.e. Moderator, Administrator, Trusted Seller (seeing as this is a core part of the site), but the other banners like Donor, Team, etc could all be displayed as icons IMO. It then allows for more variety in the achievements system - thoughts?

In response to @sebesmos , I see your point, but amongst the veteran members (or just anyone that has been here a long time) is now racking up banners pretty quickly. One that I have noticed lately is @Miles8088 who currently has 7 banners if I recall correctly, and IMO there is just a more efficient way of displaying it.

Sorry for overachieving But yeah I agree with the choosing which to show. Also it would be cool if some could be icons. Especially team

I think you're all missing a key point, which is that everyone with "all these banners" still have longer signatures than they do banners... If you can give me one example of a time where someones BANNERS push their post to be longer than necessary then maybe I'd see *some* point - but I have yet to see it. I'm 100% against making any of the banners into icons. The badges are icons enough. Turning the banners into icons will just devalue them. Might as well remove them completely in my opinion.

Nonetheless, my main point is that we don't have a problem with members banners creating longer posts, as we did with signatures - so I see no point to change it, and don't favor it at all. They're one of the few things one can *achieve* as a community member, and I'm fond of mine.

 

[Matt_192]

I think you're all missing a key point, which is that everyone with "all these banners" still have longer signatures than they do banners... If you can give me one example of a time where someones BANNERS push their post to be longer than necessary then maybe I'd see *some* point - but I have yet to see it. I'm 100% against making any of the banners into icons. The badges are icons enough. Turning the banners into icons will just devalue them. Might as well remove them completely in my opinion.

Nonetheless, my main point is that we don't have a problem with members banners creating longer posts, as we did with signatures - so I see no point to change it, and don't favor it at all. They're one of the few things one can *achieve* as a community member, and I'm fond of mine.

Signatures are no longer an issue more, my point is that with that out of the way, we may as well optimise the rest of the post's size. Badges are another issue like I stated in my OP, in that they take up a lot of space if you get a lot of them, but at least that issue can be simply fixed by decreasing the size of the badge and allowing more than 3 on a line.

Again, like I've said in a number of posts, I'm not trying to turn 'all of the banners' into badges, just the ones that don't mean as much. Ones like Tournament Champion, Staff, and the one that @doulie stated in his post I agree should stay as banners as they are more important, but having the icons also allows us to have other smaller achievements displayed on our profile (read my OP for suggestions).

 

[Miles8088]

I think you're all missing a key point, which is that everyone with "all these banners" still have longer signatures than they do banners... If you can give me one example of a time where someones BANNERS push their post to be longer than necessary then maybe I'd see *some* point - but I have yet to see it. I'm 100% against making any of the banners into icons. The badges are icons enough. Turning the banners into icons will just devalue them. Might as well remove them completely in my opinion.

Nonetheless, my main point is that we don't have a problem with members banners creating longer posts, as we did with signatures - so I see no point to change it, and don't favor it at all. They're one of the few things one can *achieve* as a community member, and I'm fond of mine.

Shelbie makes a good point. At times I can see why some would say it just looks like too much going on but they really don't influence post length. Also on a separate note it would be cool if we could find a way to branch out into more things we could "achieve" so that banners wouldn't be the only thing. This I feel is probably for another conversation though.

 

[Matt_192]

Shelbie makes a good point. At times I can see why some would say it just looks like too much going on but they really don't influence post length. Also on a separate note it would be cool if we could find a way to branch out into more things we could "achieve" so that banners wouldn't be the only thing. This I feel is probably for another conversation though.

Read my last post, icons would allow us to have smaller achievements displayed without requiring the full banner size

 

[sebesmos]

Signatures are no longer an issue more, my point is that with that out of the way, we may as well optimise the rest of the post's size. Badges are another issue like I stated in my OP, in that they take up a lot of space if you get a lot of them, but at least that issue can be simply fixed by decreasing the size of the badge and allowing more than 3 on a line.

Again, like I've said in a number of posts, I'm not trying to turn 'all of the banners' into badges, just the ones that don't mean as much. Ones like Tournament Champion, Staff, and the one that @doulie stated in his post I agree should stay as banners as they are more important, but having the icons also allows us to have other smaller achievements displayed on our profile (read my OP for suggestions).

I saw your suggestions, and I just don't like any of them. I can agree with maybe taking away the "staff member" banner and having Admin/Mod banners instead - but everything else isn't favorable imo. Even Dom, who has max signature AND max badges/banners does not have a display that pushes past his signature.

Read my last post, icons would allow us to have smaller achievements displayed without requiring the full banner size

I don't think the icons would look good. We don't have enough banners to convert over to make them look significant at all. We might as well just remove the banners completely instead of converting them into like... 2 or 3 icons that are tiny. No one would even look at them. How about instead of icons we just put an extra asterisk at the end of someones username rererererrer

 

[Matt_192]

Posting the chat I had with Miles to explain my point better lolz

Miles8088: So are you basically just saying it will look cleaner? I'm not sure I understand the benefit
Matt_192: My point is that icons would allow us to have less significant achievements as icons instead of creating a massive banner for them
Matt_192: Things like Friendzilla and Smaug, etc don't exactly require a banner
Miles8088: AH
Miles8088: Ok
Matt_192: And if we were to have other achievements as banners, like the ones I put in the OP, we wouldn't have to have massive ass banners

I basically went off on a tangent about efficiency, and it's not like I'm trying to eliminate every banner that every existed, just that the less important ones can be turned into icons.

 

[sebesmos]

Posting the chat I had with Miles to explain my point better lolz

Miles8088: So are you basically just saying it will look cleaner? I'm not sure I understand the benefit
Matt_192: My point is that icons would allow us to have less significant achievements as icons instead of creating a massive banner for them
Matt_192: Things like Friendzilla and Smaug, etc don't exactly require a banner
Miles8088: AH
Miles8088: Ok
Matt_192: And if we were to have other achievements as banners, like the ones I put in the OP, we wouldn't have to have massive ass banners

I basically went off on a tangent about efficiency, and it's not like I'm trying to eliminate every banner that every existed, just that the less important ones can be turned into icons.

"Massive ass banners"

Just answer me yes or no - do you understand that removing banners/making them smaller/replacing them with icons will NOT change how long a post is? That's all I'm trying to say. It won't CHANGE anything, it won't make anything look different other than a few colorful lines with some text on them won't be on the screen.

Here's a new suggestion, how about an option to just turn off the ability to see other peoples banners so people with sensitivity to colorful banners don't have to view them?

 

[Matt_192]

"Massive ass banners"

Just answer me yes or no - do you understand that removing banners/making them smaller/replacing them with icons will NOT change how long a post is? That's all I'm trying to say. It won't CHANGE anything, it won't make anything look different other than a few colorful lines with some text on them won't be on the screen.

Here's a new suggestion, how about an option to just turn off the ability to see other peoples banners so people with sensitivity to colorful banners don't have to view them?

I'm not saying I have a sensitivity to colourful banners, you've just taken this far out of context at this point that I don't even know why you brought it up.

Again, read my last post. This idea is more rooted in turning lesser achievements into icons to free space. It's a bit more of a minor idea but seeing as the site works there's no reason why we can't make it even better by ironing out small details. It then also allows people to get visible accolades for things that IMO should have, e.g. being a member of the Tiering Council.