New JC Idea

Hello all,

I was surfing around the net a way while back and came across a message board and I saw this thing where you can select different banners provided by the administration.

It was like the drop down menu we have for our Forum boards, but they had one for banner selecting.

It's like choosing a skin in a game, but on a message board you choose a banner, but the banners were still provided by the administration. (Same concept)

I liked this idea because lets say I don't like a particular banner and want a different one. Well, I know the MODS around here will say, "TOO BAD, DEAL WITH IT" and stuff, so better yet I loved this idea and thought it could be used in the JC.

If this idea goes well, then they should choose the Top 3 banners for each different Forum submitted by the Fans/JC?ers.

Suggestions/Thoughts?

 

"Zerosleep no longer works for Snowboards. We do not have access to the raw code that is used to make these boards run. Zerosleep only does updates on a contractual basis, and IGN/Snowboards has to request the features. Therefore, until IGN/Snowboards requests this feature, we have to live without it."
(thanks to Redundancy for the majority of that quote)

 

Actually, this one might be possible, if we could be really clever about our scripting. It depends on where and how the banner is selected. After all, right now the Literature forum uses a rotating banner ? we have two, and you randomly get one or the other every time the forum loads.

I think that it?s definitely possible. However, having little experience working with the technical underside of the boards, I don?t know how probable it is.

How it could probably work technically: The part of the page would look at a cookie (that we can set) on the users hard drive, and the script (probably JavaScript) would compare that cookie to the lists of banners. The script would then pass the names of the files that make up the banner to the part of the page that actually loads the banner, and it would load the appropriate banner. The pop-up menu, which would be in some part of the page we can control like the forum header, would allow the user to change the default banner. You could probably customize it further, adding such cookies for each individual forum to keep track of the preferred banner.

I think that that would work. But I just finished writing an exam, so my brain is fried.

 

Gandolf is absolutely correct, it's quite possible, but as for probable, that's another one.

Edit: You could use an associative array like:

a => banner1.jpg
b => banner2.jpg

and so forth, then simply store that letter in the cookiee. However, the styles setting would be tricky. I'll have to look at Lit more closely.

Looking at Lit, I'd say it's definetly possible. The issue would be coding it. If Kadue doesn't know how to do it, it would have to go over to the technical goops at TFN, and I know both of them are rather busy right now.

¤Night

 

Night: Exactly. No need to associate letters with the array though. All the cookie needs to store is the number ? 0, 1, 2, .. , n-1, and then grab the images from the arrays at the appropriate index.

Anywho, it's certainly possible, but it's also probably going to be a pain in a very unpleasant place to code.

 

I think it's not bad an idea, but it does open up this forum to three times the controversy.. Look at how the last few banner changes went over. People who either did not have their banner chosen, or who thought that putting a minor character on a banner was a crime came pouring out of the woodwork. Do we really need to triple the drama?

 

Well, it gives people a ?if you don?t like it, don?t load it? option.

 

Actually, it would probably ease the drama as we could satisfy more different groups with the different banners.

 

Agreed. If there had been a choice to not have that JCC banner, people wouldn't have complained. They would have just put it on something else.

 

Agrees with above post.

 

As Night said, I could probably come up with something that would allow this, most probably after working through some things with Anthony and spell. Designing it so individual schemes and banners could be selected wouldn't be that hard given enough time to play with the scripts.

But the problem is that I don't think we have any way to be able to allow for the alteration of the cookies to grab individual information. It would most likely require changes to the board software to both do this, and provide an interface for the selection of the different possible schemes.

What I'm saying is that it could be possible, and I'm willing to put it on my pet-projects list for things to work on, but I don't want anyone to get any hopes up at all. It would take some time to work out along with having to try and get IGN to make changes (which they are under no obligation to do, and we haven't had much luck on that front in the first place). This means that it's not going to be the first thing on the agenda to work out for me, since there are some other things that we have a better chance of implementing, and are needed a little more.

 

It's posible but I guaruntee it would Slooooooooooow things down for the 56k'ers.
{well - if it were to be done without changing the asp that is}

 

Bah. 56k.

 

well, as a 56Ker, I can safely tell you that switching from the JCC into any other forum while using the same browser window takes waaaay too long.

 

But the problem is that I don't think we have any way to be able to allow for the alteration of the cookies to grab individual information.

What if you made a drop down menu (right next to the currect one?) that picked the banner, and when you submitted it, it would go off to a www1.theforce.net page to set it in your cookie, then scoot you back off onto boards.theforce.net? I don't think that would require any changing of the ASP, cause we already have the drop down menu that does that, and I think it would work....

¤Night

 

But how many boards would this apply to, just the ones that have the default banner now? And would all of the forums with custom banners, like those that held contests, also have 2 or 3 banners?

 

Good question. Theoretically, you could pick any banner in the system! That'd be cool!

¤Night

 

Well, it would be nice to have that much choice in the banners, but it would kinda make all the work done to customize the forums rather pointless. A lot of work has gone into organizing and participating in the contests around the JC because those forums wanted to make their board unique.

Plus, would we create color schemes to match every banner? Could those be changed just as easily? And if not, would all the banners have to match one specific JC-wide scheme.

And if someone wanted to choose one banner that applied to the entire JC, would it over ride the schemes in the Fan Force forums?

 

it would kinda make all the work done to customize the forums rather pointless

Not nessesarily, theirs could be the default in that forum, and you use that unless you choose a different one from the drop-down menu. This would require a slightly different code however (read my Games analogy below for that)

would we create color schemes to match every banner

There are color schemes for every banner. We're sitting in one right now. JC has a different one. Unless someone made a banner without a color scheme.

Could those be changed just as easily?

Yes. Check out Lit for an example.

And if someone wanted to choose one banner that applied to the entire JC, would it over ride the schemes in the Fan Force forums?

No, the FanForce Boards for each chapter that has their own specific banner would not have the banner-choosing code in their header, therefore their banner would always be displayed. (Well, that's what would make most sense to me) Only forums that have the banner-choosing header it would effect.

For instance, if Games wanted to only use one banner, it wouldn't put in the code. If Games wanted to be able to choose between a couple of Games-only banners, the code would be slightly different and would either use a different cookiee, or a different part of the cookiee.

Edit: Clarification

¤Night

 

"There are color schemes for every banner. We're sitting in one right now."

No, really?

And that isn't what I meant. I was asking if we would be reverting to the old system. When the contests began, the banners had to match with the default scheme. I was asking if, say we had 5 banners to choose from, there would just be one color scheme and all 5 banners would match it.

"Check out Lit for an example."

I don't post in or visit Lit. I'm a movie-only girl.

"No, the FanForce Boards for each chapter that has their own specific banner would not have the banner-choosing code in their header..."

Well that seems a bit unfair. The JC-forums would have to all deal with the over-rides, even though they went to trouble of organizing contests and creating banners. If FF boards get to keep their own schemes, I would think any forum that has created and voted on it's own should get to keep theirs as well. Making it the default isn't the same treatment the FF boards would get. :/


Another question is would people have to pick a banner in every forum they visit, or would the one choice to apply to every forum? The former would mean people can still keep the unique banners in the forums that have them, but it would also mean a lot of trouble to pick a banner in every forum if you actually wanted the same one in every one, especially if people clear out their cookies regularly. The latter would save that effort, but lose the ability to to customize forums according to subject.

 

I don't post in or visit Lit. I'm a movie-only girl.

Then just take a walk on the wild side and look at our 1337 coding.

 

Nice idea, but I see a few potential problems with this. Some have been addressed, so forgive me for restating them.

Banner contest winners

There really wouldn't be much of a point to having set winner. Everyone would get a chance to submit something and then there would be multiple winners. Winning the banner contests now is something special: you get VIPship for an amount of time put into the contest. And it makes things more fun and less predictable. Now, if we have a selection of 2 or 3 banners, getting the VIPship wouldn't be nearly as hard... so I wouldn't see the purpose in doing this.

Default Banner Overrides

Each forum has a banner created for it for fun. Sure, it would be nice to have a customizable scheme, but if that happens, why should we take up the time to work on board-specific banners? They could easily be "turned off". Sure, not everyone likes the banners, but not everyone likes everything. And then you have issues of FanForce boards... should we just have their custom board schemes turned off? There are a lot of people who have put their hard earned time into making their FanForce boards as close to home as possible. They show off the boards they're from; it is a measure of love for their boards. The same with JC side boards. Now, we're going to let this work just be "turned off" if wanted? No offense, but that just doesn't seem right to those who have busted their arse.

Taking away from the fun

Maybe it is just me, but I think this idea also takes away from some of the fun on the JC. For schemes that go along with the holidays there is anticipation and a lot of fun that goes along with it. I don't see much fun in the idea of having a lot of icons uploaded and not getting the scheme. *shrug* I like the idea of all or none. And even if some of the board looks are a bit annoying at first, for the most part they're gotten used to and enjoyed.

Designing multiple JC-wide schemes

Another point to think about... if people don't like the current theme, there would have to be multiple themes to change from. And each one would have to be defined by board. It would be a lot more work on the staff and the banner gurus here on the JC for this.

Now, on a board say, oh, Lit, perhaps we could incorperate this, since there are already multiple banners in there.

That's just how I feel about it.

 

I'll definitely agree with RMCOY on his 3rd point. It would take the fun and togetherness away from the JC, especially as members like to be able to discuss new colour schemes together. Each banner personifies the forum in a different way. Letting members choose custom banners would change the feeling that each one has for a particular forum.

 

I agree with Carosel and Valiowk. They both said it better than I could.

 

Yes, I also agree with Carosel and Valiowk, therefore killing my idea.