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[Nijntje]

Alright, I resized them!

[Chaos]

Thank you! 

[julilly]

that doesn't work. the idea is to catch the readers eye, that's what they are for!  You don't want to make the readers open a separate page to see you image. And don't tell me that people shouldn't judge a book by the cover because they do :p

why is 450 pixels by 150 pixels too large? it's the size of lots of my banners now (More Than That, Amnesia) those are too large??

Besides you contradicted yourself. you said that a banner 400ishX200ish is decent now you are saying absolutely not that big...

I'm not saying these things to start anything I just want to be able to follow the rules but still make a banner that is somewhat longer.... like the one in my signature... is that too big??

On most screens a 450 pixel height makes any rectangle you had going look like a square. You would need your length to be a LOT longer than 150 to make it look like a "banner", and that's just too large. They really can look decent smaller, if most of us can fit good graphics in 100x100 squares I believe it's possible to do it in a 600 pixel surface.

If your story is well written, and has a good summary people will read it regardless of your PSP or Photoshop skills. You'd probably lose readers (the ones on dial up or with small resolution) because they won't want to open your story page multiple times thus having to load and reload the pictures.

[Chaos]

I do get where you're coming from Purpura, and I'm still brainstorming on a solution.

Here's one idea I have and I'll see what ya'll think before I start trying to program it or get it set up.

The summaries that you set up when posting the fic initially will have the restricted banner size, etc--we really need to insist on that because it's getting to the point where more people are using banners and the loading size of a search page can easily get up to 500kb or even a megabyte pretty fast with those large filesize banners. They look great and if you're on high-speed, not a problem. Unfortunately first rule of webdesign is that you have to account for the lowest speed users; really the size of a page is ideally around 40kb total including the coding and the images. Now that, I agree, is unlikely to happen when you have more than one banner on a page (in fact many of the banners on the site are 100+kb on their own). So having it take several minutes for the search page to come up for dial-up users...just not good. So gotta insist on the smaller sizes on the summaries.

To counter this, what I'm thinking is that there will be a seperate directory where people can go to view the banner links to stories. Those with high-speed internet or who don't mind waiting the extra time can go that way. Those with slow connections or who just don't want to view the banners can go the current way.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure if I'll be able to tie it in to be automated such that you only enter the info once and have it add the banner and link--it might have to be a deal where people email in the banners and links and I manually add them once a week or something (I'll try my hand at automating first, but...no guarantee).

But I'm wondering what people think of that idea. Fair compromise?

Any other suggestions to make both sides happy?

[Teri]

As I said before 600 is good you can make a great banner with 350 by 250 I'm actually trying to resize mine at the moment so hopefully I'll get them up and resized within the next couple of days. (Computer is being retarded lol)

Teri

[nicksgal]

First off, let me say that it's nice to see you all compromise on the issue. Though, my only problem with resizing is that I feel bad altering the graphics others have made on my behalf, because my photoshop skills are.... lacking. A lot. The banners I have made either went straight into a chapter if resizing altered the image, or I altered them up good.

Other than that, all I have to say about the one search engine has banners and one doesn't.... That seems like a lot of work for you, Ash.

*shrugs* But I'm lazy and happy either way, so carry on.

[RokofAges75]

Ash, I think you should do whatever seems feasible and convenient for you.  Don't feel like you have to change the whole site just to accomodate larger banners; you and the mods have given several different options for what authors can choose to do with their banners.

I don't know what it would take to do this, but a lot of sites that have a lot of graphics have a text-only version for people with slow internet connections or who just don't care about all the graphics.  Again, I just don't know if that would be a lot of work for you or if it's even possible; just thought I'd mention it.

I really don't think it's necessary though, as long as authors are willing to work with the rules and be considerate of visitors to the site.

[mare]

Ash, personally I think the site is fine as it is. You've done a great job getting it to look the way it does and it just seems like a whole lot of work for something that can easily be adjusted by all of us. In the end, do what you feel like you want to do or more importantly, have the time to do.

[felikia2009]

I just want to make sure my signature banner is okay (if not i have others to choose from ). its definitly under 300 height wise, but it is pretty big length wise (508...wowzers!) but i wanna make sure its cool  8)

[Chaos]

It would be too large *if* it were being posted in a story summary. But it's not, so don't worry

The good thing about the discussion boards is that there's a built in feature that will allow people on slow-connections to go in and turn off viewing signatures.

(For those who want to know how to do that: Go to your <a href="http://absolutechaos.net/fictalk/index.php?action=profile">profile</a>. Click the link on the left-hand side for Look and Layout Preferences. There's an option to check that makes it so that you don't see others' signatures (also another one to block avatars...))

[Purpura Lipstick]

On most screens a 450 pixel height makes any rectangle you had going look like a square. You would need your length to be a LOT longer than 150 to make it look like a "banner", and that's just too large. They really can look decent smaller, if most of us can fit good graphics in 100x100 squares I believe it's possible to do it in a 600 pixel surface.

If your story is well written, and has a good summary people will read it regardless of your PSP or Photoshop skills. You'd probably lose readers (the ones on dial up or with small resolution) because they won't want to open your story page multiple times thus having to load and reload the pictures.

I had these the wrong way ... I meant 150 X 450 sorry

And I don't mean to say I'm mad that you set the limits I could always try 150 X300 ... and I'm sure I will, I just have some that are already 150 X450 and didn't want to have to trim 150 off ... that's really ...yeah I don't mean to be a pain.

[felikia2009]

It would be too large *if* it were being posted in a story summary. But it's not, so don't worry

The good thing about the discussion boards is that there's a built in feature that will allow people on slow-connections to go in and turn off viewing signatures.

(For those who want to know how to do that: Go to your <a href="http://absolutechaos.net/fictalk/index.php?action=profile">profile</a>. Click the link on the left-hand side for Look and Layout Preferences. There's an option to check that makes it so that you don't see others' signatures (also another one to block avatars...))

awesome thanks 8)

[Chaos]

I had these the wrong way ... I meant 150 X 450 sorry

And I don't mean to say I'm mad that you set the limits I could always try 150 X300 ... and I'm sure I will, I just have some that are already 150 X450 and didn't want to have to trim 150 off ... that's really ...yeah I don't mean to be a pain.

No worries. (Actually I'm not sure if it's been modified yet, but essentially we're still adjusting the rules to try and compromise...t he 150 X 450 should be okay. The rule of thumb is going to be that the sum of the 2 sides should equal 600 or less, so your banners should be okay.)

[Purpura Lipstick]

Thank you!! I will change my HUGE ones (cause I realize I'm part of the problem) but I really have smaller ones and yeah... thanks!  I'll make sure they aren't like huge .jpgs too... or yeah I know what I mean but I can't remember the wording

[RokofAges75]

Yeah, the .png vs. .jpg thing really makes a difference!  I saved mine as .png because sometimes the colors look sharper and clearer, but they were like 80 kb!  So I saved them as jpgs instead, and now they're under 20 LOL.  Much more practical.