More than 2 pictures on profile?

[pophammy]

I have noticed that some of you with profiles have more than 2 pictures and I was wondering how you got that since there is only an option for 2 pictures. Thanks

[racinghamster]

Sorry for hijacking your post pophammy, but when I have been on other forums, I`ve noticed that some members go crazy posting long lines of photos under their usernames and some can be quite big! I feel this is unecessary because it takes up so much space and distorts things a lot. You can be reading someones post and all you notice are these HUGE photographs or images, some even move like mini-movies and it`s SO annoying! :roll:

I think it`s nice to have one image of choice (not that I even have one because I have no idea how to paste one up!) and this keeps things neat and tidy. Again, sorry for voicing my opinion!

[red_hot_chili_peppers]

what a signature? yeah, there doesn't seem to be one here, although on another forum we have rules on sizes... :)

[souffle]

I think pophammy means in the Profile section where you made a little piece about yourself.
We used to have signatures on hamster central but that seems to have gone with the new format. Perhaps I will put up a poll to se what everyone thinks of signatures :lol:

[pophammy]

Yes, I mean in the profiles section at the top ( You can create one by clicking on the 'my hamster central' button at the top).

[Smoo]

Hi everyone! Thanks for bringing the discussion and comments here!

SnuggleHam the admin and I both feel that signatures can really bring down a forum experience when users take them too far, and we don't want anyone to have to moderate user signatures; it's a headache and a hassle. At the same time, we felt that it would create a stronger sense of community if we instead promoted the use of the Hamster Central Profiles.

We also thought that two photos would be an appropriate number to include on the profile. I'm taking a little break here after updating the site, but one of the next things we intended to do was to come up with a plan for a "Friend of Hamster Central" upgrade that a user could purchase for a very cheap fee; this feature would include more picture upload spots and other profile upgrades, as well as some sort of logo indicating that the member supported Hamster Central.

Though we love our users, we also need a way to support the site, and we thought that a small donation to gain a few profile updrades would be a good plan and help the site to pay for itself.

What do you guys think of this plan? What types of profile upgrades would you like to see? How many pictures do you think is appropriate? Thank you again for sharing your comments!

[racinghamster]

Sorry guys! I thought you meant signatures on the actual forums! :oops:

I forgot about the profiles... :roll:

[souffle]

I actually quite like signatures as long as they are limited to a certain size. I find they make it easy to identify posts you have answered as you screen down the post however I guess avators could serve the same purpose. What sort of fee were you thinking of Smoo? Many people will not be able to afford or have the means to pay fees but then they can stick with two free pics so that would be OK. Is there any way of flagging profiles when someone makes an update as I am sure like me once read I do not tend to re-read a profile so it would be nice to know if something new came up like exam success and such like. Just a thought.
Racinghamster do you have digital photos? If you do we could help you post them as someone of this forum taught us so it is good to pass it on. :lol:

[SnuggleHam]

I understand many people liked the signatures, but before the change on HC I was allowing people to use images in their signatures /if/ they followed the rules and guidelines about what size the image could be at the maximum. The problem there was that most users never bothered to read the threads posted about guild lines, and I was constantly after people to reduce the size of the signatures. This can be tiresome and frustrating.

There is no way to automatically reduce the size of an image in a signature, and there is no way to make it so that the signatures do not show images. There is also no way to allow a user to determine if they wish to see signatures or not. So you see the only solution was to disable them completely.

As for a fee for the extra profiles features we aren’t sure what we might charge. It would be inexpensive because we just need enough to cover the costs of the forum. However I had a good idea come to mind that might help us make money through the google ads while providing people with more profile images. I propose that we have a referral program where once a user manages to refer a certain amount of new people to join with the forum and make profiles, that they will receive a free image slot for their own personal profiles.

This way we will get more attention and hopefully grow in popularity, thus creating more traffic and therefore having more google ad clicks that earn us cash to cover the web hosting fees. This might be a better solution because we understand people don’t have a bunch of cash to spend on things like this, but just the same Smoo and I don’t have any cash and if we cant have the website become self supported, hamster central will be no more. I’d hate for that to happen, I love hamsters and this website, and further more I love the people on my forum and am proud of my HC community.

What do you think of my idea? I’m sure many of you could easily find friends to join and create profiles and earn more picture slots for your hammies!

Also Souffle, flagging profiles was a really great idea! Id like to implement something like that sometime! That is when Smoo gets a break from his other freelance projects.

[Smoo]

Wow, yes! I'm very pleased with this discussion.

I think that flagging profiles is an excellent idea. I also think that the referral program is a great idea.

OK, that's it! I hereby declare that, aside from hamsteries and other advertisement-related things, we will never charge Hamster Central users for anything. We'll rely on creativity and the HC community to support the site through increasing traffic through the site.

Our vision of the new HC was that it would be very fun and community based. For the profiles, we wanted a lot of upgrades, insignias, and little extra bonuses that people could obtain to enhance their profiles and make them stand out. We'll be true to that vision by using the referral program idea, some contest ideas that I have in mind, and other things.

When I get a chance in the near future, I will put together a concrete idea and try to implement these things.

[souffle]

Maybe I am stupid but do you get points or something that are beneficial to HC if a user uses the Google bar at the bottom? If so we need to publicise that. I do loads of searches each day and could use it from here. Your idea is good to earn bonuses for introductios. Round here the hamster world seems a little limited as everyone knows everyone else but we are going to make a big effort to get some new blood in. It is getting them to stick and make useful contributions. I love seeing photographss on the forum so hope it will still be OK to post them. What would you say is a good size in pixels for a post illustration and we can try and resize to that?

[SnuggleHam]

Everytime a search is made from our website or a Google ad is clicked we earn a small amount of cash which over time adds up!

As far as posting pictures, I would say don't show images larger then 600 pixels wide. Basically small enough so that the image doesn't strech out the width of the forum. If the image is big you can still post it, but use the URL tabs rather then the IMG tabs.

If I find images that I feel are to big I simply edit the post and change the Image link to a URL link. But it would be nice if people just followed our request on that. :D Makes our moderators life easier!

[pophammy]

Perhaps seeing as HC has a photo competition HC users who win the competition could be rewarded by getting their winning photo posted on their profile with a 1st, 2nd or 3rd rossette beside it? Just an idea! :D

Also, maybe you could get an extra photo for making a certain amount of posts, submitting lots of articles, etc. Talking about articles, do you think it could be possible to make a 'fictional' section like there was in the old HC as I have lots of hamster stories that I am sure people would like to read. Well, maybe! :oops: :oops:

[SnuggleHam]

Smoo and I had plans to eventually bring contests of different sorts to the website which would be integrated with peoples profiles. It will be these contest that prizes will be one, like free upload slots for example.

And yes Pophammy, I will make a fictional section for those creative writers out there. Any pervious articles you submitted to HC before the change you can submit again! And of course any new creative writings since, so long as they are about hammies. You can submit articles via your profile. I will review them when I get the chance and post them up!