[SOLVED] Could we have country flags back?
 

Please. They were cool. :cool:

Seconded :cool:

Thirded :cool:

Fourthed http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16.../icon_eyes.gif

Instead of the country flags, I want short audio clips to appear below the avatar that say "Heil Hitler", "Vive la France" or "It is my right to own a gun", depending on what country you're from

Signed. The antartic and other flags when used ironically are useful for showing who has a sense of humour at a glance.

I think the flag would be best placed up top next to the date and time. The way we currently have the postbit set up would kill the minimalism if we were to put it in the lower right again. Also having it near the date and time is good for the local time since you can tell what region they're in and well that particular grouping just makes a whole lot of sense.

http://a.photos.cx/capoisamericanjew-da2.png

http://a.photos.cx/skillsisasillycanuck-839.png

I'm also all up for custom flags that you can upload for yourself as well. Yuktobania and whatever fun flags would be great. I'd love to whip out my Grand Dutchery of Barapados Tootswag flag that I made for nationstates.net. It was this sweet flag with a BUCKETSHARK. Fucking rad. Let me go dig it up. =D

http://a.photos.cx/bucketshark-6ae.PNG

Obviously it would be much smaller (max of 30x16, most flags were 21x14) so it would fit but you get the idea. =)

http://a.photos.cx/acerisasharkytootswag-56c.png

Oh hell yeah, boy. Tootswag represent! Word.

I always hated the misuse of the feature but let's let the bottlenoses around here have some fun. Seconding Acer's idea for it though; let's keep it simple over on the left.

I had the exact positioning idea but forgot it while restructuring the postbit. Thanks! Enjoy your flags.

Great! Thanks a lot. :cool:

Additionally, could the default setting be changed to displaying no flag? It seems that you always get the U.S. flag when you don't pick one on your registration, and a lot of people never bother to change it afterwards.

Or, instead of displaying no flag, maybe some awkward country? Maybe a fake one like "newbville" so people will be more "obligated" to choose something other than the default... Unless of course they don't care.

Nevertheless, thanks. =o

Edit - Face, it's possible that the flag may autodetect where you're at. I never chose Guatemala.

Edit again - Nevermind. It just remembered what we had it set on last time we had the feature.

I thought it was pretty cool to have. It is nice to have it again

I'm going to be perhaps the lone dissenter and say I don't like the flags there at all. I find it to be distracting.

Put them in the post bit where they originally were, beneath the join date.

Or, at the very least, make the viewing of flags optional.

Why don't you like it between the time of the post and local time, Crash? (honest question)

WHY ARE YOU FUCKING DIFFERENT? (obnoxious question)

Decide.

Crash, it makes sense where it is. That's where we have the local time. It helps give perspective.

Putting it back down below the post bit by its lonesome would defeat the purpose of the minimalism in the post bit Blah has achieved. It makes most sense to be placed where it is and it looks cleaner.

I get why having the flag there makes sense. It's nice to have a country to associate with the local time.

But aesthetically, it still sticks out like a sore thumb. It's a highly personal thing, I believe, and nothing I could really argue objectively. I just think it might look nicer centered in the post bit where it would have some symmetry with its surroundings. I guess the flag's current location feels unbalanced to me.

Maybe I'll get used to it and not mind so much after a week or so. We'll see.

You think you could find a way to make it more aesthetically pleasing in its current location, Crash? Like perhaps if you were to have something behind the flag and for instances where there is a local time expand to there as well?

Perhaps something similar to this?

http://a.photos.cx/backgroundtopbit-5bf.png

Possible to request a feature to turn it off also? I like the flags as much as the next person, but I do agree with Crash that it sticks out like a sore thumb. In a way, it bothers me. I don't want to spoil it for everyone else who likes it there, but at it's current location, I prefer it not to be seen when I'm browsing.

For the record, I love it where it is. Perhaps an option to disable it would be the best way to make everyone happy.

Cool. Now where's my Jolly Roger? http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...olly-roger.gif

yeah I love the new location as well. It just fits so nicely :D

tho I would love to have custom flags as well and hope that can be done sometime soon

SA-style pay-per-upload could work very well for this feature. It would keep the flag count reasonable, and bring in some dough to pay for the server.

I don't like that idea very much and I am sure I'm not the only one (I hope I am)

What are you a Red or something?

I'd totally pay for 5 bucks for a Grand Dutchery of Barapados Tootswag flag. =)

The position is very good. I didn't even think about it, but it makes sense combined with the local time. Also, I don't see any position below the avatar where you could put the flag so it still looks good.

nope I am just bad with money. I am having a hard enough time getting everthing straight with my cc bills and getting them paid off.

This one looks better! http://f4c3.free.fr/jollyroger.gif

It does, Face. =)

Did we have a pirate flag before? I could have sworn we did.

I think the current placement doesn't make a lot of sense, actually. I can see how it fits with the local time display, but country flags are user-specific and should really go in the left column. Unless the IP origin for that specific post is represented by the country flag, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, if you think about it.

Then again, I agree that the country flag doesn't really fit in with the overall style of the avatar column, so placing it in the post-specific bar above the post content seems like a reasonable compromise.

There's the one I have right now, St. Pierre & Miquelon, though it's not quite a real pirate flag.

Which reminds me. We still haven't figured a good place to put gender icons or gender indication or online status. I did have that dot system. Let me go dig it up and see how it might work now.

I figure up to the left of the flag is probably a good a place as any. Don't wanna go unbalancing the great postbit area we have.

I've come up with two ways of positioning the dots. Vertically and Horizontally.

http://a.photos.cx/onlinegendervertical-c1a.png

http://a.photos.cx/onlinegenderhorizontal-83b.png

I'm more of a fan of the horizontal (oh ho!) so I'll demo that out.

Online and Male: http://a.photos.cx/onmale-4e0.gif
Online and Female: http://a.photos.cx/onfem-8a4.gif
Online and N/A: http://a.photos.cx/onun-4d7.gif

Offline/Hidden and Male: http://a.photos.cx/offmale-44d.gif
Offline/Hidden and Female: http://a.photos.cx/offfem-4fa.gif
Offline/Hidden and N/A: http://a.photos.cx/offun-983.gif

That's only six different images you'd have to load weighing in at a whopping 83 bytes each. Not bad. Or you could do them individually and have five.

Wha'cha think? I'm up for the vertical positioning if you guys like that more. It's an idea.

I really like the dot idea! and for me the vertical positioning look better XD

Vertical looks pretty good to me.

That's a good idea, Acer, although I'd prefer the former gender icons instead of the dot, but I like the dot system, too, so I don't care which way it's gonna be.

I decided to try combining the two using sex symbols and online status creme filling.

http://a.photos.cx/capoisonlinemale-eee.png

Here's another batch.

Male online & offline/hidden: http://a.photos.cx/mon-dfb.gif http://a.photos.cx/moff-e3b.gif
Female online & offline/hidden: http://a.photos.cx/fon-9af.gif http://a.photos.cx/foff-7ce.gif
N/A online & offline/hidden: http://a.photos.cx/uon-7a8.gif http://a.photos.cx/uoff-e7e.gif


I've also came up with a version where the sex symbol is the online/offline color.

http://a.photos.cx/capoisonlinemale2-47f.png

And another batch of symbols.

Male online & offline/hidden: http://a.photos.cx/wmon-b81.gif http://a.photos.cx/wmoff-575.gif
Female online & offline/hidden: http://a.photos.cx/wfon-e32.gif http://a.photos.cx/wfoff-4c3.gif
N/A online & offline/hidden: http://a.photos.cx/wuon-a55.gif http://a.photos.cx/wuoff-3bb.gif


Which one do you guys like? =o

I think the symbols are pretty dandy and if you'd like to debate where their placement might be best then feel free.

I love the second set of symbols. Really goes with the whole minimalist style we've been moving towards. Great job, Acer.

Yeah, looks awesome! I prefer the first set (dots), in the vertical alignment.

I agree with User on that one. The dots are probably as minimal as you can get them. And it doesn't really stick out like a sore thumb.

yes even if those symbols are great I still prefer the dots in vertical alignment.

Status-filled symbols are pretty rad. Sure the dots are more minimalist, but someone's gonna come to the forums and see these dots and think, "huh, some dots. Wonder what the hell those mean?" and then we'll get posts asking about it all the time.

You probably will only have to mouseover the symbols in order to see a handy tooltip telling you exactly what they are for. That's how it works with most of the forum's other icons.

My opinion is that this stuff is great, but belongs only in the postbit. That's where details about the user go.

I demand the Europe flag back.

Also while you're at it, any chance you can at the flag for Belka? I'd so use that.

Agreed.

I like the symbols with the dot in the circle that changes color more than the symbols themselves changing color.

Also, can we have the "undeclared" ones being a Prince symbol or something.

Also take the girl one and add an arrow to it to make a hybrid for Sarah's dupes.

that be nice to have :D

http://a.photos.cx/prince-209.gif http://a.photos.cx/princeonline-29a.gif http://a.photos.cx/princeoffline-2fe.gif

=)

Hey, five dollars wouldn't be bad at all for something like that. It's almost like a "luxury" item so it's not like we really need it and are charging unfairly.

Why not just make it a reward for donors? I'd much rather leave people the option of contributing whatever they want, instead of actually selling some privileges for a fixed amount.

That not really a privilege though (in the sense that when only staff had custom titles and regulars didn't it was a privilege), it's more of a customization. Besides, people don't donate for any privileges right? They do it because they can and they care.

Of course, I wouldn't be against any donator getting this for free if they want. Incidentally, you've already donated face. =O

Incidentally! :cool:

That's an interesting idea which should be considered. But on the other hand, we should also be careful not to make this forums a divided message board with the donating members with tons of extra features on the one hand side and the people who don't want to donate or simply don't have the money on the other hand.

Why not? As long as all the basic features are available for free, why not use this to make some money for the forum? I don't see why that would be a problem, unless you're a pinko, I suppose.

I don't support making the ability to, for instance, attach files a paid feature (like at SA), but flags... seriously, who cares. Divided message board, huh? It's not like anyone would discriminate against people who don't have their own fucking flags.

Haha, divided Mush? I think we're in (and have gone through in the past) some really thick divisions. If gold borders don't divide us, this won't either. Maybe a separate donations list for the flag people? Like, if you donate in general you get the border. If you donate for the flag, you get the flag. But you get rocognition either way. I don't know, maybe over the months and years we can come up with incentives like this?

I always liked that about Board Support. It's almost a more public modhut.

Well yeah, I wasn't talking about the flags per se. That's why I said it's a good idea. I wouldn't care about custom flags at all, on the contrary, it would be neat in one way or another. I was just saying that we shouldn't have donations for every single forum feature, that's all.

I don't really like the idea of donate for feature stuff since that can always be used as a justification for charging for things in the future.

You are my hero.

Well, the problem would be in charging people for things they should have for free; this doesn't necessarily count as that. Besides, if people are going to donate anyway, why not give them something? And we don't have to worry about people using these tactics as justification in the future for charging. Blah and Miles are in charge, not bobo.

The only problem I see with custom flags is the danger of flags becoming completely pointless once everyone has some random mini-gif sat up there that may or may not be a flag from a game or film or who knows what. Essentially you're turning the flag info into yet-another-customisable-image-hanging-around-your-posts, at which point, like sigs, I'd want to turn them off. I'm sure plenty of kids here would love to proclaim to the world that they've played Ace Combat with every post they make but can't you do that in your sig already?

I have a compromise then. Have a setting for normal flags and also have one for custom flags. You can turn custom flags off and still see their normal flag then.

If nobody is currently working on it, I would gladly make the flags be sized uniformly (21x14 pixels seems good). Some big-ass flags are making the postbit look ugly. If someone could make me a nice package of all the flags, I'd be very thankful.

Permission for take-off? (Y/N)

Mind the emphasis. That's why I'd be in favour of making custom flags a donator-only feature.

I'd be up for this as well if not just for archival purposes. I have all of our emoticons as well plus a few old ones as well.

If people are willing to pay to move their postbit that one step closer to being a myspace page, I guess that's their perogative. Like I say, I think there's plenty of space for images in your sig but I seem to be in an overwhelming minority here. I guess I'm just not down with the kids any more. :(

Too cool for school, Shin? Remember that?

Anyhow, MySpace charges for features like that or are you just saying MySpace is full of customizable images and is therefore tacky as fuck? It's just a flag Shin, it wouldn't really operate any differently than the ones we have up now.

Essentially, yes.

I know it's just a flag and to be honest it would make very little difference to me either way but at the end of the day, this is a discussion forum and I can't help that feel like with every new customisable bit of crap on the screen, we step away from the point of this place. In the other thread about custom user names, Elixir accused me of ruining people's fun but I don't see that we want more members who derive their fun from changing their name (And flag, sig, avatar and who knows what else) rather than posting and chatting.

I guess I associate "wacky" flags and "zany" usernames with the current Testing crowd and the users who do little but spout memes left right and centre around the board.

I suppose you're right now that you put it that way. =o We might as just focus on the core reason we came and remain here.

I'd be all for custom flags if having them turned off by default allowed me to have them.

In your profile it should ask you to select a normal flag as well be it your actual flag or if you're a fun goofball and you select Antarctica. After that it will have an option to upload or link to a custom flag. It will also have a button "Remove custom flag" if you don't want to display a custom flag anymore. After that will be a checkmark for "View Custom Flags" that will automatically be checked if you upload a custom flag. You can uncheck it but people will still see your custom flag if you don't click the "Remove custom flag" button (and if they have "View Custom Flags" checked). If one doesn't have "View Custom Flags" checked then you will see people's normal flag whether they have a custom flag or not. Good?

Why don't you make a poll of it?

How about instead we turn on custom flags but have them only display in Testing and Laughs and Games? That way the wacky flag japesters can lol away to their hearts content in the appropriate place without lowering the tone of the rest of the board.

Hmm, do those two areas get enough traffic to make it worth it?

That's kinda the point. The crazy custom flag antics would breathe new life into an otherwise struggling part of the board. Elixir said having a custom flag would be for fun and that's where the fun time threads should go, right?

See, your idea is rather restrictive while mine isn't. Options, Shin, options. Shoot the core.

Why should custom flags be restricted to two forums people rarely visit? In the future who knows if there will even be a The Place of Laughs and Games. I'd love to see arguments for keeping it. I certainly don't go there for Fun Times threads. That's the place for loool that was a pretty funny flash, yah good episode, loool that's old where have you been, and other such junk replies. Every now and then you get something good otherwise it's usually just a depository of links, and if it's any good it's usually created in The Sewers because then whatever it is will actually have an audience.

Why would we want to have flags in the first place? To figure out where our fellow members are from, right? I mean, sure, there are a bunch of weirdos who pick flags different from where they're from, like me when I used the South Georgia and South Sandwich islands (mmmh, Sandwich!!) flag, but as for the majority is concerned, you can see where they're from. Now I honestly don't have any idea why we would want custom flags after all.

Look, I have nothing against fun around here, but when it's getting too ridiculous, it's getting too ridiculous.

How is it ridiculous if it's off by default, user's have a normal flag selected for those who don't have the feature turned off to see, and have a custom flag for themselves and anyone else who has the feature turned on to see? It's a silly thing people choose to use and view. Everyone else who doesn't want it won't have to do a thing as they'll still see everyone's normal flag as usual. What in the world could you have against that?

That's why I think it's ridiculous to have it off by default (?) I mean, what's the reason for having something like flags? I don't think that flags are a "silly thing". Per default, they indicate where someone is from. If we wanted them to indicate something else, then we wouldn't need them at all.

I mean, while we're at it, what about custom user names, custom user member numbers or custom user member join dates?

You want to talk about custom usernames feel free. I just finished going on about it not too long ago.

http://www.gamingforce.org/forums/sh...850#post442850

The reason custom flags would be off by default is the same reason custom usernames would be off by default. To let those who like these features to actually have them without bothering people who don't.

Acer, don't get me wrong, I don't want to spoil anybody's fun. I'm just completely mystified why everyone wants custom flags when in contrary to more or less useless features like custom titles or avatars or signatures, flags actually indicate something, notably the origin.

I think Shin hit on a good idea but didn't go far enough with it. There should be a seperate user cp entirely, 'Funster CP', where people fill out all the same fields as usual but put comedy responses for everything. Then at those parts of the board that are set aside for all fun goings on, the wacky version of each member kicks in: custom name, custom flag, joke profile, everything. It would be a fun time.

After they've got that out of their system they can take their ties off their heads and join the rest of us in our endless conversations about projection figures and spreadsheets.

Yes, that's why if you wanted to see or use custom flags you'd have to turn the feature on. You could possibly have it so that those who hover their mouse above custom flags it will show like perhaps for mine "Tootswag" or whatever I name my custom flag as and below that "Also: United States" or whatever I have my regular flag set as. That way you could still have the origin information. I think that's a good thing to keep in mind. Thanks, Mush.

Well, I'm alright with Acer's idea. Or even an idea where you have no control at all over your flag and it just automatically detects what country you're posting from. That possible? Yeah, maybe flags aren't necessary but as the situation currently stands they're sort of irritating.

Don't forget custom signatures! That'd be rad ...

While that would be awesome there are some odd countries that use proxies that would make pin-pointing them down a bitch or it would display the wrong country. Plus some people might put their nationality or homeland as their flag. Using the ip thing would take that away from them. You could possibly add that to your profile though that would be off by default - a "Display flags by IP location" check box. But like I said I have no idea if it would be accurate for all countries because of some proxy crap. It's a very interesting idea though, OO. =)

They don't call me OO for nothin'. =o;;;

Well, for uncertain countries maybe there can just be a blank spot there for those people. If they don't like it they can ask staff to put their actual country and that's that. For people that are in the States but are from, say, Guatemala, they can ask staff to fix that too. Just a little cooperation on all sides and it'd work out swell.

I think that the more turn-on-and-off-able custom features we add, the more likely you are to create a new clique here. I know that at the moment, regular chat goers hate the phrase "Chat brigade" and feel that those of us who go there rarely are unfairly tagging you up as fitting certain stereotypes that aren't necessarily true. Based on who's currently being most vocal in their support for various customisable features, the chat brigade would be either joined or surplanted by a "Zany custom features" brigade.

In the same way that many members have little time for chat memes and so on, there'd be people who disliked custom name jokes only now, instead of it all happening in a chatroom it'd be happening here on the boards.

I'm not saying that there'll be some kind of GFF gang war or anything, so much as I'm hoping that if you get all the custom features you want, you don't all mind being tarred with the "Oh those wacky custom feature funsters" brush everytime some idiot makes a twat of himself and happens to be a part of your new clique.

Oh nuh uh! Do you want to start a gang war, Shin? :mad:

When you're a Jet you're a Jet all the way from your first cigarette to your last dying day.

You're too gangsta for me to keep up, Shin. :(
Who will be my tag-team partner?

Listen I can't follow all this discussion about orientation of dots but I will give a $50 donation if you let me have my Luxitopian flag.

The Jolly Roger is worth another $25 on top of that.

THESE DEMANDS ARE UNREASONABLE

Is that a Bunderburg camel on that flag, it's so hard to figure out

YOU WILL FOLLOW THE DOTS AND/OR THE GHOSTS WILL GET YOU! :mad:

I really think you're looking too far into this, Shin. A group of people with custom flags would never earn that sort of reputation, not even close to being on par with chat anyway. I think these fancy gold border members would get closer to that sort of image.

Speaking of which, there are some folks that don't want to donate because they don't want gold borders. They enjoy the silver borders or want a different color entirely if they were to have a color change.

I say it might not be so bad an idea to create a couple other border choices that donators can choose from.

I just think that adding a load of custom features adds an extra distraction from posting and will encourage crappy posting, much the same as an out of hand Testing forum.

I'd love for you to explain that logic.

The more custom features we enable, the more certain members are going to derive their fun from changing their name and putting dumb gifs in their flag slot. The need to actually craft a decent post becomes secondary and you end up with a bunch of Testing-esque pointless threads.

I know it's a slightly extreme example but I generally think that moves of this kind would contribute to a dumbing down of GFF, hence why it should be restricted to Laughs & Games and Testing.

While I don't think that would happen with the flag option, I can see it happening if we had too many extra little features like this down the line. I mean, if we had enough at some point for people to derive fun from them by just playing around with that and not really worry about posting quality. Then it'd be a problem.

Wow, because people creating new avatars, sigs, and custom titles all the time and enjoying those things has been detrimental to them creating good posts. Great logic there, Shin. Bravo.

It's not like we're giving them options of putting the post bit on the right side or changing the entire color scheme or letting them have a space below their postbit to automatically play their favorite song at the moment in a HUEG flash mp3 player along with a preview of some of the latest pics they took at yesterday's party. A fucking custom flag and a custom username THAT BY THE WAY you have to TURN ON the ability to view IS NOT the equivalent of GFF turning into Myspace. Good god.

But it's a slippery slope and a line has to be drawn somewhere. Next time it could be pictures instead of usernames, a custom top bar, embedded sound files in your postbit and before you know it, we've unbanned Eleo, turned Html back on in posts and Elixir and Tails are admins. I appreciate this is a silly little thing right now but where will it stop?

You forgot where WE SUCCESSFULLY CLONE HITLER AND WE HELP HIM RISE BACK TO POWER.

Christ, that post was the biggest load of bullshit I've ever seen.

Well I'm sure Hitler only planned on killing a few jews at first coz you know, that'd be a bit of a laugh and it's not like anyone would notice a few of them going missing and then before you know it they're rounding up six million of them for a sing-a-long in the showers.

If you're so desperate to declare your loyalty to the People's Republic of Suckcockia or your position as Rear Admiral in the Bellend Airforce, why can't you just use the ample space provided in your av and sig?

I moved the flags to the username dropdown menu instead. Tell me what you think.


Also 100th reply GET

Other than having to click to see where someone is from(sorry I'm lazy.) It looks good.

That looks pretty cool, Blah. I kinda liked the flags visible though, it was simply the customability I was objecting to.

I think shin's less worried about GFF turning into Myspace and more of it turning into Gaia Online.

Of course, we should also remember that the amount of stuff in your postbit doesn't necessarily correspond to posting quality. Take a look at GameFAQs for good evidence of that.

But it can do. The last time there was an Ace Combat theme, there was a lot of aggression directed at anyone speaking out against the week. Participants all merged together under a collective us and them mindset and individual, thoughtful posts gave way to robotic 'typing the exact opposite to what I really think makes me biting and witty' sarcasm posts, because everyone with an Ace Combat avatar felt on the defensive or something.

There you go, that's a direct example of customisable features resulting in reduced post quality.

Additional Spam:
Oh and I think the new flag position is the best yet. It didn't make sense on that post bar because everything on that relates to the individual post, not the user.

Psh, that's just Ace Combat. You gonna start picking on Dino Team and the Phoenix Wright arms next? It's not like that happens all the time and it's generally within control. Because seriously what you're picking out is the abuse of anything. It can be words, gifs, small static images, youtube videos, ascii characters. Anything at a person's disposal is fair game. Sure avatars and sigs might make it a bit easier to go masquerading as Rogue Squadron pilots or the Red Baron or whatever the fuck you like but if a good amount of people get together to have some good fun who are you to say they can't if they put forth the effort with what's available? Oh no I don't think you should use that avatar and sig to have a caber toss down the hall JUST BECAUSE I SAYS SO.

I like the new flag position. I'd still love the option for custom flags but OH MAN if it leads us down the path to final jeopardy WELL I JUST DON'T KNOW. Gonna write down in scribble cursive "blue". I'm sure that's what was inside Pandora's box. Lots of BLUE.

One curious thing about the online status which I love by the way is the way it displays invisible status. That should be offline.

http://a.photos.cx/kolbaisinvisible-0c3.PNG

Gonna go check if that's a staff only thing.

Yup it only displays that for staff. Sorry Kolba, I've exposed you! Gonna have to relocate again. >=I

Yeah, that's nice. Did it always used to show invisible members with stars next to their names on the front page list before? I only just noticed that...

Yeah, Kolba* for example. That's how it shows who is invisible. We all know + means on your buddy list.

Smooth.

Hey I didn't know that :(

When paired with his brother Merv's angry and vicious. No provocation, no addressing the party by name or by quotes, and no rebuttal. He's like Tails with no charm.
The Ace Combat incident isn't a very good example. That was more about the participants (mainly Team Awesome) and not about the way they were using their av/sig spaces. Sort of the way me and other Team Fedora members got chastised when we used our av/sig spaces in the same way.

Hmm, some sort of Team Fedora custom flag would be awesome. =OOO Also the new flag space is good and would make custom flags less annoying because they'd never be in your face every post.

I'm so with you on a Team Fedora flag. :P

What do you mean by paired with?

I'm angry and vicious all on my own.