Updates to forum (ongoing)

[Virginiá]

I'm going to periodically post changes here made as part of the transition to Talk Elections. This includes, policy, features, and other superficial changes. Big changes will probably get their own thread if/when made.

Tonight's changes.

1. New post count rankings



'Atlas' is used to pay homage to our origins



2. New avatars:

Thanks to a handful of users, namely HCP and Scott, we now have some new avatars!

Russia

Norway

Botswana

Guam

Chile

Scotland

New as of 3/25

Egypt	South Africa	Palestine	Vatican City	South Korea	Wales	England	Northern Ireland
Malasyia	Canada - Yukon Territory	Canada - Northern Territory	Canada - Nunavut Territory	Pakistan	Czech Republic

*** Added Truman's historical avatars (3/26/2020)

More avatars will probably be coming in the following weeks


3. Max topic/message subject length increased by 20 characters (80 => 100)

[Virginiá]

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[Virginiá]

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[Virginiá]

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[Virginiá]

Rather than "Atlas ,,," it might be better to use "Forum ..." for the exalted titles.

For anyone who has been around long enough to make that many posts, this forum will always be Atlas, not Talk Elections - in my opinion, anyway. Even I have a hard time not saying atlas.

[Virginiá]

Thanks to Truman, HCP, Scott and KoopaDaQuick, we have even more new avatars today!

Egypt	South Africa	Palestine	Vatican City	South Korea	Wales	England	Northern Ireland
Malasyia	Canada - Yukon Territory	Canada - Northern Territory	Canada - Nunavut Territory	Pakistan	Czech Republic

I've started renaming some of the newer avatars to their actual country name, as using the ISO-2 country code can be confusing for people not familiar with them.

[Virginiá]

Will the Canadian Provinces be changed to International like the territories?

Maybe if I begin fully naming all the other avatar entries, but for now, I'm just trying to do that for new avatars. It's relatively time consuming to rename each avatar.

[Virginiá]

My apologies, didn't mean to leave you out. Lot of new images to work with today!

[Virginiá]

Will the subject line max character count increase

I increased it to a maximum of 100 characters (was previously 80). It's the most I can do before I have to start digging further into the source files, vs just editing the theme files. Practically speaking, 100 is around where I think it should be capped. Maybe a little more... Depends how in demand it is I guess.

[Virginiá]

Uploaded all Truman's new avatars (current up to 3/26 3:34pm)

[Virginiá]

Not sure if this is the format that's most helpful, so let me know if you want it some other way, but here's my attempt at making Syria avatars:

Can you fix the blurry text?

[Virginiá]

Increased maximum signature text limit from 550 to 750 characters

[Virginiá]

Lourdes - good start, but needs to be crisper (they are too blurry), and smaller. Use the other avatars as a guide. Same font/color per each avatar party type, same general size, etc.

[Virginiá]

I'm not sure if this has been addressed before, but how is integration with the main site going to work now? (i.e. Predictions, Endorsements, etc.) Will it stay connected or will ties be severed entirely, or some kind of middle ground be reached. I already see that my predictions and endorsement histories have been wiped, so I feel that that doesn't bode well for the future, but a clear answer would be nice.

Predictions/endorsements on the profile page now work again. I'm working on getting them up for your mini-profile next to forum posts.

[Virginiá]

Let's try this again:

uploaded

[Virginiá]

What regions are these?

 

Is your RO = Romania or is it historical?

[Virginiá]

Colombia, Slovakia and (current) Romania

Looks like a mistake in the Socialist Romania avatar. It says S-SO instead of S-RO

[Virginiá]

Guys, I would just ask beforehand if your avatar would be acceptable to upload for use in user profiles. Counties and congressional districts are a bit too far, especially since we're getting new districts in a little over a year. And for historical avatars, I don't want to add every region imaginable. There are like two I'm thinking about but that's it. I appreciate the enthusiasm and contributions obviously, but needs to be some limits here.

[Virginiá]

Uploaded NYC, Colombia, Iraq, Slovakia, Turkey, Romania, Hong Kong and Holy Roman Empire

[Virginiá]

Can we just have uploadable avatars at this point? I mean, Dave's original intent with them is pretty much dead at this point imo

Dave had international avatars before, it was just limited because there are hundred(s) of countries and it's too time consuming to try and make them all (even just uploading each country takes time). There are only 7 historical avatars right now, which means there are only 7 avatars not in line with his previous list. Even then, it's still keeping the spirit of the idea - having regions as avatars. Just not current boundaries or governments.

[Virginiá]

Peru and Venezuela

[...]

Needs a couple changes. R-PE and D-VE both have black text instead of white.

[Virginiá]

The problem is that this forum's avatar selection has long been based on sets, with each distinct region having multiple different versions based on party. To add another categorization would make it too complicated to manage. I don't really know how I would go about doing it even. The entire avatar selection format is based on literal file folders, like those you use on Windows. The avatar files each go into folders.  And the forum only supporters one level of folders, meaning I can't add folders-within-folders and thus cannot categorize the way you're suggesting without major modifications.

However we go about this, it has to work with the system as it currently exists.

[Virginiá]

The problem is that this forum's avatar selection has long been based on sets, with each distinct region having multiple different versions based on party. To add another categorization would make it too complicated to manage. I don't really know how I would go about doing it even. The entire avatar selection format is based on literal file folders, like those you use on Windows. The avatar files each go into folders.  And the forum only supporters one level of folders, meaning I can't add folders-within-folders and thus cannot categorize the way you're suggesting without major modifications.

However we go about this, it has to work with the system as it currently exists.

That makes sense. I vote those of us making new avatars prioritize existing countries where we could conceivably have members from and then down the road, maybe we can get a little crazier if adding those hasn't caused any major problems.

I would note with this explosion of avatars that if we ever want to add new parties, it's going to be much harder.

[Virginiá]

I for one am glad to see the community engaged and contributing their creativity and free time to bettering the forum. Personally I'd love to see more, not less of that. Change can be good, and in this case, I think it is.

[Virginiá]

why is it talkelections now?

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=365534.0