Hola y'all,

so I was thinking (especially considering Queenie's new idea for the communal sprite contributions) that perhaps the community should be given the chance to submit entries for the next site banner, be it for an event or just our routine changes that we see. I believe that the dimensions are 1235 x 400.

Failing that, we could possibly hold this idea as a regular contest or for when there is an event fast approaching. We could also offer an incentive for if someone's design is accepted and therefore becomes a new theme to the site. I believe that this would make an excellent addition to the communal feel of the site, knowing that we have the chance to have such a big impact on the not only the members of GC, but the appearance of the site and the guests that visit it.

Just an idea, however I believe this could be a very nice little addition.

<3

This is something I've considered in the past, and will still consider, but I will say that the banner is the key visual for the entire forums, and a very important part for me in how the site is represented. It's the face of the forums and it gives the initial impression to people who visit the site. So it's very important to make sure that I feel it does a good job with that.

We have a team of graphic makers that currently handle making the banners for the forums and all of them get approved by me.  This is part of the reason I don't open up submissions, if I were to not chose a person's header to add to the line up, which is currently made for the next 6 months plus some birthdays, it could cause hurt feelings, which is something I would really like to not have to do.


While it's not a no! it's just something that is very personal to me and something may be down the road, but isn't currently in the books.

Oh I completely understand that it is definitely the key to the whole site, which is why it's so important that we ensure the highest quality to it. However surely if it is to go through such a carefully monitored process I don't see any harm in at least the possibility there to submit. Or maybe we could flip that on its head and allow the members to suggest themes as to what it should be. For example if we have no event going on, we still get a nice new shiny banner for us all to ogle. So if we could be given the opportunity to possibly put forward our ideas for those 'in-between' banners that are run with no reason to be put forward, I feel as though it could engage the community just that bit more. Like 'oh look that's the theme someone suggested'.

I see no reason as to why anyone's feeling should have to get hurt in any of this if it's all just a bit of harmless suggesting. Or perhaps the staff could boil it down to a few themes and then open up a poll so we, the members, are given a bit of an extra say in how the site appears. This way everything is still kept up to your standards and we get to see something that the majority have been looking forward to.

But if it is something that is personal and close to you, then I completely understand that perhaps it's off the table; I was merely suggesting and wasn't too sure if anyone had thought up this idea yet since I had no recollection of that being mentioned.

PallasMercury wrote:

Or perhaps the staff could boil it down to a few themes and then open up a poll so we, the members, are given a bit of an extra say in how the site appears. This way everything is still kept up to your standards and we get to see something that the majority have been looking forward to.

I think we've actually discussed doing this recently and it was forgotten, so I'll bring this up in the admin graphics section ^^ However I do just want to say we may be slow to move on this stuff with the anniversary eating up a lot of our time at the moment.