A suggestion regarding custom avatars

I think they're using it as a money maker right now. THe only way to get an animated avatar is to pay for one.

Give me a break. Only a complete fucking moron is going to pay for an animated avatar.

I didn't even bother reading past the first sentence.

Changing the requirements has been discussed a few times. If it gets changed it gets changed. Nobody is complaining about the post count. There have been a few questions about avatars but that's it.

Another way to get a custom avatar if you don't have 1,000 posts is to buy a premium membership. It also gives you the search function.

If you don't like how AGN is run then leave Glenn.

It doesn't bother me too much, though it would be awesome to customize my avatar, but I really don't have a problem working up to 1,000 posts to earn it.

Personally, I think the 1000 posts is good stuff. I see no reason why it should be changed. It basically helps to see who is new, and who really wants one.

biggiy05 wrote:I didn't even bother reading past the first sentence.

Changing the requirements has been discussed a few times. If it gets changed it gets changed. Nobody is complaining about the post count. There have been a few questions about avatars but that's it.

Another way to get a custom avatar if you don't have 1,000 posts is to buy a premium membership. It also gives you the search function.

If you don't like how AGN is run then leave Glenn.

Aren't you so cool and badass, Mr. "I only read your first sentence."

Speaking of leaving AGN, that is exactly what more and more people are going to do. One after another, they will cease to post, and then leave.

This is already happening. Have you noticed the crazy activity on the forums over the past few weeks and months?

Are you getting together in your board meeting and saying....

Admin1: "What are we going to do???!! No one is posting and it is so boring!"

Admin2: "The solution is simple. Capital == Success. Let's charge our members to use simple features that every other forum offers for free! We'll price it high, and probability states that some idiot will buy into it. The money we receive will do the work for us in making things prosperous!"

LesserStaff1: "You are such a genius. I want to have buttsecks with you and have your baby."

LesserStaff2: {quote}"You are such a genius."{/quote} QFT

Admin1: "And before you leave, remember, if anyone says anything in General Discussion, just tell them to shut the fuck up or get out or some crazy shit like that. We'll be fine without anyone's input."

Admin2: "Let's get drunk and play some poker."

Ahem. I'm going to be a jerk and immitate Glenn for a moment.

(in squeaky voice)

Gather around, children! Gather, for I am going to tell you a tale. Long ago, in the early ages of the forums, things were not as simple as they are now. We had to log on in the middle of the night through a Tiwanese server in order to post a thread, all the while praying that the screeching lullabye of the modem wouldn't wake up the adults. We could only post in pig latin, and nobody understood how things worked except for me! But most troublesome of all, there was the dreaded thousand post rule.

Sit up, now! Pay attention to an old man while he waxes nostalgic about the glory days of old! Listen as I tell you about the origins of custom avatars, something you young folk take for granted. Every member required a special line of code in their console to enable them. This was a tedious task, and the AGN wizards decided at once to use their magics and create the thousand post rule! It was an impossible number to achieve at the time, and for a time, there was peace in the land...

</glenn>

Seriously, man. The thousand post rule kept me coming back, and gave me a goal to strive for. I got lucky and got a custom avatar by becoming a ZC beta tester, but the custom title to go with it completed the package. Making people hit a thousand on the post counter helps them remember that they're newbies, and for people who're worth keeping around, that's a good thing. Most newbs on other forums walk in, set up their custom avatar and title on their first post and think they own the place.

Warlord will do whatever the heck he wants, and if he wanted to get rid of the rule, he'd have done so when the forums were upgraded to the point where it was no longer necessary.

The thousand post rule is dumb, it should be a much lower number like 100, to ensure that the only people using it are "real" members. And even if I had the money and the freedom to do so, I really don't feel like paying any money towards AGN at this point, especially not so I can have an animated GIF in my honor and a little picture under my name for one year. The only real reason to donate to AGN is to donate to AGN and I'm no longer interested enough.

Regardless of how he makes it or whatever, Glenn has a point... people are leaving AGN and have been for some time. It's not just because of the avatars of course. IMO people are leaving AGN because it's not a friendly community (as demonstrated here among many other places) and it has no real virtues to support itself anymore. Anyone cool here hangs out somewhere else too by now. Which says something else about the place.

*shrugs*

P.S. that characterization of Glenn sounds cool :X Someone should seriously talk like that all the time.

Glenn, once again, a valid argument ruined by your pathetic attitude. You need some serious people skills, man.

To me, at least, the relatively low population here is caused by the same thing that causes MMOs like Auto Assault to have low numbers of members: a lack of members. Basically, it's not so much any of the rules or specific members that drives people away; they simply want to hang out where people are *already* hanging out.

i seriously doubt changing this will have a huge impact on who stays... its a freakin image... who the hell cares? its just something to achieve... something to keep people coming back... it isn't going to kill them if they don't get a custom avatar within the first 5 minutes of completing registration.

I agree with Franpa, if there's anything wrong with AGN, it sure as heck isn't the 1000 post rule for custom titles and avatars. If you ask me, the problem is that we don't really offer anything, whereas in the past there were several games that people could at least discuss, even if they weren't being released or updated, etc. These days, all we really have is ZC, and there are other ZC fansites out there, which means we are no longer the exclusive ZC forum.

I certainly don't go anywhere else for my forum fix these days, but then again, I'm not really a forum freak who has to have his opinions made known by everyone and their cat.

I agree that the avatars aren't the main problem. If you ask me, the main problem is that the people here who make AGN worth reading are always the first to be banned. Seriously, this is now a very tiny community. It doesn't need to be moderated like it is SteamPowered Forums. If the staff would learn to be a little bit more thick-skinned, instead of banning our most colorful and interesting posters at the slightest insult or jab, morale might go up. I think that a more informal attitude around this place could be very beneficial, and a more liberal avatar policy is just a very small part of the general kind of movement that needs to be seen here.

Hey! If you go changing that there 1000 post rule, I'm gonna be wicked mad. I worked freakin' hard to earn the right to customize my look, and I'll be pickled in a jar of ketchup if I'm gonna let that accomplishment be reduced to nothing by a desire to bring in a bunch of ASBO carrying yobs. We're fine as is. Just let it be.

[/drunk]

I can so far agree with Glenn as that, all the bitching aside, 1000 might be a bit high - but I could second his second post by saying only a moron is going to join/leave a forum alone because of the ability to have custom avatars.
It is true that with the current amount of activity 1000 quality posts might take a lot longer than it used to - I doubt that that lack of activity is due to people not being able to have custom avatars though, or that allowing them would bring any more activity here. In that sense I second DSG and Jennifer too.
And now for something completely different: why not lower it to 500? [/obviousattemptatcompromise]

Darth Marsden wrote:Hey! If you go changing that there 1000 post rule, I'm gonna be wicked mad. I worked freakin' hard to earn the right to customize my look, and I'll be pickled in a jar of ketchup if I'm gonna let that accomplishment be reduced to nothing by a desire to bring in a bunch of ASBO carrying yobs. We're fine as is. Just let it be.

[/drunk]

Thus speaketh the veteran for whom this doth not concern.

Wouldn't it make you pretty happy though to have a taller avatar? The new people won't have that.

Also, is there something enjoyable about seeing all of the new people have the same old generic avatars that we've all seen, time and time again?

People come up with some great avatars sometimes. I think it would increase the enjoyability for all members. I believe that the time a member spends thinking on what his AGN avatar should be will ingrain in his mind some sort of extra sense of attachment. I'm really not sure what you have to lose by letting them have their custom avatar.

I'm sensing opposition to a change in the avatar policy, so I deduce that it has something to do with the established having an inner desire to display superiority over others. Do you think that mentality helps the community?

(Posted by Skullkraken): To me, at least, the relatively low population here is caused by the same thing that causes MMOs like Auto Assault to have low numbers of members: a lack of members. Basically, it's not so much any of the rules or specific members that drives people away; they simply want to hang out where people are *already* hanging out.

(Posted by MasterSwordUltima): Personally, I think the 1000 posts is good stuff. I see no reason why it should be changed. It basically helps to see who is new, and who really wants one.

(Posted by Darth Marsden): Hey! If you go changing that there 1000 post rule, I'm gonna be wicked mad. I worked freakin' hard to earn the right to customize my look, and I'll be pickled in a jar of ketchup if I'm gonna let that accomplishment be reduced to nothing by a desire to bring in a bunch of ASBO carrying yobs.

I don't really think it would be that great of a difference if your accomplishment were reduced to nothing from what it is now.

I thought there were no restrictions on them anymore after the discussion in the staff forum a month or two back. At the very least I was sure the limit was much less than 1000.

Something to double check later this evening I suppose, though I'm sure it was taken care of previously.

War Lord wrote:I thought there were no restrictions on them anymore after the discussion in the staff forum a month or two back. At the very least I was sure the limit was much less than 1000.

Something to double check later this evening I suppose, though I'm sure it was taken care of previously.

If it happens to be that this was already done, then it would be a good idea to try to announce things like this in the future. That's what your announcements forum is for. It only takes less than 5 minutes; the poker game can wait.

Glenn the Great wrote:I'm sensing opposition to a change in the avatar policy, so I deduce that it has something to do with the established having an inner desire to display superiority over others. Do you think that mentality helps the community?

Probably not. Doesn't seem to be doing much for you, anyway.

Seriously, though, I wasn't aware of any changes to the Av system since you needed to start paying to get an animated avatar. I wasn't exactly searching, but I'd have expected it to show up somewhere.

Edit: Wait, is the premium membership stuff still even in effect? Wasn't there some kind of symbol next to people's names if they were premium?

Kairyu wrote:

Edit: Wait, is the premium membership stuff still even in effect? Wasn't there some kind of symbol next to people's names if they were premium?

Which skin are you guys on? It's no showing for me in the dark/blue skin. I'm sure I've seen it on the default white skin though. Indeed, many hacks are skin dependent like that.

They also work in the dark skin there are just not that many around ( look for a posting from Erm he has one )

You know, this place may not be super active, but we are more active then a lot of places. Heck, on one of the official forums for a bestselling bokkseries, theres usually around 5-6 posta A DAY. We often get that an hour. And I think a release of ZC 2.5 could be a godsend, much like the floods after 1.9.

And yeah, 500 posts shows your dedicated, but don't have to wait forever.

if anything 750 posts would be a compromise koopa 😊 i was trying to reach 1000 posts and by the time i made about 300 i gave up on reaching it... my post quality im sure improved a fair bit then.... and now i have reached it 😃 but i don't use custom avatars much at all -.-' (i prefer people judging me entirely on what i wright and not be distracted by an avatar)

if you remove it you remove the need to improve posts.... im sure i was forced to improve my post quality or else my posts would get deleted or i would get banned..... thus only good came from having that limit in my opinion.

Amaster42 wrote:You know, this place may not be super active, but we are more active then a lot of places. Heck, on one of the official forums for a bestselling bokkseries, theres usually around 5-6 posta A DAY. We often get that an hour.

That really isn't a very strong comparison to be making. Of course we are going to be more active than most places, because 90%+ (probably higher) of the forums on the Internet are dormant failures that get extremely low activity. Most forums are started by copycats who are inspired to emulate the success of another forum. How many times have you seen idiots on these forums make their own forum that isn't really about anything, and then they go around asking everyone to join? You have a look at their forums, and they never get more than 5 members. That right there is your "a lot of places".

Forum enthusiasts expect much more. I personally expect more out of this place because in its heyday it was not uncommon to see over 100 posts being made here every minute. I could point out a number of critical things that started happening at different times to start and help this trend of deterioration, but if I started discussing them, I'd run the risk of getting banned again.

Glenn the Great wrote:If it happens to be that this was already done, then it would be a good idea to try to announce things like this in the future. That's what your announcements forum is for. It only takes less than 5 minutes; the poker game can wait.

Why do you care about a forum you don't own, run, moderate, or post in but on rare occasion when you aren't banned? You tried to take it down because you never got your way.

Maybe you should find something else to do....maybe a life outside of the internet?

biggiy05 wrote:Why do you care about a forum you don't own, run, moderate, or post in but on rare occasion when you aren't banned? You tried to take it down because you never got your way.

To be honest, I have an attachment to this place because it was the first forum I ever participated on, and I invested hundreds of hours into improving and maintaining this place when I used to work here. Every time I come here, I still see work that I personally did many years ago still standing. Even the current descriptions of some of the forums were my handiwork.

biggiy05 wrote:Why do you care about a forum you don't own, run, moderate, or post in but on rare occasion when you aren't banned? You tried to take it down because you never got your way.

Maybe you should find something else to do....maybe a life outside of the internet?

With or without Glenn's presence, this is entirely the wrong attitude to take about a community, online or offline. ... (Though I do certainly apologize for any tone in my post.) You can still maintain a certain level of faith and trust in your community akin to that which you would show to and from your closer friends. I for one was far too eager to come back to AGN after a long day at school and such. It's not an uncommon attitude to take at all.

You also have a life outside of the internet. (Right?) You still post though, and if you don't care about AGN, there aren't many alternative for having made this post at all.

Regardless of the motivations, if people still care about a community, the last thing you want to do is shoot them down. If it's keeping it alive, go with the flow. We all know that War Lord is a very responsible owner. There's never been any doubt about that, as far as I could ever tell. O.o

EDIT: Whoops, simultaneous post. ... ... Eh, whatever.

I cartainly feel an attachment here, possibly because it's the first forum I've ever really established myself in and reached more than 50 posts. Which in turn ties back to the fact that were much more active than a lot of the forums on a net, and theres more of a "conversation" feel to stuff than "I post, and 6 hours later he posts, and then 5 hours later I post again", and I don't know why, but people seem to have more personality on this forum than on others. People are just more memorable, and have more defined attitudes.

Interestingly enough, although the 1000 post avatar thing frustrates me, it has pushed me to post more than I usually would.