Time for a new banner?

[DSO]

I'm thinking we've had this same banner for the better part of two years now. I'd like to see a little change.

I asked Zhs2 and he said it *should* be possible to make it possible to load a random banner choice. I as thinking of making multiple banners all the same size in the style of the one we have now, with the Metroid Construction text, each one covering a different hack. So we could have a banner that displays segments of Cliffhanger that says "Metroid Construction" and also "Cliffhanger, by Digital Mantra". Or it could display one of Phazon, or Temporous, or whatever hacks we have permission to make one for. But that's my idea. Maybe we'll just do another mashup of hacks by different people like we have now.

Discuss!

[Lunaria]

I could:

A. Try and make a new banner in some sort of style.

B. make a new banner in this style if I get a bunch of screenshots from hacks.

[squishy_ichigo]

hahahaha

I brought up this exact same topic and got a, "well, who's gonna doet?"

That random banner idea Zeke mentioned was totally mine.

The other part of my idea, was to use RotW winners for this random banner. :D?

[Zhs2]

Well, who's gonna doet?

[Lunaria]

I could:

A. Try and make a new banner in some sort of style.

B. make a new banner in this style if I get a bunch of screenshots from hacks.

Maybe this person could? ^

* Crys runs

[Quietus]

If it's done for existing, released hacks, then it'd be a good idea to also have it link to the hack's page.  Should be easy to do.

[Silver Skree]

Here's a few ideas:

Banner submission process.
-Must be a [resolution] .PNG image.
-Must use screenshots from works of your own.
-Must include the text "Metroid Construction" in [font] [sizeA] somewhere on the image, along with the text "[hack] by [author]" in [sizeB] and a font of your choice.
-Banners will be evaluated for use on the site after submission.
-No more than one banner is allowed per hack.
-You are allowed to resubmit a banner for a hack to replace an old one.

Create a Forum in the Metroid Construction section (or a subforum elsewhere?) entitled "Banners" used to coordinate the submission and archiving of all submitted banners.

Cycle through banners on an hourly basis.



This is pretty much how BakaBT does their banners, and it works pretty damn great. I highly, highly recommend we do it like this.

[spoiler=EDIT]
The current banner is 800x150. I recommend switching to 950x160 Here is a Sigma++ based Proof of Concept banner.


"Metroid Construction" in Meiryo, bold, 20px. Considered underlining.
Credit text also in Meiryo, no enhancements, 12px.

Made it in GIMP pretty easily. Also using a touchpad, so blur is super shoddy. Like I said, proof of concept. I wouldn't actually submit this.
[/spoiler]

[X-tradyte]

It looks really good. but I think it'd be better if you could use, different hacks by different people. :D

[Silver Skree]

god you pi

Read my post. That's the whole idea. Anyone can submit a banner based on their hack and if it's accepted it can get cycled around with the rest.

[Zhs2]

Create a Forum in the Metroid Construction section (or a subforum elsewhere?) entitled "Banners" used to coordinate the submission and archiving of all submitted banners.

If it ever turns into a business operation, we'll call you.

I recommend switching to 950x160

I dunno... We might get bitched at for giving people still using 640x480 (*coughahemcough*DChronos*cough*) horizontal scrollbars... I've personally never seen much reason to make it bigger than it is, though. :P

Cycle through banners on an hourly basis.

Sounds like a pain to set up manually. I'd rather just have it cycle on refresh. :/

Also, I asked Bloods if he could remember what font he used, and he couldn't. Points to anyone who can identify it for further use. :D

[Silver Skree]

Okay, so you made pretty clear what you weren't so keen on, but do you approve of banner submissions? And if so...

Create a Forum in the Metroid Construction section (or a subforum elsewhere?) entitled "Banners" used to coordinate the submission and archiving of all submitted banners.

If it ever turns into a business operation, we'll call you.

Did you have something else/better in mind? I think a gallery/archive thread where you can view all rejected, pending and accepted submissions along with old versions for hacks with updated banners would be pretty sweet, as a slice of our history.

I recommend switching to 950x160

I dunno... We might get bitched at for giving people still using 640x480 (*coughahemcough*DChronos*cough*) horizontal scrollbars... I've personally never seen much reason to make it bigger than it is, though. :P

This occurred to me as well, but while I was writing my post I just said "fuck that" and made the suggestion I wanted to. I wouldn't really have any complaints with keeping it 800 wide and I can see why, but giving up prettiness for the convenience of people who still use oooooold shit just bugs me. Unless you're outright rejecting the suggestion of increasing the width, I'd like to hear what others think about it.

Cycle through banners on an hourly basis.

Sounds like a pain to set up manually. I'd rather just have it cycle on refresh. :/

I have even less complaint with this than I did the last point. I just think hourly would be cooler, and worth the extra trouble. I'm not the one writing it, though. Also, with randomization on refresh, you'll burn through all the variety pretty quickly.

[zephyrtronium]

Instead of banners[randOrWhatever() % num] use banners[time() / 3600 % num].

[Zhs2]

Okay, so you made pretty clear what you weren't so keen on, but do you approve of banner submissions?

Yeah, I have no problem with banner submissions. Bad habit .-.

Did you have something else/better in mind? I think a gallery/archive thread where you can view all rejected, pending and accepted submissions along with old versions for hacks with updated banners would be pretty sweet, as a slice of our history.

Oh, yeah, a thread sounds fine. If we get a number of talented artists that all need their own threads, I'd definitely expand it into a whole board, but a thread would probably suit the purpose of our needs perfectly. Plus, if people want to do banners entirely from their own works, that's fine, but to bring up another point you made (Must use screenshots from works of your own), I'd have no problem with people doing multi-hack collaborations from screenshots of other people's works if they wanted to. I'm sure DSO would love to put together a few collages of respected hacks.

This occurred to me as well, but while I was writing my post I just said "fuck that" and made the suggestion I wanted to. I wouldn't really have any complaints with keeping it 800 wide and I can see why, but giving up prettiness for the convenience of people who still use oooooold shit just bugs me.

Probably a bigger point to worry about when it comes to writing software (why hold onto unoptimized code for compatibility when you can do optimized code for the bleeding edge?)

[Silver Skree]

Did you have something else/better in mind? I think a gallery/archive thread where you can view all rejected, pending and accepted submissions along with old versions for hacks with updated banners would be pretty sweet, as a slice of our history.

Oh, yeah, a thread sounds fine. If we get a number of talented artists that all need their own threads, I'd definitely expand it into a whole board, but a thread would probably suit the purpose of our needs perfectly.

I guess if you want to have a massive OP split up into Spoiler'd sections that display all the banners in different categories (Accepted, Rejected, Pending, Outdated) you could do that. I didn't have a very concrete idea of how I planned it, anyway, so that'd probably be better.

Plus, if people want to do banners entirely from their own works, that's fine, but to bring up another point you made (Must use screenshots from works of your own), I'd have no problem with people doing multi-hack collaborations from screenshots of other people's works if they wanted to. I'm sure DSO would love to put together a few collages of respected hacks.

Agreed. That ought to be fine as long as permission is had from all the people in charge of the hacks.

[MetroidMst]

So is any of this going forward? I'd like to know whether I'd be wasting my time putting together a banner for this.

[Zhs2]

Nobody's made anything yet and nobody's pushing for this, but I wouldn't mind setting it up if someone did.

[Lunaria]

Some guidelines for size and such would help. :/

[fuducker81]

800x150 crys. I've already started working on one.

[FullOfFail]

-Must use screenshots from works of your own.

I disagree with this. Since this site is more of a collaboration, I think it's appropriate to have multiple hacks be shown. As to whose hacks in particular get shown, well I guess that's up to the designer. I like the format the banner has now, maybe just needs to be updated, and possibly more stylized.

(EDIT: Just realized this point has been made. Should've read it all first.)

[DSO]

Well, I've been away thanks to various reasons, but seeing that the votes have been all yes, I'm going to start on a banner of my own stuff, then maybe make a few more for Golden Dawn/etc. random major hacks if I get permission.

[Digital_Mantra]

Yeah uh.. one question.
What's wrong with the banner we got now?

[personitis]

Aaaaaand, bam, I return out of no where. To be honest DMan, nothin'. Just getting a little boring seeing the same banner over and over. Why not add a little dynamics to the site anyway? =3

As for me, I have one question for the discussion: one submission per person or are we clear to do two if we wanted? Cause I'd gladly use stuff from my works and stuff from others hacks thus making two banners. This also makes me wonder do we have to use pics from completed hacks?

[MetroidMst]

I'm sure WIPs would be welcome if they are far enough along, as some of us haven't released a hack yet.

[Quietus]

It would get a bit awkward, however, if the banner is to become a link to the hack.  I guess it would just take you to the relevant topic instead.

[Lunaria]

The banner should link to the main forum page at all times, this is a general layout used in many web pages, so for all we know there may be users that click to get back to the main page, ruining their day is not a good plan IMO.