Badges, Profiles and Siggy Images

You may have noticed that some members already have the new Badges in their profiles. We have elected to incorporate these Badges (constructed by our own Apocalyptic Jay) into the reward system here at Poet Share in lieu of images for Signatures. Why, you may ask? The rather large accumulation of Siggy Images that we so easily accumulate tend to increase loading times and use more bandwidth, making the site slower for those on dialup, and potentially more costly for those members with limited bandwidth allotments. The Badges will all be the same size, allowing them to stack more neatly in your Profile, and are also quite prominent as they are displayed underneath avatars.

As such, we are asking members to remove any images you may have in your Signatures (you may still have text siggys, of course) at the present time. I would suggest that, if you like, you may certainly post any accumulated images, graphic awards, etc, from Poet Share V1 or other sites into your Poet File for all to see. With no images in siggys, not only will pages load faster for some members, but there will be a less-interrupted flow of conversation and commenting as you won't have to scroll past tons of pictures in order to see the next reply in any thread.

While I realize that some of you may be disheartened by this, I would hope that you all will eventually embrace the new Badge system; not only will it be one more way to improve Poet Share for all members, it symbolizes the fresh start we've made with the new site--all of the Badges will be earned from PS V2 (this here site right here, y'all) and will reflect your accomplishments and recognition from others within the fellowship.

We have also added a slot in your Profile specifically for your "Latest Poem." This requires you to manually enter the link to your latest poem in this format:

Quote :

[url= PUT THE URL TO YOUR NEWEST POEM HERE]Poem Title Here [/ url]

You should remove all spaces from the box in order for the link to work properly.
If you have trouble using this function please feel free to PM one of the staff for assistance, myself most certainly included. We're glad to help.

If there is enough demand for it, we can easily add a similar slot for you to put a link to your Poet File, though this (and latest poem) of course may still be added to your signature. Only Images will be removed from signatures, text and limited links are still allowed.
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Q: I won a Bi-Annual comp at the old site--will I get a Badge?
A: No. The new Bi-Annual comp will begin on June 1st, with voting beginning in early July, and one badge will be given to each winner regardless of how many boards they may win. You can still post your old Graphic Awards for PS V1 Bi-Annual wins in your poet file.

Q: I like to host Member Challenges--what about the graphic awards that I give for my challenge?
A: If you create a Badge for your Challenge, Harklight or I will insert the Badge into the winning member's profile for you. For consistency of appearance in profiles, we ask that Badges be constructed in the size of 53x53 pixels. Members may still post any other winning graphics you give them in their Poet Files.

Please leave any further comments or questions as replies to this thread so we may address them. Thanks and we appreciate your anticipated embracing of these changes.