Username's

[george678]

Hi,
I think all staff and advisors should be in bold because we often have a few members on and it can take time to find a staff's username!.
Thanks George

[Miaplacidus]

George,

links to the staff's profiles can be found on the "Forum Leaders" page, which can be accessed by clicking on the corresponding link at the bottom of the forum list, that is, above the list of currently online members.

I hope this is of some help.
Fred

[george678]

I know but They have it at other places,I just think it will be useful.

[Paul_UK]

Our positions are also under our names in larger text and different colour to everyone else.

Like "Empty Closets Admin" under mine to the left...

[Martin]

I'm not sure how necessary it is really. I have seen it in effect before, but here we try and minimise any difference of rank. This is difficult enough with the whole Regular/Full member conflict. The last thing we need is to start tweaking the staff usergroup to make them appear different from the users.

If peeps thought it was necessary then I wouldn't have any objections to it, but I like the fact we appear as normal members (not including the post title) and aren't screaming our rank in peoples faces. We like to be members to ya know. :D

[Zak]

^ "We like to be members to ya know"

The to is actually too Martin.

Uhh, well idk, their name is standing outish much and if you are here for a while, then you learn every staff members name. ;)

[Derek the Wolf]

i personally don't think it would make much of a difference. if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[george678]

Ok thanks for your opion

[Micah]

I'm not sure how necessary it is really. I have seen it in effect before, but here we try and minimise any difference of rank. This is difficult enough with the whole Regular/Full member conflict. The last thing we need is to start tweaking the staff usergroup to make them appear different from the users.

If peeps thought it was necessary then I wouldn't have any objections to it, but I like the fact we appear as normal members (not including the post title) and aren't screaming our rank in peoples faces. We like to be members to ya know. :D

Forgive me if I'm way off the bat (or if you already realised this) but I believe george678 is referring to the "Who's online" pane on the forum homepage.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/192/whosonlineez4.jpg

Any Mods or advisors' names would be in bold. This would make it easier to contact them if something goes wrong and a user needs to contact a mod who is currently online.

[Martin]

Forgive me if I'm way off the bat (or if you already realised this) but I believe george678 is referring to the "Who's online" pane on the forum homepage.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/192/whosonlineez4.jpg

Any Mods or advisors' names would be in bold. This would make it easier to contact them if something goes wrong and a user needs to contact a mod who is currently online.

As far as I know, the only way to make it bold on the who's online? list is by making the username bold everywhere on the site. It is something Paul would need to confirm or deny, but I am not aware of a way to make usernames bold on the online list without making their username bold on the forum too.

Making the staff have bold names isn't something I am against. I am just not sure how necessary it is right now as the forum is still relatively small in size, and it would be pretty difficult for anybody not to be able to find us. My only concern is that stuff like this can cause gaps to appear between the staff and members making the staff appear as one clique. At the moment we have a title under our posts that tell us we are staff, but apart from that we just appear as normal members like everybody else. I would even say that how it is now helps us moderate efficiently as we are no different to normal members. If we started having bold titles and/or other tweaks to our accounts then it's not difficult to see why somebody would see us as being a clique, and that might cause them to think we are trying to make ourselves different from the other members and stand out as being important.

I am not against the idea of going bold if it helps people. I just don't want it being something that makes others think we are trying to make ourselves stand out above the crowd and appear as the elitists of the forum.

[george678]

I'm not sure how necessary it is really. I have seen it in effect before, but here we try and minimise any difference of rank. This is difficult enough with the whole Regular/Full member conflict. The last thing we need is to start tweaking the staff usergroup to make them appear different from the users.

If peeps thought it was necessary then I wouldn't have any objections to it, but I like the fact we appear as normal members (not including the post title) and aren't screaming our rank in peoples faces. We like to be members to ya know. :D

Forgive me if I'm way off the bat (or if you already realised this) but I believe george678 is referring to the "Who's online" pane on the forum homepage.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/192/whosonlineez4.jpg

Any Mods or advisors' names would be in bold. This would make it easier to contact them if something goes wrong and a user needs to contact a mod who is currently online.
Yes it is!

Forgive me if I'm way off the bat (or if you already realised this) but I believe george678 is referring to the "Who's online" pane on the forum homepage.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/192/whosonlineez4.jpg

Any Mods or advisors' names would be in bold. This would make it easier to contact them if something goes wrong and a user needs to contact a mod who is currently online.

As far as I know, the only way to make it bold on the who's online? list is by making the username bold everywhere on the site. It is something Paul would need to confirm or deny, but I am not aware of a way to make usernames bold on the online list without making their username bold on the forum too.

Making the staff have bold names isn't something I am against. I am just not sure how necessary it is right now as the forum is still relatively small in size, and it would be pretty difficult for anybody not to be able to find us. My only concern is that stuff like this can cause gaps to appear between the staff and members making the staff appear as one clique. At the moment we have a title under our posts that tell us we are staff, but apart from that we just appear as normal members like everybody else. I would even say that how it is now helps us moderate efficiently as we are no different to normal members. If we started having bold titles and/or other tweaks to our accounts then it's not difficult to see why somebody would see us as being a clique, and that might cause them to think we are trying to make ourselves different from the other members and stand out as being important.

I am not against the idea of going bold if it helps people. I just don't want it being something that makes others think we are trying to make ourselves stand out above the crowd and appear as the elitists of the forum.
Thats fine i feel it is better for new users or new users to forums for that matter if they click on a bold user they see it is a mod or advisor etc that what i felt was wrong with the forum administration side of things.
(It is possible).
Thanks
:thumbsup:

[Paul_UK]

This sounds like a lot of work for very little benefit to me. It would involves editing templates with lots of conditional stuff (so that things depend on usergroups) and HTML to change the way names are displayed etc, for every different place we want the change. Then whenever we change usergroups it would all need editing to bring it into line again. I see no real benefit, when you can just click on the Forum Leaders link and see who has a green light (indicating they are online).

[Zak]

Sounds kinda complicated for such a small problem.

[Urman]

there are very simple vb mods that can do this for you with out editing the templates

[george678]

Just Click Here (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=168724)

[Paul_UK]

Looking through this thread it seems like there is one or maybe two people who want this. Hardly a high demand and not worth the bother IMO.

[george678]

Well I am saying it is better for new members to know who is who.

[George]

Personally I reckon it'd be a good idea to bold mod/admin users on the 'who's online' thing as well. Simply so it's easy to know which mods/admins are online if the need arises that we need to contact one in regard to a problem or something.

^^; Because I've been here for over a year and I still can't remember who's a mod here.. Just a few of them I can remember lol.

I know doing so using Simple Machines Forum is easy as it's a feature built in, but I guess that isn't the case with vBulletin.

[george678]

You can do it in vbulletin.

[pirateninja]

I realise that it would mean that people could see which staff is online with just a glance, but there honestly seems no point. The only point I can see here is that it saves people clicking on "View forum leaders". And if someone has a problem, I'm sure they won't mind clicking on one more measly link to find a member of staff to talk to.

It's not so much a point of "It can be done, so do it", it's a point of "Is it really that necessary?" and I don't see why it's so necessary.

How aboot an easier solution? How aboot a note that says "OI FOLKS! IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM AND WANT TO TALK TO STAFF, YOU CAN SEE WHO'S ONLINE ON 'VEIW FORUM LEADERS!"

[george678]

You guys are missing a point people want to know when staff are on more quicker have you guys ever see it or tested it?

[Invisible]

The forum leaders page is an extremely quick way to check which staff are online and it divides them up into sections (Advisors, Chat mods, Admin etc.) to fit the reason why you may need to contact them.

[george678]

Well I think bold users is quicker.

[Martin]

Hmmm, we just seem to be bouncing backwards and forwards from one opinion to another.

I think the general agreement among staff (and a few members in here) is that the way it currently is is not overly difficult for members. Currently there is never that many members online that would make it extremely difficult to find staff. It's true it would make it quicker and easier, but currently there are other things that Paul needs to concentrate on to keep the forum running smoothly. This idea is more of a benefit rather than a necessity, and we can add it as a future possibility but currently it's not something that has high priority to implement. As the forum grows and becomes busier it will be something that will be needed, but at the moment we still need to keep the security measures working efficiently and we need to keep the site updated with security fixes. We also need to remember that Paul is currently going through a distracting time in his life so we need to look at things that are essential for the forum rather than beneficial. This reduces any noticable negative changes that may arise from his lack of time on the forum.

I like the idea and hope it is considered in the future, but currently there is lots of other stuff that needs doing behind the scenes to make sure the forum is not at risk of being abused or closed. That probably sounds like a cleshay but it's a number one priority for the staff due to the past incidents in the last few months.

[Paul_UK]

Hmmm, we just seem to be bouncing backwards and forwards from one opinion to another.

Indeed.....