Off Topic: Avatar?

[k0nsl]

Dear all:

I tried to start a conversation with a staff member but the forum software simply denied my request. Hence, I'll post the question here.

Question:

Do any of the staff members know how I can set an avatar for my account? There is some type of error when I try to do it via my profile page. It isn't possible.

Faithfully,
-k0nsl

 

[mir]

To use an avatar you need to be a subscriber.

 

[k0nsl]

Aha ! I see. Well then, I will fix a subscription either this month, or the next.

Thank you for the answer.

Best wishes,
-k0nsl

To use an avatar you need to be a subscriber.

 

[Drallas]

To use an avatar you need to be a subscriber.

Come on, Proxmox, nobody is getting a subscription to be able to set an Avatar!

 

[Dunuin]

Come on, Proxmox, nobody is getting a subscription to be able to set an Avatar!

But you also get the ability to set a signature! ( and atleast for that one I really see the point with all the bots and spammers here).

 

[Drallas]

The Forums would look so much more friendly, if we could all set an Avatar!

 

[Dunuin]

The Forums would look so much more friendly, if we could all set an Avatar!

I think the point is more that it would really help to make long threads better readable if you could easily see who is writing what.
I often help people using my 6" smartphone when sitting in the bus/train and that requires a lot of fast scrolling and it is not always that easy to identify the posts of the thread-starter when I need to find information or want to quote something for a reply that was posted several posts or even pages before.

But I understand the reason. You need to somehow pay all the staff and sell subscriptions. If you don't actificially restrict PVE/PBS/PMG features so people pay you for a more powerful product you need to offer something else.
Not having an avatar is a way more homelab-friendly approch than for example limiting PVE to max 10 VMs per node.

There are only 3 reasons why you pay for a community subscription:
1.) you want to support a product you like
2.) you get access to the more stable enterprise repo
3.) you get an avatar + signature
Only 2 and 3 are actual selling points, so with an avatar for everybody you basically half your selling points...

 

[Drallas]

I think the point is more that it would really help to make long threads better readable if you could easily see who is writing what.
I often help people using my 6" smartphone when sitting in the bus/train and that requires a lot of fast scrolling and it is not always that easy to identify the posts of the thread-starter when I need to find information or want to quote something for a reply that was posted several posts or even pages before.

But I understand the reason. You need to somehow pay all the staff and sell subscriptions. If you don't actificially restrict PVE/PBS/PMG features so people pay you for a more powerful product you need to offer something else.
Not having an avatar is a way more homelab-friendly approch than for example limiting PVE to max 10 VMs per node.

There are only 3 reasons why you pay for a community subscription:
1.) you want to support a product you like
2.) you get access to the more stable enterprise repo
3.) you get an avatar + signature
Only 2 and 3 are actual selling points, so with an avatar for everybody you basically half your selling points...

Agreeing with the first paragraph. For getting a community subscription reason 2 offers most value, 2 and 3 not so much imho!

Access to the more stable repo is most valuable, I don't think many pay for an Avatar or signature!

 

[Dunuin]

Agreeing with the first paragraph. For getting a community subscription reason 2 offers most value, 2 and 3 not so much imho!

Access to the more stable repo is most valuable, I don't think many pay for an Avatar or signature!

You still need to offer something in return and there aren't that many options when you already got great support via community forums and bucktracker by the staff as well as giving out the whole unrestricted software for free.

 

[LnxBil]

great support via community forums

Interesstingly, the four top non-staff members by number of posts do not have registred a subscription in the forums and AFAIK have never complained about not having an avatar or a signature, yet I would take if it would be offered.

 

[Dunuin]

Interesstingly, the four top non-staff members by number of posts do not have registred a subscription in the forums and AFAIK have never complained about not having an avatar or a signature, yet I would take if it would be offered.

Not sure about the other power users. But at least here, once you own a proper homelab with multiple PBS + PVE servers, the electricity, disk wear and hardware replacement costs get a big burden and its hard to additionally pay the 1410€ a year for the community subscriptions.
And yes, I could get a single socket PVE subscription just to get the avatar, but I like to run my servers on the same versions so I wouldn't care about the enterprise repo if I would be forced to use the no-subscription repos on each node anyway.

But if there would be some benefits like free avatars as a reward/incentive for being active in the forums, helping other user, I of cause also would like to use a avatar.

 

[guletz]

Hi,

Interesstingly, the four top non-staff members by number of posts do not have registred a subscription in the forums and AFAIK have never complained about not having an avatar or a signature, yet I would take if it would be offered.

I am 100% agree with you. But from my point of view, they "pay" a lot for the nice comunity of ProxMox users. I read and learn a lot of things from them, and I want to say thx. for their time and dedication.

Good luck / Bafta !

 

[t.lamprecht]

Thanks for the input, and yes there are other ways than money to contribute to a project, and we agree that top contributors should get a bit more recognition too.

We now added a user-promotion (that's how the forum software calls it) so that the most active and helpful users are allowed to set an avatar too.
We decided to keep the entry boundary for this relatively high, you will need at least 500 postings, 100 positive reactions (likes) and the account has to be older than a year. Personally I still think this is achievable, and while only a small benefit the avatar is visible in many places, so this still allows one to stand out more and show that one contributed either financially and/or by helping and strengthening the community.

Please note that the promotions are processed only a few times per day, so it might need a bit of time until you get this benefit if your account matches the requirements.

I think the point is more that it would really help to make long threads better readable if you could easily see who is writing what.
I often help people using my 6" smartphone when sitting in the bus/train and that requires a lot of fast scrolling and it is not always that easy to identify the posts of the thread-starter when I need to find information or want to quote something for a reply that was posted several posts or even pages before.

Thanks for sharing your experience, while I use the forum on mobile too I do not experienced this as a flaw, but probably I'm just gotten numb/stockholm syndrom'd. So as it's IMO still a sensible argument, we'll look into a relatively newly added dynamic-default-avatar option provided by the forum.

 

[Dunuin]

Thanks for sharing your experience, while I use the forum on mobile too I do not experienced this as a flaw, but probably are just gotten numb/stockholm syndrom'd. So as it's IMO still a sensible argument, we'll look into a relatively newly added dynamic-default-avatar option provided by the forum.

That sounds like a great compromise for better readability. Something simple like differently colored defaults avatars could really help as a optical hint differentiating user in a conversation.

We decided to keep the entry boundary for this relatively high, you will need at least 500 postings, 100 positive reactions (likes) and the account has to be older than a year.

Thanks for the appretiation.
Sounds very reasonable to me. Low enough to be an achievable goal for new users to encourage them to be more active. Still a selling point for people who don't want to spend alot of time here and prefer to help finantially instead. And a very big portion of the posts I read here every day are coming from the same power-users anyway, that are already qualified for an avatar, so this would also help with readability and make the forums a bit more colorful/friendly looking.

Just make sure to write these numbers down some where people will stumble over them so it's an actual encouragement to be active.

 

[t.lamprecht]

we'll look into a relatively newly added dynamic-default-avatar option provided by the forum.

That sounds like a great compromise for better readability. Something simple like differently colored defaults avatars could really help as a optical hint differentiating user in a conversation.

Now dynamic default avatars are enabled, let's see how this goes (I already see the color-change wishes coming in - but no can do ).

Just make sure to write these numbers down some where people will stumble over them so it's an actual encouragement to be active.

Done -> https://forum.proxmox.com/help/avatar-and-signatures/

 

[Dunuin]

Now dynamic default avatars are enabled, let's see how this goes (I already see the color-change wishes coming in - but no can do ).

Need to test it for a few days but from I see so far, from my smartphone, I already really like it.
When replying to someones last post and I want to quote something, he wrote earlier, I look at the color of his last post and then scroll quickly up until that color pops up again, skipping all the wrong-colored posts I know I don't want to read again. Now I can scroll faster than I could read the names, so this should save some time finding the lines I want to refer to.

 

[bbgeek17]

I think it looks great!

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Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

 

[Drallas]

I think it looks great!

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Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

It already looks more colourful..