How do you stop a badge from being displayed? I see the "badges" page in the user cp, and the "remove" button, but nothing happens. There does not seem to be a way to save it after you click remove.

 

For future readers... the issue reported in Post #1 above has been fixed.

 

How do we get military banners added? Thanks.

 

I sent you a PM.

 

Send a message to any moderator.

 

It says you can display 5 badges, but it will only let you choose 4. Selecting a 5th badge forces you to remove another one.

Also, it looks like the avatars shrunk?

 

@stephen.osborne1

Thank you for your service to the US Army.

Your Army badge has been enabled, but you must take the final step to display it.

@ATC Crazy

While a member can display "5" badges, one of the badge spaces is reserved for Premium Membership status (ie, Gold or Silver).

This leaves 4 honorary badge positions that members can otherwise populate with badges that they are eligible to display, as indicated on the Badges page in the User's Control Panel, which is the bottom link on the left hand side of the User Control Panel menu.

Because there are only 4 honorary badge positions, once a member accumulates more than four honorary badges, a member must then chose which badges to display that are preferable to the member, at the sacrifice of other badges that are less preferred by the member.

The Premium Membership badge is treated separately, and is larger in the member's post mast head, while being positioned all the way over to the right.

In the Badges selection page, the Premium Membership badge is distinguished from the other four badge positions by being placed to the left of a vertical dividing line that looks like this: | in the row of badges selected on top.

Example of how the selection row of badges are displayed at the top of the Badges page in the User Control Panel:

"Gold" | "US Army" "Liked" "15 Years" "Top Answer"

_________________

Example of how the badges are displayed in the member masthead:

User Name
User Title"US Army" "Liked" "15 Years" "Top Answer"

_____________________


As one can see, the Premium Membership badge is treated different programmatically, so while a member CAN indeed display 5 badges, one of those five badge positions is reserved only for Premium Membership status. Non Premium members may display 4 honorary badges.

The badge avatars have not shrunk. The honorary badge size has always been smaller than the Premium Membership badge size. This is another indication of how these badges are programmed to display differently. There is one exception to this, but it only applies to members who used to be staff.

 

Thanks for the explanation on the badges. As far as the shrinkage, I was talking about our user uploaded avatars next to our usernames, and not the badge sizes.

 

Shrinkage? That could be just due to age. With a 20 year badge, it looks like you've been around here longer than most.



In all seriousness however, Premium Memberships are allotted a larger avatar size than non-premium memberships.

So if one used to be a Premium Member, and allowed that membership to expire, that could explain a shrinkage in avatar size.

There is yet another possibility that I am investigating that is a bit more complex, related to the compression, pixel count, and aspect ratio of the source image file, and how it is reduced to meet the within the pixel allotment of the avatar, while maintaining the aspect ratio of the original image as rendered. That will take a bit longer to determine, but I have a selection of examples from premium and non premium members that I am comparing the image source files between at present.

 

While avatar size is unrelated to badge size, since the topic was brought up in public and in this thread, we might as well address it here, as it relates to the overall "picture" of a user's masthead, including badges and badge sizes.

@ATC Crazy

Avatar size has a maximum allotment of 120 pixels by 120 pixels, or 64KB, whichever is smaller.

To help you figure out reasons for your avatar appearing smaller than you'd like, I first located other users who were both

1. Not Premium Members, and
2. Had avatars that were both
Such members exist, so that means that you can increase your avatar size without being a Premium member.

Even though I prefer smaller avatars, and smaller badges for that matter, to reduce the amount of clutter to scroll past in order to read the next post, I did increase my avatar size today, to demonstrate the capability.

The characteristics of the original file uploaded though the Edit Avatar portal in the User Control Panel can determine how the Avatar is displayed.

If the original file is created, before uploading, to meet the pixel size and file size limitations specified for avatars, then the full image will be displayed as uploaded.

If the original file uploaded is larger than the limitations specified, then the software will compress the file to meet within the parameters allotted, with unpredictable results.

To control the result, one must control pixel count and file size of the image prior to uploading into the Edit Avatar portal in the User Control Panel.

If the image file is controlled to remain within the allotted parameters when created, then the image file will be accepted as created when uploaded as an avatar.

To enlarge my avatar today, I copied an image from my album, resized it to 120 x 120 pixels, and compressed the file to a size below 64KB, using the free photo editor that comes with Windows.

While you do not have an FTE album, you have uploaded 690 images to FTE, yet I was not able to find your avatar image among the images that you have uploaded into post threads, so I could not create a larger avatar file for you. But at least now you know how to make an avatar larger, if you would like to.

 

Thank you. I will look into it when I get back to a computer vs. my phone. I just know I haven’t done anything to my avatar in years and once these badges showed up, I noticed the avatar pictures are now smaller as well. Everyone’s, not just mine. So I was figuring it had something to do with whatever forum update just happened. No big deal, just thought they might be related and a known ‘issue’ with the update

 

@ATC Crazy

ATC Crazy... you're not crazy.

You are right. I now see what you are getting at.

I think the entire masthead (including user name font point size) was downscaled a little bit to better fit the new row of honorary badges below the user title.

And, it looks like the avatar size difference allowance between regular members and premium members went away also. But this was more than made up for by a really cool new FTE T-shirt that now depicts three cascading generations of Ford trucks, including the new alumiduty body front and center. (Check it out by clicking the link on the right in my signature.)

It's probably best to look at the avatar size change as a benefit, not a bug. It is an accommodation, not an issue. Now, everyone has the opportunity to make their avatar 120x120 pixels, since the combination of user name, user title, and a row of honorary badges dictates a minimum vertical height of the user post mast head anyway. So for those who want larger avatars, might as well take advantage of it.

My personal preference would be smaller badges, and smaller avatars, so as to devote more screen pixels to new content (the dynamic daily posts of members, rather than the static unchanging mast heads of members). But I will leave my recently enlarged avatar full size, as a demonstrator to others that the entire space allotted can indeed be filled, as long as one keeps the file below 64KB.

As another test, I increased the pixel size of my avatar from 120 x 120, to 150 x 170 (purposely choosing an asymmetric rectangle, while both horizontal and vertical pixels exceeded 120). The net result was a smaller appearing avatar, rather than a larger appearing avatar. Hence, do not attempt to exceed 120 pixels in any dimension when creating and resizing an avatar.

After a number of different avatar tests at different aspect ratios, the backdrop frame surrounding the avatar will appear most even between top and bottom and side to side if a slightly asymmetric aspect ratio is chosen, instead of a square aspect ratio. For even margins, the avatar height should be slightly less than the avatar width, reduced by roughly 8.333%. Since the maximum pixel width allowed is 120 pixels (wide), then if the pixel height is reduced to 110 pixels (high), the avatar will be more or less centered in all directions within the background frame for avatars, while maximizing the size appearance of the avatar.

 

how do I unlock a badge? or is it supposed to happen automatically?

 

Yes... badge unlocking happens automatically.

Examples:

- You joined FTE in 2022. Two years from now, in 2027, the 5 Year Badge will automatically Unlock, and you will be able to "Display" that badge.

- You decide to become a Premium member. A Silver or Gold Badge, depending on your subscription, will automatically unlock for you to display.

- You accumulate a certain number of Likes. Depending on how many Likes you have, certain badges will automatically unlock for you to display.

You can elect which Badges to display by visiting your User Control Panel, and selecting "Badges" at the bottom of the menu. Since you have no badges displayed at present, you will not need to remove any badges, as some longer term FTE members might have to do, because more than 5 badges have already been automatically unlocked for them at the inception of the honorary badge system.

The one exception to the automated unlocking of badges pertains to Military Service badges, which have to be unlocked for you by staff.

If you would like to display a Military Service / Veterans badge, you may send me a PM describing your service, and I will see to it that the appropriate badge is unlocked for you.