[Bob Kuczewski]

I finally got around to making up a few hang glider avatars for people who don't want to upload their own.

These are a few "Generic Gliders" that I've cooked up. I'll be uploading others in the next few days.

kingposted_glider.png (7.16 KiB) Viewed 7539 times

kingposted_float_glider.png (6.68 KiB) Viewed 7539 times

little_hawk_avatar.gif (16.73 KiB) Viewed 7539 times

So if any of you are using the default "Check Mark" for your avatar, it's time for an upgrade!!   

[SamKellner]

BobK at work, AGAIN

Thanks Bob

[Bob Kuczewski]

BobK at work, AGAIN

Hi Sam,

While experimenting with avatars, I tried changing the default for "Approved Users" and that ended up wiping out EVERYONE'S avatars!!!   

So much for BobK at work again!!     

Now I have to work to fix them all. Ahhhh!!!   

[SamKellner]

Mine looks fine.

It's just ones or zeros

[Bill Cummings]

Testing
Edit #1 Should I just upload my avatar again?

[Bob Kuczewski]

What a horrible day!!!

I was experimenting with avatars this morning, and I used the control panel to change the default group avatar for our users. Here's what that panel looks like:

group_avatar_control_panel.png (27.24 KiB) Viewed 7546 times

I uploaded a new image and set it as the default for the group. I expected to see the new avatar showing up for anyone who hadn't set their own avatar yet (in other words as a "default" if they didn't have another one).

Big surprise, that changed EVERYONE's avatar!!!   

OK, that seems like a bug, but I could go back and fix it by just removing that group avatar ... right? Wrong.

When I did that, ALL avatars were gone!!!   

After a little digging, I discovered that this is a bug that's been reported many times but never fixed. It turns out that the Group's avatar actually OVERWRITES everyone's individual avatar who is a member of that group, so they're all wiped out.

OK, let me see about getting my hosting company to restore the files the way they were about an hour before the change. Well, they only do backups once a day, so that would roll the clock back 24 hours. Again, no problem, let me get a snapshot of the few posts made in the last day or so, and then we'll roll back the clock on the site. So I shut down the site to wait for them to do the restore. That was 11:30 this morning. It's now after 6:30 as I write this, and I've spent the entire day waiting for the restoration and talking to "technical" people who don't know the difference between "backup" and "restore"!!!

So I'll be restoring the avatars myself. It may take a little time because I don't remember who used which avatars (I may have to use the database to make the connection between user names and avatar names that look like: 902f710e9cd09efbfa200d49c70db1ba_122.jpg !! ).

As Sam noted, the very first thing I did was to restore the avatars of people that I knew and were most current on the forum (like Sam and Joe), but I was hoping to avoid that manual process by just doing a full restore. I should have known that it wouldn't be that easy.

So, the bottom line is that your avatar will be the "Blue Checkmark" for a little while as I go through and manually restore them one by one. So don't be alarmed.

Thanks for your patience!!

[Bob Kuczewski]

Testing
Edit #1 Should I just upload my avatar again?

Yours was going to be the next on my list, so let me do it, and you can think of more entertaining stories to tell.

We should each play to our own strengths!!

[Bob Kuczewski]

Testing
Edit #1 Should I just upload my avatar again?

Yours was going to be the next on my list, so let me do it, and you can think of more entertaining stories to tell. We should each play to our strengths!!

There you go Bill. You should be looking like your old (but not that old) self again.     

One down and about 3 dozen more to go. I've decided to do mine last as punishment for trusting the documentation in the administration control panel!!!

You should each see your own avatars trickling back one by one as I add them. When you see mine again, you'll know I'm done. If you see mine and yours isn't back, please contact me because I might have slipped up. Sorry for this minor fiasco!!

[Bob Kuczewski]

Here are some basic instructions on selecting an avatar from the Gallery. If you already have an avatar BE SURE TO BACK IT UP FIRST because selecting a different avatar will wipe out the one you're already using. If you do that you'll have to upload it again (as you did originally) to restore it.

You start by going to your User Control Panel:

Avatars_Control.png (22.54 KiB) Viewed 7536 times

Then you click on the "Profile" button followed by the "Edit Avatar" button. Also click the "Display gallery" button (not shown here) to show the categories. This example shows the "Generic Gliders" category selected:

Avatar_004.png (113.5 KiB) Viewed 7536 times

You can select a different category (like "Moyes" in this example) with the drop down box followed by the "Go" button:

Avatar_006.png (124.09 KiB) Viewed 7536 times

Once you're in the category that you want, you can select an avatar with the little "dot" and then press "Submit" or "Cancel" based on your choice. Note that if you already have your own custom avatar, be sure you have a saved copy of it before choosing one from the Gallery because you'll have to upload it again to get back to your custom avatar.

Avatar_007.png (245.84 KiB) Viewed 7536 times

[Bob Kuczewski]

Here's the current avatar gallery. We have 3 categories: Generic_Gliders, Moyes, and Voting_Example_1. I've written to some of the other manufacturers asking for permission to use their photos as well.

Here are the "Generic Gliders" avatars:

Generic_Gliders.png (102.24 KiB) Viewed 7531 times

Here are the "Moyes" avatars:

Moyes1.png (160.56 KiB) Viewed 7531 times

Here are the gliders choices we voted on in our first example election:

Voting_Example_1.png (50.53 KiB) Viewed 7527 times

Hopefully we can add a few more categories...