hi there, im new to this toplist script and i have some questions

[TopGameSites.org]

hi there, firs of all where can i edit the user banner size: "

Max Size (KB): 100"​

then how can i add the facebook, google and twiter to each use banner listing ​

right now i can see them ONLY if i click on stats and thats now what i seen on demo​

my test toplist can be view here www.topgamesites.org/new​

thanks​

 

[Basti]

Hey
1. http://visiolist.com/community/threads/questions-about-banners.344/ read post 2, and post 3 take that into consideration ( 100kb is usually more than enough )

2. it only exist yet for the stats page. So you can either edit table_top_row and table_tow.html to insert each of them,
or
wait a little and we will write up a plugin for you.

 

[TopGameSites.org]

hi there,
thanks for the replly
there is any way to allow them to post their own banner link instead of hosting the banner link for them? or to offer them both options?

 

[Basti]

I dont see why anyone want to use this. External images slows down your site, high chance of broken images, which slows it down even further. If you are worried about hotlinking, set up protection on the banners folder using cpanel

This is actually not a supported feature anymore as in the aardvark days, but if you really must put it back into join_form, join_form_existing, edit_form.html

<div class="{$error_style_banner_url}"><label>{$lng->g_banner_url} {$join_banner_size}<br />
<input type="text" name="banner_url" size="50" value="{$banner_url}" />
{$error_banner_url}
</label></div><br />

As i said its not supported anymore, side affects may show up.

This project is only going the way of uploading and in the future upload banner from external link will also be supported

 

[TopGameSites.org]

Hi there,
I don't want to sound bad in any way BUT all successful TopSites out there are using external images links instead of uploaded pictures
I'm working in gaming sector and because of that, I've been in touch with topsites since 2003 and im telling u external images are a must if you want a decent topsite...
Again you design your script how you see it right, BUT will be nice to add an option there for people who wants to use external images, its not hurting anyone
Thanks for your helpful replies

 

[Mark]

Well you are free to use it as Basti posted above but its 2012 and loading external images or topsites with broken images is a thing of the past. I too have been in the topsite game as a successful list owner and developer since the early 2000's and I can assure you, locally hosted banners is a great improvement in functionality, its also one of the most common requested features for those topsites that use external links. With google factoring page load time into its algorithm this is a no-brainer, local banners greatly increase page load time.

Feel free to post some advantages of loading external hotlinked banners, so others can decide for themselves. The advantages to NOT loading remote images are well documented, but this is the first I have heard saying loading external is better. So lets bring some facts to this party if possible.

Some of my favorite advantages to allowing uploading

- most topsites load external images because the upload banner feature simply doesnt exist in Aardvark topsites and no free mod has ever been released.

-many large and popular topsites have modified their scripts to allow user uploads.

- http requests are slow and therefor considered a bad thing. External links causes 1 http request for every member.

- having uploads means zero http requests = faster load time

- remote linking is unpredictable, if your members site goes offline the image path is broken. This never happens when banners are stored locally.

- easier to prevent noob users loading ridiculously large files (talking KB not dimensions), you can restrict banner size easily and effectively.

- once importing from remote url feature is done, this is the maximum ease of use on signup.

- I can honestly not come up with a single advantage of remote linking.

 

[TopGameSites.org]

Well i give u just one example xtremetop100.com, atm its the top dog in private server toplists and they are using external links for banners...
The advantage of that its the following:
You NOT LIMITED by the 100 KB and you can make a nice GIF animated banner to will steal some customer eyes, instead of the static banner you have to use when ur limited by the 100 KB limit when u have to upload ur banner
Indeed your points are OK also BUT you have to think also from the customer point of view, he wants to post a nice banner on his website listing, something animated, who make his potential clients look there...

 

[Basti]

xtremetop100 is indeed the best gaming toplist. But do you know how old it is? I bet my life on it, if they would work on their site at all ( properbly just a self runner since the 2000´s ), they would 100% use uploading banners. Like Mark said, this feature is new and never existed as mod for aardvark or other scripts.

But we can talk and talk, the method to use external banners has been posted and we will properbly not take out the securing of the banner form from the core, so that stays safe for people who wish to use that.

The 100kb thing has been posted as well, so no use to complain about it. If you feel its to less, change it And we might release a little plugin so you dont need to reapply the change on each core update. That is, if you wish to use uploading at all

 

[Mark]

You NOT LIMITED by the 100 KB and you can make a nice GIF animated banner to will steal some customer eyes, instead of the static banner you have to use when ur limited by the 100 KB limit when u have to upload ur banner

as Basti says, the 100KB limit is a protection that can be changed easily, BUT again, allowing user to upload large banners (even 100KB is too big), you must consider if you have 20 members and they each put up a 100KB banner your home page is now 2MB!! Have you considered the negative impact this will have on your visitors? why does Google adwords (the worlds largest online ad network) limit users to 50KB? simple, speed baby

Still zero advantages to external banners.