How do you feel about banners that change?

[Edrondol]

I'm working on something new and right now my banner has a gif image that changes. But as I'm not a designer, I don't know if this breaks any laws of good practice.

So...banners with changing images. Good? Bad? Doesn't matter as long as it's not a resource drain?

I'd love to hear thoughts.

 

[steven s]

We rotate images in our header but nothing as stark as changing the entire banner.
I'm a creature of habit and used to seeing the same thing each day.
I can't see it breaking any laws since people are going to be scrolling the page anyway.
I don't see it being a resource drain although I find your site loading slowly.
Could just be me.

I think you just need to try it and see what your members think.

 

[Digital Doctor]

OMG. What have I been Googling !

 

[yavuz]

Personally Hate and block them with "Adblock Plus" too much distraction.

 

[Edrondol]

We rotate images in our header but nothing as stark as changing the entire banner.
I'm a creature of habit and used to seeing the same thing each day.
I can't see it breaking any laws since people are going to be scrolling the page anyway.
I don't see it being a resource drain although I find your site loading slowly.
Could just be me.

I think you just need to try it and see what your members think.

This is for a new site, not my current one. And yeah, we're trying to find out where the bottleneck is.

As to the ads DD got...

 

[Ingenious]

I've seen a few sites with banners/logos that change with each page load, they're OK, especially if the changed banner is relevant to that particular section. Otherwise, you need to be careful it doesn't "dilute" your site's theme, logo or brand. If you mean a banner that animates (ie. a GIF or Flash) again these can be OK if they fit in with the theme. I don't think there are any rules as such, just keep it simple, make sure you don't distract people or detract from your main content.

 

[dieketzer]

i once was a member of a forum that had no header graphic as the forum owner had no artistic ability. so instead he had a random header banner... and they were all created by random forum members. some were nice, some most were ugly. but it was actually pretty cool. you never knew which flame thread or local meme would feature in the next random banner

ive made a real effort to resist doing this myself because it was such a good idea and worked so well.

 

[Edrondol]

i once was a member of a forum that had no header graphic as the forum owner had no artistic ability. so instead he had a random header banner... and they were all created by random forum members. some were nice, some most were ugly. but it was actually pretty cool. you never knew which flame thread or local meme would feature in the next random banner

ive made a real effort to resist doing this myself because it was such a good idea and worked so well.

I have that in my Notices for guests. Since I, too, have no artistic abilities.

Here's the graphic in question - unfinished and not sized.

 

[Digital Doctor]

As to the ads DD got...

I'll click it cuz you laughed

 

[Edrondol]

I'll click it cuz you laughed

You think THAT'S funny...we're the #1 site if you Google "minotaur penis".

Don't ask.

 

[Digital Doctor]

I have that in my Notices for guests.

I think it looks great.

I see my ads are back to normal. No poise pads.

[ I didn't click ]

 

[Jaxel]

I wrote this mod specifically for this purpose:
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/8wayrun-com-ultimate-random-header.216/

When you go to my website, you get a random character in the header. If you are logged in, you can select what character you want in your header.

If you go to the Talim section, you get Talim in the header: http://calibur.8wayrun.com/forums/talim.26/
Cervantes section? You get Cervantes: http://calibur.8wayrun.com/forums/cervantes.10/
etc...

 

[Edrondol]

Right, but I'm not talking about a header that changes depending on the page, but one that is animated like the one posted above here.

I like that addon, but it's not the solution here.