How many "ranks" are there on ST?

[Stormscape 8]

Clearly you've gone quite mad.

[Jumpthefence 74]

I just saw this on a recent post by bigthing.

I had this rank for a single post way back in April, but I failed to notice the spelling of "Perfect". I think it's time to start finger pointing on who made such an error. Nonetheless, I even checked and in some places of the world, hitchhiker is two seperate words. So it could be a doubly-fail! Oh, how I make myself laugh. But seriously, someone really should fix the typo. OCD people hate this.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: Jumpthefence

I had this rank for a single post way back in April, but I failed to notice the spelling of "Perfect".quote>

"Prefect" is also a word, though. So it's not necessarily a typo.

[Jumpthefence 74]

Prefect:

-a person appointed to any of various positions of command, authority, or superintendence, as a chief magistrate in ancient Rome or the chief administrative official of a department of France or Italy

-a praeposter

-In the Greek and Roman Catholic churches, a title of certain dignitaries below the rank of bishop

Alright. Really, everything's a word in some language with some meaning. I don't know if this is what you really meant when supposedly making a typo.

A praeposter(prefect) hitchhiker? That would be a English boy with authority over other students that probably hitchhikes his way to school.

Something doesn't add up. Yes, if you want to consider this a win for yourself, I'll humor you. Prefect is a word. Though it's not common, especially not here in America. I don't think I can argue with you. So I won't. But still, I hope I've helped by pointing out a possible error. Though it seems pretty clear to me.

Prefect Hitchhikers Rule!

[Meg 368]

It's not a typo.   We didn't make it up either 

[mightygoose 92]

dusktrooper and skigeek are third and fourth...

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: mightygoose

dusktrooper and skigeek are third and fourth...quote>

Not quite.

All Simtropolis members with 5000 or more posts (current as of this previous Wednesday, 6/24):

Rank	Member	Post Count
1	jacquilina	35303
2	Duke87	16393
3	sloppet	~14000 *
4	SkiGeek	12209
5	DuskTrooper	12200 ^
6	s.i.X.	10822 **
7	Schulmanator	10519
8	N_O_Body	10488
9	Micah	7499
10	simwario	7234
11	Mikeaut1	7193
12	Superstar	7094
13	zelgadis	7000
14	abcvs	6627
15	Skyfire2275	6438
16	Cjah	6325
17	Voar Tok	6316
18	MrCinatit	6315
19	patriots_1228	6135
20	tHe Dark_Child	6132
21	Easy Bakes	5952
22	Leech10	5911
23	Compromise	5891
24	cityhawk	5810
25	amal81	5804
26	Jasoncw	5727
27	Aronion	5669
28	dev	5449
29	Joesocwork	5420
30	beebs	5374
31	DragonAnime	5323
32	callagrafx	5313
33	the_Dalai_Llama	5269
34	your_adress_here	5247
35	Equinox	5239 ^^
36	thatmonkeysim	5151 ^^^

* The exact number is not known. User's profile reports 21357 posts, but that number is the result of tampering by administrators, and is not the actual number.

** Only 496 posts have been made under the name s.i.X. 10218 were made as vidioman and 108 posts were made as vid. However, both of those accounts have been banned, making s.i.X. the only active name.

^ does not include an unknown number of posts as Dusktrooper_clone1

^^ does not include an unknown number of posts as SPARTAN-117.

^^^ does not include an unknown number of posts as tmsevilclone

Cookie if you can guess who #37 is.

[BarbulaM1 38]

Well at my current rate I will hit the bottom of that list in 30 years

[LivingInThePast 364]

I'm guessing its NOT me.

[residentsim 21]

It would be cool if they added "Founding Father'

[MC6Ash 4]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Also, "Some Random Label" is not the highest rank, it appears randomly and goes away after a few posts. Of course, nothing in a computer is ever truly random, so there is in fact a complex algorithm behind its appearance. And so far as I'm aware, not even the admins know what it is. Only dirk.quote>

Dirk didn't come up with it

[MC6Ash 4]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Also, "Some Random Label" is not the highest rank, it appears randomly and goes away after a few posts. Of course, nothing in a computer is ever truly random, so there is in fact a complex algorithm behind its appearance. And so far as I'm aware, not even the admins know what it is. Only dirk.quote>

Dirk didn't come up with it

[MC6Ash 4]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Also, "Some Random Label" is not the highest rank, it appears randomly and goes away after a few posts. Of course, nothing in a computer is ever truly random, so there is in fact a complex algorithm behind its appearance. And so far as I'm aware, not even the admins know what it is. Only dirk.quote>

Dirk didn't come up with it

[JakeMD 107]

lol...

[3dpuzzlemaster 20]

I became a perfect (prefect) hitchhiker at 44 or 43 posts, I forgot, but I am a traveler now

[Chptrk 86]

Well, I don't know if you guys really care, but I got this today!

[thepokemaniac 18]

^^ Whoo.

[BKPB58 1]

I am confused.Does ranks upgrade when you have like 21 posts or 21 points for squatter?

[MTA3479 0]

I believe it's posts, points are just to show-off, I guess.

[Duke87 1,070]

Well, the point system has actually only been around for a couple weeks. Meanwhile, the rankings have been there since the very beginning (January 11th, 2003). They always have been based on post count, and its readily verifiable that they still are based on the fact that people with far more points than posts did not see a sudden jump in their "rank" at any point.

Also, you are officially awesome because you save your screenshots in PNG format.

[Muck308 55]

Ah, the ranks of Simtropolis. There is a whole different thread decicated to such discussion. Here's the link.

How Many "Ranks" Are There On ST

[Chptrk 86]

They are just to show off, you just get more points for posting, commenting on Stex uploads, commenting in the new CJ section, there's a whole thread about ways to get more points. Still, they're just for show.

[MTA3479 0]

Thanks muck308, been looking for this for forever!

[BKPB58 1]

I don't think points are just for show-off....

[Chptrk 86]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Also, you are officially awesome because you save your screenshots in PNG format.

quote>

Not to get side tracked, but I remember seeing somewhere a mod telling people to use JPEG. I think it was a tutorial on how to post pics for CJ's or something. So...(can't really think of how to phrase question)...so, explain?

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Originally posted by: Muck308

Ah, the ranks of Simtropolis. There is a whole different thread decicated to such discussion. Here's the link.

How Many "Ranks" Are There On ST

quote>

Standby for merge...  in 3... 2... 1....

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Well, pngs were not supported for some time (would not show up on the browser), but obviously that problem has been fixed since. Additionally, they have a much larger file size than jpegs of the same size, so having a CJ with 10 or more images on the page would make load times enormous. If however, your aim is to archive something (to maintain the highest quality) then you would obviously want to use png.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: SimHoTToDDy

Well, pngs were not supported for some time (would not show up on the browser), but obviously that problem has been fixed since. quote>

That was only ever a problem with Internet Explorer, actually. Worked just fine with other browsers. And at any rate, as you say, it's been fixed for a while now.

Additionally, they have a much larger file size than jpegs of the same size, so having a CJ with 10 or more images on the page would make load times enormous.quote>

It depends. The filesize of jpegs can vary a lot depending on what level of quality you choose to save with (MS Paint gives you no such choice and just uses 85% automatically). At 100% - which you'd obviously want to use if you absolutely had to save something in jpeg format - the file gets a bit larger. Also, despite what the number might imply, 100% quality is not actually full lossless quality. It's just the best quality the file format permits.

Besides that, the filesize of pngs can vary greatly too, depending on how well they're compressed. MS Paint's compression usually isn't that great. GIMP's is usually pretty good. The absolute best, however, requires a program specifically written to do that, such as PNGGauntlet (freeware).

Bear in mind that, depending on the nature of the image, an optimally compressed PNG can sometimes actually have a smaller filesize than a "100%" quality JPEG. Usually not, but it does happen. Sure as hell gets it closer, at any rate.

If however, your aim is to archive something (to maintain the highest quality) then you would obviously want to use png.quote>

Exactly. Now, as to what images you would be making that you wouldn't care about them being archive quality, I have no clue. But yes, if you are for whatever reason willing to accept a bit of quality loss, jpeg can work for you.

[Chptrk 86]

Originally posted by: abcvs

Originally posted by: Muck308

Ah, the ranks of Simtropolis. There is a whole different thread decicated to such discussion. Here's the link.

How Many "Ranks" Are There On ST

quote>

Standby for merge...  in 3... 2... 1....

quote>

Just had to say, that's really cool!

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Generally for images on ST Jpegs are still preferred and for most things they work fine.    Jpegs do load faster and are generally smaller in file size than Pngs.    This is important in a thread like a CJ where there are lots of larger 800x600 images.  A thread page full of large Pngs will take a long time to load even with broadband ADSL.

Pngs work best for small images, like avatar shots, and small screen shots .

With ST 5.0, IE6 & 7,  Pngs would often make the browser freeze.   However since the upgrade to ST 6.0 the conflict between IE , ST and Pngs has been resolved.

So it is now more of a common sense courtesy thing...   if there is only one or two images, even if they are a larger Png file then that is fine...   but in an image intensive thread like a CJ it is best to stick with Jpegs.   A forum page that takes 5 minutes or more to load will not attract viewers.

The other option is to post a thumbnail that links to the full size image off site...   basically it is a case of working out what works best in that particular instance.

I use IE7 at work and it works fine with ST 6.0 and Pngs.