Front images of people are good, yes, but they are not the only thing that is good. It's about variety. If you have a slideshow banner then each image, carefully chosen, can display a different aspect of what appeals to people. Everyone is different. If I see an avatar only, not doing anything other than looking pretty I am not interested, but someone else is. If I see beautiful scenery, with a variety of people in the foreground with some great architecture, that appeals to me. Maybe some folks like to see people hanging out by boats, ships, planes etc... Kitely is more than just one subject so the banner on the homepage should reflect that.
My suggestions for 5 types of banners (slideshow):
1) Some pretty people close up, nice skins, clothing, and hair (not just females, male or non-binary too). We have so many good creators that we should not have a hard time finding attractive avatars.
2) Some gorgeous natural scenery with a group of people in the foreground chatting, maybe on outdoor furniture, could be a beach, mountains, farm, it doesn't matter, just something beautiful and inviting with striking lighting
3) People hanging out on vehicles, planes, boats, ships, trains, cars, or whatever, historical or modern, either is fine.
4) A well-built a modern region, perhaps business or classroom areas w/people
5) A well-built historical region, maybe medieval, western, or fantasy, wee-folks or whatever ... again with people, maybe role-playing? ... something different from modern.
That's a pretty good variety. Slideshow banner images work well with responsive websites too and for virtual worlds in particular I see it as an asset. Large images are good and can be optimized for quick loading.
Ilan Tochner wrote: ↑Wed Jan 26, 2022 1:39 pmIn other words it's a lot of work to create an image that we can use and it's very likely that if we open this up for submissions then most of what we get sent won't fit our requirements, resulting in people becoming upset because their submissions were rejected. I want to avoid upsetting our most active community members and this type of project gives me flashbacks to past projects that started with a lot of good will and ended with some community members leaving even when the group achieved what it set out to do.