this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023

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The Agora

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[Discussion] Agora should have a community icon so I can find it easier when scrolling my communities list (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

60 comments fedilink hide all child comments

My eye sight is getting worse everyday people.

This is mostly a light hearted post to give the community something low stakes to discuss and decide on.

Maybe there won't be any interest, or maybe we have a lot of ideas for icons and even banners?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I'd be happy to use up some of my Midjourney AI credits to generate something!

EDIT: I'm still having trouble uploading any images anywhere on this website so I'm uploading them to Imgur and I'll paste a link to the album here. I'm on mobile data (the bloody ISP is giving us the run around about fixing our connection) so it might take a few minutes but I like some of the ones I've managed to generate. EDIT2: Here's the imgur album. Any of them more or less catch people's eye? Obviously I can refine/improve from a starting point. https://imgur.com/a/p1FeMAz

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used one of these. But there are many other one that are great.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yay! Can I DM you the high Res version of the one you prefer? I assume you've just cropped from the grid, I can give you a full Res one.

Also, for community banners, do any of these catch your eye? Just, idk, so there is one I suppose! Let me know and I'll up-res the one you pick and send it over.

https://imgur.com/a/a2T7UTA

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder if some prompts that include 'logo' or 'icon' would have better results than the stuff I have tried. I had a good time with it, but most of the stuff I got didnt seem truly usable at small sizes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah those sorts of terms help a lot. I've actually got some good ones right now but I can't attach the pictures as I get JSON errors from the wesite...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

just saw your imgur album! great results.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thank you! Very happy The Dude liked them that much. I only registered earlier today, but love the software, interface, community and overall feel of this!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

something I came up with on a google image search for agora

maybe I'll get some time to run some ideas through midjourney tomorrow

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I got you fam

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Absolutely nailed it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

majestic

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I think this is clearly the best submission, truly iconic

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I love this for a baseline, leaning into the theme. The Theatre of Dionysus could work too, it kinda looks like an old forum.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Too real, man - the streamlined version from @annegreen fully captures the essence of the thing, while also suggesting to the observer 'MS Paint FTW'

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I agree, i tried to leverage some ai imaging software but wasn’t satisfied with the results. We need an icon for the community and a banner would make things easier on the eyes.

Id love to see what everyone suggests we should use

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

which ones did you try?

Ive got midjourney and a janky local version of stable diffusion (diffusionbee) on tap. Happy to take requests (for as long as my time and credits allow)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe something that captures the energy with which this seal is 'debating' something with this dog? seal-yells-at-dog

But do it up vector graphic style, but as a scene similar to (but less nightmare-inducing than) Dall-E's effort here? two-seals-in-an-agora

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

my ai art generation account seemed to get throttled yesterday, but I did get to try some of this stuff today

Also got this image, which is not very aspirational but probably closer to reality

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The top-left of the 4-up is pretty good, but the top-right looks like the cover of the VHS tape for an all-aquatic-mammal remake of a kung fu movie :) The one with many seals would be spot-on, but why did the AI make it look like they're crying? Nice one for trying some stuff out. Guess we'll see if anything sticks!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I agree, the banner should definitely be some sort of colonnade lol. Maybe some sort of thought bubble or group of people/talking head(s) for the icon? (I’m about to turn in for the evening so if this garners any interest, I can do a quick mock-up tomorrow (not that I have the skills to make a finished product lol))

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Agreed, it should have an icon

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I had the idea of a seal, like the instance icon, in an ancient greek style, like on pottery, but I couldn't find any public domain or similar images we could use for free and I'm not an artist myself

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I tried for a little while to get midjourney to draw this, but the harder I tried the funnier it got.

Now I'm just sitting here laughing at seal pottery when I should be walking my dog.

Safe to say midjourney does not understand the assignment.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Those pottery seals are just so. happy. to be here today! Now I want a real one...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You might have done this judging by the red coloring of some of them, but did you try something like "athenian red-figure pottery" since apparently that's what it's called?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

yes pretty close, here are some of the prompts I tried :

a brightly-lit red figure hydria. It's painted with an image of the satisfied seal meme.
a brightly-lit ancient greek amphora. It depicts the satisfied seal meme
the satisfied seal meme painted on the side of a brightly lit red figure hydria.

If you have any ideas feel free to post up 2 or 3 prompts and I will try them (for as long as my credits allow)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How about we get rid of the pottery try to keep it simple

A tondo in the Athenian red-figure style depicting a seal
A tondo in the Athenian red-figure style depicting the satisfied seal meme
An Athenian red-figure depiction of a seal
An Athenian red-figure depiction of the satisfied seal meme

If it comes back with like governmental or organizational type seals, then maybe we switch "seal" to "pinniped". Or "Mediterranean monk seal", which is apparently (one of?) the type(s) of seal around Greece.

Or that doesn't work, I don't know. I'm not versed in AI image creation so I don't know what limits you have or what works and doesn't work.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I seem to have run out of fast generations because my requests are being throttled, but here are a few I got

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's really unfortunate that this one is so doglike

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This one is the best of the rest imo

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I also like this one, personally, but it's not good for the community

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What are your thoughts?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I am too partial to the goofy ones tbh. I think you're right about the 'best of the rest' option, shame the tail part of the seal is kinda wonky

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I might agree if I could see what you wrote.

In other words, I agree. On jerboa for sure, icons really help for presbyopic dyslexics like me. And yes, I had to ask someone if I had gotten that sentence right lol.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i ran a few prompt through midjourney about ancient roman agoras and busts of satisfied seals.

I think I can get this seal bust looking more like the original with insightfaceswap tools which I just set up to play with today. Currently the images have no chill between kinda-cursed and cute.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

This one's cute

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But I think this one looks rather distinguished

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I think one of these two could work really well!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

agree that last one is definitely on some type of atlantic council for fair distribution of tasty fish

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"Sardines? My good seal, I only eat imported Herring in little cans." He needs a monocle

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

https://youtu.be/qq_sDRvyOLU?t=9

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

thanks god

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

In my long days on the Internet I've learned that there are few situations for which there isn't a Monty Python quote.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Here are a few:

This one already exists by a company, but all of their domains are for sale, and they haven't been socially active for almost three years now. I doubt they'll be filing any complaints about a community using an icon that you can't reverse image search. Still, always a risk.

These are free emojis

4 has some lines through it, but it's not noticeable when it's a teeny tiny icon. I think a nice pillar will be good c:

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Solid candidates here! The last one is barely visible to me because of the dark background on my webpage and the transparent background on that image, but with a white field behind it, would work great.

but I also like #2 and #3 so

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

A white pillar with a black outline will fix it up. There are plenty online that are freely available.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

As for the Sidebar image. Either some famous artwork, maybe the famous School of Athens artwork? Though it feels pretentious and snooty.

So I think just a forest will do.

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