I liked the logo the way it used to be with the solid logo. Many photos don't look good showing through. A few, like the one today, look really good. That one is a beauty!

7, I think it looks great the way it is.

I've been keeping an eye on the banner. The splice is gone and the left are looks much cleaner since the recent change. Keep up the good work!

I still have a splice on my 27" desktop screen, but no splice on my 11" laptop (I have them side by side). The large screen shows a 3.5 inches repeat on the right. I do like the yellow fade on the left, makes the NGA logo pop.

The splice depends on the length of the banner (in pixels) in relation to the resolution each person's monitor. If you have a monitor that displays a 1500 pixel width, then a banner that is 1500 pixels wide will fill the screen. Displaying a banner less than 1500 pixels will produce a splice. My 23 inch screen has a 1920 pixel width, so I always have a splice.

How do you figure out your resolution?

Control panel>Adjust your computer's settings>Adjust screen resolution

I am reluctantly using Windows 10 which I don't find very intuitive. OK, so I opened settings, display, advanced options and finally found resolution. It is set to 1366 x 768 with several other choices, all with lower numbers. Is this the right spot?

Yes, that's the right spot, Deb. You can change the resolution to any of the other options, but the highest is always recommended. If you change it, you can always go back, but I have to say, it's kinda scary the first time because everything goes dark temporarily. To change it back, you'll have to find the setting the same way you did the first time, so you might want to write down exactly how you got to that point before you do any actions.

On Windows 7, you can also right click anywhere in the background of your desktop>>>personalize>>> display>>>adjust resolution.

OK, I found the right spot, changed to 1600 which was the closest to 1500 I had available, and decided why shrink my whole screen just to see an uninterrupted banner? So back I went to 1920 and will just live with the split (unless Dave does something magical to accommodate higher resolutions). No worries. And thanks for walking me through.

Thought I would just revisit this issue as today's banner looks particularly disjointed on my split-screen - goes from the nice orange blur on the far right back to a weird in-focus pop of the left side repeat. Shall I just train my eyes to stop at the split? Most banners blend well but I sure did like it when it went the whole way across the screen as one image.

The "issue" is dependent only on the photographer and you, and not the site. Dave can't stretch a banner to accommodate all the different pixel width viewing that member use without also increasing the height (unless you would prefer image distortion). The banner contributor chose to upload that banner at a 1215 pixel width that does not fill the width of your screen. (Remember you previously decided not to use the 1600 px option. (See your previous post.) The fact that there is such an abrupt change at the split is due to the composition of the photo itself (starting with orange and ending in black). Both issues can only be mitigated by the original photographer.

So unless you want to give some pointers to the banner contributors, yes, just train your eyes to stop at the split (or view on your laptop with the smaller screen).

Thanks. I wouldn't even suggest any changes to the contributors as I barely follow your explanation, so will just glance at the banner then move on. I can't even remember if my own banners fit the page or not and I quit making them when they went funky on me. Maybe I'll try a couple again and see how they show up. I follow Angie's tutorial when making them and always (always) have to open and read through the instructions. http://garden.org/thread/view_... I'm not a graphics person.

@Bonehead, Deb, I am so sorry! Never had the intention to make an annoying banner

And, I have submitted a lot of short ones because the instructions say "To propose a banner for the site, upload it to this page. The image must be exactly 150 pixels high and at least 1,200 pixels wide." I interpreted that to mean 1215 pixels wide was okay.

Now that I comprehend longer is better, I have been submitting longer banners. Someday, maybe, we'll see if they look any better when/if they run
beyond that, seamless transitions in the repeat are kinda hard to come up with.

Anyway, for whatever it's worth or not, as the case may be...
I also use large monitors with high resolution, and have always had a splice in the banners (both before and after the merge with new logo).

But, rather than alter my screen's resolution, just to see an uninterrupted banner at full-screen size, I adjust the size of my browser window as displayed on my screen to fit the size of the banner whenever the splice bugs me. This is very simple to do by pulling in one -or both- side(s) of the window with the little arrow thingy that pops up when your cursor is placed on the edge of the window.

For most things, the narrower (than my full-screen size) window works just fine for me to see and read whatever because it's still plenty big enough and there is a lot of white space on threads and such anyway. And, being that I always have multiple windows open simultaneously, it also works for me in the multitasking department, yet even the desktop background on either side of the browser window can be less annoying than the banner splice.

I always get a splice. If the left side of the banner was moved so that it starts after the logo, instead of underneath it, I think there would be less screens that would see a splice. It was never so pronounced with the old logo. Just a thought.

Is there some magic secret to having a banner selected? I've submitted banners a couple of times, but they never seem to make the cut. On the other hand, others appear to be favorites with their banners selected literally dozens of times throughout the past year.

Not to sound like 'sour grapes', but I'm guessing that there are more than enough submissions to 'spread the wealth' around a bit more.

The same could be said for the choice of photos to complement 'today's inspiration' - that has been largely showcased by one or two members with a few random picks in between. There are so many gorgeous photos from so many members, I'd love to see a bit more diversity.

I agree that it would be nice to see banners and other things from a variety of members.

I've been a member here for about 3 3/4 years and have had 4 banners. It's a huge thrill when it happens so for me it is worth the wait.

We're pretty picky about the site banners, because they are so prominent on the site. They have to be really good. Make sure the focus is crisp and clear and the colors are vibrant. Be sure there are no distracting elements (we've had banners submitted where a trash can was visible in the background).

Regarding the inspiration photos, @jon makes all of them and he picks which photos to use. He has been using the Landscape Photos extensively to find pictures to use, and that means Paul2032's photos gets used a lot. He'll soon start looking through the photo contest submissions to see about using some of those beautiful shots. So, I think we'll soon see more variety in the inspiration photos.

A trick I've learned - when I see a particularly stunning photograph, I will often open that person's profile and then scroll through both the landscape and database photos submitted by said photographer for a bit of eye candy. We are very fortunate to have so many excellent photographers!