Hey guys, I checked the rules before posting this and didn't see anything against requests, so if I've made a mistake, sorry, please just delete my thread.

I'm not sure how many of you know about cryptocurrencies. I've been working with several others trying to develop a logo for an alternate currency that will compete with Bitcoin in the future. This alternate currency was released about 8 months ago and is starting to gain some traction within the cryptocurrency community. It has several names, ppc, ppcoin, peercoin, p2pcoin. Whatever name is used, it basically stands for peer to peer coin. As I said though, we've been developing a logo for the last couple weeks and I think we're close to being done. The problem is that one of our graphics artists is unavailable for the time being, so we can't continue our work.

Here is some background info on the coin to help understand the logo design better. The process of mining Bitcoin requires a lot of electricity. Peercoin was developed to fix this problem by making a more eco-friendly coin which requires much less electricity. We've decided to incorporate a leaf into the logo design to represent the eco-friendliness of the coin. Below you can see how the logo concepts have evolved over the last couple weeks...

This is where I need help if possible. This is our latest design. We feel we're getting close to a finished design...

A different graphics designer posted these two versions recently...

This is my problem. We love the design with the rim around the outside of the coin that says "Peer to Peer" and "Cryptocoin." We feel however that the color could be a lot better. It's supposed to be gold, but it looks more like it's bronze. We love the color, reflection and sparkle of the last two coins though, the gold and silver ones.

What I need is two versions. Both versions will use the design with the text around the outside of the coin. Both versions will use the PP symbol without the large space in between (The symbol in the silver coin, not the gold one, notice the difference). Both versions will remove the year 2012 from the coin, since it's not needed. Both versions will be a face down view of the coin, not at an angle unless you wanted to make them also. Larger images are preferred over smaller ones. We can resize them if necessary. The main difference is that one version will use the shiny gold color pictured above and the other will use the shiny silver color.

If anyone can help me here with this I'd really appreciate it. If I've confused anyone about what I'm looking for and you need clarification, just let me know. Thanks!

Has anyone heard if GameSpot is going to be reviewing this? In my opinion, this mod is better than most AAA titles being released today, so it deserves the praise and media attention. GameSpot shouldn't discount it just because it's not a commercial game. A lot of other gaming sites are reviewing it also.

As creator of the Unions: Version 2 thread (6 Years Ago.....lol) I vote yes for union reform. In my original thread, I split the updates into two different categories, functionality and advertising unions around the site. A lot of the ideas are outdated because the website has since changed designs many times, but there are some updates that I think should still be considered.

My favorite idea was the widget system, where GameSpot would have different types of widgets to choose from, each of which displayed different types of information or feeds, such as latest posts, articles, leader board, picture of the day, the daily poll, etc... The union leader would be able to choose any widget they wanted to display and just drag and drop it wherever they wanted it to be located. This would make the union home page completely customizable and would allow for more variety. It would allow the union leader to adjust the home page to organize the content around the overall theme.

Another idea I liked was the ability for larger unions encompassing more games to be able to customize its forum. You'd be able to create boards for each game you covered, for example my old union, The HeadCrab Union covered everything from VALVe Software. I would have liked to create different boards for each popular game we covered. You'd also have greater control over who was allowed to post on your union, through the use of suspension or ban lists. A union leader board or customizable union levels would also boost activity. You could also create community announcements for all your members to read when they came to your forum. This would help a union leader to get a message out to all their members very quickly, instead of having to telegram their entire list. The community announcement would be visible only to those visiting the main union forum. Just check the mock image of this I had linked on the original thread.

Besides union functionality, I mentioned advertising also. The site has changed too much for me to list any specifics here, but basically after an update unions would need to be advertised around the website again in highly visible places. If somebody liked a certain game and there was a union for it, the union should be advertised to them in some way. Marketing unions like this would go a long way toward boosting their activity again. Many complain about the unions being dead, but it doesn't help when they're completely hidden from view. I would have no idea how to find them if you asked me. This needs to change in order for activity to return to what it once was. Hopefully there will be a change soon. I would advise the admins to look over my previous thread to get ideas about what they could do to reform unions.

Just today I found out that fastesttruck found a workaround for the union telegram system. If your union is smaller, you may not have this problem, but when larger unions send out telegrams, the messaging gets cut off at around member 2,130, at least for my union. I've tested it and it has cut off around that number the last six times I've tried it. Once it cuts off a "500 Internal Server Error" message pops up. Here is a quote of me describing the workaround to the members of my union.

GameSpot implemented a feature where if you post about another member in a blog comment, you can let them know by typing @ and then the user name of the person. For example, if I went into my blog and typed @Sentinelrv in the comments, I would receive an automatic message from GameSpot quoting and linking to the comment. As far as I know, it can only be used with GameSpot blogs.

So what I need to do is compile a list of all 5,025 members in alphabetical order and put @ before every user name. Then I would post any union telegrams to my blog, or at least link to the union telegram from the blog. The final step would be to copy and paste the entire 5,025 member list in the blog comments and everyone will be notified. It will probably take an entire day to compile the list. I've heard it takes about a half hour to finish posting a telegram for a union that has about 3,500 members, so maybe add 15 minutes to that. It might be a lot more work, but I think it's worth it if we're able to communicate again with all of our members. To see what I mean, post @YourUserName in one of your blog comments and you will receive an automatic message quoting and linking to the comment.Sentinelrv

You should send out a telegram notifying leaders of this method.

I discovered a pattern in one of the union errors. I understand though that the GameSpot staff has pretty much given up on fixing any union errors, so I'm not sure if this thread will do anything, but I might as well try. Anyway, my issue is with the broken union telegram system. I have over 5,000 members in my union and I don't have the ability anymore to keep in contact with them. This is an awful situation to be in when you're a leader because there is no way to communicate with your members. I believe this is a known issue, but I'll describe it anyway. When you hit submit to send out a union telegram, the message only sends out to a fraction of my members. The telegram stops sending and I get a "500 Internal Server Error" white screen. No matter how many times I send the telegram out, it never sends to all of my 5,000 members. I always get the error message, and this has been reported by other union leaders, so it's not just me.

This is one of the most important technical issues unions are facing, because it cuts off the direct communication line with our member base, so I started to keep a record of what would happen each time I sent out a telegram. I'm starting to see a pattern with all the errors. All telegrams send out to about 2,130 members before they get cut off and the error message pops up. I did it six times throughout the month and every time it sent out to about the same amount of people before shutting off. Maybe there is some kind of time limit that stops the sending? Just guessing. Here are my test results...

Telegram6 - 2,131 Members - Jul 7, 2011 6:59 am ET
Telegram5 - 2,130 Members - Jul 1, 2011 11:29 pm ET
Telegram4 - 2,132 Members - Jun 30, 2011 2:27 am ET
Telegram3 - 2,130 Members - Jun 28, 2011 11:57 pm ET
Telegram2 - 2,134 Members - Jun 23, 2011 6:24 pm ET
Telegram 1 - 2,135 Members - Jun 23, 2011 6:06 am ET

I and other union leaders would love for this to be fixed. Any other union problems can be ignored, but this is a must fix. I need to be able to communicate with all of my members. It's vital.