Caution - huge signatures approaching fast!!

Tatsujin · 01/09/2007, 03:15 AM

Please people i mentioned it already before, isn't it really possible to down-size the signatures generally?
i'm not an epileptic but on the best way to become one of them.
yes, i know about the disable-function of signatures, but have this really to be the last resort??
i like to see some nice'n'cute sigs of most of the people in here, so i have seen no reason why I should abandon to see them in the future.
in the name of the overview of each thread, which suffers a lot from those huge sigs, please clean em'up.
appreciate that a lot.

thanx very much

Tatsujin

PS: this is nonpersonel.

Seldane · 01/09/2007, 09:12 AM

On my forum I have a filter which automatically reduces all images over 550x100 to that size. Unfortunately, that filter isn't working too well (usually nothing happens, hehe). We also have some signature guidelines, namely the following:

QuoteMax length: 550 pixels, max width: 100 pixels. Images bigger than this are not allowed and they will be deleted immediately! This is not only because they are too big, but because they will stretch the board layout and that is very annoying.

Max size: 50kB. Images bigger than this will be removed!

Do not use disturbing images such as flashing animations, offensive content or the like.

Tatsujin · 01/10/2007, 10:31 PM

that makes a lot of sense. it's how it should be in every "proper" forum.

esteban · 01/10/2007, 10:44 PM

Personally, I think the maximum height for images should be 30-50 pixels, period.

Joe Redifer · 01/10/2007, 11:23 PM

I turn signatures off so I don't have to look at everyone's nonsense every single post they make. It gives the forum a much cleaner and more tolerable look. Avatars are cool and work great for expressing individuality. Signatures are not only redundant, they are pointless. If you have a link, put it in your profile. We don't need to see it on every single post. I love having sigs turned off. At one of the forums I participate at, signatures are disallowed altogether, even text-only.

CrackTiger · 01/14/2007, 09:39 PM

Signatures are a part of message boards. There's nothing wrong with them if you have the option of turning them off, but even then, you're only saving the occasional cm to an inch. Should we also start limiting useless posts or excessive emoticons?

I do think that guidelines for sigs as well as everything else are a good idea. But I think that we'll have a more friendly and productive environment if they remained guidelines.

Aside from losers who love to flame people for technically making mistakes or leading threads in different directions, there are lots of boards where mods spend their days examining every single signature to measure if someone's gone over by a few spaces or bytes. I once had a signature image replaced with some lame insult because a mod thought I'd gone over the size limit by a few bytes, siting that the limit was such and such thousand bytes and not such and such kilobytes. Even though it wasn't over the limit, the mod just got his figures mixed up.

Lets face it, we all know everyone here and there's only one larger signature image and it's not even that big and I doubt it'll be up forever. I'd just point out to him that he could rearrange the image to look the exact same at a smaller size... if it really is becoming a problem.

Aaron has some text, an average sized link image and a Gamer Card image for his signature. Should we ask him to stop clogging up the forums?

Do we really want this to become one of 'those' boards? The reason I wound up here in the first place is because it's not and for once there I found a friendly environment based on sharing our admiration for something instead of a colloseum for pissing contests.

If there were hundreds of people posting everyday that'd be one thing. But this is a small board right now, I don't see technicalities like signature sizes being as big an issue as the negative posts and personal attacks that have been creeping up lately.

esteban · 01/14/2007, 10:44 PM

$0.02 ... Well, I have to say, I agree with Tatsujin and Joe on this issue: sigs just clutter the threads. I think a no-sigs or text-only sigs policy is fine. Since I knew that position wouldn't be too popular, I suggested a 30-50px max height for images (to make them on par with a longish text-only sig).

BONUS RANT (optional reading) --> Actually, if you folks heard all my thoughts concerning message boards, you'd probably get even angrier! I hate most forums (and many sites in general) because many crucial things (i.e. buttons) are images and don't have a text-link alternative.

So, when I turn off all images in my browser (which I often do to see content and ignore all the other crap), many sites / forums break, because all of the navigation is image-based. I hate that!

Joe Redifer · 01/14/2007, 11:02 PM

Quote from: guestSignatures are a part of message boards. There's nothing wrong with them if you have the option of turning them off, but even then, you're only saving the occasional cm to an inch. Should we also start limiting useless posts or excessive emoticons?

You miss my point. It's not about saving space or even loading time. It's about repetitive clutter. Text signatures aren't so bad, but having graphics in signatures, especially when a person posts a lot, looks really bad. I don't know which of you have graphics or just text sigs (or no sigs at all) since I have turned them off. The only real problem with text sigs is that it is often hard to tell where the post text ends and the sig text begins. Sure, there may be a line separating the two, but not always on some forums, and sometimes users even put lines in their post for whatever reason. A smaller font for sig text would be good. Ah well, no reason for me to deal with it.

Seldane · 01/15/2007, 06:41 AM

Sounds like you would love PSP Updates, Joe.

Awesome site. What's ironic is that the worst, most annoying members are the mods and admins. They have hundreds of icons, mad signatures, huge avatars, colored text/usernames and lots of crap. Take a peek, you'll never look at the Internet in the same way again.

Joe Redifer · 01/15/2007, 08:28 PM

Hell, even without the sigs, icons, graphics and whatnot all over the place, that place still looks like a crappy forum! I'm not a big fan of "sub forums". Sega-16 has a few of those, and HDTV Arcade has a bunch (or at least they did, they are changing their forum software so we'll see). I like everything out in the open like it is here.

Seldane · 01/16/2007, 06:46 PM

Definitely. That forum is the worst I've ever seen. Everything about it sucks (forum design, management, members, etc).

Although it is the best place on the net for PSP homebrew news, unfortunately.

Dark Fact · 01/19/2007, 12:35 AM

Quote from: tatsujinPlease people i mentioned it already before, isn't it really possible to down-size the signatures generally?
i'm not an epileptic but on the best way to become one of them.
yes, i know about the disable-function of signatures, but have this really to be the last resort??
i like to see some nice'n'cute sigs of most of the people in here, so i have seen no reason why I should abandon to see them in the future.
in the name of the overview of each thread, which suffers a lot from those huge sigs, please clean em'up.
appreciate that a lot.

So my sig gives people epillepsies? Damn, I knew Dark Fact was evil...but damn.

GUTS · 01/22/2007, 07:57 PM

I agree with Steve, the less complicated visually the better. That was one thing I liked about Gamefaqs msg boards, they let you have a tiny text sig and that was it, no avatars are anything stupid. The boards had no useless shit cluttering them up, they were simple and easy to navigate.

_Paul · 01/26/2007, 01:40 PM

As long as they are not stupidly massive, I like graphical sigs. I enjoy seeing what other people create visually. There's only so much you can express in an 80x80 avatar, and sigs give that extra freedom. I find myself identifying posters far more often by their sigs than their avatars or user names.

I understand how some people prefer a clear, clean and basic view, but I don't.

Dark Fact · 01/27/2007, 11:30 PM

I think some people are blowing this whole graphic sig business way out of proportion. I've been going to forums for as long as I can remember and never had a problem with sigs. I learn to ignore them and just read the posts. Why can't others just do the same if they don't like graphic sigs?

Keranu · 01/28/2007, 12:10 AM

Quote from: Dark Fact on 01/27/2007, 11:30 PMI think some people are blowing this whole graphic sig business way out of proportion. I've been going to forums for as long as I can remember and never had a problem with sigs. I learn to ignore them and just read the posts. Why can't others just do the same if they don't like graphic sigs?

Agreed. I don't like huge sigs either, but I just ignore them.

Joe Redifer · 01/28/2007, 12:57 AM

QuoteWhy can't others just do the same if they don't like graphic sigs?

Because maybe we haven't yet evolved into your level of awesomeness?

Tatsujin · 02/01/2007, 12:22 AM

Quote from: Dark Fact on 01/19/2007, 12:35 AM[So my sig gives people epillepsies? Damn, I knew Dark Fact was evil...but damn.

i never was talkin' about you "little" sig dude

Dark Fact · 02/02/2007, 12:07 AM

Yes, bow down before my epillepsy causing awesomeness!

_Paul · 02/02/2007, 01:14 PM

Quote from: Dark Fact on 02/02/2007, 12:07 AMYes, bow down before my epillepsy causing awesomeness!

BEWARE FLASHING LIGHTS!
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Seldane · 02/02/2007, 02:28 PM

I just turned off all the signatures. Aaah, what a relief. Definitely recommended to everybody (except those with large signatures, I recommend them to remove their own signatures instead).

_Paul · 02/03/2007, 05:12 AM

Quote from: Seldane on 02/02/2007, 02:28 PMI just turned off all the signatures. Aaah, what a relief.

Why not remove your own while you're at it eh?

Seldane · 02/03/2007, 10:40 AM

I dunno about that, I mean now that I've turned the signatures off, I might as well expand mine since it isn't my problem anymore. ;)

Tatsujin · 02/04/2007, 03:00 AM

hahaha!!

but unfortunately the right people doesn't visit or even notice this thread, so it missed its original thought impact completely

_Paul · 02/04/2007, 05:16 AM

Quote from: Seldane on 02/03/2007, 10:40 AMI dunno about that, I mean now that I've turned the signatures off, I might as well expand mine since it isn't my problem anymore. ;)

How about something like this?

/aloysig2uy7.gif

Seldane · 02/04/2007, 05:30 AM

HA HA HA! Thanks for the laugh! I love it!

Keranu · 02/04/2007, 02:15 PM

Haha, good stuff.

Dark Fact · 02/06/2007, 01:02 AM

/aloysig2uy7.gif
*rolls around on the floor due to a sudden epilleptic seizure* *goes to hospital*

TR0N · 02/06/2007, 05:41 AM

Quote from: guest on 02/04/2007, 05:16 AM
Quote from: Seldane on 02/03/2007, 10:40 AMI dunno about that, I mean now that I've turned the signatures off, I might as well expand mine since it isn't my problem anymore. ;)
How about something like this?

/aloysig2uy7.gif

Ack stop that i use to suffer from seizure myself.

Damn those DDR rave sigs

Seldane · 02/06/2007, 09:51 AM

Ha ha, laughing again! I can never get enough of that picture!

NecroPhile · 02/06/2007, 10:57 AM

Ouch, my eyeballs are bleeding! Thankfully, nobody's sig is that bad here.

_Paul · 02/06/2007, 12:33 PM

Here's a tip: Right Click it and select 'Set as Background'.

Seldane · 02/06/2007, 12:56 PM

Waay ahead of ya.

Or maybe not.