10-29-2003, 11:50 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Signature Policy Updated
I never thought I'd have to do this, but lately I've been going "sig crazy" because it seems some sigs are a little out of control. It's funny, because in comparison to many other sites ours sigs are very tame. When I was at Mobius I was looking at my pal Howard Chui's forums, and some of the sigs had graphics bigger than the banners on this site! 8O Still, lately I've been a irked at how long the sigs have become - people seem to try to cram their entire PDA life story into their sigs, but that's not really the point of them. phpBB supports profiles, which are quite under-utilized on this board. Profiles are a place where you can include all sorts of information about yourself, your interests, and your PDA history - but it's contained in a place where people don't have to see it every single time you post a message. :wink: You can update your profile by going into your preferences.
So here's what we're changing: effective immediately, sigs are not shown on the mobile version of the site. I've been browsing the site using my Smartphone a lot lately, and sigs = more scrolling, so away they go. Again, I'd encourage people to use their profile and put their info in there, because we've created a mobile-friendly template for the profile page (you need to be a subscriber to see it though). Unfortunately, phpBB isn't smart enough to limit the number of lines on a sig, only the total characters. I just saw a sig that was NINE LINES LONG 8O, yet still under 500 characters. People, sigs are not the location for your entire resume. :wink: We're going to try and hack the code to see if we can restrict it to three lines worth, but in the meantime the limit is going from 500 characters down to 200 characters. Remember you can use HTML, so you can include a link to your Web site very easily without using up 25 characters putting in the full URL. Just say "Come visit my Web site".
Graphics are a thorny issue. I like graphics, and I know people enjoy being creative with graphics. But the problem is that 75% of the graphical sigs I've seen used on this board throughout it's history have either been too flash, too wide, too big in KB, or troublesome in some other way. So, in light of this, we're implementing a phpBB hack that will only allow 88 x 31 sized images to be used. These are standard-sized Web buttons are that small and unobtrusive, yet you can still do fun things with them. Just look at all of these! :-)
Comments welcome, but I hope I've explained my reasoning behind these changes and that most of you will agree this will make things in the forums run a little smoother. I've always preferred to have a relaxed attitude about sigs, but in the past few months I've lost count the number of times I've had to send a PM to someone asking them politely if they'd change their sig - so now we're just going to limit what can be done instead, and we won't have to send those messages. ;-)
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10-29-2003, 11:57 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 134
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still sig-less as the day I was born!
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10-29-2003, 11:57 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,213
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Thank you!  I've also wondered about the need to put a link to your site in your sig when the "WWW" button that appears on all posts does the same thing.
__________________
Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
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10-30-2003, 12:11 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 332
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That reminds me...time to put in a sig 
Just a little one, though....
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10-30-2003, 12:11 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 56
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Jason thank you for enhancing my mobile experience
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10-30-2003, 12:17 AM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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That sounds fair and reasonable - a light touch as ever. :wink:
How do some of the other boards manage with such HUGE sigs? When I have had to go to some of teh others I have been glad to get out. These things can really get out of control! 8O I don't think it has been too bad here - but it's good to keep on top of things here so they never get like that. :way to go:
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10-30-2003, 12:21 AM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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FoldedSpace - I really hope that sig is a joke? Please? Pretty please?
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10-30-2003, 12:33 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 332
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Must have been rejected. Ah, well...
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10-30-2003, 12:34 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 5,133
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FoldedSpace - I'm guessing you were making a joke about inappropriate sigs.... However, that picture was then attached to EVERY post you've made, most of which are NOT in the context of this thread, so people wouldn't know it was a joke.  So I deleted the sig.
To everyone:
Please do not start trying to find the most inappropriate sig. R and X rated ones will result in a time-out or locking of your account. Don't make my job hard, please.
If you want to give examples of "boy, wouldn't this pink-on-orange ugly sig be horrible", just put it in your post, not your actual sig, so we can keep this discussion ONLY in this thread. I don't want a chorus of "boy your signature is ugly" on all the threads here.
Thanks.
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10-30-2003, 12:35 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 116
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by FoldedSpace
That reminds me...time to put in a sig
Just a little one, though.... |
Geez, its 118949 bytes in size, glad im on broadband
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Linear Mode
