Signatures or No Signatures? [Archive]

The_Maker

07-13-2005, 12:25 PM

Ok, I just got a PM from Whiteknight telling me that AJ wants me to make my sig smaller. I do not have a problem with a few changes with my sig here and there but I do have a problem with,

Why AJ seems to hate all signature images, big or small
Why AJ told Whiteknight to send me a PM instead of sending it himself
Why AJ doesn't just disable the option to view signatures in his control panel
Don't believe me when I say AJ hates all signatures? Try looking Here (http://www.warboards.org/showthread.php?t=7828) and tell me what you think.
"No one gets signature images whatsoever. avatars are plenty anyhow. " I strongly disagree with that, and I think at least half of the other members agree with me. Don't believe me when I say Whiteknight was sent to do AJ's "commandments"? Here's proof (http://img334.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pm4mn.gif)

Now, I have no proof when it comes to if AJ disables signatures via his control panel, but gal darn it AJ, why can't you lighten up a little? Yes I am grateful for the new quote system, and the new avatars, and the new post smileys, but if you are going to rule the forum with an iron fist, you should get Demon_Child for that :P

So this posts comes down to this...Is AJ being rather a... meh I won't say it. Does everyone (if anyone) agree with me when I say AJ is an anti signature person and he should just disable signatures via his control panel? I know at least some of the moderators/admins are against getting rid of signatures, but others are strongly for it.

I have been keeping this inside me for a while now but from the PM Whiteknight sent me, that just really ticked me off.
Close it if you want AJ, heck, you will most likely delete this thread, but I sure hope you know that if you have a problem with me or anyone else for that matter, it would do a helluva lot of good in my opinion if YOU fixed the problem, not tell someone of a lower rank to bark your commands. If something is [i]SO important you have to send someone else to send us a PM, why the hell not just create a thread in the members lounge as an annoucement?!? That way, people (like me) think you are man enough to actually tell somone if you have a problem with them.

Nuts

07-13-2005, 12:35 PM

1. Your signature is too big, this is true. Therefore the basis for your gripe is unfounded.

2. If the administration of this website wishes to change everyone's username to "Sue" then that's their decision to make. If you don't like it, you may leave at any time.

3. Whiteknight is a moderator, it is his job to moderate. AJ is an administrator, his job is to administer direction to the moderators. Pretty simple.

4. It doesn't matter if AJ likes signatures or not. He offered everyone a chance to give a valid reason to keep them, and apparently he was satisified with the replies.

This may seem harsh, but it's the truth.

DragonPaladin

07-13-2005, 12:38 PM

huh, did the same thing to me. >_>

The_Maker

07-13-2005, 12:40 PM

Nuts

07-13-2005, 12:43 PM

That's where #3 comes into play.

GrassDragon

07-13-2005, 12:45 PM

You mis-unserstand me, I have no problem with changing my signature to whatever AJ likes, I have a problem with AJ not having the 5 whopping minutes of free time to tell us personally, he has to send someone else to do it <_<.
It is not his job as a forum administrator to tell you to change your signature. That's what mods are for. Stop complaining and just follow the rules.

And AJ is not necessarily anti-sigs, just anti-bad-hosting-for-sigs-because-they-lock-up-browsers-trying-to-load-a-page.

DragonPaladin

07-13-2005, 12:51 PM

Well...so if we host em right, he has no problem? Hmm....LOOPHOLE!

P.S. WK is just doing AJ's bidding.

Nuts

07-13-2005, 1:02 PM

Well...so if we host em right, he has no problem? Hmm....LOOPHOLE!

No, he is asking that you host them on a quality server that doesn't have bandwidth issues.

DragonPaladin

07-13-2005, 1:08 PM

So...imageshack is a no-no right?

Nuts

07-13-2005, 1:10 PM

So...imageshack is a no-no right?

I would imagine, it's not the most reliable host in the known world.

DragonPaladin

07-13-2005, 1:12 PM

Then oh great Nuts, shall we bow at the mention of your name, tell us what hosting you might tell us to use.

Nuts

07-13-2005, 1:22 PM

No need to bow, getting on one knee would suffice.

But Neo's hosting seems relatively stable from what I hear.. Kupatrix?

Or you could buy your own domain and hosting for $4.95/month from Godaddy....there's lots of options really.

UED77

07-13-2005, 1:23 PM

Well, to be honest with you, The_Maker, I feel it was about time the adminship did something about signatures. I don't know about yours, but some of the sizes, bytewise and dimensionwise, were getting really out of hand. If you have a 50 KB sig, it takes considerably more time to load than a simple line or two of text. The 25 KB limit in the PM sent by Whiteknight is reasonable.

As for dimensions, some people include tons of text about maps-in-progress, political views, quotes, etc. But these things, especially when they span multiple lines, take away from the information content displayed at a page at a time. When the information/noise ratio is high, the forum is less desirable for viewers seeking useful content.

Turning signature display off is not always the right option. I do not like the signatures of some users, whilst I have no problem with others', and yet others' I like or need to see regularly.

UED77

Geno

07-13-2005, 2:23 PM

Hello? Are we forgetting who is an administrator? AJ. He's going to do what he wants to do, regardless of what you feel, most likely. He has always done things for a reason, and will continue to do it, whether forumers are behind him or not.

It's his forums, and he'll do what he please. Live with it. If he disables them, so be it. I'll have to somehow fit my current sig into my avatar (OMFG I WILL CHANGE IT?!?!?!?!?!) and then that'll be what my sig has in it.

If he wants to do something, so be it. I'll be behind him whether I like it or not. Defying the administrator known as AJ? I've learned first hand it's not a good thing... >.>

~Larry "Geno" Meyers
- BI's RP forum Aide

Modred

07-13-2005, 2:27 PM

Someone didn't read the rules before joining. ;)

Hint: it wasn't AJ or WK.

WeekendLazyness

07-13-2005, 2:37 PM

Someone refresh my memory... What are the sig limits?

UED77

07-13-2005, 3:10 PM

Tsk, tsk, tsk, WK. It's not even weekend, and you're still lazy...

Signature Rules (http://www.warboards.org/faq.php?faq=faq_rules#faq_faq_rules_signatures)

UED77

GrassDragon

07-13-2005, 3:13 PM

Sig limits are found in the FAQ here: http://www.warboards.org/faq.php?faq=faq_rules#faq_faq_rules_signatures

And I just looked at the PM (I hadn't before). Do you think that WK means that AJ has instructed you via the FAQ/sign up rules and you disobeyed them? Not that he said "WK, go after him, him, her, and it"?

Sikawtic

07-13-2005, 3:29 PM

So...imageshack is a no-no right?AJ wants us to use imageshack... why do you think he put the uploader in the usercp that uses imageshack?

Nuts

07-13-2005, 3:41 PM

AJ wants us to use imageshack... why do you think he put the uploader in the usercp that uses imageshack?

That's interesting considering that imageshack has never been very reliable in my opinion. Oh well.

Markpyro

07-13-2005, 4:11 PM

I agree with what he's trying to do, but I must say Im a bit annoyed. I like how the images in my rotator look, and I dont want to take the best of them out, or make them less than they are.

I would hate if AJ took signitures totally away, they're usually how i define someone. I like to update my signiture with things I'm doing, or notices about where I am, such and such like that.

Modred

07-13-2005, 5:20 PM

If you see an old thread concerning a topic that you would like to discuss, it is safest just to re-make the thread.
But we've already had that thread!

*Modred finds a link from six months ago and posts it*

xD

Back to topic:
Don't believe me when I say AJ hates all signatures? Try looking Here and tell me what you think.
First, when I was on dial up I used the imageless view and was very irate when that option was removed. Anyway, I currently view 40 ppp and no page takes longer than a few seconds to load, unless it has extra graphics such as desktop images, digital photos, etc. I never saw in that thread where AJ showed a dislike for sigs; he simply likes a clean look and was having difficulty justifying the use of signature images.

Although I'm also wondering how he would disable images in the sigs. Can an admin alter the sig entry field so that only the img tag does not work, or would he have to disable all vB code in sigs?

Nuts

07-13-2005, 5:32 PM

Although I'm also wondering how he would disable images in the sigs. Can an admin alter the sig entry field so that only the img tag does not work, or would he have to disable all vB code in sigs?

These are the options for user signatures.

Allow Signatures
Allow registered users to have signatures (small text fragments that appear after each message posted by that user). Yes No

Maximum Length of Signature
The maximum number of characters anyone can use in their signature.

Allow vB Code in Signatures
Allow users to include vB Code in their signatures? (Such as [b], [i] etc.) Yes No

Allow Smilies in Signatures
Allow users to include smilies in their signatures? Yes No

Allow [IMG] Code in Signatures
Allow users to include [IMG] codes in their signatures? Yes No

Allow HTML in Signatures
Allow users to include raw HTML code in their signatures?
(Strongly not recommended.) Yes No

Graeme

07-13-2005, 5:32 PM

* It doesn't matter who addresses the moderation issue at hand, whether it be AJ, WK, Schwitz, me or any other staff. We work as a team. We have a few private subforums open so that we can coordinate our efforts as a team. Don't feel insulted if AJ doesn't address you in particular, because he's a busy guy. If he's not out on the front lines, the moderators are, and he's in the backroom making this site look better.

* As far as signatures go, if you're over the size limit, you're violating the rules that were in place from the moment that we allowed signatures and you really have no basis for your argument ^_^. You can make equally good signatures with the current restrictions - just play around with size optimization and perhaps cut down on the filter work :).

We have to keep this site at a respectable size so 'important' people can browse the site relatively easily. If someone has to wait 3 minutes for a signature to 'time out' because one of our members isn't on a reliable host, it's our loss. If someone has to wait an extra 30 seconds on every page because the signature file sizes are way too big, again, it's our loss. One should not have to download several megabytes to browse a single page on these forums. This place is mainly text-oriented anyway ^_~.

Anyway, Nuts seems to have already grabbed most of the questions in this thread, so my work is already done for me :). Edit: Eh, I may as well leave it open. Nice to see people's opinions anyway.

DragonPaladin

07-13-2005, 5:37 PM

Hmm....must find a smaller and more AJ-formatted sig...

Modred

07-13-2005, 6:47 PM

Alright, I turned off avys, sigs, and images just to see what it felt like. Although it isn't quite as "imageless" as the old imageless style (all of Fenguin's handiwork is still here; not so bad since you only have to download it once), it isn't difficult to navigate or identify other users. Half of the time I still had to look at the username to figure out who said something. The one odd thing about turning off avatars is that the space for them still exists, it's just replaced by the lion head. Under the old imageless style, all that was listed was the username and text info, I believe.

Sikawtic

07-13-2005, 6:51 PM

I actually wouldn't care if sigs were only text based, as the avy is identification enough.

I wouldn't like no-sig at all though, it's a nice place to put information/links.

bluemicrobyte

07-13-2005, 8:37 PM

Alright this has gotten out of hand! Last night, everything was fine. AJ had given out ONE citation for sig rule breaking, and that person had a 500 KB sig or something. I mis-read it and thought he was refering to me, so I proceeded to write a short letter to him about it. My sig was 71 KB at the time. After sending it I realized he wasn't citing my signature, and that I had mis-interpreted his post. Either way, I then had to size down my sig. I've managed to get it down to a total of about 32 KB, but you actually only download about 10 KB each page refresh.

I also did a quick sig analysis and discovered that the average WB users sig image is about 25-40 KB.

After AJ had given out the citation, someone else commented that no one followed the rule anyways.

I don't think AJ ever told white knight to go on patrol and tell everyone to shrink their sigs. I think he just did it to help out.

This whole arguement started with one citation because that person was over the limit by hundreds of kilobytes. The problem was then amplified by the members, not AJ.

Bottom line is that AJ didn't start this, and he didn't give WK orders to PM you, The_Maker. ONE citation got out of hand because of us, not him. So you say you had no part in this? Well you did.

AJ gave out one citation.

A couple of people PMed AJ about that citation.

A couple of people PMed other users giving out un-official citations that looked official.

Those people complained to AJ

Other people complained about AJ.

We all started this huge arguement over the signatures, all because of a stupid chain of events from ONE citation.

The point is this: Everyone sit down, be quiet, reduce your sig size to as low as you can get it, and stop arguing about it. If we all do our part, no restrictions will need to be made and signatures will not need to be removed. This has all been one big misunderstanding.

Nuts

07-13-2005, 8:41 PM

Who pissed in your cornflakes?

bluemicrobyte

07-13-2005, 8:42 PM

Ok, I just got a PM from Whiteknight telling me that AJ wants me to make my sig smaller.

No, WK PMed you telling you that AJ wants sigs in general smaller. (to my knowledge, that is)

Why AJ seems to hate all signature images, big or small
Why AJ told Whiteknight to send me a PM instead of sending it himself
Why AJ doesn't just disable the option to view signatures in his control panel

He didn't until we ticked him off.

He didn't tell WK to do that, nor did he have intentions of specifically citing your sig.

Because that would caus Forum War I and make many folks leave, and fewer people join.

So this posts comes down to this...Is AJ being rather a... meh I won't say it. Does everyone (if anyone) agree with me when I say AJ is an anti signature person and he should just disable signatures via his control panel? I know at least some of the moderators/admins are against getting rid of signatures, but others are strongly for it.

I am STRONGLY against removing signatures, but it's not AJs fault that he is being like this at the moment. It's mostly our fault for exagerating a simple issue that should have been kept in PMs.

I have been keeping this inside me for a while now but from the PM Whiteknight sent me, that just really ticked me off.
Close it if you want AJ, heck, you will most likely delete this thread, but I sure hope you know that if you have a problem with me or anyone else for that matter, it would do a helluva lot of good in my opinion if YOU fixed the problem, not tell someone of a lower rank to bark your commands. If something is SO important you have to send someone else to send us a PM, why the hell not just create a thread in the members lounge as an annoucement?!? That way, people (like me) think you are man enough to actually tell somone if you have a problem with them.

For the last time, AJ didn't tell WK to send you that PM.

Who pissed in your cornflakes?

If I sound upset its because we managed to turn a single citation into a war. I am serious when I say this whole thing started because of one citation. AJ did not originally intend for things to get this bad.

Nuts

07-13-2005, 8:45 PM

There's no war here my friend. I actually thought we were being fairly civil.

bluemicrobyte

07-13-2005, 8:48 PM

So maybe it isn't a full sized war, but we've still managed to create a civilized arguement over something that never realy was a problem in the first place.

Graeme

07-13-2005, 8:57 PM

Erm, it's not even really a problem, all the issues were addressed ^_^. Stuff happened, Nuts informed, I gave my two cents, stuff was done :).

bluemicrobyte

07-13-2005, 9:00 PM

Oh.... ok well in that case, I must have come on late caus if what you say is true then everything is back to normal. yay :)

Spartan-II

07-13-2005, 10:26 PM

So can I keepy my sig - Or do I have to get it resized..?

I'm a little confused.

Neo

07-13-2005, 10:33 PM

I got the same pm from Whiteknight, but it doesnt help since I am pretty sure my sigs are under the limit, except maybe 1 thats a little over (it really doesnt help to tell me that a sig is over size since I have like 8 different random ones >_>)

Meh...

-Neo

bluemicrobyte

07-13-2005, 11:18 PM

So can I keepy my sig - Or do I have to get it resized..?

I'm a little confused.

I don't think it will hurt if your sig is a little bit over the limit. It's the people's sigs that are slowing page load times that's a problem...

Spartan-II

07-13-2005, 11:22 PM

Meh - SiKawtic resized it for me.

I think it looks alright - But if possible i'll change back to the old one.

It just has a better quality.

bluemicrobyte

07-13-2005, 11:25 PM

send me the original, I'll see what I can do with it

Whiteknight

07-13-2005, 11:59 PM

Please keep in mind that AJ does not have the most free time in the world for trivial pursuits. Some signatures were getting wildly out of hand so he asked me to send a polite PM reminding people of the signature limits. I went through a list of members and picked out the offenders. Obviously, everyone now gets the message. No signatures will be deleted for a long time, we are just asking you to conform to the limits as soon as you possibly can.

07-14-2005, 12:06 AM

Look, we established a set of rules when we first allowed signatures to be used here. These have been and remain the same. They are expected to be followed.

A little leeway is typically acceptable as the difference between 26KB and 25KB is obviously marginal. However, I will not stand for this.. "Oh he'll just let me keep this 37KB sig" or "I'll just change back later" crap. If this is the attitude that continues you'll find some rather fun controlling devices popping up in the User CP. I'm sorry, but these are our rules and have been our rules, and I expected them to be followed.

As to me hating signatures, I dislike images in signatures. I always have, and always will. *shrug* Don't know what more to tell you. At some point I may choose to remove that option for you. As I said in the previous thread and will again now, it still hasn't changed, so stop complaining. Follow the rules, they're quite nicely listed in the FAQ for you.

TimP

07-14-2005, 12:08 AM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't AJ have a 100KB+ animated GIF avatar as recent as a week ago?

Sikawtic

07-14-2005, 12:14 AM

Yes, but he's allowed. Cuz he's cool like that (it was 170kb I believe).

TimP

07-14-2005, 12:20 AM

Why was the poll just edited?

bluemicrobyte

07-14-2005, 12:20 AM

We broke the sig rule, he broke the avy rule. Were even, and now were all going to follow the rules.... I hope.

(I think we should lock this thread)

07-14-2005, 12:39 AM

Because people opinion of my sig-hatingness doesn't really warrant a poll.
Especially when the issue has been dealt with and all sides are fine.

As to my avatar, I was exerting a little executive privilege. The sole online animated Hellgate logo is on FS.org, and when I made it I also had a little fun making an avatar. :p

DragonPaladin

07-14-2005, 1:11 AM

For some odd strange reason I can not identity, I like blap more than blop. You?

Well, I'll try better to follow the rules AJ's security squad has set up.

Schwitzer

07-14-2005, 1:20 AM

I personally found this thread rather amusing. :)

And yes... I put a bit of time into writing that FAQ; please read it :D

Modred

07-14-2005, 2:20 AM

As to my avatar, I was exerting a little executive privilege. The sole online animated Hellgate logo is on FS.org, and when I made it I also had a little fun making an avatar. :p
Normally I would take issue with that, but hey, it's your website and you're putting your money into it. I'm just glad I wasn't on dial up at the time. =P

Dezzick

07-14-2005, 3:58 AM

Meh, my siggy images never work, so this doesn't effect me. (that much) :P
And, I hate it when a thread evolves, and dies before I even get a chance to look at it.
EDIT - It does now - will a 27kb siggy (almost said soggy - to much runescape farming) effect me?

Demon_Child

07-14-2005, 5:34 AM

If I remembered correctly about the filesize limitations on signatures, I could have sworn that we had a size limit of 35kb (the size of my previous signature) that was made out quite some time ago. But none the less, I had to comply with the current standards for signatures. No biggie, I just took a couple of minutes to compress the size of my signature as well as give it a sharper image and voila I now have a better looking signature that is still within the size limitations. :)

Here is what my former signature looked like.

http://www.elcapjtk.net/sigs/demonchild1.jpg

And here is my current one.

http://img1.yoxio.com/img/183012.jpg

Edit: Deezed would this image be suitable for you? The filesize is within the limits, but the dimensions are a little bit too big for Warboards's standard 400x100?

http://img1.yoxio.com/img/183330.jpg