New mixed signature rules

biko

Today there are no guidelines for mixed sigs (text & pics) so the sigs are overflowing with little counters and a few forum logos and a cute poem etc etc... I'm not going to name any particular users here but look in the SIGPO thread if you need examples.
Also todays image rules only allow for a single picture, something that a lot of users break.

Therefore I suggest Clouds original guidelines be amended according to the below text.

Text only: 4 lines normal size OR 8 lines small size, including space lines and up to 90 chars per line. No text size bigger than 2.
Images only: Max 10 images including counters and userbars, all totalling no more than 30 KB; 125 px high and 400 px wide.
(New) Mixed sig (text/pics): Only small size text allowed 4 lines (incl space lines), images (counters, userbars or regular) as above.
What we want to do is to reduce the total height of the sig. Particularly space lines that can add a lot to the sigs height. With max image 125 px and 4 small text lines it's still quite high.

Quotes are allowed but animated sigs are a big no-no.
Same sig rules for mods, subscribers and newbies.
At the moderators discretion - clearly offensive text or images will be removed and a ban can be handed out.



This is max allowed height mixed:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam ultricies. Aliquam posuere. Cras adipiscing nibh sit amet arcu. Cras libero felis, porta in, posuere eget, nonummy in, enim. Vivamus sollicitudin pede id odio consequat scelerisque. Aliquam erat volutpat. In sollicitudin mi sit amet velit. Vivamus eu leo eget leo tincidunt nonummy. Fusce massa. Pellentesque lorem tortor, condimentum ut, dignissim ut, molestie vitae, neque. Fusce sit amet lorem vel erat vehicula commodo.

hullaballoo

I think that's too much text. One image or multiple images not exceeding 125 pixels height and 300 pixels in width with a weight of less than or approximately 20kb.

For mixed sigs, the image rules should apply, but there should be only one line of text. No quotes. The reason for no quotes is that it interrupts the thread because it looks like it's part of the thread, as far as I can see.

The total height of the sig shouldn't be more than about 175 pixels. Even at that, I think tall sigs are ugly.

DeVore

Yeah those sound like decent rules. Its an area we would clean up but the next version of vB has some rules logic for sigs in it apparently.

DeV.

DonkeyStyle \o/

You should try hiding sigs for a day.
I haven't looked back
You can always open someones user profile if you're desperate enough to see what crudd they have in it.

amp

DeVore wrote:

Yeah those sound like decent rules. Its an area we would clean up but the next version of vB has some rules logic for sigs in it apparently.

DeV.

Oh buggar..

(Like my good self, my signature might look small on the outside, it is amazingly complex and interesting on the inside and if needed CAN **** LIKE A TIGER )

Rabies

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

You should try hiding sigs for a day.
I haven't looked back
You can always open someones user profile if you're desperate enough to see what crudd they have in it.

I would be of the same view. Sigs get boring to look at over and over again. Set them to invisible ages ago and haven't missed them at all.

kaimera

Rabies wrote:

I would be of the same view. Sigs get boring to look at over and over again. Set them to invisible ages ago and haven't missed them at all.

Minimalist ftw

Thrill

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

You should try hiding sigs for a day.
I haven't looked back
You can always open someones user profile if you're desperate enough to see what crudd they have in it.

I hid them from day one. Having tried it both way's i found it far easier to read through threads without the clutter of sigs.

EDIT: No both ways jokes please.

Faith

I find it entertaining that most of the people who've said that they block sigs have one... What's the point?

MadsL

I for one am intrigued by the sekrit missing image in pams sig....hmmmm...this page intentionally blank?
[missing image here]

copacetic

i blocked them first time I came on, have never seen anyones sig on any forum that didn't make them look like a pratt. Besides it gives threads a much cleaner look.

I just don't understand why people have them?

Thrill

Faith wrote:

I find it entertaining that most of the people who've said that they block sigs have one... What's the point?

I added the one i have a few days ago to help me to navigate to the forum as it was new forum and i was having trouble finding it. All i have to do now is click on my username and then click on the sig.

Ruu_Old

You can just Subscribe to the forum (Forum Tools->Subscribe to Forum) and have all your favourite ones showing in the Subbed menu. Easy peasy.

kaimera

Faith wrote:

I find it entertaining that most of the people who've said that they block sigs have one... What's the point?

Because I don't look at others I'm not supposed to have one?

You don't like it, turn 'em off

I did have dialup for quite a long time and sigs/avatars turned off was better. Find it hard to view boards when them on.

aidan_walsh

Ruu wrote:

You can just Subscribe to the forum (Forum Tools->Subscribe to Forum) and have all your favourite ones showing in the Subbed menu. Easy peasy.

Of course, with the Javascript problem thats showing up in certain browsers, you may have to temporarily change the time range on the forum page such that you only have a single page of posts before you can get at the subscription option.

Blowfish

Faith wrote:

I find it entertaining that most of the people who've said that they block sigs have one... What's the point?

Well do you always look at yours? Thats if you have one of course, I can't see

Talliesin

aidan_walsh wrote:

Of course, with the Javascript problem thats showing up in certain browsers, you may have to temporarily change the time range on the forum page such that you only have a single page of posts before you can get at the subscription option.

Easier to right-click on the forum tools link and select "open in new tab" or "open in new window". This will bring you to a version of the forum page with non-javascript versions of the tools at the bottom automatically scrolling to those tools.

The_Minister

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

You should try hiding sigs for a day.
I haven't looked back
You can always open someones user profile if you're desperate enough to see what crudd they have in it.

So you've never seen my picture of a man eating his own head? How dissapointing for you.

:|

Sigs make me lol sometimes....

biko

DeVore wrote:

Yeah those sound like decent rules. Its an area we would clean up but the next version of vB has some rules logic for sigs in it apparently.

DeV.

So Dev, we'll just wait for the next version on vB?
If so this thread can be locked.

DeVore

Well, this is an interesting topic and often people come up with ideas that we include or amend. In fact right now there are two discussions going on about political party advertising in sigs... most of them are mixed sigs too. We have to revamp the sig rules to accomodate them and perhaps rejig them entirely.

I'm waiting to see what the new vB gives me in terms of control as it might be pre-inventing the wheel if we set rules down now.

DeV.

Tar.Aldarion

Couple of sigs on this thread break the rules, including mine. Where are the sigpo when you need them.

tba

I agree, all these animated sigs make me sick, where is the sigpo when they are needed!

Won't somebody think of my bandwidth!
__________________
cats is awesome lol

brianthebard

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

You should try hiding sigs for a day.
I haven't looked back
You can always open someones user profile if you're desperate enough to see what crudd they have in it.

But then you miss out on gems like this;

Sully

Any chance we can address these issues?

Sherifu

Sully never forgets.

RoundyMooney

Biko's original idea would stand, but for the ridiculous amount of text.

Amps sig is a lesson in condensed plenty, but very few will take the time to tidy theirs to this extent.

Sully

rkm wrote: »

Sully never forgets.

No, biko never forgets. He pointed it out, im just bumping it

biko

As a start suggestion, slightly revised from OP.

Images:
One or more images not exceeding 125px high / 500px wide / 25kB total. This will allow flickr userbars etc.

Text:
4 lines normal size OR 8 lines small size, including space lines and up to 90 chars per line. This includes space lines.

Images and text together is ok (today it's actually not allowed, technically)

No text size bigger than 2.
No animation.
No centred nor right justified.
No quote tags.
No company advertisements.
Same rules for every user of the site.


Moderators of forum can have rules in their charters about what sigs are allowed in their forum. Only content, not hight/width etc.

Signatures that can be deemed offensive or out of order can be removed even if they adhere to general rules.



Below is the new max (suggestion remember :-)
___________________________________________

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam ultricies. Aliquam posuere. Cras adipiscing nibh sit amet arcu. Cras libero felis, porta in, posuere eget, nonummy in, mi sit amet velit. Vivamus eu leo eget leo tincidunt nonummy. Fusce massa. Pellentesque lorem tortor, condimentum ut, dignissim ut, molestie vitae, neque. Fusce sit amet

adipiscing elit. Aliquam ultricies. Aliquam posuere. Cras adipiscing nibh sit amet arcu. Cras libero felis, porta in, posuere eget, nonummy in, enim. Vivamus sollicitudin pede id odio consequat molestie vitae, neque. Fusce sit amet lorem vel erat vehicula commodo. Cras libero felis, porta in, posuere eget, nonummy in, enim. Vivamus sollicitudin pede id odio consequat scelerisque. Aliquam erat volutpat. In sollicitudin mi

RoundyMooney

Jesus, that's worse.

I think hulla's idea on limiting text for those with images is the way to go.

Also, the flickr sigs should be allowed (formally), and max image dimensions adjusted to suit.

Hagar

No political sigs please, they can be very divisive.

Terry

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote: »

You should try hiding sigs for a day.
I haven't looked back
You can always open someones user profile if you're desperate enough to see what crudd they have in it.

I've had them off for quite a while too.
Not because I didn't want to see them. It's mainly because my PC is borked and multiple images slow it down to a snail's pace.
I can't even use Firefox and the adblock addon.

Faith wrote: »

I find it entertaining that most of the people who've said that they block sigs have one... What's the point?

I was trying to sell something.
Sold now. Must change it.

biko wrote: »

Moderators of forum can have rules in their charters about what sigs are allowed in their forum. Only content, not hight/width etc.

That won't work.
People post in multiple forums.
There's no point in me and the other AH mods saying you can do one thing and other forum mods saying you can't.

Actually, now that I think of it, some of those userbar sites do tend to lag at times and cause a snap back.
I think they should be done away with completely and users asked to use a dedicated image host.
There are two or three in particular.
I can't remember right now, but I know that lastfm is one that tends to hang at times.

MarkR

I just turned off sigs. I feel invigorated. And somewhat nervous. Wondering about all the cool quotes I'm missing.

Earthhorse

biko wrote: »

No centred nor right justified.
No quote tags.

I think you should be allowed post quotes in your sig provided you change the text size to 1 i.e. imitate the quote tag functionality. I can't see users thinking this is a quote from the thread if this is done.

What's the problem with right or centred justified sigs?

biko

Earthhorse wrote: »

I think you should be allowed post quotes in your sig provided you change the text size to 1 i.e. imitate the quote tag functionality. I can't see users thinking this is a quote from the thread if this is done.

What's the problem with right or centred justified sigs?

It's just easier to disallow quotes altogether. I usually suggest users use "" instead and no-one has objected to this.
Everything besides left justified break the flow of the thread in my opinion, also according to others that have reported sigs because of this.

Terry wrote:

That won't work.
People post in multiple forums.
There's no point in me and the other AH mods saying you can do one thing and other forum mods saying you can't.

This is because mods requested something like this in the Report thread. If you have a Man U SUX signature in Soccer forum the mods there should be allowed to warn you and infract. Most mods/forum will not need this but the ones who do can add it to the charter.

6th

biko wrote: »

As a start suggestion, slightly revised from OP.

Images:
One or more images not exceeding 125px high / 500px wide / 25kB total. This will allow flickr userbars etc.

Text:
4 lines normal size OR 8 lines small size, including space lines and up to 90 chars per line. This includes space lines.

Images and text together is ok (today it's actually not allowed, technically)

No text size bigger than 2.
No animation.
No centred nor right justified.
No quote tags.
No company advertisements.
Same rules for every user of the site.


Moderators of forum can have rules in their charters about what sigs are allowed in their forum. Only content, not hight/width etc.

Signatures that can be deemed offensive or out of order can be removed even if they adhere to general rules.



Below is the new max (suggestion remember :-)
___________________________________________

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam ultricies. Aliquam posuere. Cras adipiscing nibh sit amet arcu. Cras libero felis, porta in, posuere eget, nonummy in, mi sit amet velit. Vivamus eu leo eget leo tincidunt nonummy. Fusce massa. Pellentesque lorem tortor, condimentum ut, dignissim ut, molestie vitae, neque. Fusce sit amet

adipiscing elit. Aliquam ultricies. Aliquam posuere. Cras adipiscing nibh sit amet arcu. Cras libero felis, porta in, posuere eget, nonummy in, enim. Vivamus sollicitudin pede id odio consequat molestie vitae, neque. Fusce sit amet lorem vel erat vehicula commodo. Cras libero felis, porta in, posuere eget, nonummy in, enim. Vivamus sollicitudin pede id odio consequat scelerisque. Aliquam erat volutpat. In sollicitudin mi

Thats alot of text .... way too much imo.

Other than that I like what you're suggesting.

125x500 and keeping it to 25k is not easy!

I think if Flickr & Ticker sigs are allowed (and they should be) then images of the same dimensions should be acceptable.

Earthhorse

biko wrote: »

Everything besides left justified break the flow of the thread in my opinion, also according to others that have reported sigs because of this.

All sigs break the flow of a thread if you ask me, which is why I browse with them off and try and keep my own unintrusive.

I think people should be allowed justify them to their heart's content; if some people find them distracting then tough luck.

Sully

Why ban company sigs? There not that bad are they?!

biko

That comes from Clouds "Your sig should NOT be a giant advertisement for anything" in the original rules as well as the possibility of income for boards' adverts (DeVore/regi ). I don't mind if it stay the way it is today.

SimpleSam06

new sig rules yaaay

6th

SimpleSam, they are just suggestions for rules ... you are in violation, prepare to be boarded.

Popinjay

6th wrote: »

you are on boards, prepare to be violated.

Fixed.

SimpleSam06

6th wrote: »

SimpleSam, they are just suggestions for rules ... you are in violation, prepare to be boarded.

Meself and FKN below are ready for it! I'll take em all, astroglide or not!

Sully

biko wrote: »

That comes from Clouds "Your sig should NOT be a giant advertisement for anything" in the original rules as well as the possibility of income for boards' adverts (DeVore/regi ). I don't mind if it stay the way it is today.

Small sigs should be okay, there are hundereds of us with them! Its only those who run a big advertising campaign in their sig should they be told "Right, thats enough.. of with your head"!!

Terry

biko wrote: »

It's just easier to disallow quotes altogether. I usually suggest users use "" instead and no-one has objected to this.
Everything besides left justified break the flow of the thread in my opinion, also according to others that have reported sigs because of this.

This is because mods requested something like this in the Report thread. If you have a Man U SUX signature in Soccer forum the mods there should be allowed to warn you and infract. Most mods/forum will not need this but the ones who do can add it to the charter.

I see your point, Biko.
However, that type pf thing would really fall under the no inflamatory sigs (is there a rule for that), which would be site-wide really.

Soccer fans can be a rabid bunch.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=55134739&postcount=44

One of the many reasons I never applied for access to the soccer forum.
They just can't take a joke.

SimpleSam06

Eh having tried the new much larger sig size for a while, I have to say it doesn't sit too well. I had a giant flaming chainsaw across half the page and it did interfere with reading the discussion.

6th

According to the signature edit page:

Note: The maximum size of your custom image is 500 by 100 pixels or 19.5 KB (whichever is smaller).

Is that new or was it always like that?

AlmightyCushion

6th wrote: »

Is that new or was it always like that?

That seems to on;y appear for subscribers (I think). It also only applies to uploaded images. I don't think there is a way to limit the size of imbed images.

SimpleSam06

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

don't think there is a way to limit the size of imbed images.

Maybe you could move the burden for it clientside by putting a javascript filter or something? Putting stuff like that on the client usually ends badly though. Alternately you might be able to filter the image by preloading it when its added in the user cp, and filter it there.

AlmightyCushion

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

Maybe you could move the burden for it clientside by putting a javascript filter or something? Putting stuff like that on the client usually ends badly though. Alternately you might be able to filter the image by preloading it when its added in the user cp, and filter it there.

Stop doing cult's job for him.

I think the easiest way (read: laziest way ) would be to just disable img tags in sigs and force people to upload the images.

6th

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Stop doing cult's job for him.

I think the easiest way (read: laziest way ) would be to just disable img tags in sigs and force people to upload the images.

Makes sense but I'm liking using multiple images up to the max size ..... I need more icons though.