Signature Content & Sizes

[Chris]

Hi Folks,

I seemed to have noticed lately, that there is seemingly more and more members who are creating progressively larger and larger signatures.

The content in these signatures includes things like; fully linked images, numerous medium sized images, quotes, hyperlinks, text, smilies, etc.

Some of the issues I see with the current situation is as follows...

1 - Some of the content contained is some of these signatures, is quite honestly starting to test the boundries of the site's content rules.

2 - This additional content has the effect of slowing down the loading times of many of the site's pages, as these remotely hosted images have to be downloaded by members. This issue especially impacts those who don't have high speed internet access.

3 - Many members don't like having to wade through a thread, where it seems like half or more of the thread itself, is seemingly some member's huge signature repeating over and over and over.

Here is how I see things...

When people's signatures start to test the boundries of good taste and then when that member also has a lot of posts on the board, the effect is that content appears pretty well all over the site, making it pretty well unavoidable for others who wish to avoid this type of content if they so choose.

To me, having to wade through a thread which is 1/2 or 3/4 just some member's gigantic signature repeating over and over, to me is really annoying and I know I'm not the only member who feels this way. A reasonable sized signature telling me a bit about a person and with a bit of reasonable informative content I'm good with.

So the question goes out as to what do we do about this?

Nothing, something?

As far as risque content goes in signatures (or anywhere else), where I see it and where IMO I find it crosses the forums content guidelines, that part of a member's signature, will get removed without notice.

The other part of this equation I would like your feedback on.

-Should we just not allow signatures at all?

-Should we restrict signatures to certain user-groups, like we did with vote polling? Meaning, we do something like only allow supporting members to use signatures? Or perhaps only allow members who have been a member for a certain period of time and/or have a certain number of posts use signatures?

-For permitted signatures, what do you think is a reasonable size for a members signature?

-Should members be allowed to put images in their signatures?

-If so how many?

-What should the size limitations of signature images be if any?

I look forward to reading your feedback and comments, so that we can try to develop some kind of guidelines and policy going forward.

Thanks,

-Chris

 

[JT Patroni]

In the best interests of all concerned I think this decision is up to
the moderator based on the current forum guide lines.
Should the moderator think any one of the signatures has gone over the top for any reason, a private message to that individual is in order.

While the opinion of the forum members may be useful, it is the forum
guidelines that should be utilized.

This is not to pass the buck back to you, just a simple solution. If you
have brought the subject out into the open I would think this has already gone beyond what you feel comfortable with.

 

[ndaniels]

Chris, if it's any help I can get rid of my old Exciter's information...

 

[ndaniels]

I've never noticed a problem, but then again I have high speed access. I could see where it might be annoying for dial up connections. I'm not sure what would be the best solution.. I like seeing some of the pics in peoples sigs. I know that we option to not have a sig when responding to posts, but is there any way that you can make it so it shows up for the first post somone makes and the first response others make when they cime in, then after that no sigs in the thread?

Or, maybe just limiting the amount of words.. to exactly what I have

I have seen that done in other forums.. I've tried to copy and past my sig over on BF and it was too long.

 

[Chris]

In the best interests of all concerned I think this decision is up to
the moderator based on the current forum guide lines.
Should the moderator think any one of the signatures has gone over the top for any reason, a private message to that individual is in order.

While the opinion of the forum members may be useful, it is the forum
guidelines that should be utilized.

This is not to pass the buck back to you, just a simple solution. If you
have brought the subject out into the open I would think this has already gone beyond what you feel comfortable with.

Hi JT,

Thanks for the feedback.

In terms of content anywhere on the site going over the line, I've already said what people can expect to happen with respect to that content. It's getting removed without notice. As far as sending people PM's about it, I'm not going to. If the content gets removed then it crossed the line in our opinion and that's the bottom line.

More what what I'm really trying to solicit feedback on is all the other issues with regard to signatures. Specifically, what to do about very large signatures containing a number of various components to them.

For awhile I have noticed that signatures have seemingly been getting bigger and bigger and I myself personally have started finding some are getting annoyingly big. I then read a few comments about the size of some of the signatures and also had a few private comments and realized it wasn't just me who felt this way.

So now I'm looking for feedback to see if I can get an idea as to what people think is reasonable.

-Chris

 

[Chris]

Chris, if it's any help I can get rid of my old Exciter's information...

I think yours is reasonable in size to be honest. I like small and informative sigs.

Even my own is larger then I would really like. But some of the info in it I think is important.

-Chris

 

[ndaniels]

I was just messing with ya about ditching the only actual info about Checkmate I had in it...

 

[Chris]

I was just messing with ya about ditching the only actual info about Checkmate I had in it...

DOH! *facepalm*

-Chris

 

[karzrus]

I have high speed so big sig's don't cause me any issue, I don't think anyway? But, I do have an opinion.

I think supporting members should get a perk, so more space and a picture option, but you need to limit it all to something reasonable. I don't know what reasonable is exactly, but I know it when I see it.

I have never had a issue with what everyone has and admire those who have found the time and desire to create a sig, what ever it is. I'm too lazy to do it and everything you need to know about me is in my profile.

Rob

 

[Big Red]

I cant stand it when pics are used and you must scroll side to side to read a thread. Pic sizes need to be limited in your signatures to avatar sizes. Some signature pics are cool for a bit, then they become annoying after a while looking at them.

my 02 no butter cupping here

 

[Chris]

I cant stand it when pics are used and you must scroll side to side to read a thread. Pic sizes need to be limited in your signatures to avatar sizes. Some signature pics are cool for a bit, then they become annoying after a while looking at them.

my 02 no butter cupping here

Thanks for the feedback BR.

A couple of technical points worth noting - I point this out to help shape the policy going forward.

As it stands today, currently, only supporting members can upload signature pics to our servers, although most people using signature pics are actually hosting their images elsewhere and then simply hotlinking them in.

In the forum's control panel, I can limit the maximum size of an image that a member can upload, but I can't do the same thing for hotlinked images. My options with respect to hotlinked images, is that I can either allow hotlinked images, or disallow hotlinked images and I can do that by usergroup. Whatever the size of the image is that is hotlinked, is what will be displayed in the members signature. So if a member links a 1000 pixel wide image, that is what will be displayed. What I believe what I can do is limit the number of images that can be physically hotlinked in a signature and I have already changed that to one image as of today. We'll see if and how that works.

You mentioned the screen scrolling issue which is a good point. One of the challenges with that issue is that our members use a variety of screen sizes and resolutions. So therefore what happens, is that a member using a large screen might not be effected by a particular image size, but someone using a smaller screen (like a laptop has), which has a much smaller resolution, those members could be impacted by the exact same image. The impact obviously being that they would to scroll left and right to see the full page.

-Chris

 

[Big Red]

I have a 19'' screen and I still need to scroll back and forth on some.

 

[ezflyer]

I have a 19'' screen and I still need to scroll back and forth on some.

i agree with br. why do you need such a big pic in your signature. i live right on the edge of the earth. they dont offer high speed in my area. some of the larger pics does suck. why cant you make the sig pics only as large as the avitar, and limit the words to only so many charater. just my thoughts after a long day fishing.

 

[bigredinohio]

I use a maximum size of 640 pixels for my images and it doesn't require scrolling.

 

[john lamon]

yeah the big pics can be annoying, I agree the sig should be short and sweet but it's nice being able to put a small pic if you want, I find that my blackberry has a hard time loading threads with the big pics and I usually have to try a few times before it will work, as for linking pics from a host site, I always used to use photobucket and end up with the big pics that you had to resize to prevent having to scroll across to read the thread, I discovered a few months ago that if you use facebook as your host site it automatically resizes the pics to this size, sorry for making the thread bigger with the pic

 

[BADBK]

Big sig's are a huge annoyance.... why would I want to scroll down a whole page because someone has a collage of trucks/cars/PWC's and quotes? At least turn your nuisance signature off after you've posted once in the thread.

A small avatar sized picture of YOUR BOAT(s) and brief details should suffice.

 

[Chris]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

For what it's worth, I've got the gallery set up to resize images to 800 pixels wide. The board's software also tries to resize images down if you attach the images and then of course it displays a thumbnail that when clicked on shows the full size image. Unfortunately if the file size a user tries to upload in KB's, is over the max limits though, the file won't upload.

Originally when I set the gallery up, it was set to resize images to 640 wide, I think that was the default size actually. A number of people asked/commented that 640 was too small. So I experimented with a few different max sizes and 800 pixels wide seemed to work well on most screen sizes without scrolling.

Just in case I wasn't clear, my questions were actually more with respect to the size and content of signature pics though. The oversized images is another issue all together. We can also discuss that one too if you like though. I'm not sure there is a good systems related solution to that one though, beyond something drastic like eliminating the ability to hot-linking images.

-Chris

 

[horseplay1]

Being a community is just that a COMMUNITY some in that community have more time -more interest in being a part of that I personally don't find that to be a big issue. But on the other hand Ican see where others might but keep in mind if we were all alike this would not be a community it would be more like a cult! It is possible to tone things down when others are tested by what you use and maybe it would be an opportunity to use a little of your skill and love for this site to keep it fresh for all!!! WE ALL LOVE OUR CHECKS THAT'S WHY WERE HERE!

 

[keith4216]

Totally off topic but, If where talking about annoying things. GiGi is an annoying chick!! She only tells us about the same old stickers and nothing about boats or parts. This wouldn't be so annoying if she didn't list them all, plus repeats. This runs all the new threads down to the bottom or off the page.

Get your girl in line Chris,

 

[Chris]

Totally off topic but, If where talking about annoying things. GiGi is an annoying chick!! She only tells us about the same old stickers and nothing about boats or parts. This wouldn't be so annoying if she didn't list them all, plus repeats. This runs all the new threads down to the bottom or off the page.

Get your girl in line Chris,

Unfortunately, that's the RSS feed that comes from eBay.

We're pretty much at the mercy of the feed itself. I've tried playing with it over the years to try to filter out the grey market stickers etc. but usually only with temporary success.

-Chris