Okay, I have a small issue with some people's signatures... Some people just have WAY TO MUCH CRAP on em. Case in point, there is one member here who has a very long siggy that has like... 28 50x50 av pics, and several are animated, and theres tons of text. The point is, its an EYESORE, an eyesore that makes me scroll down pages that are twice as long as they should be.

I think that people should have some limits to what they can have in their signatures. Some people might be on slower connections, and all this stuff is not helping them at all. Here is my proposal:

-A maximum of 6 50x50 pics (as these are the most popular sig images out there)
-A maximum of 2 large or 3 medium sized banners
-nothing over 400x600 pixels in size (this is REASONABLE, as most pics are already under this limit)

and have SOME guidelines about text usage, ESPECIALLY relating to size. Some people may have nearly no images, but they might have size 14 text writing out their title, and song lyrics or something stupid like that.

Again, sorry for ranting, but I'm pretty sure that alot of people are violating the guidelines set down by Prof. Rogue for banners.

<<Currently Listening to: "Climbatize" by Prodigy">>

The only limitation on siggys is not the length of them, but the actual size of the banners themselves. Yes there are some people who even violate that and we do try to take care of that for you, but at the same time, scrolling a little longer down a screen when you already have to scroll isnt really that big of a deal. I completely understand that it gets frustrating sometimes, but there arent any rules about this therefore there's really nothing we can do atm.

You shouldn't force something like that.
I know it's a pain in the butt (I'm not even on dail-up and my internet is super slow), but hey. And I also know that this is old, but I like having my say.

Actually there are rules in place about the signature length and the number of banners one can have in their sigs. The signature guidelines are located here.

In it I state:

That means a smaller banner, which could be a combination of a couple of avatars.

That was the rule for the sizes of banners, but I think almost everyone breaks this one.

Both of these were to prevent very long signature lenghts. I for one am at fault because I haven't enforced these rules because if folks want to have 2 banners, no problem, but it has been getting out of control. Some people have 4 or have full size banners in there sigs and that's just too much. The reason that I put these rules up is not so much for when you have to scroll down a page, but because we have to be aware of people's computers. The more graphics and such you have in your signature, the longer it takes for the pages to load. So we have to be conscious of that.

Now, I'm going to re-work some of these rules to make it managable for all parties. I think 2 banners will be the limit and I'll work on how many avatars one can have in their signature. When you think about it, I think that's pretty fair. Instead of just adding more and more banners to your sig, you have the choice of two banners you'd like to have. Keep in mind that you can always change them around and such.

I'm going to re-work the signature guidelines though because the lenght of signatures has gotten a bit out of control.

Let me know if I must take some stuff out of my sig.

(Reg, could you check out the Registration Offices? I requested an ANWA change a few days ago... Thanks.)

Thank you kindly Professor Rogue. My dad has had dial up internet since I moved out of his house, and I am forced to use it when I go visit him, and my current house has a shared connection with a high speed, but... its pretty damn slow with 4 computers on the network.

[size=1][/size]

[rant]
I DEFINITELY THINK IT SHOULD BE ENFORCED . . . I was about to start ranting about people's sig lengths getting ridiculous just before I noticed this thread.

I don't mean to sound harsh but I'm honestly sick to death of having to scroll a million miles because people have way to many banners or icons or EVEN writing and I'm stuck on EXTREMELY slow dial up along with an already slow computer. This was also one of the reasons of why I decided I wasn't going to post here anymore . . . it just took way too much time for a thread page to load (heck it took ages for the main page to load and thats nothing compared to the threads) so I'd be lucky to post in ten or less threads before I'd have my mother yelling at me to get of the net. I remember at one stage I actually had a link to the rules on my own sig!!

I've noticed that it seems to go in phases . . . times when everything is good with the banners and then when it gets way out of hand like it is now.

I suggest there be a mod or someone who owls people about there signature lengths if they go against the sig rules and kindly asks them to change or remove images ect from the sigs! I'll do it myself if I have to . . .
[/rant]

Heh sorry sig lengths have always been one of my pet peeves here! :P

Ask Reggie, Shonk.

Ask Reggie wat . . . :mellow: I wasn't aware I was asking anything!

Since we're on that topic, I can see the point about too much scrolling.

Therefore:

Shonk, I officially request permission to reduce the size of my portrait somewhat. Since you're the artist, I don't want to touch it without your permission.

Ask Reggie to ban long signatures. There's a code for it.

I know there is a code . . . and isn't this wat this thread is about? :mellow:

No cooking-clue.

I totally understand what you're saying Shonks. No need to apologize. The signatures have gotten way out of control, especially when they cause the pages to be disoriented.

I'm working on revising the rules as we speak right now. Basically, we really have to be mindful of those people with slower computers.

Ooops...O_o
my bad...

I would just like to say that at this time at least with two of the houses on the boards, there are more than the normal amounts of banners because they are trying to show house spirit for the game. I personally will take out house banners before I take out my personal ones. So if I need to do that, then please let me know. I already took out my Cheerleading one, and I tried to consolidate my quidditch ones, but if that's still not good enough, then I'll just lose them altogether.

I understand about the house banners showing spirit and I understand that you may need more width for that to try and get everyone in your house in the banner. You'll have certain options wtih that. The problem IMO is that people are just wanting to put too many banners in there sigs. Two is going to be the limit (with maxiums).

Your Qudditch banner was fine, it's just that when you added the picture of Dream and made the width 600+ is when it became a problem because now it causes the pages to be disoriented.

Again, I'm still revising the rules and stuff to try and make everyone happy. But honestly, it shouldn't be that big of a problem becaue you can always rotate your banners. You could do the house pride banner for a couple of days, and then put in your personal banners. Rotation. :)

I do agree that some people's siggys are a tad long...but if you don't want to look at them you can alter the board settings on your profile.
Go to My controls - Board settings - Do you wish to view members signatures when reading topics? - change to 'no' and Bob's your uncle, everyone's happy...

I didnt know that! Awesome! You're so smart Ankaa! :D

i don't have any banners yet, so i am ok?

Yep Ankaa, there is an option to turn off people's signatures but the problem with that is our new members who first come here to the forums. They don't know about that option in their profiles. Also, if they have trouble loading a thread because of all the excessive images, do you really think they're going to stick around for long? Some do, but a lot of them don't. Also, as many members have already expressed in this thread, it isn't about not wanting to view signatures, it's about the length of signatures. Therefore it would be really unfair to tell them to just use this option to turn signatures off.

Sabrina: For one thing, it's your username that causes the pages disoriented. But we can talk about that in private about changing it to something shorter if you like. You don't have any banners, but you do have your portrait, 2 HP spoilers of doom banners and about 25 avatars in your sig. That's too much. The revised rules aren't done yet, they'll be different options for the way you can have your signature. But yeah, you'll have to take some stuff out of your sig.

So use the code that cuts the signature off.. I think you get 400pixels going down, and if the sig is too big, it just cuts the rest off.

Why don't we all just wait until Rogue sets up the new guidelines and go from there? Then people will adjust their signatures accordingly. Personally, I say 3 banners is plenty, nothing massive or anything like that, because then people can have banners for different things that they're involved with or whatever.

Love ya Rogue. Thanks for taking the time to pay attention to whiny ol' me.

I think two decent sized banners should be okay... and I think 2-3 avatar sized pics could equal one banner, since they are pretty small... The buttons I have are really small, and I've noticed several others with em too... so I think maybe... 3 per person, as long as they are small?

Personally I think the spoilers are a bit stupid... but they take up very little bandwidth, as they are HTML based, and so I don't mind people having one in addition to the 2 banners I propose.

These are just some suggestions, take or leave them as you choose, I'm just trying to be helpful!

<<Currently Listening to: "That's All" by KMFDM>>

Are we any closer to getting these new guidlines up yet?? I'm about ready to pull out my club and start doofing people over the head with it :D

well...srry my sig is so long, i guess i got carried away, but i really don;t wanna LOSE any of these pics! they are so cool! and the second spoler of doom banner i made from the first one. i messed around with it and changed it to be funnier. if anybody wants me to show them, let me know!

Well I'm sorry Sabrina but you are probably going to have to lose at least 80% of them. You're just gonna have to do waht Reggie suggested before and have them on a rotation.

I don't think the spoilers of doom matter all that much as they are just html though the text size in them could probably be decreased so they don't take up too much room if people choose to have multiple one in their sigs.


Anyway I'm startin to think that half the overlong sig problems we are havin here are probably my fault :P Haha . . . I started the Spiler of doom thing after finding it on LJ and maybe I should have made people banners along with their character portraits so they don't have to put the whole large image in their sigs. I know Mark actually asked me to do it for him but no one else asked so I didn't really bother and not everyone puts them in their sigs anyway.

Shonkie, if you started up with the old Evil Overlord's club, I would help. Hell, if you don't restart it, I will try to. Also, don't think you have to edit everyones character portrait sigs for them. We have several skilled photoshoop artists who can probably manage to add a text layer without destroying them. Besides, I'm sure it would help if people used their pics on their own photobucket accounts, as I'm sure the bandwidth on yours will run out if you continue making people banners and such.

<<Currently Listening to: >>

All you have to do is resize the portraits, anyone with a graphics program could do that.

The spoiler of doom html's is basically a banner too. If you want that in your sig, it'll take the place of a banner.

Ok, at first I didn't think this was a problem, but lately I've been seeing some extremely long signatures. Now, I'm not picking on you, but Scarlett, yours is the only long sig I remember. It really is getting out of hand. And EZ-Bake, yours as well.

Sorry guys.

Yeah I've already bonked scarlett on the head about hers :P Wish Reggie would hurry it up . . . :P

*cough* Right... uhm.. I'm gonna.. go.

Geeeeeez. All right, the new sig guidelines are up. I guess I had it done awhile ago.....

You can locate them here, and they go into affect immediatly. So if your current signature does not cooperate with the guidelines, please make the changes.

I'm pretty opened minded to adjustements, so let me know what you think.

Cool.