# [OT] Noisy Profiles of Posters



## SylverFlame (Mar 25, 2003)

Hey. I've just noticed that over the last little while I have gotten a pretty noisy profile. I have two sigs, a quiz (I love my care bear  ) and an avatar. 

Anyways, I ran into an issue. Just how noisy can a profile get before it gets annoying? Stupid thoughts running through my sleep deprived mind (I hate the paper writing crunch time).


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## Clay_More (Mar 26, 2003)

Well, I must say yours is approaching the annoying barrier 

Off course, you could say the same for mine, but lets not mention that. I have seen a few truly horrible, picture + quotes + a billion links kinda sigs, so its not bad, yours. I do get a little annoyed when you have to scroll up & down for half an hour to get to the text that people write. Isn't there an option in your profile to turn sigs of when watching forum messages? Even though it would hurt a little of the feel sigs give, which I actually like...


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## Iron_Chef (Mar 26, 2003)

The care bear is totally huge and annoying. I generally don't like, read or pay attention to anybody's avatar, but yours is so monstrous that I can't help it. Of course, I resent the fact that it is so big I was forced to pay attention to it in the first place.


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## gamecat (Mar 26, 2003)

This should be in meta, but while I'm here, is this sig annoying?


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## Clay_More (Mar 26, 2003)

Well, its not so bad since its wide, not tall. The problem with my sig is sometimes that its a tall picture. Would look completely stupid if I widened it out or made it smaller though and I loove it so...


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## Painfully (Mar 26, 2003)

Like gamecat said, this belongs in meta.  

Anybody who has a sig bigger than their average post is annoying IMO.  A sig should be brief, and show a bit of individual expression.  What it shouldn't be is a large block of waste before getting to the next post.

As an example, imagine if everybody had a large sig the size of a care bear (or whatever), and then imagine EVERY POST with that sig.  It gets out of hand when there is more space devoted to sigs rather than posts.  Don't be a hog.  Keep the sig a reasonable size and let people move on to the next post.

As a final note, the care bear sig would be less annoying if you had a longer post than your sig.  Same for gamecat or anybody else for that matter.

If I had my way I think I would ban pics from sigs.  Picture attachments and avatars are sufficient, and I've seen some people really abuse their sigs with bloated banners and "What kind of XXXX are you?" pics.  Those are ALWAYS annoying.


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## green slime (Mar 26, 2003)

I agree with Painfully.

There shouldn't be any bloody pictures in sigs...IMNSHO.


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## Gez (Mar 26, 2003)

The sig should not be over 3 lines. When your sig is bigger than your post, it makes you look stupid. Beside, yes, pictures are annoying. Alzrius' one is getting on my nerves. You should check in you profile that your sig would not be displayed by default, and only include it, like, the first time you post in a thread, if you don't want to remove an invaside picture.

And meta-ize that. I was going to report the thread, but it says: "reports only spam, advertising messages, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts". Even with stretching things, forum errors may difficultly be seen as rude. Oh well.


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## SylverFlame (Mar 27, 2003)

Okay. I did not expect this many people to reply, so I have made a decision:

I am gonna start a poll as to whether or not the care bear should go. After three days of voting, then the majority will have it!

Viva la democracie pour ENWorld!!

EDIT: I'll put the poll in another forum while I'm at it. (It was put into Meta.)


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## Ravellion (Mar 27, 2003)

Piratecat's reduced image in the other thread should be used *regardless* of whether people want your care bear though. Now. Not in three days. I like it, but not on that much of my screen. Not everyone is running 1196x768 resolution. If the numbers are off... that's because i am not running that resolution, so how should I know ?


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## Shalimar (Mar 27, 2003)

I think any post where the sig is longer then the post itself is offensive.  I don't really want to be scrolling through threads that are 3/4ths sig.  I think that 3 lines would be pretty good ballpark, so long as your post is at least 6.  I mean what do you want us to pay attention to?  Your collosal sig, or what you have actually posted?


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## seasong (Mar 27, 2003)

If you took the top paragraph of the care bear sig, and shrunk the care bear image down to match that height, your sig would probably be fine.

In general, sigs are advertising banners - they are advertising you, the stuff you write, the place you work, etc. It should be compact and tasteful (whether I've succeeded, below, is difficult to say).

Also, for those who don't like the pictures, you can turn them off. Go to your user profile, click on "Edit Options" at the top, go 2/3rds of the way down the page and look for:

Show user's signatures in their posts?  yes  no  
Show user's avatar in their posts?  yes  no  
Show image attachments and  code in Posts? yes no
[i][size=1]Selecting no will show a hyperlink instead.[/size][/i]

The first option is the one I would go with, since it is a rare day indeed that a sig holds important information.


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## seasong (Mar 27, 2003)

Shalimar said:
			
		

> I think any post where the sig is longer then the post itself is offensive.



I tend to agree with this, also . My sig is a bit bigger than that, but I also try to remove it whenever I'm doing short posts.

Removing the sig when you're posting a lot in a thread is also a good rule of thumb, although that's harder for me to remember to do.

[momentary hijack]Shalimar, is that image from Mark Smylie's _Artesia_, or from something he's done for WotC?[/hijack]


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## Dragongirl (Mar 27, 2003)

All but the largest of sigs would be ok if only people would learn to only show it ONCE in a thread.


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## Shalimar (Mar 28, 2003)

seasong said:
			
		

> *[momentary hijack]Shalimar, is that image from Mark Smylie's Artesia, or from something he's done for WotC?[/hijack] *




Um, I got it of the exalted art pages.


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## seasong (Mar 28, 2003)

Wow. At that resolution, it REALLY looks like his work. Sorry 'bout that .


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## krunchyfrogg (Mar 28, 2003)

Dragongirl said:
			
		

> *All but the largest of sigs would be ok if only people would learn to only show it ONCE in a thread.   *




I wholeheartedly agree.


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## Holy Bovine (Mar 28, 2003)

SylverFlame said:
			
		

> *Okay. I did not expect this many people to reply, so I have made a decision:
> 
> I am gonna start a poll as to whether or not the care bear should go. After three days of voting, then the majority will have it!
> 
> ...




Don't start a poll on this as it will be an OT poll and will be locked in short order.

You're sig is too large.  At the very least you should not be posting it after every post you make to a thread.  Just uncheck the little box under the text box when you post that says 'show signature'.

I didn't knwo that there was a way to get rid of these images in sigs without getting rid of sigs altogether - MY problems are solved!


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## tburdett (Apr 3, 2003)

SylverFlame said:
			
		

> *Hey. I've just noticed that over the last little while I have gotten a pretty noisy profile. I have two sigs, a quiz (I love my care bear  ) and an avatar.
> 
> Anyways, I ran into an issue. Just how noisy can a profile get before it gets annoying? Stupid thoughts running through my sleep deprived mind (I hate the paper writing crunch time). *




Before I figured out that vBulletin supports a feature to 'turn off all that eyesore crap' the stuff really annoyed me.  I'd look at it and feel my blood pressure rise.  I was headed for an early grave.

Now, via the wonder of check boxes and mouse clicks I no longer see any of that eyesore crap, so it's not annoying me at all!  I feel much, much better!

I love the 'turn off all that eyesore crap' feature that vBulletin  makes available and wholeheartedly endorse its use!  If the stuff bothers you, don't hate and flame, just click and be on your way!

This was not a paid promotional announcement, no animals were harmed during the posting of this message, and this message is not valid in the state of Kentucky.

(It's been a slow night at work and this really helped to pass the time.)


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## KitanaVorr (Apr 5, 2003)

I agree about the sigs sometimes getting annoying after a while.  I've seem some truly obnoxious sigs where it basically runs nearly 8 lines of text (not even including the pictures!)

I'm all for using a sig once in a thread then turning it off.  Or just not showing the sig if the content of your post is shorter than the sig itself.  Of course turning off all sigs is a choice, but then I like seeing a sig at least once for personalization.

EDIT:

P.S.

I love care bears.....


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## SylverFlame (Apr 6, 2003)

Thanks Kitana. I loved my care bear to. However, in my simple minded way (and the fact I had sleep dep and just finished a 5000 word paper, ah english, how I love thee...) I said I would remove it (it was in another thread with a Poll). As the poll asked for the care bear's head, I had to give it to them. Ah well, there's always reruns and the internet.


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## tleilaxu (Apr 6, 2003)

rest assured space fans, we'll always find _something_ to complain about...


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## jdavis (Apr 6, 2003)

tleilaxu said:
			
		

> *rest assured space fans, we'll always find something to complain about... *




I'm just waiting for somebody to start complaining that they find all the complaining about stuff offensive, then we can have a thread complaining about complaining, then we can complain about the complaining about complaining thread, which would prompt another thread complaining about the people complaining about the thread complaining about people complaining. Not that I'm complaining mind you.


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## SylverFlame (Apr 7, 2003)

*hmm, fascinating...*

Well, I don't know if anyone else will enjoy this, but here goes.

This thread has the distinction of having the most replys any of my threads has gotten. Funny how this was setup for people to essentially tell me how bad my stuff was... Oh, the sarcasm gods are loving this one...

Anyhoo, thanks to everyone who made this (double-edged) victory/milestone possible. I love this site!!


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## Mark (Apr 7, 2003)

*Re: hmm, fascinating...*



			
				SylverFlame said:
			
		

> *This thread has the distinction of having the most replys any of my threads has gotten. *




...and it doesn't have to stop now...

Let's get this party started!

How's about we discuss how often it might be wise to change a sig?  I like to change mine about once a month, and often just back to the standard "small link to web site" format.


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## tleilaxu (Apr 8, 2003)

i haven't changed my signature since feb/march 2000


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## Hand of Evil (Apr 8, 2003)

As I sit here reading the post and looking at the sigs, banners, avatars and such, I find myself doing two things...

1.  ID a poster by the data.  Maybe it is the icon or the avatar but I have grown to know people by them.  This is not a bad thing.

2.  Ignore the text under the line.  I think this is do to knowning it is a sig and just tune it out.  It may be due to me having read it before too.


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## jdavis (Apr 8, 2003)

I tend to recognize people by their avatars and I tend to ignore the sig. The giant sigs don't bother me that much as I really don't look at them, unless they fill your whole screen. Occasionally I have found a interesting link in a sig but I really wouldn't miss them. I would miss the avatars.


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## SylverFlame (Apr 8, 2003)

Avatars are definitely a must. Even more than a sig they are something about you that really says a lot. It's how you want the world to see you, not just how you think. That makes them great.

As for sigs, I just use it for stupid stuff or allusions that almost nobody will get, hence the beukles.

Sigs and avatars are one of the things I love about ENWorld, the posters and topics being on that list I guess...    (Smilies are cool to.)


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## Liquide (Apr 16, 2003)

This is my .sig, most of the stuff is in there for a reason sometimes I feel it is in appropiate to show it all so hide it.

end communication


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