# Signatures Getting Too Big?!



## Laslo Tremaine (Nov 23, 2005)

I may be alone in this, but seems to me that people's signatures are getting bigger and bigger.

I looked at the forum rules and didn't see any limits or guidelines for signatures. So I would like to take this opportunity to ask for some consensus on this issue.

Obviously, I prefer sigs to be short and sweet, but I realize that some people have a bit more info that they would like to convey.  Would it be possible to ask people to restrict their sigs to 4 lines in length or the standard banner ad size of 468x60 pixels (but not both)?

I certainly appreciate the board feature that only shows a user's signature in their first post in a thread.  I also appreciate that some people are using the spoiler tag to condense thier sigs. But there seems to be a growing number of sigs that include an image *and* 4-12 lines of text.

I am seeing a trend here and would definitely like to see it nipped in the bud.  Thankfully Ryan Nock has greatly reduced the size of his ad for his latest project, but could this be spelled out in a board policy?

Am I asking too much?


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## Crothian (Nov 23, 2005)

Nope, not asking too much at all


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## DaveStebbins (Nov 23, 2005)

Large sigs don't bother me too much, but I have noticed the trend. We're probably better off just asking people to keep their sigs reasonable. Alternatively we could 'out' the ones with the longest or most annoying sigs in a friendly way in this thread, and see if their sigs don't get shorter.   

For the record, the length of _my_ sig hasn't changed.   

-Dave


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## Psionicist (Nov 23, 2005)

I agree. It's usually considered very bad netiquette to use a signature considerably larger than your average post. You can of course disable signatures altogether in your profile but that'd be a shame because it's only a few members who have the really large signatures, basically ruining it for everyone else.

Reporting huge signatures probably helps. I reported one members signature and a few days later it was smaller.


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## Rystil Arden (Nov 23, 2005)

I actually don't mind larger signatures at all, but a related issue sometimes annoys me--when the other users' My Bookshelf, My Wishlist, My Latest Purchase (with big picture) on the left side causes the post to be filled with 80% blank space, I really don't like it


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## Psion (Nov 23, 2005)

Sigs used to annoy me when I still had dialup, because sig pics lengthened load time.

Now not so much. Though the hack enworld has that prevents displaying more than one pic a page helps.

It's not near as bad as the wotc boards on this score.


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## Laslo Tremaine (Nov 23, 2005)

Psion said:
			
		

> It's not near as bad as the wotc boards on this score.



 Which is pretty much the main thing I would like to avoid!


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## RangerWickett (Nov 23, 2005)

For instance . . . me?

*Random filler text to show relative size of typical post to typical sig:*
Senatus populusque Romanus. Sum es est sumus estis sunt. Tuus facies interficiat homines et coget liberos clamare!

*Space Ghost:* Boku wa okii atama ga arimasu. Atama ga okii desu! Nani to omoimasu ka, Zoraku? 

*Zorak:* Okii atama. Okii atama! Okikute futotte iru atama!

*Space Ghost:* Boku wa 'Okii atama hi' ga arimasu. Anata no 'Okii atama hi' wa dou desu ka, kodomotachi?

*Zorak:* 'Okikute futotte iru atama hi!'

*Space Ghost:* . . . Shut up, bug.

Senatus populusque Romanus. Sum es est sumus estis sunt. Tuus facies interficiat homines et coget liberos clamare! Boku no atama ga okii desu. Zorak, nani to omoimasu ka? ... Okii atama. Okii! Okikute futote iru atama! . . . Shut up, bug.

Senatus populusque Romanus. Sum es est sumus estis sunt. Tuus facies interficiat homines et coget liberos clamare! Boku no atama ga okii desu. Zorak, nani to omoimasu ka? ... Okii atama. Okii! Okikute futote iru atama! . . . Shut up, bug.


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## Darth K'Trava (Nov 23, 2005)

*To Ranger Wickett*

*whack!*

Bad Ewok! Bad!


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## Jdvn1 (Nov 23, 2005)

Technically there is a limit to sigs--max number of characters. I know, because I hit this eventhough my sig was sblocked. There _is_ a thread for large sigs (the idea is that you link to your post in the thread), which has helped me.


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## IronWolf (Nov 23, 2005)

Yeah, I gave up and turned sigs off.  I got tired of the large ones and graphic filled sigs....


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## Laslo Tremaine (Nov 23, 2005)

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> For instance . . . me?



 Sorry, Ryan, I was using your previous, much larger image, as an example.  Your current sig is a huge improvement!


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## Truth Seeker (Nov 23, 2005)

I guess this too much then...  *points below* UPDATE:Now has been adjusted.


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## Jdvn1 (Nov 23, 2005)

Truth Seeker said:
			
		

> I guess this too much then...  *points below*



 Yours actually never bugged me--I don't know why. Maybe the neutral colors?

An sblock wouldn't hurt, though.


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## Psychic Warrior (Nov 23, 2005)

IronWolf said:
			
		

> Yeah, I gave up and turned sigs off.  I got tired of the large ones and graphic filled sigs....




Yup - same here.  I find I don't miss them in the slightest and really what is so important you have to have a giant sig anyways?


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## Henry (Nov 23, 2005)

We have a loose rule of six to seven lines, but it's not something we've policed very hard (as I can tell by this thread ) Ever since we put the limit of "one sig per page" on the forums, the number of complaints have dropped to almost zero, so we haven't worried too much. I admit I don't mind seeing a medium-sized sig as long as it's once per page myself, but if it's something that bugs a large number of posters, we mods/admins may want to think about putting a hard limit on it.


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## Truth Seeker (Nov 23, 2005)

I have though of that...but it would feel like a dishonor to the persons in passing...maybe size font reduction would be better. Will test later.



			
				Jdvn1 said:
			
		

> Yours actually never bugged me--I don't know why. Maybe the neutral colors?
> 
> An sblock wouldn't hurt, though.


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## Joshua Randall (Nov 23, 2005)

I have been browsing with .sigs turned off since the day I registered. Although I do often have the sneaking suspicion that I am missing something amazingly cool in that one person's .sig that I will never see. Oh well.


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## Arnwyn (Nov 23, 2005)

Laslo Tremaine said:
			
		

> I may be alone in this, but seems to me that people's signatures are getting bigger and bigger.



You're not alone - but for me, they were too big years ago!

I've long since turned sigs off, and it's made browsing ENWorld a much better experience.


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## Dimwhit (Nov 23, 2005)

How many people actually read others' sigs on a regular basis? I hardly ever look at them, and I certainly don't expect that anyone has read mine.


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## Deset Gled (Nov 23, 2005)

Truth Seeker said:
			
		

> I guess this too much then...  *points below*




IMHO, that sig is annoying.  Sorry.  The color and formatting are more of a problem than the length, though.  I have a feeling if that was just normal text, it would be less than half of its current size.


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## Cheiromancer (Nov 23, 2005)

I have been irritated by big signatures too, but I don't really want to turn them off.  There are too many clever quips or interesting links there.
__________________
[Highlight]Tales of Wyre: Compiled Sepulchrave Story Hour (updated 05-15)[/highlight]
and associated Rogue's Gallery (master list of links)


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## Truth Seeker (Nov 24, 2005)

Okay, that is one annoyed customer...  




			
				Deset Gled said:
			
		

> IMHO, that sig is annoying.  Sorry.  The color and formatting are more of a problem than the length, though.  I have a feeling if that was just normal text, it would be less than half of its current size.


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## frankthedm (Nov 24, 2005)

Nothig wrong with a sane signature. But the Cheesecake pic one has got to go


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## Truth Seeker (Nov 24, 2005)

Don't if this has been said, but RR, that B&W pic sure looks like you? Don't it... :\


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## Jdvn1 (Nov 25, 2005)

Truth Seeker said:
			
		

> I have though of that...but it would feel like a dishonor to the persons in passing...maybe size font reduction would be better. Will test later.



I think the honor is including them in your sig, sblock or no. Honoring them and not annoying some people aren't mutually exclusive, though.


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## Dog Moon (Nov 25, 2005)

> Originally posted by *Dimwhit*
> How many people actually read others' sigs on a regular basis? I hardly ever look at them, and I certainly don't expect that anyone has read mine.




Well great, now you made me look at yours.      Actually, depending on what's in the sig, I look at them somewhat often.  I know a couple have made me laugh [funny quotes, etc] and have gotten some ideas by going the homebrewn websites of different people, both in style of setup and in information on the site.

The only sigs that I dislike are the ones listing their 18 different pbp characters that people have of both current games and past games.  To me, it's like 'Who cares except for the people actually IN the games?'

And yeah, stopping by at WOTC occasionally and browsing their forums makes me think this place isn't bad, exept for the occasional lengthy sig here and there.



> Originally posted by *Cheiromancer*
> I have been irritated by big signatures too, but I don't really want to turn them off. There are too many clever quips or interesting links there.




Exactly.  Somehow I missed this post so I ended up saying more than I needed to say.  *shrug*


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## Bront (Nov 25, 2005)

When I felt mine was getting too long, I sblocked it.  Sigs over about 10 lines, or formatted in some ways, can be particularly irritating, but I like that there is a character limit, and I've never seen something extremely obnoxious.

One board I was at, one user had a sig that had a top 100 list in the sig, AND something else.  And then he would post things like "Yes, and now here's my sig".  It took the mods WAY too long to deal with him (not a problem here).


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## Darth K'Trava (Nov 25, 2005)

Bront said:
			
		

> When I felt mine was getting too long, I sblocked it.  Sigs over about 10 lines, or formatted in some ways, can be particularly irritating, but I like that there is a character limit, and I've never seen something extremely obnoxious.
> 
> One board I was at, one user had a sig that had a top 100 list in the sig, AND something else.  And then he would post things like "Yes, and now here's my sig".  It took the mods WAY too long to deal with him (not a problem here).




Sure it wasn't some guy off the WOTC boards? He'd have a sig 100 lines long and if you griped about his sig, he'd add your name to his "those who griped about my sig" sig list....  :\ He was the main reason why my sig viewing limit is at, I believe, 20 lines.


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## genshou (Dec 13, 2005)

Joshua Randall said:
			
		

> I have been browsing with .sigs turned off since the day I registered. Although I do often have the sneaking suspicion that I am missing something amazingly cool in that one person's .sig that I will never see. Oh well.



Well, if you like seeing a random EN World quote I picked up in my travels, updated every few days, you're missing out on mine.  Or you were.  Right now it's a bare signature.

And other than that, you really aren't missing out on much


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## genshou (Dec 13, 2005)

Dimwhit said:
			
		

> How many people actually read others' sigs on a regular basis? I hardly ever look at them, and I certainly don't expect that anyone has read mine.



I've read it...  I have to read the sig of a fellow Treasure Valley resident!
On a side-note, since you're set up not to accept emails, want to hop on over to the Gamers Seeking Gamers forum to answer a request from me in an area where it isn't OT? *ducks to hide from the mods*


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## diaglo (Dec 13, 2005)

i'm glad for the one sig per page thingie.

and i turn off the sigs i'm really bothered by... (i use the ignore list)


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## Belen (Dec 13, 2005)

I like sigs.


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## JimAde (Dec 13, 2005)

Dog_Moon2003 said:
			
		

> The only sigs that I dislike are the ones listing their 18 different pbp characters that people have of both current games and past games.  To me, it's like 'Who cares except for the people actually IN the games?'




And this, of course, is exactly what I use my sig for.   It's not for anybody else's benefit, it's just a convenient place for me to keep links in case (as happened once) all the subscriptions vanish.  When that happened last time I had a heck of a time finding my game threads again, but I noticed my signature was safe...


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## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Dec 13, 2005)

BelenUmeria said:
			
		

> I like sigs.



 Same here.  I almost always read them and follow the links in them often.  However - I do understand that there is such a thing as too big/too many pictures in the .sig.  Even so, the few people that have giant .sigs don't bother me enough to complain.  *shrug*

But - I guess - my .sig is longish... but it's funny.  That's got to count for something! *grin*


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