Sparky
08-16-2006, 08:57 PM
First of all I just have to say - since this forum is new, some of the rules and regulations are subject to change as we all over time experiment with different things and see how they work out. So these rules on sigs MAY change in the future, just like the rules on various other things may change too. I don't want anyone to hate me, or say that I change my mind too often, or that I'm too strict - I mean I don't *want* people to say that, though they might anyways. I really do want to hear feedback from people about *anything* regarding the way the forum looks or how things are organised - even if you think we should have a specific field to fill out in our profiles, or that a specific field should be longer, etc.
Okay, so about signatures. I do not want people to have large signatures - that includes text as well as images. I do NOT have a maximum number of text lines set in the forum control panel; I expect people to be reasonable and not go overboard. If anyone really wants to write a novel I can increase the size of the "Biography" box in the profile, but please keep your signature fairly smallish...if you've got more than five or so lines of text in your sig that's kind of long, and I suggest you try and trim it. If the Staff feel that an individual's sig is too big we'll probably contact you personally about it, and if large sigs become a chronic issue then I will have to limit them. But text is one thing.
The bigger issue is sig images. As it states in the Forum Rules, the maximum width of an image is 600 pixels and the maximum height is 100 pixels. Your sig image must comply with *both* the width and height maximums. If your sig image is more than 100 pixels high, I need you to change it. I'm seeing several sig images that are much taller than that already, and we only opened last night. Tall images force viewers to do more scrolling and it, to me, just breaks up the forum pages too much. Maybe I'm old and stodgy, but I greatly dislike having to see the same huge image over and over on a page while I'm trying to read. 100 pixels high. There is no filesize limit, and you may have an animated image, but if anyone (members as well as Staff) feels that it is too distracting, you will be asked to change it. (I'm mostly thinking about something that like, flashes colors or something really distracting like that.)
Bottom line: signatures shouldn't dominate a forum - the *discussions* should.
Okay, so about signatures. I do not want people to have large signatures - that includes text as well as images. I do NOT have a maximum number of text lines set in the forum control panel; I expect people to be reasonable and not go overboard. If anyone really wants to write a novel I can increase the size of the "Biography" box in the profile, but please keep your signature fairly smallish...if you've got more than five or so lines of text in your sig that's kind of long, and I suggest you try and trim it. If the Staff feel that an individual's sig is too big we'll probably contact you personally about it, and if large sigs become a chronic issue then I will have to limit them. But text is one thing.
The bigger issue is sig images. As it states in the Forum Rules, the maximum width of an image is 600 pixels and the maximum height is 100 pixels. Your sig image must comply with *both* the width and height maximums. If your sig image is more than 100 pixels high, I need you to change it. I'm seeing several sig images that are much taller than that already, and we only opened last night. Tall images force viewers to do more scrolling and it, to me, just breaks up the forum pages too much. Maybe I'm old and stodgy, but I greatly dislike having to see the same huge image over and over on a page while I'm trying to read. 100 pixels high. There is no filesize limit, and you may have an animated image, but if anyone (members as well as Staff) feels that it is too distracting, you will be asked to change it. (I'm mostly thinking about something that like, flashes colors or something really distracting like that.)
Bottom line: signatures shouldn't dominate a forum - the *discussions* should.