huge forum signature pictures

[Kapalika]

This has been bothering me for a while, but I thought I might actually say something.

It's not really fair that we're limited to what 4 lines of small text quotes or something, or whatever arbitrary line/character limit and then other people can just post GIANT 20 megabyte GIFs in their signature that literally take up over half my screen (I'm @ 1600x900 most of the time).

It's also more painfully annoying as I know that not all of us have great internet or might be looking through a dataplan (as evil as they are). For example at my house I get a quarter of a megabit down typically, as of the last 6 months (it literally takes me an hour to download 100 mb). I'd doubt most slow internet users have it that bad but also some have it worse.

GIFs are even worse as they are animated and lag the loading time unless they are cached or whatever. Also giant signatures just look ugly.

Anyways consider this a PSA of sorts. I won't call anyone out as you all know who you are. It looks ugly and chokes people up on bad internet who don't have any other choices. It's also a little confusing to scan the screen and figure out when a new post begins when a huge signature is many times bigger than the post itself.

If we have limits for characters and lines, we should have limits for image sizes. It kind of defeats the anti-spam intent anyways.

 

[Skwim]

Annoying to be sure. These huge attention getters are indeed ugly and serve no other purpose than to feed posters' egos; more often than not far exceeding the size of their posts.

Personally, I'd like to see their size radically limited, if not prohibited all together.

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[Father Heathen]

I second this. Signatures shouldn't be larger than the message itself.

 

[YmirGF]

Thirded. If only folks who use huge images had good taste.

 

[Augustus]

I'll be helpful instead

You can use an image hosting site to resize your images: Postimage.org — free image hosting / image upload for example

150x112 is ideal for signatures

It's also possible people who use mobile platforms to access the site don't realise how large their signature is being rendered on desktop sites.

 

[Laika]

This has been bothering me for a while, but I thought I might actually say something.

It's not really fair that we're limited to what 4 lines of small text quotes or something, or whatever arbitrary line/character limit and then other people can just post GIANT 20 megabyte GIFs in their signature that literally take up over half my screen (I'm @ 1600x900 most of the time).

It's also more painfully annoying as I know that not all of us have great internet or might be looking through a dataplan (as evil as they are). For example at my house I get a quarter of a megabit down typically, as of the last 6 months (it literally takes me an hour to download 100 mb). I'd doubt most slow internet users have it that bad but also some have it worse.

GIFs are even worse as they are animated and lag the loading time unless they are cached or whatever. Also giant signatures just look ugly.

Anyways consider this a PSA of sorts. I won't call anyone out as you all know who you are. It looks ugly and chokes people up on bad internet who don't have any other choices. It's also a little confusing to scan the screen and figure out when a new post begins when a huge signature is many times bigger than the post itself.

If we have limits for characters and lines, we should have limits for image sizes. It kind of defeats the anti-spam intent anyways.

If you click on "preferences", there is an option for "show people's signatures with their messages". If you click it so it's blank and doesn't have a tick in the box and then save the settings, all the signatures will disappear.

 

[Kapalika]

If you click on "preferences", there is an option for "show people's signatures with their messages". If you click it so it's blank and doesn't have a tick in the box and then save the settings, all the signatures will disappear.

Does that stop it from actually loading though? That's, at least for me, a bigger issue.

Also I don't mind signatures, it helps me contextualize what kind of person I'm talking to. I wouldn't want to get rid of them entirely.

On forums I've been on in the past they had a size/dimension limits as well as a character limit. Or a general "If your signature is too big or flashy you will be asked to change it" rule.

 

[Laika]

Does that stop it from actually loading though? That's, at least for me, a bigger issue.

Also I don't mind signatures, it helps me contextualize what kind of person I'm talking to. I wouldn't want to get rid of them entirely.

On forums I've been on in the past they had a size/dimension limits as well as a character limit. Or a general "If your signature is too big or flashy you will be asked to change it" rule.

it should stop it loading, yeah. That might be a temporary solution until the mods can do something.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

*Mod Post*​

Hey guys, gonna drop a mod post here real quick just so you all know we are seeing this. We've had quite a few people bring this up lately and we are in the process of setting some policy on limiting signature images. It's taking a little while because we are trying to figure out some software limitation options, but we are also working on a stopgap measure in the mean time. More updates soon.

 

[sayak83]

This has been bothering me for a while, but I thought I might actually say something.

It's not really fair that we're limited to what 4 lines of small text quotes or something, or whatever arbitrary line/character limit and then other people can just post GIANT 20 megabyte GIFs in their signature that literally take up over half my screen (I'm @ 1600x900 most of the time).

It's also more painfully annoying as I know that not all of us have great internet or might be looking through a dataplan (as evil as they are). For example at my house I get a quarter of a megabit down typically, as of the last 6 months (it literally takes me an hour to download 100 mb). I'd doubt most slow internet users have it that bad but also some have it worse.

GIFs are even worse as they are animated and lag the loading time unless they are cached or whatever. Also giant signatures just look ugly.

Anyways consider this a PSA of sorts. I won't call anyone out as you all know who you are. It looks ugly and chokes people up on bad internet who don't have any other choices. It's also a little confusing to scan the screen and figure out when a new post begins when a huge signature is many times bigger than the post itself.

If we have limits for characters and lines, we should have limits for image sizes. It kind of defeats the anti-spam intent anyways.

There is very good data saving web browser called Opera mini. Try it and it will save tons of data and load pages faster.
Regarding your idea about pictures, I like it as I can post scientific figures or pictures of Hindu ceremonies. Maybe pictures, if large can be included in a "figure spoiler"?

 

[Jesster]

I just hide signatures.

 

[Augustus]

but we are also working on a stopgap measure in the mean time.

Ask someone nicely to resize their signature?

 

[Jumi]

If you click on "preferences", there is an option for "show people's signatures with their messages". If you click it so it's blank and doesn't have a tick in the box and then save the settings, all the signatures will disappear.

This is what I've been using ever since I became aware of it. I'm more interested in what people say.

 

[Kapalika]

*Mod Post*​

Hey guys, gonna drop a mod post here real quick just so you all know we are seeing this. We've had quite a few people bring this up lately and we are in the process of setting some policy on limiting signature images. It's taking a little while because we are trying to figure out some software limitation options, but we are also working on a stopgap measure in the mean time. More updates soon.

Ask someone nicely to resize their signature?

Most forums I've been on in the past both as user and admin have this as a standard parameter in the configs you can enable and set. Those who don't just do the asking thing. I don't know what religious forums runs off of or much about the techno babble but I do know at least that much, so I'm surprised that this forum doesn't have anything similar in it's settings. Of course I'm also mentioning this in case anyone overlooked it and it's really there somewhere hidden xD

 

[Laika]

This is what I've been using ever since I became aware of it. I'm more interested in what people say.

Big sigs are a little anti-social. It breaks up the posts so they don't flow as well so it feels like you're being interrupted whilst reading a thread.

Although if the gif below was slower, had a steam train and was a bit smaller, I think it would make a really cool signature.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Thirded. If only folks who use huge images had good taste.

4/5 fif-ish

Uniformity in context of the pictures would provide a better experience for everyone.

There's enough megalomania going on in the internet as it is.

 

[Jumi]

Although if the gif below was slower, had a steam train and was a bit smaller, I think it would make a really cool signature.

If I used a gif, I'd have something like this

 

[Rival]

Big sigs are a little anti-social. It breaks up the posts so they don't flow as well so it feels like you're being interrupted whilst reading a thread.

Although if the gif below was slower, had a steam train and was a bit smaller, I think it would make a really cool signature.

It would really need to be derailed.


Is my Brian annoying anyone?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Big sigs are a little anti-social. It breaks up the posts so they don't flow as well so it feels like you're being interrupted whilst reading a thread.

Although if the gif below was slower, had a steam train and was a bit smaller, I think it would make a really cool signature.

I'm not sure exactly what all changed, but before the new server thingy RF was very restrictive in in signatures (about as bad as Twitter restricting character limits) with the idea of not letting signatures become distracting.
Myself, I hate going to a forum and seeing any given thread has tons more space taken up by signatures than the content of actual posts. Signatures cease being a "dash of me" and become "****ing looking at me, dammit!" And then of course then you can see no one except for a polluted flood of excessively large signatures.

 

[Quintessence]

The forum software changed - we went from having a built-in method of limiting signature size to not having one. For the most part, it hasn't been an issue. From time to time, we've contacted folks about oversize sigs and they've changed them. Didn't feel a need to put up an official policy somewhere, but we will be doing that shortly.