Signature sizes! (Please read AND comment on this folks!)

[Gridfan]

Howver odd this may sound! I think we should set a semi-standard size on how large a singature (not just a image) gets!

I think an aproximate of 500x100 pixels is more than enough.
(altough nobody will be killed if it's like a line taller)

SaintBootay's sig is 500x100 at the time of writing this.
My sig (picture AND text) is about a line taller, but a bit narrower than 500x100.

And as far as I can recall, you don't really see any bigger sigs than this on most boards anywhere. usually smaller. (typicaly banner size of 400x80 or sumpt etc. etc.)

So what ya all think? a max size of 500x100 (picture+text lines) sound like a good rule of thumb?

PS! A tip for images in signatures to make them less in your face, is to make use of transparency. (sadly it's ony GIF that support this, and PNG (which IE don't handle well at all) You could always use a background color that matches the background colors of the forum tough.

The reason for this post, is that I'd like some feedback before I break out the leetpiss and sit down with the others in GSP and say that "I think we should limit sig total size to xxxxx" afterall, a lot of you in here use the forums way more than me even so

Is 500x100 (pic + text) a good rule of thumb?

[Cowtipper]

I've posted/worked on forums that have supported the idea that every post doesn't require a signature. Every time a member made their first reply to a post, they had their signature. Every reply afterwards wasn't supposed to have a signature.

The reason this was in place was due to the number of 56k users and people who had low end pc hardware that visited the boards. The content that's being delivered in a forum thread along with all the images, and then the very large signatures as well, ended up making their visits unpleasant.

If you guys are thinking up rules, please keep in mind that too many rules are never a good thing The things that need to be addressed and were assumed but never written down should be kept in mind, but other than that I've got nothing to suggest. Just my humble country boy opinion, though.

[Tacz]

I agree with Gridfan. Although, notice that the color is different on each post, so the transparency by coordination doesnt work out all that well. Now I have to find out how large my pulltoopen is

[Guest]

Sounds good to me Grid!

[Gridfan]

Yours is cool Tacz. not sure how pixels would translate. nor can I rely on how fontsizes carry over etc but. um 5ish lines would be aprox such a height.
I.E. Cowtipper has 5 lines. and my sig is 5-6. actualy, now that I think of it, most forums go by a 5 lines rule of thumb don't they?

[ShadeRaven]

=( mine is 500 by 200 lol i'll change it

[Mummu]

the ao forum has 10.

[Coltess]

Make you a deal Griddy.
We limit sigs to 5 lines/500x100 px and you enable HTML for sigs.
How 'bout it?

[Decavolt]

Make you a deal Griddy.
We limit sigs to 5 lines/500x100 px and you enable HTML for sigs.
How 'bout it?

Enabling HTML for sigs would still allow people to display images from outside servers in their sigs, thus circumventing the limitations mentioned above. If we enable HTML in sigs, there's no point to limiting sigs in the firt place. Besides, anything (concerning sigs) you need you do with HTML can be done with BBCode.

[Boinky]

I don't have many ideas, concerns regarding this. Heck look at my way un-uber old-school text sig

How bout you get free reign if you have a penguin in your Sig?

[Darth Bootay]

Honestly, I don't know what the big deal is with all this sig stuff. I'm a total graphics hoe. I LIKE the pretty pictures. But then, I'm not the boss.

*shrug*

I'll abide by whatever decision you all come up with. Sorry to be a dissenting voice.

[Boinky]

Come see the Penguin inherent in my Signature!
Come see the Penguin inherent in my Signature!
Help! help! I'm being repressed!
You saw him repressing me didn't you?!

[Primitave]

As I mentioned somewhere else, I have created and moderated many forums. The norm is to limit the sig by the amount of text in it. But obviously this does nothing for the graphics.

Most if not all of the graphical signatures I have seen here have added flavor to the forum (vs just being intentionally obnoxious) ... well, other then the penguin. If text only was the way to go we wouldn't need web browsers. We could go back to the old Kermit days. My point is, graphics make the forum more pleasurable to look at.

The question is how do you keep it from getting out of hand. Personally, I say play it by ear and if people get upset at a moderator for telling them it doesn't fit ... TOUGH SH*T! You own the board. We are merely visitors. The rules are yours to make, and the posts to enjoy. If you don't enjoy it then it should not be. If we don't enjoy it, we can make our own.

If you are going to limit the sig size then I like the 500x200 aproach (I tend to be more square in my artwork. lol)

[Tarryk]

Okay, I'm MUCH more concerned with height than width. So long as it's not so wide that it causes a side-scroll bar on a low-res window (i.e. less than 600 width), then it really doesn't matter.

Height is the issue, as it's the vertical scrolling and line-space taken up that's the problem.

After thinking about it, I believe that 200 pixels OR 6 lines of text should be the absolute top-end MAXIMUM height allowed, and even that's pushing it. 150px/5 lines would be a lot more reasonable max, but perhaps we won't force shrinkage (huh huh) if you push that boundary a bit.

All in all, it's Xtrophic's call.

I made me rhyme.

Bust it. *breaks into a running-man dance*

[Boinky]

Wow - I just realized that I may be a violator. Didn't even occur to me, but as I look at my Sig now I see 6 lines of text not including 3 spacing lines for a total of 9!?

Umm, does this rule apply to text only Sigs? Cause as far as Sigs went I always kinda figured the 255 char rule was the limit and I worked within that limit to get what I wanted my Sig ta be...

[Gridfan]

Luckily yours has some air in it so it aint so massive


If that was my sig, I might have done it this way instead:

Code: Select all

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." -Philip K. Dick

"AO is that which, when you stop leveling in it, doesn't go away." -Elgynn

<Penguin>

As a side note, just about all on these forums have sigs within or near that sorta sig size limit of 500-600 width and 100-150ish. height. (or 5-6 lines tall)

So this thread is kinda redundant in a way lol