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Rant - too-long signatures

Chuck(G)

Chuck(G)

25k Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2007
Messages
44,604
Location
Pacific Northwest, USA
Is there any convenient way to limit signatures in posts to two or three lines? It's getting a little irritating to get a one-sentence post followed by 16-20 lines of what a given forum member owns or hopes to own.

Perhaps it might be possible to expand the profile area so all of the irrelevant text can be viewed if anyone's really interested. As in "Click here to see what I'm looking for" or "Click here to see what I own."

Just a thought, for whatever it's worth.
 
We encourage people to most more than one sentence at a time, and to keep the .sigs down to a reasonable length. When it gets out of control we talk to people privately, or just directly fix the problem. Post should have meaningful content, and incredibly long .Sigs detract from the content.

I think the occasional reminder (like this one) is probably sufficient to remind people. I'm with you though - I find anymore more than 2 or three lines to be obnoxious.
 
My signature varies depending on the rules of the forum I'm on but most times it's just one or two lines of text and maybe a banner for something I'm doing.

Small text like this doesn't really bother me that much since it's small text.
 
General netiquette for signatures is vertical size equal to four standard font-size lines. Some forums enforce less (or a character limit,) some don't give a flying leap.
 
I guess I qualify for the "too long signature group" too, even I've already shrinked the text of my signature quite some.

I've seen some forums got some BBcode originally intended for spoilers (click on button, info appears, click again, info dissapears). Do our forum have something like that? It would be perfect for shortening long signatures without removing contnent from the signature.
 
On an immigration forum - using the same software - I have participated on, the women (outnumbering men about 50 to 1) generally put their husband's processing timeline in their signatures. You want to talk about some lengthy .sigs! As long as the immigration process itself!

Here the solution would be:

For those that want more stuff in their .sig, to get more stuff...

For those having the stuff they own in their .sig, to have less stuff...

And for me never to post my wife and stepchildren's immigration timelines in my .sig...
 
I was thinking about posting a list of all of the ICs that I own as a signature. Of course, a separate entry for each different manufacturer and lot number would be mandatory... :)
 
[sarcasm] I was going to use pi to 1,000,000 places past the decimal point as my signature, in size 18 font, of course. [/sarcasm] But then I realized that I actually like not having a signature.

Here's an idea: let's make a thread and post what our signatures would be if we had one. That way we don't have to see them every time someone posts. Any takers?

Kyle
 
I'm still in for a
Spoiler BBcode!
.

shouldn't be too hard to add for an admin, and examples can be found all over the web. Just do a quick search on google to see examples and descriptions.

Here is a javascript example I found ( from: http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24586 ):
HTML: 
<div style="margin:20px; margin-top:5px">
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px"><b>Spoiler</b> for <i>{option}</i>: <input type="button" value="Show" style="width:45px;font-size:10px;margin:0px;padding:0px;" onClick="if (this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display != '') { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = '';		this.innerText = ''; this.value = 'Hide'; } else { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = 'none'; this.innerText = ''; this.value = 'Show'; }">
</div>
<div class="alt2" style="margin: 0px; padding: 6px; border: 1px inset;">
<div style="display: none;">
{param}
</div>
</div>
</div>
 
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I don't know about VBulletin, but I know ZeroForum (now rarely used due to legal disputes over its ownership) lets the administrator choose a maximum length for user signatures; typically 250 characters.
 
You're all referring to my new sig, aren't you, lol.

Seriously though, perhaps I'll look into.. something.. to make it smaller.

Edit: there, how's that? :p
 
Last edited:
Raven said:
You're all referring to my new sig, aren't you, lol.
Click to expand...
Maybe ... :)

Having a signature which is bigger than a post does seem a bit off though. If everyone did it then we'd all be wearing out our scroll wheels. Don't get me wrong, I am interested in seeing what you have there, and others probably are too. It is very relevant to this forum. Still, if you put a link to a web site, I'd certainly go there. You would have lots more room, and then we could see some pictures too. :)
 
wmmullaney said:
Is mine too long? :D
Click to expand...

I don't know, but why do I need to be reminded that you own a Commodore 64 every time you post? Just create a blog entry with what you own and what you want and add a link to it in your signature. That way, if anyone wants to know what you have, they can find out.

Not only that, but you can expound to your heart's content in the blog about why you think the beige G3 is better than the aqua one.
 
lol thx,

It's under your settings, on the left hand side of the page under "My Account" you'll see "Edit Signature". There you can add it and save it. From there when you post you have the option (default is to show it I think) of the checkbox "show your signature". I never think about it these days although mine is mostly a pipe dream at this point.

Chuck,

While poking around I found the setting you're interested in if you didn't see it yet. It's also under Settings->My Settings->General Settings. Under "Thread Display Options" you can deselect "Show Signatures" (avatars, and images are also options). Pretty cool.
 
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