A request for the community: the use of images in your signatures

[Grover]

Hi,

I have a kind request to the community or Kier&Mike: I see a fair amount of people displaying all kinds of graphics in their signatures to show (off?) their number of trophies/likes/postings, etc. Isn't this information already available somewhere in your profiles/usercards? Also a lot of people are using images to display their other social network links/profiles, like Facebook, Twitter et, etc, etc. Shouldn't this just be available in your profile aswell?

For me one of the selling points of xenForo is the cleanliness of threaddisplay: it is a complete breath of much needed fresh air compared to current forum systems. I feel that us, the community adding all these 'unneccesary' images to their signatures makes this forum much harder to read.

I expect I will be buried now ... but maybe it's an idea to keep this in mind or maybe images could even be blocked (or allowing a maximum width/height) over here?

Yes, I am picky... this posting will not get many 'likes', the devil on my left shoulder tells me.

 

[dutchbb]

Yes, I am picky... this posting will not get many 'likes', the devil on my left shoulder tells me.

"Fusion, ---MAD---, anotheralias and 17 others like this."

I think I'm going to use that trick some time lol.

They don't really bother me here, as long as I can disable them on my forum.

 

[AnthonyCea]

I see your point and your link is for sure an example for the heavy abuse and distraction of signatures. But again, on my board sigs (many are individually created) are combined with often long or even "very" long messages, so the perception of them is quite the opposite.

After a while it becomes hard to find the actual post, when that happens it is up to administrators to turn off that crap so that the visitor experience is half way decent, remember most of your hits are from readers who never join your forums.

In addition those 1-6 word non relevant comments in threads do not help you rank in Google.

 

[Ingenious]

I disable viewing signatures here, it looks much better. On my own forum, signatures were disabled many years ago except for site sponsors and then limited to one single image (no text) which is a non-animated, small banner and link. I'll do the same again when I change to xF, my members have never had a problem not being able to have a signature and it makes site sponsors stand out more.

 

[HannahP]

The concept of a "signature" for forum posts has always baffled me. If a forum is meant to be a conversational tool and not a circa 1999 MySpace page, they really have no place.

Why, for the love of the baby JESUS, would you subject your victims to the same inspirational or otherwise goofy blob of text or imagery hundreds (or thousands) of times? It's perverse, antisocial, unpatriotic and downright despicable! Despicable, I tell you!

Thank you.

 

[Dietmar]

We have a signature-of-the-month competition on our vb-board, which should be transferred to xf as soon as possible. Self-made or creatively discovered individual signatures are a fun- and linking bond of our community and my users (co-admin and mods included) would complain heavily, if I would disallow them for no reason.

So I plead for the freedom of mindset and for an option in the admincp to switch on/off sigpics. It mustn´t necesseraliy be a "royal-road"-definition decreed by a forum-admin.

 

[DoctorWatsOn]

Sometimes I can find them funny, like this one from a female poster on my site:

Some people are like Slinkies...
they're good for nothing but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs!

 

[AnthonyCea]

The problem with allowing members to run repetitive BILLBOARDS AS SIGNATURES is the fact that it drives away your best content creators and authors who actually are the bedrock of your forum threads in most cases, these "imaginative and creative content creators" are the main reason people actually read your forums in the first place.

PS: Michael, sometimes you are my hero man.

 

[Dietmar]

Maybe we can agree, that there are different forum-experiences with signatures to find. It´s that simple. Billboards as signatures are double-dutch for me, this has nothing to do with my forum.

 

[Dietmar]

It´s getting weird here.

 

[AnthonyCea]

LOL, signature issues are always a big one and have been for years in the forum community.

Sitepoint imploded many times over the removal of signatures from guest view, members left and they were forced to reinstate them, so it is a critical issue and proper management of signature issues should be a priority for forum administrators.

 

[Lawrence]

Just a reminder that this topic is for discussion of the use of images in signatures. Stay on topic, and keep your posts civilized, thanks.

 

[Sethos]

As far as I know, signatures and forums have ALWAYS gone hand in hand. Taking them away, as some users have suggested, would be like amputating a part of what forums are.

Nonetheless, I do agree that there has to be some kind limit; some people use way too many siggys and (in my case), some use signatures which could be a little disturbing for some users, because of its size, colors, and so on.

I have seen communities in which they use resizing Mods and/or require users to hide their sigs in a spoiler or something, in order to maintain the harmony of the forums. And I think that doing something like that is fine, because you're not "killing" the essence and you're pleasing the intolerant "crybabies" at the same time.

In my opinion, there's no need to remove signatures altogether, simply because some people may feel it is bothersome or inappropriate. Like I said at the beginning of my comment: signatures and forums have ALWAYS gone hand in hand.

 

[AnthonyCea]

1. I agree 100%
2. This is why I suggested that the team develop a report offending signature module so forum admins could take a look when members anonymously report them.

 

[Sethos]

I'll use a metaphor of sorts to explain how I feel about signature use:

I love music, but the "problem" is that I like loud music. Now I know this "problem" could generate some kind of conflict with my neighbors, because they might not like the type of music I listen to and/or the loudness of what I'm playing could be something they're not willing to tolerate.

So, what do I do, in order to please my ears, but also keep my neighbors at ease and the cops off my behind?, I use my headset. So both, myself and my neighbors can be happy; I can blast my eardrums to shreds if I want and my neighbors don't have to be annoyed.

What I mean by this, is that there's always a way to come to terms and satisfy everyone. Just because some people don't like siggys, doesn't mean they have to be eliminated.

 

[erich37]

I do have a contrary opinion:

can we have an option for our members to give them the possibility to easily create a nice Signature ?
I think this would be a great selling point for members to give them Signatures like those being used here e.g. number of Trophy-points, etc. etc.

It would be a great feature to give members an easy to use tool to create their custom Signature.
What happened to the one Signature-plugin which was developed in the early XF-days ?

Maybe this would be also a source of income for us webmasters ?
You know how much money is being made by sending virtual gifts and stuff like that ?
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/137/boomtown.html?nav=inform-rl

 

[Dean]

So, what do I do, in order to please my ears, but also keep my neighbors at ease and the cops off my behind?, I use my headset.

Great idea. Unlimited signatures for everyone -- set things up so people can see their own signatures, but no one else can.

 

[kilcher]

Some people complaining that it's hard to differentiate between signatures and posts may want to consider removing the signatures from their own posts.

As long as each person has the option to disable them, which I believe they do, I don't see the problem.

 

[Jaxel]

Is there something wrong with my signature?

 

[dieketzer]

Hi,

I have a kind request to the community or Kier&Mike: I see a fair amount of people displaying all kinds of graphics in their signatures to show (off?) their number of trophies/likes/postings, etc. Isn't this information already available somewhere in your profiles/usercards? Also a lot of people are using images to display their other social network links/profiles, like Facebook, Twitter et, etc, etc. Shouldn't this just be available in your profile aswell?

For me one of the selling points of xenForo is the cleanliness of threaddisplay: it is a complete breath of much needed fresh air compared to current forum systems. I feel that us, the community adding all these 'unneccesary' images to their signatures makes this forum much harder to read.

I expect I will be buried now ... but maybe it's an idea to keep this in mind or maybe images could even be blocked (or allowing a maximum width/height) over here?

Yes, I am picky... this posting will not get many 'likes', the devil on my left shoulder tells me.

and your sig is nearly as large as your post.
but at least it isnt a graphic?

 

[FredC]

Is there something wrong with my signature?

nope, can easily tell where your post ended and your signature began.