Announcement: Signature length limit now enforced automatically

[cheekyspanky]

I got rid of all the useless Apple info so my sig is short now..looks kinda empty though, so much white space.

 

[yoda13]

I used to be one of the ones with a sig. that was too long. I simply changed it to something more reflective of my interests in life besides Macs....

 

[Voidness]

That's good, I've always hated forums with long signatures. I've seen some forums with signatures where I had to scroll to see the whole thing (1024x768 maximized window in IE6).

Doctor Q, I've always liked your signature!

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Like most others, I think this is a pretty good move. I did have a temporary, slightly long sig a short while ago but I've gone back to a single word one now.

Anyway, at least we're not like some forums where they have bloody great big images and animations in their signatures...

 

[nagromme]

Sounds like a good system. Thanks.

I've always been careful to keep my sig scroll-friendly and not vertically long. Now I've removed the big red "SERENITY" (or "this side"?) Chinese characters from my sig and formatted it narrower

Tip: if you're editing your sig and the Preview suddenly says it's too long when you know you haven't added anything visible, then check your BB tags. An unclosed/malformed tag won't be processed--and then it becomes visible text and counts towards the total. A long malformed tag like a URL with a space after the = sign can trigger the limit easily.

(Count your blessings: I moderate a forum with graphical banners allowed in sigs. Try keeping THAT under control...)

 

[ITASOR]

Cool, long colorful signatures are annoying.

I don't have anything against showing your equipment in your signature though, it helps people to know what you're working with when you post. I think people should just make it smaller text than your real post...it helps to differentiate it.

Oh, and for some reason, I ditched my avatar the other day...I think it looks better.

 

[Deepdale]

Since disabling the show signature feature, the forums have become a more pleasant place to visit. Now if only all avatars were free of animation.

 

[emw]

Since disabling the show signature feature, the forums have become a more pleasant place to visit.

Do you think it's ironic that you still have a signature then?

Now if only all avatars were free of animation.

No kidding.

Oh, wait a minute...

 

[sushi]

Signatures are provided as a way to identify or express yourself in a small, friendly way.

<big snip>

Note that six lines is a maximum, not a recommendation. Please observe the spirit of the rule and keep signatures small. And friendly!

Thank you for your continued cooperation.

Thanks Dr. Q! This was definitely needed.

While I enjoyed reading some, there were others that were way to large/long.

Someone else mentioned Avatar motion. Personally, I would like to see motion stopped. It is distracting.

The limited signatures is a great start however!

 

[Doctor Q]

Someone else mentioned Avatar motion. Personally, I would like to see motion stopped. It is distracting.

That's easy to cure. Macintosh technology solves the problem:

Simply do a screen capture of a post (Shift-Command-4, drawing the marquee around the post), minimize your browser window, open and view the screenshot file, close and delete the screenshot file, restore the browser window, move down to the next post, and repeat! Avatars in the screenshot image will not be animated, but the rest of the post will look the same. Isn't that amazing?

For experts who want to optimize the process, you can take a screenshot of a few posts at a time, but that would be much harder to explain, and might confuse beginners, so I won't give those details here.

I'm glad I could help you, sushi.

 

[~Shard~]

That's easy to cure. Macintosh technology solves the problem:

Simply do a screen capture of a post (Shift-Command-4, drawing the marquee around the post), minimize your browser window, open and view the screenshot file, close and delete the screenshot file, restore the browser window, move down to the next post, and repeat! Avatars in the screenshot image will not be animated, but the rest of the post will look the same. Isn't that amazing?

For experts who want to optimize the process, you can take a screenshot of a few posts at a time, but that would be much harder to explain, and might confuse beginners, so I won't give those details here.

I'm glad I could help you, sushi.

That is so simple I would never have thought of it in a million years.

You could also print out each page when you want to read the posts, and that would solve the avatar problem as well...

 

[devilot]

That's easy to cure. Macintosh technology solves the problem:

Oh, Doctor Q.

You could use Camino... there is an amazing built in feature. Go to Camino> Preferences> Web Features (tab) and check, "Play animated images only once." I love it.

 

[emw]

Oh, Doctor Q.

You could use Camino... there is an amazing built in feature. Go to Camino> Preferences> Web Features (tab) and check, "Play animated images only once." I love it.

In Opera you can turn off GIF animation completely. Not that I'd recommend that, as I think all avatars should be animated.

 

[Applespider]

I don't mind 'calm' animations. It's the really busy ones with lots of constant sudden motion that can distract the eye.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

You could also print out each page when you want to read the posts, and that would solve the avatar problem as well...

That will work up until we have functioning ePaper, and you'll be reading it on the page WITH the animated avatars! (AAAAUGH!)

 

[~Shard~]

That will work up until we have functioning ePaper, and you'll be reading it on the page WITH the animated avatars! (AAAAUGH!)

Is this something that will be incorporated into 10.5 Leopard?

 

[jadekitty24]

Thank you Dr.Q!

Still, no matter how annoying our sigs can be, check out some of the other forums. Esspecially the ones that add images (or even worse...animated images) to their sigs...ick! How can you possibly concentrate with all that stuff bopping around?

 

[sushi]

That's easy to cure. Macintosh technology solves the problem:

Simply do a screen capture of a post (Shift-Command-4, drawing the marquee around the post), minimize your browser window, open and view the screenshot file, close and delete the screenshot file, restore the browser window, move down to the next post, and repeat! Avatars in the screenshot image will not be animated, but the rest of the post will look the same. Isn't that amazing?

For experts who want to optimize the process, you can take a screenshot of a few posts at a time, but that would be much harder to explain, and might confuse beginners, so I won't give those details here.

I'm glad I could help you, sushi.

Thanks for the help Dr. Q.

Amazing yes. But now my brain hurts!

Now that I think about it, maybe I will just print to a pdf file.

 

[Aarow]

Thank you, Doctor Q. I go to some forums where users can have signatures with graphics. It's annoying, very annoying.

 

[Jimong5]

Simply do a screen capture of a post (Shift-Command-4, drawing the marquee around the post), minimize your browser window, open and view the screenshot file, close and delete the screenshot file, restore the browser window, move down to the next post, and repeat! Avatars in the screenshot image will not be animated, but the rest of the post will look the same. Isn't that amazing?

If you were really that desperate to stop motion (personally none of it bothers me, large sigs, whatever, just navigate around them) Then why no just go to the thread, file > print > print to PDF ? you get the entire page in a readable file with no animation at all.

edit: I just noticed it mentioned a few posts up, I read good

 

[combatcolin]

Why does it cut mine off when its 6 lines?
Admin should clearly state that 5 lines is the max and not make things more difficult.


Just tried agin, and this time at 5 lines but apparantly its more than 150 charecters.

Which it is not.

 

[sushi]

Just tried agin, and this time at 5 lines but apparantly its more than 150 charecters.

Which it is not.

Instead of getting mad, you might want to consider a different signature that tells more about yourself or just drop it if the limit bothers you.

FWIW, many of us are very proud of our computer equipment and accessories. However, it would take pages for us to list our equipment. Heck with just my old Newton stuff I could fill up a page, or two. Let alone my Mac and PC collection. I am sure no one cares to read my list.

However, maybe a short:

Winders 98SE, 2K, XP, *nix, Mac 9 & X, and Newton user

Would be okay/nice.

Or a phrase/quote like some others on the list uses would be nice.

Just a suggestion as it is much more fun to read something about a person vice about a piece of equipment.

 

[emw]

Just tried agin, and this time at 5 lines but apparantly its more than 150 charecters.

Which it is not.

I think it's because you referenced a computer you bought for your sister. Any signature that includes computers that aren't yours is automatically subjected to a smaller size limit.

And is "Lacir" a new company I haven't seen before?

 

[~Shard~]

And is "Lacir" a new company I haven't seen before?

It might have something to do with "Ghz", as I am unfamiliar with what that is as well...

 

[sushi]

It might have something to do with "Ghz", as I am unfamiliar with what that is as well...

Maybe "Ghz" is to "GHz" as "GiB" is to "GB".