User Signatures
 

I'm over-budget on opinion posts, but here goes:

I know this has been brought up before but...

In the past few days especially, with discussions picking up, I'm getting more and more annoyed with certain user signatures.

I really enjoy reading some of these, and some of the contained quotes, information and such are good. But... some of them go a little too far (in my opinion).

Huge banner images.
Long lists of team accomplishments...
(Vertically) Long Quotes.

The worst thing is when I see a ONE WORD response post, with a 24 line signature (I'm not exagerating...)

I mean... cmon guys. Can we tone it down a little bit? Or even just click the box to turn your sig off when you're doing a quick "throwaway" post?

Also... I don't speak for everyone... But:
It's 2004. Unless you won nationals, I don't really care what your team accomplished in 2001. I'm sure you're proud of it (if you were even on the team when it happened), but there is no need to make your signature a history lesson.
(Instead, why don't you submit the story of your amazing victory to FIRST-Historians! :) They need some more content.)

Just think what would happen if the guys from BBS or Buzz started doing this, (there'd be no room for discussion! ;)).

Just a minor criticism...
John

Re: User Signatures
 

Many people arn't addicted to FIRST as much as we are, nor are they on CD that much. They don't have the time to update their signatures. Also, there is a 500 word max for signatures.

Re: User Signatures
 

I'm talking about the people who have a running list of victories from 1996-2004. I can't think of anyone with a 3 year, outdated signature file.

I don't care about word length. 20 words of Size 12 does enough damage. Vertical length is the problem. how many lines does it take up when a browser is at a "normal" width? Theoretically, someone could have a 500 line signature, and still be within the rules.

As for time...
It doesn't take that much time. If you are that pressed for time, I wonder why you bother making "throwaway" posts on CD... Update now.

Re: User Signatures
 

I agree about lengthy signatures.

A limit on character count is useless. A limit on vertical height in pixels would be more useful in limiting the size of a signature.

Re: User Signatures
 

YES! Listen to John... send me stuff for FIRST Historians! Thanks for the plug :p

I agree with John, though. Short signatures are much better than long signatures. I only list accomplishments from the current season, or in the off-season, the immediately previous season. I think if you want to do that, that's fine, but any more is excessive. Same thing with images... a small banner about your team or something is cool. Huge pictures aren't. Any more than 80 vertical pixels (double the size of mine) is probably too much.

My old way of judging this used to be the left hand panel in vb2. If a one-line post, plus signature, was longer than the left-hand panel, it was too long. That translated to something like 6 or 7 lines worth of signature, when viewed at 1024x768 (a good reference resolution these days). ]

So, I propose a guideline: If your signature takes up more than 6 or 7 lines of text would... it's too long. I'm sure Brandon could come up with a very strict limitation on signature length if it gets too bad, so maybe it's time for some self-policing of this before it gets out of hand.

Re: User Signatures
 

Why do you always have to be such an old fuddy-duddy? Just kidding of course :D

A day or so ago I was thinking about making a post with the same point, but as usual you've said it better than I could have. There's no need for long signatures, people usually skip over them anyway, so all you're left with is unread words that take up everyone's valuable screen space.

Re: User Signatures
 

Mike of course has the best signature of all :)

Re: User Signatures
 

It'd be pretty hard to do image size restriction automatically, especially because the images are hosted off site. I vote for self-policing. Send the user a PM. If they don't respond, send me a message and we'll deal with it somehow.

Re: User Signatures
 

Shhhhhh.... that was supposed to be an idle threat :p

Re: User Signatures
 

Brandon, would it be hard to put a limit on the number of lines of text in the signiture like we had at one point in vb2?

Re: User Signatures
 

That might be the best option..

Re: User Signatures
 

I like my sig. I can make it smaller if it really bothers people that much. PM meh if it does. I personally have not seen a single sig on CD that has bothered me. If you think these are bad you shold see many of the other forums i often stalk. I have seen sigs that literally take up 3/4 of a page. To tell you the truth CD is the most civil orderly forum i have ever seen.

Re: User Signatures
 

It could probably be hacked in, if necessary. Let's try to self-police (via pm's, email, etc) for a while and see if they get smaller on thier own.

Re: User Signatures
 

I agree with brandon. we have all been <courtious>-->spelling correction if necessary! to one another and im positively sure that if i saw a sig that was longer / wider then needed all i would ask is to have it made up smaller not removed. everyone in this forum has a very unique sig and i always liked to see them. It shows what kind of person you like to be. mine depicts a Metrocard which we use on buses and trains it shows i like to work *sarcastic tone* actually i couldn't find or design one if i tried or liked.

In any case self policing is the best choice. if it doesn't get changed within a few complaints then Brandon steps in. If in fact you cannot make it smaller simply b/c you don't know how then PM the person who sent the complaint and see if they can help u.

just my $2 - got paid last week and didn't wanna be cheap with just .2 cents :cool:

Mike

Re: User Signatures
 

In case anyone gets really annoyed, there's always the option to turn off signatures in your user control panel. The easiest thing someone with an overbearing signature could do is drop the size of their fonts if they feel it necessary to have an essay under every post. Especially if they can't spell. Just like your post, your signature relects upon you, and more so if there are spelling or grammatical errors in it. Banners can be okay, but they shouldn't be ginormous. As was previously mentioned, most people have pretty good discretion, but there is the odd occasion where I just feel violated after scrolling past their signatures... This is your cue to change. The next one's a PM. :)

Re: User Signatures
 

I'm not bothered so much by tall sigs, (I've a scroll mouse :D) but by sigs that have images that are so wide that I have to make the window bigger.

Though posts that have sig that is twice the size of the post do seem somehow obscene...

Wetzel

User Signatures - Reminder
 

I'm being kind of silly and simply replying to this thread in hopes that others will read it as it's kicked into the portal again. I've noticed some sigs getting excessively long as people win awards this year.

I think the concensus was be proud of what you've done this year and maybe the year before... but if you're going to list your team's history on individual lines back through 1992 (or even 2001 for that matter!) , your best 1 mile run time, and 8 of your favorite inside jokes... be a team player and tone it down a bit. :p

If it's more than an inch and a half or so on a standard resolution screen... you might be the cause of some people's aching scroll button finger! :)

Thanks!

Matt

Re: User Signatures - Reminder
 

Yeah, what Matt said! Tone it down dudes.

Andy B.

----------------
Lead Engineer, TechnoKats

1992 National Competition Finalist
1992 Ultimate Keeper Award
1994 Chairman’s Award Finalist
1995 Chairman’s Award Finalist
1998 National Competition Champion
1998 National “Technical Excellence” Award
1998 Great Lakes Regional Runner-Up
1998 Great Lakes Regional “Best Play” Award
1999 National Competition Runner-Up
1999 Midwest Regional “Outstanding Defense”
2000 National “Xerox Creativity” Award
2000 Midwest Regional Champion
2000 Great Lakes Regional Runner-Up
2001 National Competition #1 Seed & Finalist
2001 Midwest Regional GM Industrial Design Award & Finalist
2001 W. Michigan Regional Leadership in Controls Award & Finalist
2002 Championship Competition Division Finalist
2002 Championship Autodesk Animation Technical Excellence Award
2002 Midwest Regional Chairman’s Award Winner
2002 Midwest Regional Runner-up
2002 Indiana Vocational Education Excellence Award
2003 Midwest Regional Champion
2003 Midwest Regional Judges Award for Exemplary Sportsmanship
2003 St. Louis Regional Sportsmanship Award
2003 Pittsburgh Regional Sportsmanship Award
2003 Woodie Flowers Award Winner


.... just kiddin'. :)

Re: User Signatures
 

You got it! Frankly I was unaware certain signatures bothered ppl I will make mine less vertically annoying...

Re: User Signatures
 

It does a grammar curmudgeon's heart good. :p

Re: User Signatures - Reminder
 

What the heck is an "Ultimate Keeper Award?"
Is it still around, but now just named differently?

Elgin, who might be going to that FIRST History conference in Atlanta to learn a few new (re: old) things.

Re: User Signatures - Reminder
 

I think that 1992 was the only year they had this award.

... hmm... that makes team 45 the one and only winner of this award... woo!

It was an award for the team with the robot that the judges wanted to take home with them. The judges wanted to "keep" this robot, hence the "ultimate keeper award". I'll get a picture, since it is sitting on the desk of my boss.

Andy B.

Re: User Signatures
 

It doesn't make the spelling curmudgeons terribly happy, however.

Re: User Signatures
 

So can we try and lay down some general ground rules? Perhaps with some examples.