Your Feedback on Signatures

[The Dark Wizard]

Hey All,


We'd really like your feedback on the topic of signatures. I still remember the days when people would actively argue about them when we had signatures of unlimited size. Users would stick many many images and links to the point where a single signature would take up your entire monitor before you'd get to the next post, imagine that repeated every single time they posted.


Over the site's long life we have had this topic brought to us numerous times and those same amount of times, we've tried to tweak it to make it acceptable to all.


Current Issues

So here is a list of the current issues that have brought up the topic again from members, prompting us to publicly gather feedback.

• Even though we have limited the amount of images down to 1, we have no way of preventing users from making sure that their one image is not a gif. So until we catch that person, people have to deal with gifs which are considered obnoxious when it comes to what we do on this site which is lots of reading/writing of RP posts.
  
• STs have complained that it is extremely rude for players in their games, to have links to other games, particularly if its the same genre/system.
  
• Users have complained about people who use their signature for tons of character links, since seeing that wall of links does not benefit any one else
  
• Signatures aren't being used for anything meaningful in regards to what we do in this site and they make it harder to read RP posts. That issue has come up a lot.
  

Possible Solutions

1. While not a solution, we can leave signatures as is.
   
2. We can make it so that signatures do not display in RPs, making it easier to read RP posts. Signatures would continue to display in the none RP parts of the site.
   
3. Some argue that if signatures are removed from RPs, which is a great portion of the site, then they should just be removed all together, since they won't be as useful only displaying in certain parts of the site.
   

I'd love to hear from you all

 

[DreamingofRoses]

I like the idea of signatures being available in parts of the forums, mainly because you'll get to introduce people to what games you're in, but don't necessarily need them in the RP parts of the forum, if that makes any sense.

 

[Lord of Chaos]

[QUOTE="The Dark Wizard]Hey All,

• STs have complained that it is extremely rude for players in their games, to have links to other games, particularly if its the same genre/system.
  

[/QUOTE]
This reason alone is actually the strongest argument I've heard in favor of keeping signatures on for RPs (yes, I know it's SUPPOSED to be an argument against). If a player is in a given RP, they may want to join similar ones, or join RPs with other players that they enjoy playing with. Those links that some people provide in their signatures is like a convenient "Games probably similar to this one, and that contain me" section.


As for signatures being irrelevant, that is true. But they are still fun, which is the reason why this site exists. I'd say we should keep them as-is

 

[Action Replay]

I usually post only in rp sections since that's why I'm here. So for me removing them from RPs only and the site entirely are effectively one and the same. I don't use sigs much so personally I'm fine with whatever the community decides. That said I'm curious if this is actually a BIG enough problem that multiple STs complain about it. I don't really see the problem here beyond the huge wall of picture thing. You can use esc to freeze gifs if someone actually uses those for whatever reason. Links to other RPs...why not? Your rp is interesting enough that people want to participate and read, so they won't abandon it because they have another link in front of them. I've seen some people with them but I ignore them almost entirely anyways. The links that is, not the people.


Sounds like people have short tempers or are insecure but that's just an opinion.

 

[DeusExAlice]

It really doesn't bother me to have them exist, but if so many people are upset about them I'd be okay with them being relegated to non-RPing sections of the site. I can see the problems with gifs and internet speed cause -I- have terribru internet, but I'd be okay if they stayed the same. If change -has- to happen though, I do not want sigs removed all together. I find too many gems of humor or things worth reading in them to wish them vanished D=

 

[SephirothSage]

I like them as is, honestly.

 

[Crocodile]

I personally had no issue, so I'd say leave as is.

 

[JayTee]

Please leave it as is, the only thing that needs to change is a few rules and how they're enforced.

[QUOTE="The Dark Wizard]

• Even though we have limited the amount of images down to 1, we have no way of preventing users from making sure that their one image is not a gif. So until we catch that person, people have to deal with gifs which are considered obnoxious when it comes to what we do on this site which is lots of reading/writing of RP posts.
  

[/QUOTE]

• An easy fix for this would be to put it in the official rules if it's not in there already, and then just have the players/GMs tag the staff if it happens.
  [QUOTE="The Dark Wizard]
  
  [/QUOTE]
• STs have complained that it is extremely rude for players in their games, to have links to other games, particularly if its the same genre/system.
  Spoiler tags in sigs solve this problem neatly, but this is really their problem, not yours. Players are allowed to be in more than one game, and it's easy to access those games if they're all in one place like the signature.
  

[QUOTE="The Dark Wizard]

Users have complained about people who use their signature for tons of character links, since seeing that wall of links does not benefit any one else

[/QUOTE]Spoiler tags solve this problem neatly, as above.
[QUOTE="The Dark Wizard]

Signatures aren't being used for anything meaningful in regards to what we do in this site and they make it harder to read RP posts. That issue has come up a lot.

[/QUOTE]Easy fix, just have it so signatures can't exceed a certain size.

 

[Belial]

Why dont you people just put spoilers up in your dam signature threads... It would make things easier for every one just be polite you know.. Otherwise you loose the privileged of having them for being obnoxious...

 

[Lord Heru]

I personally like signatures. Seeing somebody have a quote from an interesting and fun source works to aid in increasing friendliness between different people which is nice. I also like it as a location for the ease organization of various works made by a person, and often follow the links to other interesting pages or threads.


So basically I say keep them as is.

 

[Cirno]

I forgot there were signatures. I tend to turn them off and then stalk people's profile pages instead.

 

[Unbridled Originality]

I like it when people have character links in their signatures. It gives me a better idea of how they write, which is useful when selecting players for a game. I say either explicitly codify that GIFs aren't allowed, or don't allow pictures altogether.


As for the discomfort of people advertising other games in your game thing; I agree with you, Wiz. It's a better argument for than against. And if someone is so insecure about their game that they don't want anyone looking up another, similar game...that doesn't speak much to their confidence in their own STing abilities.

 

[JayTee]

I forgot there were signatures. I tend to turn them off and then stalk people's profile pages instead.

Wait, you can already turn off signatures manually?


GG everyone, problem solved!

 

[Action Replay]

If that is true I will feel trolled that this thread even exists.

 

[Tabby]

I don't have a problem with signatures as they currently are, though I also don't spend much time here anymore outside of the games I'm in.


The use of spoilers should be 'encouraged' for anyone with animated gifs, large images, or walls o' text in signatures. Otherwise, if it aint broke, don't fix it.

 

[Grey]

I have no strong feelings. I like all kinds of sigs - I like to see what other characters or games my players are involved in, I like seeing and sharing amusing or pleasing snippets, and as an ST I appreciate the convenience of links to sheets. I understand some might prefer them relegated to OOC areas.

 

[hellrazoromega]

I say leave them, they are a form of expression, a snippet of who you are and isn't expression why we are all here? For that reason alone I respectfully disagree that they are irrelevant, they tell you something about the person. So that guy with the obnoxious GIF---yeah, tells you something about him.


Anyway that is free advice-- worth, as always, exactly what you paid for it.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

Leave as is. I would say that if you had to do something, then restrict them from RPs - but I'm not entirely sure that would do any good. I think if you just put it into rules that .gif is not allowed and that the picture can't be more than like 150px, things would be ok. We can all play by the rules here, can't we? Besides I have not seen many pictures here as most people tend to use simple text.

 

[Skari-dono]

I would like others to have an easy link to my website without me writing it down all too frequently, which is why I have it in my signature. (Read: I'm a self-centered person who wants people to see what cool stuff I've done but I'm too lazy to actually link to it more than once.)


However, I think leaving signatures out of RPs is a strong move that makes reading through long chapters easier.

 

[Taliesin]

Yeah, I'm with the others, I don't get the issue. The notion that people have complained about players putting links to other games in their sigs is almost offensive to me, honestly - why is it rude for them to enjoy their time with other people as well?


The only thing I'd agree with is the wall of links point, and that's just a matter of asking people who do it to use spoilers, same as any other large signature. If anything has to be done, turning off signatures for in-character threads has some merit I suppose, but I'm for just leaving them as they are.


I will fight people with knives if they suggest removing signatures from the site entirely; by that logic we should remove avatars and any subforum that's slow/smaller than the RP section.


(If I'm honest, I don't even like the image limit of one. There's an old forum I used to frequent that made tiny images in the form of userbars for people to put in their sig. Lots of people had two or three and it was perfectly reasonable.)

 

[Melissia]

This doesn't bug me (or for that matter apply to me; I don't advertise games in my signature). I don't have any opinion either way tbh.

 

[ak-73]

Signatures are incredibly useful for providing a quick link to my character sheet. Both useful for me and the GM, I think.

 

[Scandinavian]

I put in "leave as is" in lieu of my true first preference, which is:


*Nuke pictures altogether.


*Leave the current character limit in place, but establish a rule that sigs of over 150 characters, with line breaks and similar counting as 50 characters, must be placed inside a spoiler.

 

[hellrazoromega]

I suppose I have to ask how often the above offenses occur? I myself have not seen any grossly offensive signatures as described above, but then again as we all know, people's threshold for annoyance vary greatly.

 

[Ker'ion]

Yes, how often is this occurring?


And if people can turn off the signature areas, why are they trying to block it for everyone?


Set an option for users to chose on/off/ off in the rp areas and call it good.