New signature guidelines, 2009

Petrie. · **on:** August 20, 2009, 08:23:05 PM

The staff feels that some members while putting very nice signature pictures at the end of their messages, that some are just too large and the actual message they write is dwarfed by a much larger picture.

The basic rule is this: its not the width of signatures that bother us so much...its the height of the signature. I only have a laptop to use and its sad to say I've seen signatures take up the entire height of my browsing screen at times. That's not ok, and I think our lax signature guidelines from our last set of rules is what allowed that to occur.

Therefore look at the green box below: its 250 pixels heigh by 600 pixels wide. If your entire signature can fit in that box, you're ok. If its a bit wide, we'll probably let it slide. If its over the height limit, we'll come knocking on your PM mailbox and ask you to fix it.

Some additional tidbits:

- no image should be larger than 250kb in filesize (no bitmaps here!)

- GOF awards are largely exempt from signature guidelines, however if you have many (I'm going to pick on Malte) please choose wisely which images are shown, or shrink the images (as Malte kindly has done) so that they fit within guidelines

Additional code to help you out:

Code: on
<img src="url of image" height="250" width="600">

250 and 600 are respective # of pixels in the sample code

We don't want to be signature police, but its now time that we're a well-established board and community to look neater and more professional. There's no need for your signature to take up a large area of the page when your message says "Good luck!" or some one sentence. Not everyone's going to be happy with this, but it needs to be done. If you fail to comply, we'll contact you about your signature via PM, and you'll be given two days to fix it, or we will resize your images for you.

-Adam
ze boss

Last updated: April 6, 2013

NeoGenesis005 · **Reply #1 on:** August 20, 2009, 08:28:56 PM

Really now. Well I think i'm ok, am I?

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #2 on:** August 20, 2009, 08:38:15 PM

Well this sucks but with the introduction of ultra widescreen displays, the amount of vertical pixels is even less than before. On the other hand the amount of horizontal pixels has greatly increased. I guess I'll start work on a new signature with an ultra widescreen compliant design. I'm not gonna lie. I can't make my signature the way I want it if it's designed to be so wide and narrow. It'll work in all browsers except for IE which is unacceptable. I'll have to redouble my efforts to discover a new code that will allow for universal alignment.

It will take me quite awhile to make a new signature so for now I'll just remove it. I don't want to be in violation of the rules. I don't know when I can get around to it. Perhaps tonight....perhaps in a week. If there was greater customization allowed I'd be able to make my signature quite a bit smaller than even the new rules permit, but the board doesn't handle Javascript very well and most Javascript code requires that script is written into the <head> section of the web page. <_<

EDIT:

Oh. I guess my signature DOES meet the new requirements. I added the width of the largest picture to the heights of the other two by mistake.

Bah, but I guess I'll make a new one anyway. It's time I changed my design theme again. It's been what two months since my last change? That's a long time. I'll try to integrate some JQuery script into my signature. With that, gee I can have quite a small signature with very powerful features. Or of course I could make a flash based signature once I start studying flash programming. That'll be a ways off though. I'm thinking I'll try to make something like a tabbed site description with different LBT pictures for the background and a general character theme. Don't worry Petrie. It won't look like a "flash ad".

More like an interactive signature that only responds if you click on it.

Petrie. · **Reply #3 on:** August 20, 2009, 08:50:41 PM

NeoG - you can measure it out yourself...you're current sig fits perfectly

Austin - you're really close, a bit over but the only reason I knew is I ckecked it out. I really can't believe it is as hard as you say to make even one picture within those dimensions. I could do a decent sig pic in five minutes within those guidelines.

Remember people is it the entire signature...not just the largest picture that needs to fit in that box (height-wise anyway). Those lines of text that are often under pictures will increase the height. Consider that when creating a sig--what do you really need to say there? Is it that vital if its not there or has to wait till next time?

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #4 on:** August 20, 2009, 09:43:56 PM

Quote

I really can't believe it is as hard as you say to make even one picture within those dimensions. I could do a decent sig pic in five minutes within those guidelines.

Well first you have to take a snapshot and edit it to your liking. My current signature image for example didn't have that much grass in it. Next you have to resize it so it conforms to the rules. After that you have to do a bit of math and cut out each image so they fit EXACTLY. Even though that image in my signature looks like 1 image, it's actually 7 images that have been cut out exactly and aligned with some HTML/CSS. I've gotten the math wrong before and the entire image is ruined even if you're off by 1px. Once that is done you have to remember which image is which and put text on them. If you get that part wrong you're totally screwed. Then finally the HTML/CSS must be edited or written from scratch. I've done this a lot so altogether it'll probably take me about two hours to do. The hardest part is separating the top piece from the six bottom pieces. You've gotta eye-ball it. There's not really a good way to make it exact with the selection tool. You can make the six pieces exactly the same size but editing the picture into a top and bottom piece is really hard and takes several tries on my part.

EDIT:
And yeah, I'm over by 2 pixels. I couldn't help it. That's just the way it came out. I wasn't exactly trying to make it all fit into 250px wide because those weren't the rules at that time.

I'll try a bit harder next time. For now I'll remove the text until I can make a new sig image. Well.....except for the awards link. Since awards are exempt from this rule I think it's fair if I have a link there until I can figure something else out.

Mumbling · **Reply #5 on:** August 21, 2009, 12:50:13 AM

Even though I was worried, mine seems to fit perfectly fine:

My images aren't over 100kb either. Thanks for the new rules boss!

(I put this picture in here so you can see it does fit in the dimensions... Mainly because I cannot quite believe that myself!)

Petrie. · **Reply #6 on:** August 21, 2009, 05:40:31 AM

^ Smart girl...yes you were fine, but thanks for confirmation. I don't believe you've ever had a large signature.

Austin, after getting rid of those lines of text, you fit. If you want, you don't have to do anything and just keep it the way it is. Honestly, I wouldn't ever waste my time doing what you're doing...I'd have a picture and a bunch of links underneath. Wouldn't look as professional I'd admit, but I"ll be able to do other things with those two hours I didn't spend on perfection.

Petrie. · **Reply #7 on:** August 25, 2009, 07:32:32 AM

I'll be doing rounds tonight and I'm going to start sending PMs tonight to people whose signatures do not fit the guidelines. Please act appropriately and change your signature so it at least fits the new height guidelines. We're more lenient on the width, but you need to be no higher than 250 pixels (or so close I can't tell if you're a few off).

Petrie. · **Reply #8 on:** September 10, 2009, 07:32:48 PM

Three members received PMs about their signature sizes tonight. Please fix them!

Malte279 · **Reply #9 on:** January 11, 2010, 10:25:31 AM

Some of us have rather high stacked signatures again. Please check out if your signatures are in accordance with the guidelines or if perhaps they can be made so (e.g. by putting images or text lines into fewer lines rather than having one for each image or text line).

Littlefoot Fan · **Reply #10 on:** January 30, 2010, 12:23:11 PM

Eventually, Malte, you're going to exceed the guidelines with just awards

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #11 on:** January 30, 2010, 12:33:00 PM

^^^Well he can fit up to three more awards in the same height if he gets rid of those......things on the sides. It'll probably be at least a year off before that becomes an issue and even then, one more line of 4 awards isn't a big deal.

Waluigifan · **Reply #12 on:** February 14, 2010, 08:41:28 AM

I have a question!

I've read the rules and the signature guidelines, but I can't find anything about advertisements in the signatures.

Is it allowed to have a banner in the signature, which is linked to his own site? For example this:

Code: on
<a href="MyWebsite"><img src="Banner.png" alt="Image error. Please contact the admin."</a>

?

Petrie. · **Reply #13 on:** February 14, 2010, 10:50:41 AM

As long as it fits the size guidelines, I have no issues with ads.

Waluigifan · **Reply #14 on:** February 14, 2010, 11:32:50 AM

Thank you very much!

Adder · **Reply #15 on:** June 21, 2010, 01:55:05 PM

Uh, Petrie. I have an image for it.

<img src="http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs43/f/2009/091/6/d/Penguin_by_JeaTay.gif" height="250" width="600">

But I always get contacted for it being to big. I can I make it smaller and keep the animation? If someone knows how, can they do it, and give me the link? I only know how to make animations with screenshots, not these kinds. If someone can resize it for me, thanks!

Mumbling · **Reply #16 on:** June 21, 2010, 02:15:59 PM

I personally think an animated signature is very distracting when you are trying to read other posts.

Waluigifan · **Reply #17 on:** June 21, 2010, 02:31:45 PM

Here:

100x122px

150x183px

Re-sized with Camtasia Studio 5.

Edit: Oh!

The transparency is gone!

Adder · **Reply #18 on:** June 21, 2010, 02:33:10 PM

Quote from: Waluigifan,Jun 21 2010 on 01:31 PM

Here:

100x122px

150x183px

Re-sized with Camtasia Studio 5.

Edit: Oh! The transparency is gone!

Thanks, I wish I knew how to do that.

Petrie. · **Reply #19 on:** June 21, 2010, 05:06:34 PM

That's very distracting...I would not recommend having an animated picture in a signature unless it was very very small (like a icon or something). I've done this in the past without any major problems. That's simply too big.