Members' Signatures

[Lanthanotus]

Personally I have nothing against signatures, yet, I wasn't aware that I could switch them off. I might do that now I know of, but it never really occured to me....

From the guest perspective, yes, you can signatures and as some are quite spacetaking this can impact one's enjoyment of the site if the same person with a certain signature posted a lot in one thread. However, as a guest you have a very valuable right here a lot of other forums deny: You can see photos posted by members (expect for those in the member's forum), in fact, you can see/read the whole content. And "whole" includes signatures.

I fail to see some kind of injustice or unfairness here, everyone "offended" or distracted could log in by just registering with an email adress, it's not as if one would leave his address and bank account here and afeter doing so, noone's forced to post, write, anything. So easy enough to remedy. And I find it important that member's have more options to express themselves than by just choosing a nickname and avatar.... just my two cents.

[DinoToyForum]

This is an interesting discussion.

There are already some limits placed on signatures, mostly to stop members posting tall stacks of images (which did happen). Here are the current settings for signatures:

Maximum allowed characters
(0 for no max.)
1000

Maximum amount of lines
(0 for no max)
0

Maximum font size allowed in signatures
(0 for no max, in pixels)
0

Allow smileys in signatures Maximum smiley count
(0 for no max)
0

Maximum image count
(0 for no max - excludes smileys)
3

Maximum width of signature images (pixels)
(0 for no max)
700

Maximum height of signature images (pixels)
(0 for no max)
300

So, there are plenty of options. If there's a general agreement then I can update these settings. For example, two images per signature should be more than satisfactory (that's how many I use). I could also introduce a maximum number of lines. But, really, I suspect the vast majority of members and guests don't have strong feelings on signatures one way or the other. We could create a poll and see?

Personally, I like signatures because they help provide identity and personality, but at the same time I'm not precious about them.

Similarly, going slightly off topic (and I may split this thread if it leads to discussion), I like smileys a lot. Actually, I think smileys can be critical for conversation and interaction with 'strangers' over the internet because they communicate certain emotions and feelings that words can't easily (or can only do awkwardly). For me, smileys are a part of punctuation — a well placed smiley can have as much power and meaning as a question mark or an exclamation mark. However, I feel smileys are often overused or abused, not really on the DTF, but on other forums where members use too many for my personal tastes. But, I'm sure I use too many smileys for the tastes of some traditionalists.

Ironically, I've just realised I haven't used a single smiley in this post. Oops, there's one! 

[Bokisaurus]

Hmmm, I have been a member pretty  much since the start, and I have seen hundreds of signatures over the years. I personally don't have any issues with signatures unless they are rude or disrespectful .
One thing that is great about this forum for non-members and those who browse ( Like I do a lot), is that you don't have to be a member of logged in to be able to see photos or read discussions. This is unlike many forums, which is one reason why I never lasted or rarely visited some forums.

Signatures for me is fun, and it offers a glimpse of that persons character/personality. Some change their signatures regularly while others keep it constant that in time it becomes part of their identity.
I find nothing arrogant or childish about signatures at all, in fact it is one of the few fun stuff one can do. Some uses it as their platform to promote their art, others their collection, others just a quick GIF to entertain.

You run under the assumption that many non-members are turned off by this, but that is just that, a personal assumption based on your own preference. No one is forcing anyone to click on a link on someones signature, and as others pointed out, we have a choice to set our settings so we don't see signatures when logged in, I think that is a great option. This gives all of us an option: To browse un-logged and see everything, or log on to minimize what we see, we can make the choice.
Honestly your thinly vailed reference to some members is not that easy to guess who you are referring to, and I don't think that is not fair at all and easily single out individuals.

Members who have collection photos or links on their signature line happens to be some of the most important, popular, and beloved thread in this forum. I have visited this links to their collection to look at the entire collection, but more importantly, use this as reference guides. I find it helpful for my collecting and cataloguing my own.
I also like that artist have their links on their signature so it is easy to go to their thread or website.
This forum is all about sharing our collection, so their is nothing arrogant or childish about using a photo of ones collection as a signature.
My personal signature photo is of a group of figures I painted years ago, I happen to like it and I am proud of it so I used it. I have received many question about the figures and was able to direct those who were interested to the source. I dint' use that to be arrogant or childish, If you don't like it, then sorry, but it's staying and not going anywhere.

I find no difference between signature photos and Avatar photos, either one is visible all the time. So what is the difference between a personal ( face) photo of ones self and ones collection? Again, either one shows up whether we like it or not. So to me their is no different between seeing someones face or collection every time they make post or a comment.

Lastly, I think there is more members who have something on their signature than none. Cheers!

[Libraraptor]

To put my opinion bluntly,  I think this discussion is a storm(BE) / tempest (AE) in a teacup.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

I like signatures. Not only do they add personality, but when I was new to the forum I used avatars and signatures to keep track of who's who before I remembered people's usernames. Also, as mentioned earlier, they're a good opportunity for a shortcut to a user's collection or their buying/selling thread.

It only becomes a problem to me when it becomes excessive. For example, I was reading on a Zoo Tycoon forum once and one of the members had extremely large images and a YouTube video in their sig. Granted, that's probably due to that forum having different age demographics, but it was quite distracting nonetheless.

While we're on the topic of signatures, I just remembered the diorama contest banners we used to have. It's definitely been a while since I've seen one of those.

[IrritatorRaji]

I like signatures. Not only do they add personality, but when I was new to the forum I used avatars and signatures to keep track of who's who before I remembered people's usernames.

I've been here a year and I still do that, haha

[Syndicate Bias]

I didn't even think signatures were an issue.
Kinda always thought most were okay maybe i missed something but none ever came across as arrogant to me

[postsaurischian]

Maximum width of signature images (pixels)
(0 for no max)
700

Maximum height of signature images (pixels)
(0 for no max)
300

  Wouldn't the picture from Syndicate Bias (post before) be too big then?