I’ve been seeing a lot of sigs lately that are eight, ten, **even twelve lines long!** Here’s a hint : instead of leaving the same three quotes in your sig for three weeks, rotate them so you have one quote each week!
Imagine how much it would clutter up a thread if everyone’s sig was this long. Would you like reading a thread with 100 posts and 300 quotes? I know you love the snappy one-liner along with the verbose quote that adds an air of authority to your posts, and the Wally sig, but you really should pick ONE dammit!
Think before you sig.
`They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety’
Including Ben Franklin on a separate line from the rest of the quote is just criminal. That extra line you are taking up means I might actually have to scroll just a little bit more when I read a thread. And heaven help me if you post 2 or 3 times to a thread. How will I ever make it to the end?
Granted, long sigs might take up space, but somehow I think you can muddle through the extra couple of lines.
Coming soon to a sig line near you!
Relive the mundane highs, the flaming lows, and the pointless posts in between. Announcing the debut of the best of Mullinator.
I agree with you, however, it seems as if I am the worst offender. However, I am relating something which means a lot to me personally, is helping me deal with it, and it seems helping others as well.
In short, I hope that I get special dispensation here. If not, oh well. I ain’t changing it anyway!
I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
One week, one day, 13 hours, 7 minutes and 25 seconds.
341 cigarettes not smoked, saving $42.73.
Life saved: 1 day, 4 hours, 25 minutes.
Ugh, that one 12-liner is really… something. Geesh.
Some of you may think this is over-reacting. Try going to Virtual Kid. They all have long-ass sigs and it is a pain in the ass to read.
I’m having a problem with this on my message board (Teenworld). People want their sigs to be eight lines, hot pink, four-point font and include an image! I’m working on a hack that will keep people from using images in their sigs, but for now all I can do is tell them ‘no’ and delete the images when I see them. Then people whine about free-speach and too many rules, nevermind that they have essentially posted three images to every thread in the place.
winces Oi I’m sorry I muffed up there. I changed my sig though as you can see so its not as long. Sometimes I over do stuff. Besides I’m just a newbie getting the feel of things. I’m better now. I really am.
Never run from anything immortal, it attracts their attention. Brought to you by the Amazon woman of Canada.
Just so you know, the abuse of sig files is being looked at by your friendly Straight Dope Management.
(We’re against it, of course.)
And while we’re on the subject, let me quote from the registration agreement:
BTW, we consider anything that negatively affects our format or setup to be vandalism.
We’ll keep you notified on any changes to our current policy.
While we’re on the subject, what, in your opinion, is excessive for a sig file? I’ve been in situations (like, for example, the Tuba Listserv I’m on) where sig files are limited; anything over 5 lines long is automatically deleted.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
The Straight Dope
This looks like just the right place to see if my new sig posts correctly.
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
“It’s the same thing,” he said.
While we’re on the subject, what, in your opinion, is excessive for a sig file?
I’ll take one extreme, and say get rid of them altogether, or at least limit them to one line, with no bolding or gifs. On mailing lists signatures make sense, because each message comes separate from the rest. But here, where we scroll through the messages, the signatures are jumbled in with the posts and that make it harder to find the content in the threads. Also, we can click on the personal icon to get information about people’s email addresses and home page sites if we want to get more information about them. If you have a lot to say, just list your home page url.
I find it strange that if we were to repeatedly post the same message to multiple threads we would get in trouble, but posting the same signature over and over and over somehow is “different”. If people want to include a witty quote evey once in a while, that’s okay, especially if it’s on a “witty quote” thread. But to list the same signature over and over is repetitive. Repetitive. Yes, continuous duplication is repetitive. Repetitive.
If you want attention that much, post something that’s witty or interesting enough that you impress us with your intelligence. Long signatures are, IMHO, the intellectual equivalent of boom boxes.
Please elaborate on this. If I’m reading your post correctly, I can be booted for posting anything that negatively affects the format or setup? Obviously you wouldn’t do it for an accident (i.e. posting a link that causes the page to scroll) but what situations warrant booting for vandalism (or should I post this to ATMB?).
