Environmentally-sound signatures.

[DevP]

I like self-promotion, so a link to my home blog and "imprint" is in my signature: MythPunk. Heh.

But I remember Gobi mentioned searching for his "PUNK" system, and that "Punk" as a design goal does come up. The more I most, the more I'll ruin such searches.

Should I personally rename or alter my signature (sort of done this already)? Also, should we have more general guidelines about Signatures?

[Daniel Solis]

Actually, I don't think signatures are part of the searchable content, only topics and message body. So don't worry. :)

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Regarding signatures in general, rather than the search function, I ask everyone to practice minimalism. This isn't a moderator lay-down-the-law thing, because we're talking about preferences and atmosphere rather than rules-of-engagement. But I hope that funny quips will be kept to a single phrase and low word count, that links will take a person to a single location from which they can find the other links, and that font sizes and colors are kept close to standard.

In other words, unlike most sites, I don't think the Forge community benefits from every member establishing a personal visual environment for their posts. If I were to inflict my preferences on everyone, then there wouldn't be any signatures, subject lines for posts, or image functions. But that's not good moderating, I think, so all I'm doing is saying, "Please think about it," and try to come up with a good solution as you see fit.

Best,
Ron

[talysman]

as an aside giving examples off the Forge, consider that Usenet has existed for more than twenty years; Usenet regulars have reached the consensus that signatures shouldn't be more than four lines.

I'd say that on a web forum, even that is pushing it, although still acceptable. heck, I'm using three lines, and I really should cut it to two.

[DevP]

It does seem that search is ignoring the signatures, which is a Good Thing. I'll switch my signature back now.

[Daniel Solis]

Until I get my own site up and running, I'll just strip down my sig to my name.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

But I hope that funny quips will be kept to a single phrase and low word count, that links will take a person to a single location from which they can find the other links, and that font sizes and colors are kept close to standard.

Not to mention that you can make your web site part of your profile, and the link will appear as a button near the PM, Email, etc buttons.

[MachMoth]

Not to mention that you can make your web site part of your profile, and the link will appear as a button near the PM, Email, etc buttons.

Pffft.  I, personally, don't think to look at that little infobar at the bottom.  ;p

So many people have sites here, yet I've been to so few of them.  I'm a bit of a hypocrit, in my sig beliefs, though.  I like to think of sigs as a form of personal expression.  But then, I've recently resigned to my <shameless plug> sig.  Yeah, hypocritical to the hilt.  But, now I get a good few hits a day from it.  *shrugs*  Can't argue with that.  Though, if page hits where all that mattered in the world to me, it would be the "Cracked RPG & Porn Experiment."

[Jack Aidley]

Hi Ron,

In other words, unlike most sites, I don't think the Forge community benefits from every member establishing a personal visual environment for their posts. If I were to inflict my preferences on everyone, then there wouldn't be any signatures, subject lines for posts, or image functions. But that's not good moderating, I think, so all I'm doing is saying, "Please think about it," and try to come up with a good solution as you see fit.

I find it interesting that you say this because to my mind The Forge is the only forum I visit in which the signatures serve a useful purpose. Namely it allows posters to have a brief advert and link to their works. Yes, I know there's the 'www' link button. But without visiting it I don't know what it's to: wheras I can see a link saying 'MythPUNK' and think "hey, that sounds cool - what is it?". Since The Forge exists to promote, develop and propogate indie rpgs this seems to me to fit with its core function.

Regards,

Jack.

[Lxndr]

The Forge already has a 255 character limit on sigs, so there's no way they'll ever be huge, barring someone trying for some sort of vertical signature (as an example, my signature, below, is already near its limit because the text in the BBC code, such as the URL, are counted in the limit - I forget what, exactly, I was thinking about adding/changing recently, but it brought me over the limit so I decided against it).  

I feel that, with that character limit in place, there's not too much to worry about regarding abuse.  I don't think I've seen an abusive/excessive signature in my time here.

At the very least, though, I like signatures that have the user's name in it (which is the reason I started using mine over here).  To me, that feels like a more efficient use of space than signing every post separately (which accomplishes the same effect, oddly, of giving a post a "personal environment").

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

I should clarify my request: I think names and website links are awesome signatures. By "environment," I'm referring mainly to colors, font sizes, images, and funny little ironic catch-phrases.

The only two of these I actively pursue and ask people to modify are the font-size and images; the reason you don't see big gross font sizes or images in sigs is because the person typically accedes to my request.

As for colors and phrases, I'm not disallowing anything: just asking for people to think about whether they really really need them.

Best,
Ron

[Jack Spencer Jr]

Not to mention that you can make your web site part of your profile, and the link will appear as a button near the PM, Email, etc buttons.

Pffft.  I, personally, don't think to look at that little infobar at the bottom.  ;p

And I don't look at the signatures. On RPGnet I have them turned off, which makes it annoying when someone refers to the link in their signature. Which is the only reason why I'd click any link for someone's web site, if for some reason, the person has a reason to point to their web page.

But that's me.

[M. J. Young]

I believe the way the forum software works, the sig files are stored separately and called to the thread when needed.

Thus if you change the name of your web site, and it's been in your sig for the past three years/seven hundred posts, you can go to your personal information, change the sig, and all of the old posts are updated the instant someone calls them. The thread just has markers that say "this guy's sig file goes here", and when you call the thread it constructs it from the individual posts and files that are required.

That's why sigs don't show in searches.

--M. J. Young

[Clinton R. Nixon]

M.J. hits it on the button.

Hey - and this may seem a little out-of-line, but listen up anyway - this thread is proof of how great it is to work with Ron Edwards. Awesome job moderating, Ron - without any sort of dictatorial management, a social standard on the Forge has been established, and signatures become (or maintain being) a useful tool to advertise your projects without spamming up the forums.