Signatures used for advertising - Page 2

zelda_pinwheel · 05-23-2010, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LazyScot

I'm pretty certain the moderators read this, but you can always use the little blue exclamation mark next to the Karma on a post that you have a problem with (in this case excessive signature) to send a note to the moderators (the ones whose usernames are green).

yes, exactly. that is the "report post" button i mentioned :

Quote:

The only thing I'll say (and I must admit that the example you posted does seem to be pushing boundaries somewhat) is that it is probably near impossible to police this sort of area, or even get agreement on what is really acceptable. So some tolerance is probably needed...

very well said, and precisely why we don't want to make a hard-and-fast, overly restrictive rule about it.

Quote:

At least on my browser the images appear to be smaller than in your image, so some changes have been made.

yes.

this person was asked to reduce the size of the images, and did so graciously.

JSWolf · 05-23-2010, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ea

I've started to notice more and more signatures that are quite long and/or image-heavy.

I've never liked "space-hogging" signatures on discussion forums, they take up so much unnessecary space and attention, but lately I've seen signatures used for what I can only call advertising. And if it's discreet I guess it's okay, but something like the attachment is far too much in my opinion. It's really annoying and pretty close to being spam.

Unfortunately I don't know who to contact about it or complain to - but it's really bothering me that users don't respect the wish for discrete signatures.

The post does seem to get lost in a sea of overly large cover images.

astra · 05-23-2010, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dusty Bottoms

I'd think there should be an outright ban on images in signatures. They clog up the whole page and are obnoxious.

Agree.
Forum is a place for info, chat, talk. An occasional picture here and there to support an argument is perfectly fine, however, pictures in signatures only an annoyance and distraction.
It would be nice if pics in signatures were outlawed.

DixieGal · 05-23-2010, 10:05 AM

It is also a matter of fairness. I had a smaller than the example cover of my husband's book in mine for an hour or so. A moderator asked me to take it off, so I did and instead have been using it as my avatar. I feel a bit grumpy when I see other sigs with big ol' cover images that go unnoticed.

Now, can we please do something about the animated avatars? They slow things down to a crawl. But they are certainly fun to watch!

Dusty Bottoms · 05-23-2010, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DixieGal

It is also a matter of fairness. I had a smaller than the example cover of my husband's book in mine for an hour or so. A moderator asked me to take it off, so I did and instead have been using it as my avatar. I feel a bit grumpy when I see other sigs with big ol' cover images that go unnoticed.

Now, can we please do something about the animated avatars? They slow things down to a crawl. But they are certainly fun to watch!

Seconded. Those blinky avatars drive me insane! (which is a very short trip)

Worldwalker · 05-23-2010, 11:30 AM

I personally feel that a signature -- text, graphic, or otherwise -- should never be more than 1/2 the height of the message it's signing. So if you're someone who posts one-liners, give up on the sig entirely. Of course, that doesn't mean I could use a half-page-long sig; there has to be some upper limit!

And yeah, that one in particular bothered me -- not only for its spamminess, but for the example it sets. One person with a sig like that is merely annoying ... ten of them would make the forum nearly unusable (I've seen it happen, though with gamers).

Advertising itself, it it is discrete and tasteful -- "My new book XXX of the YYY is out, buy it at zzz.com" -- isn't a bad thing. Buying books from fellow MR members is good. Those super-sigs, on the other hand, are the equivalent of a bilboard in your face.

I'd vote for no graphics in sigs at all.

Logseman · 05-23-2010, 04:55 PM

A good thumb rule is to only allow signatures as high as the avatar height.

Ea · 05-23-2010, 05:03 PM

After learning about the ability to turn off signatures I've now done so. I'm pretty sure I'm missing out on a few things, but overall; bliss! Large, visually busy signatures and avatars have always bothered me. It's nice to be rid of them.

astra · 05-24-2010, 05:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ea

After learning about the ability to turn off signatures I've now done so. I'm pretty sure I'm missing out on a few things, but overall; bliss! Large, visually busy signatures and avatars have always bothered me. It's nice to be rid of them.

So, you won't see mine anymore...

Quote:

Only Two Things Are Infinite, The Universe and Human Stupidity, and I'm Not Sure About The Former

Ea · 05-24-2010, 05:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astra

So, you won't see mine anymore...

Ah, I haven't turned off avatars actually. I'm still ever so slightly bothered by your animation

astra · 05-24-2010, 05:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ea

Ah, I haven't turned off avatars actually. I'm still ever so slightly bothered by your animation

Cannot say that your avatar is that innocent, not that I mind it

LCF · 05-24-2010, 05:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dusty Bottoms

Seconded. Those blinky avatars drive me insane! (which is a very short trip)

Don't look at this post! Or actually left from it!

kacir · 05-24-2010, 06:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dusty Bottoms

Those blinky avatars drive me insane! (which is a very short trip)

I use adblock plugin for my Firefox.
When I see an avatar that I really, really dislike, I right-click on it and select "block this image".
That is it. No more super annoying animated images to distract my eyes reading interesting thread.
You can do the same with unwanted pictures in a sig.

If you dislike a long text someone has in his sig, and you do not want to disable all signatures, have a look at the software called Privoxy.
Privoxy is a proxy server that sits on your PC and all html traffic from your browser is routed through the Privoxy. You can configure Privoxy to change certain text on pages, block images of certain sizes, unanimate animated gifs, you can let animated gifs to make just ONE animation instead of a loop animation. You can scrub out almost anything. Privoxy supports interesting configuration options based on Regular Expressions. Really powerful stuff.

I used to use Privoxy long time ago, before there was Adblock (not as configurable, but I am lazy and Adblock works good enough).

You can also use UserContent.css mechanism on all browsers that are based on mozilla engine to do very interesting things, including scrubbing out images, advertisment, formatting or other unwanted elements.

astra · 05-24-2010, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dusty Bottoms

Seconded. Those blinky avatars drive me insane! (which is a very short trip)

Use Adblock Plus in Fire Fox as kacir has suggested.
I have blocked quite a few annoying avatars this way.

The only drawback is when you have more than one computer. You have to repeat the blocking on each computer. For example, I use desktop and netbook at home and desktop at work.

montsnmags · 05-24-2010, 07:00 AM

A temporary solution someone mentioned was to hit the ESC key, which stops the animations. I'm not sure if this works in all browsers. Obviously it is not necessarily a permanent solution as detailed above, but may be useful for those who find the annoyance intermittent and of variable level (like me - only sometimes, usually when I'm migrainal, do I find some animations aggravating).

Cheers,
Marc

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05-23-2010, 10:05 AM	#19
DixieGal Hi There! Posts: 7,473 Karma: 2930523 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Ft Lauderdale Device: iPad	It is also a matter of fairness. I had a smaller than the example cover of my husband's book in mine for an hour or so. A moderator asked me to take it off, so I did and instead have been using it as my avatar. I feel a bit grumpy when I see other sigs with big ol' cover images that go unnoticed. Now, can we please do something about the animated avatars? They slow things down to a crawl. But they are certainly fun to watch!

05-23-2010, 11:30 AM	#21
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	I personally feel that a signature -- text, graphic, or otherwise -- should never be more than 1/2 the height of the message it's signing. So if you're someone who posts one-liners, give up on the sig entirely. Of course, that doesn't mean I could use a half-page-long sig; there has to be some upper limit! And yeah, that one in particular bothered me -- not only for its spamminess, but for the example it sets. One person with a sig like that is merely annoying ... ten of them would make the forum nearly unusable (I've seen it happen, though with gamers). Advertising itself, it it is discrete and tasteful -- "My new book XXX of the YYY is out, buy it at zzz.com" -- isn't a bad thing. Buying books from fellow MR members is good. Those super-sigs, on the other hand, are the equivalent of a bilboard in your face. I'd vote for no graphics in sigs at all.

05-23-2010, 04:55 PM	#22
Logseman Orisa Posts: 1,999 Karma: 1035571 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Ireland Device: Onyx Poke 5	A good thumb rule is to only allow signatures as high as the avatar height.

05-23-2010, 05:03 PM	#23
Ea Wizard Posts: 3,490 Karma: 5239563 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Denmark Device: Kindle 3\|iPad air\|iPhone 4S	After learning about the ability to turn off signatures I've now done so. I'm pretty sure I'm missing out on a few things, but overall; bliss! Large, visually busy signatures and avatars have always bothered me. It's nice to be rid of them.

05-24-2010, 07:00 AM	#30
montsnmags Grand Sorcerer Posts: 10,155 Karma: 4632658 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: none	A temporary solution someone mentioned was to hit the ESC key, which stops the animations. I'm not sure if this works in all browsers. Obviously it is not necessarily a permanent solution as detailed above, but may be useful for those who find the annoyance intermittent and of variable level (like me - only sometimes, usually when I'm migrainal, do I find some animations aggravating). Cheers, Marc

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