Signatures used for advertising

[Ea]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

I think that men are the weaker creature, mentally. But being male, that would be my perspective, wouldn't it? You may guess what goes on inside others, and they may react to your perceptions in a way that reinforces that perception, but you can only guess.

Given that caveat, of course. And not only to the avatars you use either.
...

That was a highly diplomatic reply! See, I choose my avatars based on what I like to look at, am attracted to - but somehow I am not affected to the point of aphasia (not even jokingly ) Perhaps you are right, and men are weak...

[SameOldStory]

All joking aside, a fair number of my friends have been tongue tied when meeting someone they find overwhelmingly attractive (which may or may not include beauty).

[Ea]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

All joking aside, a fair number of my friends have been tongue tied when meeting someone they find overwhelmingly attractive (which may or may not include beauty).

I can only take that to mean my avatars have been overwhelmingly attractive lately Which is a nice compliment... Do know I understand the feeling, but remember that with a virtual existence you have the luxury of taking a deep breath, and time to practise what to say. As far as me and my avatar goes we like to be able to do that, too.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by Ea

I can only take that to mean my avatars have been overwhelmingly attractive lately Which is a nice compliment... Do know I understand the feeling, but remember that with a virtual existence you have the luxury of taking a deep breath, and time to practice what to say. As far as me and my avatar goes we like to be able to do that, too.

Fishing for compliments?

I can only suppose that women have the same reactions to which I was referring.

Close personal relationships developed over the internet seem to offer too great a likelihood that one, or the other, might try to make themselves more appealing than they are. That, I'm sure, was true of paper correspondence also.

Avatars can be just another way of saying "This is how I want to be thought of". And that is what I get from yours.

My avatar was simply the picture of a newly purchased a Roman coin. No other significance. I express myself in my signature more than elsewhere.

[astra]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

All joking aside, a fair number of my friends have been tongue tied when meeting someone they find overwhelmingly attractive (which may or may not include beauty).

True.

Close personal relationships developed over the internet

Long time ago I had a friend whom I would always tell the truth about me. I redoubled my efforts when I realised that she develops some inappropriate feelings for me. It only inflamed her more?!? She still calls me dinosaurs sometimes because before she got to know me she thought that people like me became extinct ages ago. Some people have a more realistic approach, i.e., without rose-tinted glasses. They think only stupid people always tell the truth, because they are too stupid to remember all the lies they could tell, so they tell the truth in order to avoid being caught

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by astra

Long time ago I had a friend whom I would always tell the truth about me. I redoubled my efforts when I realised that she develops some inappropriate feelings for me. It only inflamed her more?!? She still calls me dinosaurs sometimes because before she got to know me she though that people like me became extinct ages ago. Some people have a more realistic approach, i.e., without rose-tinted glasses. They think only stupid people always tell the truth, because they are too stupid to remember all the lies they could tell, so they tell the truth in order to avoid being caught

That's a good reason not to lie!

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

My 2 cents - by anonymous.

<snip>

OK. There are ways to turn off much of what may irritate some. And that is a better solution than to turn this into a visually monotonous forum.

I agree! Which why I'm happy I know how to avoid those annoying covers, and knowing there are a lot of people wanting to help others who think the same...

[kcmay]

IMO, if the sig for a single-line post doesn't make the post any longer than what the profile image + text would, then there's no problem.

That said, I'll take a look at my sig and make sure it's not overly huge.

Edit: Nope! I didn't use an image. Didn't need to.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by Ea

BTW; would you include gay women in those affected by my avatar?

Well, as the latest incarnation of your avatar seems to be Kate Winslet I would expect gay women, straight women, straight men, gay men, dogs, cats and all sentient beings to be affected by it

[TGS]

Having set my preferences to not display signatures to avoid being confronted by images of covers, blurbs and links, a few members seem to be including at least blurbs and links in the last lines of their posts. Speaking personally I find this a bit annoying, so much so that I shall likely never click on such links - though I might if they were in the right place. I don't know if this is something the Mods need to pick up?

[LazyScot]

My preference is always to be tolerant of things like this, at least until it clearly crosses a line clearly stepping into overt advertising outside of the accepted forums. That said, if it really annoys you then you could use the little blue exclamation mark to send a note to the mods with an explanation of why you think it's a problem. I'm sure they'll consider it and let you know.

Personally, I've not really noticed a problem, though I still have signatures enabled.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by TGS

Having set my preferences to not display signatures to avoid being confronted by images of covers, blurbs and links, a few members seem to be including at least blurbs and links in the last lines of their posts. Speaking personally I find this a bit annoying, so much so that I shall likely never click on such links - though I might if they were in the right place. I don't know if this is something the Mods need to pick up?

It's possible the user was initially blocked from using a sig', due to the new member limitations, and did what you say above instead without ever getting out of the habit (or perhaps not realizing that the absence of the option wasn't a permanent thing.

LazyScot's suggestion is good (Reporting such a post) as we can send a polite message to them requesting they make it part of their forum software sig'.

Cheers,
Marc

[nohmi2]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

My 2 cents - by anonymous.

I've always been exceptional. Special, some would say. If they had short school buses when I went to school I would've had the shortest.

As some of you can see (and phooey on those of you who can't) I insert a thumbnail in my sig. I avoid animated ones, and try to avoid offensive ones. Ea has talked me into keeping it as compact as I can (formatting be damned).

And here is where my specialness comes in. I like book covers in the sig areas. If they're kept to one line and, of course, not animated/blinking.

I also liked the first day of school, new people, and even new school books! Told you I was special.

Some of the other discussion boards I've seen look the way this thread is going. No avatars. No sigs. Stripped down. This may make for a great speed reading environment, but boooooorrring.

Many of you are people that I find worthwhile reading. At times I'll scroll down the screen looking for certain avatars. I like the thumbnail book covers as a visual trigger to interesting new books. Some sigs make me laugh. All in all, it makes the forum more interesting to me.

As discussed, there are way to turn off signatures, avatars, and images if they trouble you.

Some of the ones that have caused me problems are -
Zelda - your avatar scares me. Too much like Phillis Diller.
astra - I had to get one of those rubber roll up keyboards to protect my forehead because I can't control myself when I see your avatar.
Ea - your avatar causes aphasia. Please remember that there are adult men on this site.
JSWolf - You're one scary dude. Stop looking at me with that big eye of yours.
LCF - it is illegal to hypnotize people without their consent.

The list goes on and on. Where's my school bus. I WANT MY SCHOOL BUS!




OK. There are ways to turn off much of what may irritate some. And that is a better solution than to turn this into a visually monotonous forum.

Wow! Just read this, and agree.

Funnily, the signatures though that irritate me, are the ones that either tell the posters life story or grudges.

Karma

Cheers

[LCF]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

My 2 cents - by anonymous.

LCF - it is illegal to hypnotize people without their consent.

Just stumbled over this . I use Adblock Plus to block such avatars. There is even an addition to the program, that allows you to substitute them. Works for Firefox, don't know about other browsers, but I guess alternatives exist.

[astra]

Some writers drive me crazy.
They change their book icons in signatures, so I have to re-block them again. On the other hand it became a sport for me. The moment I see a pic in the signature, I immediately block it and grin
However, people who put pics in their signatures only frustrate me. If they think there is a remote chance I will ever click on their ads or read their books...tough chance it is.
Maybe if I come across their books somewhere else, then I would not even know it is the same "blocked" nuisance from forum.

[LCF]

And I was actually trying to click a book picture in a signature - it turned out, it wasn't a link, so I gave up the search - it became too complicated for the lazy me.