Hnm. Artistic flare and tags... D;

[The Bloody Son]

I noticed that this forum doesn't have signatures at all, in the way of allowing images - just text. And I know for a fact that you can judge what size the image can be if there is one in the signature, so I'd like to see a 'tag' image.

Max: 30px Height X 500px Length

This size would make it REALLY skinny and Long enough to add whatever people wanted for JPG, GIF, or PNG.

So this is like - if someone wanted a personal tag or a character tag or a PG tag, they could segment the 500px into pieces of like 95px and they could have 5 little tags built into the image, with enough spacing to give a button like feel, but also output a cool design and customization.

Here's a tag example (but it's not to size spec or the segmenting I was talking about):

http://www.exodyus.net/J33f/tensigtag.png (Images is 43px X 467px)

http://www.exodyus.net/J33f/brood01.png http://www.exodyus.net/J33f/brood02.png http://www.exodyus.net/J33f/brood03.png
Imagining that each of these brood tags was a different tag - one for your character, one for your PG, and one for some cool image you like - whatever...

[Karuka]

Keep in mind that a) other players have to see them over and over again when you're writing with them, and images take longer to load than text. Some of our members are not blessed with high-speed internet, and images, particularly in multiple instances, create a hassle for them.

b) The judge who takes your thread to give you a score and some EXP has to see it over and over again if they don't choose to read it in the "printable version" format, and while you can tune out text signatures pretty easily, something that breaks the visual of the page - like an image or an [ooc] tag, gets noticed. Sig images, no matter how spiffy you may think they are, can get really annoying, really fast when you're trying to sit down and give someone a score.

c) Most importantly, they take up extra bandwidth. Over and over again.

[The Bloody Son]

Keep in mind that a) other players have to see them over and over again when you're writing with them, and images take longer to load than text. Some of our members are not blessed with high-speed internet, and images, particularly in multiple instances, create a hassle for them.

Rebuttal: Which is why I put the said size so small. A 30 by 500 is nothing to load up. Even it someone was unfortunate enough to run with a low end 128k modem or something. Also - there's a feature in your UCP (User Control Panel) that will allow you to not allow images in signature to show up, if you are having this problem.


b) The judge who takes your thread to give you a score and some EXP has to see it over and over again if they don't choose to read it in the "printable version" format, and while you can tune out text signatures pretty easily, something that breaks the visual of the page - like an image or an [ooc] tag, gets noticed. Sig images, no matter how spiffy you may think they are, can get really annoying, really fast when you're trying to sit down and give someone a score.

Rebuttal: I'm sure a tag that's less than a quarter-inch tall isn't going to be irritating as all get out. Don't allow GIF's and you wont get flashing animated tags. Something this small isn't that bad to bypass over while reading. It's small. Smaller than typical text. Again - in the UCP there's a feature to turn this off.


c) Most importantly, they take up extra bandwidth. Over and over again.

Rebuttal: You're sorely mistaken if you think images this small are going to suck up your bandwidth. People on the forum all day long will take more than someone loading an image on a thread.
I've been running sites for years now and forums for over five and every one of them have had tagged images before and nothing has drastically slowed down or taken up the bandwidth like you say.

I have 110 GB of bandwidth and 5 GB of space on my server and I've never used more than 50 GB of bandwidth in a month... lol. You're not running a gaming server, it's text and code with an SQL database for the server.

[Breaker]

This is a writing forum, and I fail to see how having these tags would add anything to it. It's just another thing to distract us from the text, which is what is really relevant here. Speaking as a judge, I know I'd much rather not have to scroll past these when reading threads. We don't need more gaudy baubles; sometimes even colored text in signatures can be distracting.

As to the bandwidth and whatnot, I'm not nearly computer savvy enough to talk about that, but I'm sure Serilliant will be along shortly enough to drop some science on us.

[Godhand]

No.

[Karuka]

http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=4467 - here, for an official answer.

And back when we went from allowing 150x150 pixel avatars to 120x120, Serilliant mentioned that even that minor change saved a lot of bandwidth.

[Tainted Bushido]

Ultimately it came down to one thing. The people who run the site decided that rather than allow signature Tags, they would rather not. Since the whole idea of the Site is to role play in what is basically a creative writing workshop, it seemed counter intuitive to allow people to clog up signatures with images. As it is some moderators dislike seeing TEXT signatures that are larger than a few lines. The signature is there to provide links that people feel are necessary to keep up with the character, or perhaps display a cool quote from a book/song/writer/person they feel is witty/clever/relevant to character. Thats about it, so thats why these Signatures aren't seen as so important to allow.

[The Bloody Son]

Ultimately it came down to one thing. The people who run the site decided that rather than allow signature Tags, they would rather not. Since the whole idea of the Site is to role play in what is basically a creative writing workshop, it seemed counter intuitive to allow people to clog up signatures with images. As it is some moderators dislike seeing TEXT signatures that are larger than a few lines. The signature is there to provide links that people feel are necessary to keep up with the character, or perhaps display a cool quote from a book/song/writer/person they feel is witty/clever/relevant to character. Thats about it, so thats why these Signatures aren't seen as so important to allow.

Fair Enough.

[AdventWings]

Oh, by the way, there are people who are unfortunate enough to still be stuck behind 56k dial-up modem. (Such as myself, part of the time.)

I could say that the option to disable IMG displays from the User Control Panel is a good alternative, but that just negates the usefulness of an IMG tag since you won't see it anyways.

If I had it my way, it would be a policy for users to disable signatures altogether when posting in IC forums. But that's just too over the top even for me.

[The Bloody Son]

Oh, by the way, there are people who are unfortunate enough to still be stuck behind 56k dial-up modem.

That sucks.

[AdventWings]

Indeed. *Wishes for ADSL, but no such thing will happen in the country he is in now*

Not everyone lives in America, after all.

[Arsène]

They should.

They (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w9EksAo5hY) will. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slKNd22GGaQ)

[The Bloody Son]

They should.

They (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w9EksAo5hY) will. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slKNd22GGaQ)

Lol. You remind me of a kid named Shaun - who are you?
And where do you live, Advent?

[Arsène]

Reminding you of someone I've never heard of was my one goal in life. Now that it has been completed, I feel empty. Perhaps I'll take up an addiction to heroin.

Also, this is so terribly off topic I feel the need to go back on topic and say, "no to signature images."

And noing is half the battle! G.I. JOE!

[Winterhair]

Have to go with the flow and say no to sig images. It just doesn't fit, for some reason.

[The Forgotten]

If I had it my way, it would be a policy for users to disable signatures altogether when posting in IC forums. But that's just too over the top even for me.
Something that I already do, and find incredibly distracting otherwise. If it's more than one line long, turn it off when posting is my philosophy. This board is about the story, not about what you advertise at the end of every post.