New Signature Rules

CarolMN

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Our signature rules were written a few years ago. Back then a lot of our posters used dial up connections and the VBulletin software did not have the functionality it does now.
The old rules were difficult to understand and they took a lot of moderator time to enforce. We have developed all new rules that should be much simpler and much easier to enforce automatically.

1. Your signature will be limited in length. The program will do this
automatically and anything over the allowed length will be cut off

Explanation- the biggest complaint we recieve is that signatures are too long and it takes too long to scroll through threads. We are going to start with a height of 250 pixels, you'll see what that means when we roll this out. We may add an additional option so that a signature only appears once per page.

2. You will be limited to a total of 25 images and smilies The program
will handle this automatically

Explanation- That should be PLENTY considering the amount of space

3. All content and links must meet DIS board posting guidelines.
Signature have the same content rules as any post on the boards

Explanation- Pretty obvious I hope, this includes commercial link, links to innapropriate sites, etc etc

4. You may not have a signature that is so wide it causes the page to
expand

Explanation- This is something the software can't control. Basically the only way to do this is to have a really really wide picture. If your signature means people with a normal resolution monitor need to scroll from side to side you'll be told to remove the picture causing the issue

5. We reserve the right to remove or modify signatures that cause
issues with the boards or slow page loading. Please make sure any images in
your signature are hosted on a reliable site. Any signature that contains
malicious or harmful code will be removed immediately and the poster
sanctioned

Explanation- Most of this should be pretty obvious. One thing people might not realize is that when people complain about the boards being "slow" it may not be us at all. When the boards load a page, if it can't find an image, it can make the boards appear slow.

We will roll this out in a few days, probably Wednesday. You don't need to take any action now, but you probably will want to check your signature after this goes into effect to see how it was affected.
If you have any questions on this please post on this thread on the tech support board, I will monitor those.

The Webmasters believe that these new, simplified rules will make the boards a better place for our posters and moderators.
Thank you for being a DIS boards member!

Alex
 
Sounds great, I would not believe that anyone is still using dial-up. Oh wait I have two contractors that work for me at work that are still on dial-up. Hard to believe. :lmao:
 
Sounds great, I would not believe that anyone is still using dial-up. Oh wait I have two contractors that work for me at work that are still on dial-up. Hard to believe. :lmao:

I don't know, we just got cable internet service last year, and DSL still isn't available in our area. We're at the and of our cable area, so rural areas just don't have access to anything but dial-up.

Bumping :figment:
 
We just got DSL about 3 months ago and only did it then because people complained about the phone being busy!
 

In case anyone needs a visual - here is a graphic showing what 250px high looks like.

Yes, I am bored at work today and do not feel like doing graphics for job related things...only goof off things ;)

And Carol, feel free to grab the graphic if you need it later for an example.



250high.jpg
 
So funny. I was wondering if my graphic was too big and sure enough, it was! Now it is so small it just looks weird!
But I AM in compliance!
 
So funny. I was wondering if my graphic was too big and sure enough, it was! Now it is so small it just looks weird!
But I AM in compliance!

Though we haven't seen the results of the progamming changes yet, maybe you could put your images side by side like disrailfan and increase the height back to a comfortable size. As long as the combined widths aren't exceding the width of the page I would think you should be ok.

Edit: I have now changed my sig this way. I'll bet we're going to see more animated gifs like jemiauli's. Though my images are only 100 pixels high and together with space between the would be under the 250, I want to leave room for a calendar ticker for our next vacation.
 
Thanks! How do you get them to be side by each (an old RI term :lmao: )? What do you put between them. I tried getting rid of the double
 
Does disrailfan's signature violate rule 4? To see their entire sig I have to move my screen side to side:confused3
 
Fits on my screen. No scrolling necessary for me.
 
Thanks! How do you get them to be side by each (an old RI term :lmao: )? What do you put between them. I tried getting rid of the double , but of course that didn't work![/QUOTE]

You can only put them side by each if you come from Woonsocket (RI, that is)!;) Seriously, I would like to put our resort sig pictures side by [U]side[/U] also.
 
You can only put them side by each if you come from Woonsocket (RI, that is)!;) Seriously, I would like to put our resort sig pictures side by side also.

Hey, what do you know, my DH just fixed our sig pics to be side by side!! :)
 
The new signature rules state that your entire signature must fit within a box no larger than 600x250 pixels. A box that size looks like this:

siggie.jpg


You may not put your resort images side by side as that exceeds the 600 maximum width which violates rule #4.

Remember, not everyone has the same size monitors. Many use laptops. If your screen resolution is greater than 1024x768 then two resort images side by side may appear fine on your computer, but for someone else, your signature may be causing their screen to not fully display, and forcing them to have to scroll left and right just to see the posts.

We cannot allow some users to use graphics which will cause problems for other users. There's a wide range from laptops at 14" to users with 21" or larger monitors. Some may display in 'landscape' mode, while others may use 'portrait' mode.
 
You can only put them side by each if you come from Woonsocket (RI, that is)!;) Seriously, I would like to put our resort sig pictures side by side also.

Sorry. Greenville, Exeter, Warwick and Providence, but glad somebody was paying attention!:lmao:

Hey, what do you know, my DH just fixed our sig pics to be side by side!! :)

Care to share how he did it??:thumbsup2
 
Sorry. Greenville, Exeter, Warwick and Providence, but glad somebody was paying attention!:lmao:



Care to share how he did it??:thumbsup2

I have no idea :confused3 (not very computer savvy) but Caskbill clarified that they couldn't be side by side anyway, so DH put it back the way it was originally.
 
Mine would be ok side by each!
 
Repeating! You may NOT put them side by side. It violates both the current rules that are in effect right now, AND it violates the new rules which will be going into affect soon.

Here's a visual display just for everyone's FYI.

The first screen shot shows a post by a user who has side by side graphics, and is being displayed on a monitor with a screen resolution of 1280x800. It appears fine.

The second screen shot shows the same post as it appears on a monitor with a screen resolution of 800x600. It does not display fully on screen and forces the user to have to scroll left/right, not just to see the images, but to actually read the post itself.

Those of you who have put your images side by side must change them back immediately. You are in violation of current Signature Guidelines, and will still be in violation when the new Guidelines begin.

1280x800Resolution.jpg

How two resort images appear, side by side, on a monitor set at 1280x800 resolution.

800x600Resolution.jpg

How the same post appears on a monitor set at 800x600 resolution.


Here's some more examples. These are screen shots of the post I made earlier, showing the green 'signature box'.


800x600Green.jpg

A monitor resolution of 800x600.
Notice how the green signature box just fits within the screen size.


1024x768Green.jpg

The same post at a monitor resolution of 1024x768.

1280x800Green.jpg

The same post at a monitor resolution of 1280x800.

edited to add more samples
 
Sorry. Mine are so short I figured it was all right.
 



















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