New signature guidelines.

[MannDude]

I hate creating and enforcing new rules, but sometimes it's necessary. As the title would suggest we're now going to enforce some signature guidelines. Don't worry, nothing too strict.


Guidelines for signatures will be as follows:

• NO images. I think we removed all of them anyway.
  
• Limit of 4 lines.
  
• 3 colors + default color (black/grey).
  
• No affiliate links
  
• No text larger than the default text size.
  
• Signature can't be annoying or hurt eyes.
  

Example signature that is acceptable (Sorry, formatting in posts are different than formatting in signatures so this is going to look messed up and gaudy. It'd look much better in a signature as it'd be formatted better):


█ Thomas Jefferson - Senior VP at RastaHost
█ We offer Linux VPS, Windows VPS, and Dedicated Servers in our Jamaican Data-center.
█ Voted #1 host in the Caribbean region and proudly serving our friends around the islands!
█ What are you waiting for? Come check us out mon!


See, that's not too bad. It's a tame, clean signature that isn't super distracting.


Example of signature that is NOT acceptable:


133ABC-host.in the best hosting u get for jus $1.55/mos!!!!


Questions?

 

[clone1018]

Awesome! Signatures make me sad but this will work.

 

[MannDude]

Awesome! Signatures make me sad but this will work.

Well, it was never really a problem but a few people made us considering enforcing this new rule. I was okay with images until people put big banners in their signature and was okay with multiple colors until people changed the text size to be much larger.

I'm not wanting to be WHT style strict on the signatures, but don't want to be too lax either or this place will look awful with memes in signatures and rainbow colors in 32PT comic sans

 

[yolo]

What a bummer! I just made this cool signature and I was just about to add it

 

[Naruto]

This is a dumb rule. You don't even follow it.


You're just going to stress people out over something that isn't even out of control.


The unacceptable example you posted takes less vertical space than the 4 line one.


#notwht #watrudoinstahp

 

[MannDude]

This is a dumb rule. You don't even follow it.


You're just going to stress people out over something that isn't even out of control.


#notwht #watrudoinstahp

I don't need to follow it as mine is not intrusive.

Really, this doesn't even impact anyone other than like 4 people. This is so I can clean up their signatures and instead  of them thinking I'm a big meanie I can point to the signature guidelines so they don't take it personal.

Also, the signature formatting is different than post formatting. So the example I posted as 'acceptable' would appear much cleaner in an actual signature.

WHT is much stricter. I'm not saying you can't link to your most recent offer on vpsBoard. You can. Want to mention a promotion or a price? Go for it.

 

[MannDude]

Examples of bad signatures:





I'd rather stop it before it becomes a problem. But really, it will only impact a very very very small number of people. Most here don't have anything intrusive or distracting. The focus should be on content, not on signatures. Makes it harder to signature spam when you can't post a banner or increase the size of text to draw more attention to your signature, which is a good thing for a quality forum.

 

[kaniini]

Yeah, the banners were very annoying.  I am glad they are gone.

 

[scv]

What a bummer! I just made this cool signature and I was just about to add it

Aww, I wanted to put something like this in my signature.

Do I really have to take the fourth green out of my signature though?

 

[MannDude]

Do I really have to take the fourth green out of my signature though?

No, yours looks good to me. From what I can tell, the first row of boxes is black anyway

 

[SeriesN]

DAMN!  AND I WANTED TO USE my mascot on the sig

 

[shawn_ky]

I think it's a good idea to have in place just for times like you mention. Keeps everyone on the same page.

 

[HalfEatenPie]

You're on thin ice mister @SeriesN!  Your signature has THREE colors!  

 

[Ruchirablog]

What about making signature links dofollow? <3

 

[vanarp]

No affiliate links

 
This one is for me, I guess

 

[MannDude]

This one is for me, I guess

Didn't even realize you had them. BANNED!

Nah. I'd either mask them better or remove them. It's not a huge deal, but it's simply to prevent people from having signatures like, "The best VPS ever Hostgator click here for $1 for first month!" and then spamming the forum with responses like, "LOL, I agree" and, "Very cool thread" and stuff.

 

[SeriesN]

You're on thin ice mister @SeriesN!  Your signature has THREE colors!  

ME CAN HAZ

 

[vanarp]

@MannDude, I agree with you. I hate masking, so will be removing them.

 

[D. Strout]

Hope my sig isn't too over the top. Seriously, though, these seem like reasonable rules. Hopefully these rules will improve the signal-to-noise ratio without anyone getting ruffled over them.

 

[MannDude]

Hope my sig isn't too over the top. Seriously, though, these seem like reasonable rules. Hopefully these rules will improve the signal-to-noise ratio without anyone getting ruffled over them.

Yeah. My main gripe was just signatures that tried to make eyes focus on them instead of the content of the response or thread. It's understandable, I know why people do it and not everyone is guilty of it and I don't blame them for trying. But the fact is, signature text by default is smaller and lighter in color than the default text in responses and posts. For a reason.