Now, can I first point out this is not a rant or a dig, and is intended to (hopefully) come across as me just pointing out an honest mistake either by myself or infact a moderator. In brief, my signature has just got me banned (again) - but the signature hasn't changed since last year, and I'm fairly sure was within the rules/limits?
To set the scene, last year I made the mistake of creating a signature within the 400x75 pixel limit, but which had 5 lines of text, rather than just 4. Basically the signature was deleted and my account suspended. Of course this was my mistake - I unfortunately assumed because my signature was smaller than 400x75 it would be OK... Not the case of course! It's an odd rule, but a rule none-the-less... What was frustrating (at the time) from my point of view was it was an honest mistake by myself, and of course all the effort I'd carefully put into nicely formatting my signature text was lost (as it was deleted/removed).
Anyway, not wishing to repeat the events, I carefully sat down at the time and put a signature back in. Just 4 lines of course, and double checked it at the end in an art package to ensure it was within the 400x75 pixel rule. It measures 399x51. ie: I was utterly super careful about it not wishing to repeat the event(s).
Now, move forward to this week, and out of the blue my signature was deleted, account suspended and a warning that if my signature goes over size again, a permanent ban. What confuses me is the signature had been sitting there since last year, when I put it in, and (in my opinion) is within the 4 line and 400x75 pixel rule?
I'd say I attempt to be a good member of this forum. I would hope I come across as someone who doesn't go trolling, spamming or creating arguments. I try and help out where I can and generally just go about my business as amicably as possible. But now, solely because of signatures, I find myself being threatened with a permanent ban? How can this make sense?
IMHO the current signature system just doesn't seem to work very well. People are getting signatures removed and accounts suspended over what are really absolutely innocent and trivial matters - We're not talking about malicious or unsocial behaviour (which is what we're all surely really more concerned about), but just the misunderstanding of rules or accidentally putting in a one or two characters too many on a line. Or potentially (in this case?) moderators mis-judging signature sizes. Additionally, moderators are no doubt wasting a lot of time administering it and also having to deal with people posting nonsense like this about it
Now, onto the case at hand - can I ask a mod two things here please:-
1) Incase this is actually my mistake, can someone explain what is wrong with my sig? (See the bottom of this post) - This is the exact sig that has just been removed - Note: I was so bemused at the problems last year when I created it, I made a backup of it at the time (should it ever be nuked/lost again so I didn't have to start from scratch - voila!)
2) If we agree there's infact nothing wrong after all with my sig, can I please ask, (a) the threat of 'one more (innocent) mistake with my signature and you're banned for good' obviously be removed from my account, (b) and something please please be done to improve this system.
A humble suggestion:-
1) Images - Keep image sizes just as they are. If you're creating an image it's very easy to see how big it is.
2) Text - Extend the line which is already shown in every post between the text and the signature to make it approx 400-500 pixels long (just an amendment to a single VBulletin template?). And just say text cannot extent past the end of that line?
Done! People putting text in can easily see if their signature text goes beyond the end of that line, so no more difficult counting of pixels... This would be clearer and easier for both users and moderators to adhere to. I've include an example of such a line with the signature below - Works quite well surely?
Again, I do not wish this to turn into an argument as I'm simply interesting in clearing this misunderstanding up - I'm obviously somewhat frustrated at what's just happened (being threatened with a permanent ban), but at the end of the day this is an innocent mistake by myself or a moderator that should be easy to sort out - And hopefully my little suggestion can help it not happen again?
Cheers!
Note: I tried raising this matter first by 'contact us' to resolve it, but have not had any response
Hence this thread...
The signature in question:-
Here is the signature that was removed (I've carefully double check it is indeed within the 400x75 limit):-
__________________________________________________ (Here is my proposed line above all sigs. It's already in every post, just extend it. See how easy it makes it?)
Asus P4PE | P4-3.0 @ 3.22(533) | Zalman7000Cu | ATI800Pro/XT @ 570/570 | 2G PC3200 | Audigy2
Antec 430W (Vantec Fans) | Pioneer DVR110 | Barracuda.10 250Gb IDE & .9 200Gb Sata | Lian PC65
N91W TFT | XPPro | Shuttle SN45G | Spinpoint 250Gb IDE | Pioneer DVR113 | XPPro | Speedtouch780
Panny TH37PX70, Philips DVP5960, Yamaha V461(hdmi/usb), MS Avant Premiere speakers, Squeezebox3
To set the scene, last year I made the mistake of creating a signature within the 400x75 pixel limit, but which had 5 lines of text, rather than just 4. Basically the signature was deleted and my account suspended. Of course this was my mistake - I unfortunately assumed because my signature was smaller than 400x75 it would be OK... Not the case of course! It's an odd rule, but a rule none-the-less... What was frustrating (at the time) from my point of view was it was an honest mistake by myself, and of course all the effort I'd carefully put into nicely formatting my signature text was lost (as it was deleted/removed).
Anyway, not wishing to repeat the events, I carefully sat down at the time and put a signature back in. Just 4 lines of course, and double checked it at the end in an art package to ensure it was within the 400x75 pixel rule. It measures 399x51. ie: I was utterly super careful about it not wishing to repeat the event(s).
Now, move forward to this week, and out of the blue my signature was deleted, account suspended and a warning that if my signature goes over size again, a permanent ban. What confuses me is the signature had been sitting there since last year, when I put it in, and (in my opinion) is within the 4 line and 400x75 pixel rule?
I'd say I attempt to be a good member of this forum. I would hope I come across as someone who doesn't go trolling, spamming or creating arguments. I try and help out where I can and generally just go about my business as amicably as possible. But now, solely because of signatures, I find myself being threatened with a permanent ban? How can this make sense?
IMHO the current signature system just doesn't seem to work very well. People are getting signatures removed and accounts suspended over what are really absolutely innocent and trivial matters - We're not talking about malicious or unsocial behaviour (which is what we're all surely really more concerned about), but just the misunderstanding of rules or accidentally putting in a one or two characters too many on a line. Or potentially (in this case?) moderators mis-judging signature sizes. Additionally, moderators are no doubt wasting a lot of time administering it and also having to deal with people posting nonsense like this about it
Now, onto the case at hand - can I ask a mod two things here please:-
1) Incase this is actually my mistake, can someone explain what is wrong with my sig? (See the bottom of this post) - This is the exact sig that has just been removed - Note: I was so bemused at the problems last year when I created it, I made a backup of it at the time (should it ever be nuked/lost again so I didn't have to start from scratch - voila!)
2) If we agree there's infact nothing wrong after all with my sig, can I please ask, (a) the threat of 'one more (innocent) mistake with my signature and you're banned for good' obviously be removed from my account, (b) and something please please be done to improve this system.
A humble suggestion:-
1) Images - Keep image sizes just as they are. If you're creating an image it's very easy to see how big it is.
2) Text - Extend the line which is already shown in every post between the text and the signature to make it approx 400-500 pixels long (just an amendment to a single VBulletin template?). And just say text cannot extent past the end of that line?
Done! People putting text in can easily see if their signature text goes beyond the end of that line, so no more difficult counting of pixels... This would be clearer and easier for both users and moderators to adhere to. I've include an example of such a line with the signature below - Works quite well surely?
Again, I do not wish this to turn into an argument as I'm simply interesting in clearing this misunderstanding up - I'm obviously somewhat frustrated at what's just happened (being threatened with a permanent ban), but at the end of the day this is an innocent mistake by myself or a moderator that should be easy to sort out - And hopefully my little suggestion can help it not happen again?
Cheers!
Note: I tried raising this matter first by 'contact us' to resolve it, but have not had any response
Hence this thread...The signature in question:-
Here is the signature that was removed (I've carefully double check it is indeed within the 400x75 limit):-
__________________________________________________ (Here is my proposed line above all sigs. It's already in every post, just extend it. See how easy it makes it?)
Asus P4PE | P4-3.0 @ 3.22(533) | Zalman7000Cu | ATI800Pro/XT @ 570/570 | 2G PC3200 | Audigy2
Antec 430W (Vantec Fans) | Pioneer DVR110 | Barracuda.10 250Gb IDE & .9 200Gb Sata | Lian PC65
N91W TFT | XPPro | Shuttle SN45G | Spinpoint 250Gb IDE | Pioneer DVR113 | XPPro | Speedtouch780
Panny TH37PX70, Philips DVP5960, Yamaha V461(hdmi/usb), MS Avant Premiere speakers, Squeezebox3
