General point/question/issue with sigs...

[NeilF]

I've just had my sig removed... Poor me...

What I'm rather confused about is with this sig, I could have taken a screen shot/dump of it and put that straight back in (ie: It would have looked identical) and that would have been OK.

So, as all text it's not permitted, but as an image and text, it is, even though the two, pixel for pixel, are absolutely identical...


Could we not fix the 'cracks' between the image and text only signature (sizes) by:-
1) As per now - A 75 pixel deep image with one line of text.
2) As per now - Four lines of normal size text.
3) Six lines of size=1 text.

Option (3) is actually short than (1)... And can be completely reproduce under the current rules by using (1)...


ps: If a moderator reads this and can restore my sig, please please do... It took me ages to set up... I'll just do (1) with it... Surely the mod didn't just nuke all my system info and not save it away incase?

 

[NeilF]

I had my image removed once. It was an image which held my computer's specs, and had about 5-6 lines of text in it.

You can't even have more than 4 lines of text in an image, even if it's within the 400x75 @ 20 K rules...

Really... That is absolutely truly bizarre then... Something like that shows there's a problem somewhere... Rules 1-3 above solve this...


Going back to your problem with 5-6 lines of text in an image. There's no mention of that in the FAQ? Also:-
- What if the text is at 46 degrees so it's more vertical than horizontal?
- What if the text in the image is one big long sentence that sort of spirals around over six lines?
- What if you just have six letters down the left of your image? Is that more than 4 lines?

 

[NeilF]

Lets change the rules of the forum that have been in place for ages.

Or just simplify them so people don't get signatures removed for bizarre reasons? Signatures must fit with 400x100 pixels.. Done!

 

[NeilF]

Just use your common sense.

More than 4 lines in an image has been viewed in the past as an attempt to circumvent the 3 lines of text rule, which is why they will have been removed.

We don't "Save" the info, althoguh if there's an image that is too large I often just remove the tags and leave the URL.

:edit: and it is your second warning, a moderator edited it before for being 6 lines and then again for it being 6 lines.[/QUOTE]

I've never heard of signature images being removed just because they had pixels in them that happened to form six lines of text? Until this thread... I suspect this is news to most people... In reality if the text in the image happens to have one, two or a hundred lines of text is surely of absolutely no importance at all? Bizarre!?

A warning implies someone being informed - The first thing I knew about a problem with my sig was my entire sig being removed and a nice friendly/productive 'last warning' in its place. How is this condusive to a nice friendly forum...

:(

 

[NeilF]

NeilFawcett, your current sig actually breaks the rules

Tell me about it

And the sig that was removed took up less space than yours

 

[NeilF]

I've gone on about this before, but I don't see why OcUK can't relax a little with the signature. Ie: increase it to say 500x100 @ 30K or 5 lines of text. I sure that would please a lot of people, myself included.

The crazy thing is my sig was smaller than yours and all I was trying to do was list my system obviously to try and help others. ie: So people can see if I have anything specific they want to ask about/know...

 

[NeilF]

I get the horrible felling Neil will be going on forced retirement soon

I do hope not...

I'm obviously frustrated/confused at having a sig (aimed at helping others) which took me a long time to enter & format removed, which is smalled than other peoples sigs...

It seems other people are confused/baffled as well hence me suggesting trying to simply clarify/simplify the definition of a sig size.

eg: The three rules above, or just a simple 400x100 pixel rule.

 

[NeilF]

And then someone down the line says "I dont see why it should be limited to 500x100..."

There's nothing wrong with the limit, 99% of the users get by happily with it... if you want one, you obey the rules the provider put in place for them, or go with out.

Why is this complicated?

Not at all... I'm absolutely 100% up for rules... But did you know that if you had a perfectly valid 400x100 image in your sig, and it happened to have 5 lines of text in it, it was then invalid? Bet most people don't? And why is that invalid... Very odd!


Anyway, this risk becoming a 'messy thread' when infact I was hoping to get something productive out of it...

Let's just simplify/clarify the sig rules... And an image with five lines of text in it being invalid is very odd!

 

[NeilF]

Why is that invalid indeed, doesn't make musch sense if its taking up the same\less space as 4 lines of text.

The sig of mine that was removed was smaller than an image + 1 line of text...

If I had instead created an image 400x75 and that had my sig information in (over more than four lines in the image) that would seemingly have been removed as well?

Let's just make the rules simple:-
As per now, one image 400x75 pixels + one line of text (but doesn't matter what text is in the image)
As per now, four lines of normal sized text
SIX LINES of SIZE ONE text

 

[NeilF]

Indeed, I have no issues with the actual size limitations of graphical sigs... or really the textual sigs either.

I do find it strange that you can't have more than 4 lines of text in an image? Whats more strange is there is no mention of it in the FAQ itself

An image is going to take longer to load than text no matter how many lines its got in it?

Whats so wrong with the second one? Same size (HxW) as the first... and it infact has a smaller file size than the first one - so should load slightly quicker... (not that you'd notice on broadband)


As I said, I've never noticed or been aware of this lines of text in a sig rule... since there is no real rule in the FAQ

Don't know but put it in your sig and find out?

 

[NeilF]

The difference between the first one and the second one is that I'll probably get suspended for the second one

Well, there's still question marks about that? It was news to me before I happened to find out second hand in this thread?

It seems madness that if you have five/six lines of text in your image that's not permitted, and it's certainly not mentioned in the FAQ? I'm still having problems believing it it's so bizarre ?

Can a mod clarify if both those images above are valid sigs or not? I don't want to produce my sig (V2) to find out 5-6 lines of text in an image is not permitted?

 

[NeilF]

TBH I'd just like clarification on the more than 4 lines of text in an image *quote* rule *unquote*

Are both of these okay?

Do tell why if they're not.

Although I asked for a lock and an explanation on my 'Heads Up' thread last night and said if it wasn't okay that someone please lock and explain and not delete it... and that just got deleted... :-/

Again, nothing in the FAQ (as far as I've ever seen) about that.


Sorry for going off topic...

It's like buses... The one time you need a mod, there's not one to be seen

ps: How are you going off topic? You're completely on it

 

[NeilF]

So let's get this straight. We can have either an image OR four lines of text?

There is nothing that states the image most also contain up to 4 lines of text.

The faq states four lines of text OR a 400x75 image + one line of text.

My sig was smaller than 400x75 + one line of text so I though it would be OK - I could have rendered my sig pixel for pixel with 400x75 + one line of text. But afraid not, it got removed.

But it also appears (not official) if I instead put my sig in an image it would get removed because it had more than 4 lines...


If I hadn't of started this thread I would have created a 400x75 image with 5-6 lines of text in, which could have been nuked?

A comment from a Mod would be useful? Mods mods mods? Where are you

 

[NeilF]

It's pretty simple.

You can have however many lines of text you want in an image, but if it is perceived as an attempt to break the 4 lines of text rule (i.e. if the text in the image wouldn't fit on to 4 lines in size 1) then it may be taken down.

Thanks... But OMG That's a very odd caveat in that it seems to achieve nothing...

Why not allow six lines of size 1 (arial)? It's smaller than the image + 1 line? And/or don't care about lines in an image?

 

[NeilF]

A user decides that since he's had his 8 line signature edited out he'll just put it in an image to work around the rule. Sure it's taking up less space, but there's still a concentrated block of ugly text. A mod sees it and thinks "Cheeky bugger" and removes it.

But if images are being removed on the grounds of being 'ugly'? Where does than end?

If I put Jade Goody in my sig does it get removed?

If I put lots of random letters in my sig does it get removed?

If I put just random splogges of pink and green in it? Removed?

All somes across a bit random doesn't it?



Just seems odd than all I want to do is list my PC equipment, to help other PC users, on a forum run by a PC retailer, to discuss PC equipment, in a signature that is actually smaller than technically allowed in the FAQ (75 pixels + 1 line)... And I can't

And worse still all my hard work just gets nuked/deleted...

 

[NeilF]

They'd both be against the rules if they were consecutive lines of text that would otherwise not fit within 4 lines of size 1.

What if they scrolled such that only four appeared at a time?

OOOPSS! IGNORE! Of course animated .gifs are not permitted... My bad!


None the less... All very odd

 

[NeilF]

Sorry I should have said "messy", not ugly.

The random letters all over the place in my proposed sig image would be fairly messy...

 

[NeilF]

Us moderators aren't stupid, we actually think about problems before doing anything about them.

Like completely deleting hundreds of characters of text someone has carefully arranged in their sig to be tidy and easy to read? And not actually warning the person properly/clearly before hand, or making any sort of backup/copy (ie: just mail it to them)?

Grrr.. Yes I'm annoyed at that if you can't tell