Signature Banners: Yay or Nay

[Leshy]

In this thread, there is a discussion about whether signature banners should be enabled on the Planetarion Forums. What do you think?

Note: There are no plans whatsoever to enable them at this point. Even if this poll ends with a 99% yes vote, that does not mean that they will be enabled. This is purely an opinion poll, not a decision-making one.

[Punk]

no

is the aim to keep these boards to a minimum of professionalism or not ?

signature banners represent the AOL generation afaik

[Cochese]

Yes

"Variety is the spice of life" as they say, and having a sig banner adds to the 'personality' of one's forum account.

If enabled, the rules regarding innapropriate sig banners should be nothing short of ruthless: mess up, and you get a place on the much-coveted '**** list'.

[Devo]

Too hard to moderate.
Too easy to abuse
Too big an increase on loading times/bandwidth use
Who wants a flashy sig anyway?

[Gerbie]

I don't. If you incorporate it, plz. make "off" the default.

[Teh_Necro]

Sig banners r teh wins, i've left my comments on the other thread so wont bother adding them hear as well.

I'm glad at least there is a vote now, thanks leshy.

-Necro

[hAl]

I see sig banners have little improvement on what matters in a forums and that is content. It will only burden the server more and even if this might be a new faster server I am rather happy with it generating as little traffic as possible and keep stable. Seems more important than banners....

hAl

[Illegal]

Originally posted by Cochese
Variety is the spice of life" as they say, and having a sig banner adds to the 'personality' of one's forum account.

Did it ever strike you that you might be spending to much time here if you start talking about your forum account that way?

[Anakin]

I would love to see Sigi's on here with banners.. i fear the load will be a bit too much for 56k users, but i think it would be great addition to the forums.

My suggestion, simply add an option in profile's to enable it as a feature at the user's disgreation...

If you need help codeing that, ill take a peek

[Cochese]

Originally posted by Illegal
Did it ever strike you that you might be spending to much time here if you start talking about your forum account that way?

I'm quite aware of how much time I spend here--and have spent in the last 2 years.

By your reasoning, you'd have a computer addiction if you used a skin for WinAmp or something.

[Zapman]

Utter waste of perfectly good bandwidth.

It'd be GREAT! If people like Nodrog had 56k, they'd stop coming to the forums due to the enormous load times and I would be much happier. It's all about me, right?

[MrL_JaKiri]

Nice planetarion discussion here

[SYMM]

THose who want them can have them, those that don't can turn them off. Mod's can delete them if offensive. Where's the problem?

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally posted by SYMM
Where's the problem?

Increasing server load given the record of these servers under Jolt might not be 'a good thing'.

[Raging.Retard]

Personally I think pictoral avatars are tacky enough. Its a forum, not an art gallery. If I wanted some crap picture representing an indivial, id go visit their cheesy hompage already splatterd across their signature.

I even disagree with the custom user titles only available to the select few anal buddys of the forum staff in order to help them feel better about their manhood or something.

To even think about allowing the forums to turn into a pictoral spam board is a really bad idea in my opinion.

Tacky ++;



Yes yes.... ill brace myself for the flaming responses.

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally posted by Raging.Retard
I even disagree with the custom user titles only available to the select few anal buddys of the forum staff in order to help them feel better about their manhood or something.

Like yours you mean?

Unless you mean da avatars, in which case that's almost purely a moderator thing.

ps. How would you have NON pictorial avatars, exluding the basest possible form (that of the account itself)

[Xillah]

YES!!

I think they would be a lot of fun. They would help alliance members advertise there home. They would allow forum member express things they want too.

Ofcourse there should be an option to turn them off allon with sigs though (I imagine the same the same button that dissables sigs would dissable banners anyway since they wuld go there.)

As for the 56kers, disable them and stfu, what are yoyu still doing on 56k anyway you little bitches :-p

[Raging.Retard]

Originally posted by MrL_JaKiri
Like yours you mean?

Is my title pink? Nope. (Not that I would want it to be either, but the point is clear).

Originally posted by MrL_JaKiri
ps. How would you have NON pictorial avatars, exluding the basest possible form (that of the account itself)

An avatar is the representation of (in this case) your board account. You could be pedantic an argue you could use alsmot anything displayable on your computer system to do this, sound, text, etc. Still, it was never my intention to imply multiple avatar forms, merely to clearly indicate the images I was refering too.

I suspect they were added in an attempt to make the mods (+ few anal buddys of forum staff) feel elitist, but to me they just look tacky.

Not as tacky as forum signaturs would mind, but still tacky.

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally posted by Raging.Retard
few anal buddys of forum staff

Find me 3 non (admins, mods or ex mods) who have them. Go on.

If you don't like them, you can turn them off.

And 'Custom User Title' implies anything that isn't forum default, not just things in colours.

I have a picture of Basil Brush because I feel it adds a nice ambience to the forums, but then I don't need to explain my actions to anyone except JJ.

[Cochese]

Originally posted by MrL_JaKiri
Find me 3 non (admins, mods or ex mods) who have them. Go on.

Zeriod, Cyp, and DarkJedi - off the top of my head.

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally posted by Cochese
Zeriod, Cyp, and DarkJedi - off the top of my head.

I forgot about cyp

Although I have no idea how any of them got avatars.

[Cochese]

Zeriod and Cyp are reasonable exceptions, since they have contributed to the game/forums (respectively)...DarkJedi got banned, moaned, and then was un-banned

However, if we're going to give away avatars for contributing to Planetarion, I have a long, long list of folks who are very much more deserving of that gratuity

[MrL_JaKiri]

DarkJedi is an exception to everything

There's also idimmu, who got his for winning that Trollstars thing that Kura ran.

But then his account got banned for racism.

Then he wined that it wasn't him, and it got unbanned, and got it banned again in a week.

What is it about people with avatars and getting banned?

[Cochese]

Hadn't heard about the idimmu affair...it's somewhat ironic, as I banned his original 'Idimmu' account for racism way back when I modded GD

Some things never change I guess.

[wakey]

Didnt Cyp originally get his via a Forum exploit but was allowed to keep it due to informing the admins of how he did it so it could be fixed?


As for the idea of allowing them to be turned off in the CP so the 56kers can actually view the boards, I will repeat what i said on the other thread and that being that some of the mods/admins are still on narrowband connections. If sig banners were on then part of the mods job would be to ensure they are ok BUT it could make even moderating threads extreamly hard for mods on narrowband connections

[SYMM]

Originally posted by MrL_JaKiri
Increasing server load given the record of these servers under Jolt might not be 'a good thing'.

eh?
Users would host them themselves, server load would only change by the [img...] bit, i think it can cope

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally posted by SYMM
Users would host them themselves, server load would only change by the [img...] bit, i think it can cope

Well, all I know is that all the images that the forum currently use have to be stored on the server.

[JonnyBGood]

I've been against avatars, coloured ranks and stupid pictures on the forums. My reasons for being against things which serve no real purpose except to promote a distinction between the haves and the have nots on the forums still stand. However as we must retain some faint vestiges of humour I propose that we hand out the "I'm with stupid" cartoon avatar to a different poster each week.

[Teh_Necro]

lol..... an avatar is an avatar, don't get deep on these things, they've been around for a damn while. Their part of forum heritage.

Just stop being so up ur own backsides, sig's and avatars, whatever their just gfx that we want under our name, not like where asking for complete forum rights, jeasus christ this community is more retentive than the republican guard PR team.

-Necro

[Chax]

The animated smilies in posts are distracting and thus detract from the content.

The animated smilies to the left of the box where I'm entering this message are distracting and thus make my typing less coherent.

the coloured custom titles are distracting and thus detract from the content.

Remove all of it, and don't even mention avatars or sig banners.
I have avatars turned off ofc, but when clicking the forum link in game I don't get automatically logged in and see the nonsense anyway. Off should always be the defult for the spam.

[JonnyBGood]

Originally posted by Teh_Necro
not like where asking for complete forum rights

I'd support that.

[Cochese]

Originally posted by wakey
Didnt Cyp originally get his via a Forum exploit but was allowed to keep it due to informing the admins of how he did it so it could be fixed?

Yep, waaay back when

[Leshy]

Originally posted by Cochese
Yep, waaay back when

...you were still using complete sentences?

[Nodrog]

No its a silly idea and will only be (ab)used by idiots, much like the animated emoticons.


[edit: hay, this isnt GD]

[MadeMan]

well you can always turn off signature viewing in your profile !!

[JonnyBGood]

Originally posted by MadeMan
well you can always turn off signature viewing in your profile !!

You can always turn off your computer.
















Shut up.

[SYMM]

You arrogant, stuck up piece of twaddle.
Why should he shut up? He's making a perfectly valid point, and one that has not yet been properly counted (mod inactivity does not cut it. If they can't cope with pictures, get new mods), and who are you to dictate what he can and cannot say?
If you have a counter-argument, then post it, otherwise you may as well "turn off your computer".

[JC]

The forums are unstable as it is, half the users having bandwidth hogging pictures isnt exactly going to help things.

Most of the people that use sig banners can have them on their alliance's forums and so its not like they dotn get to use it anywhere. There is no real reason to bring them here...

If it aint broke dont fix it.

[SYMM]

The pictures do not have to be hosted on the forum's server.
Not a difficult concept.
There is no real reason not to bring them here.
And the last line sums up PA's attitude to its customers entirely.

[JonnyBGood]

Originally posted by SYMM
Why should he shut up? He's making a perfectly valid point, and one that has not yet been properly counted (mod inactivity does not cut it. If they can't cope with pictures, get new mods), and who are you to dictate what he can and cannot say?

That was my point. His point was that one can always turn off signature viewing or whatever. My point was that one can always turn off one's computer and save oneself the trouble of being online. It's the exact same logic.

As for getting new mods would you at least try to be realistic? There are about 7 people (tops) on the entire boards who would make good mods (bear in mind 3 of those I'm considering in the GD mod category which is completely different as you can check with any number of past mods). Even taking into account people who are able to do it properly I doubt that many of them want to give up their free time to moderate a bunch of ungrateful twits who spend their time moaning about every single thing you do because, let's face it, the amount of reason and common sense used on these forums could be squeezed onto the back of a postage stamp. I did moderate for six months, and let me tell you it's a thankless ****ing job.

To tell you the truth I would do it again once I'm finished precisely due to the fact that I do want to give something back to a place that I've taken so much from. I have done it. Until you do I'd advise you to really think about what you're saying before you post the first thing that pops into your head. However we're now completely off topic so if you want to reply you can pm me if you want to.

[MadeMan]

well pictures are posted outside jolt forums, if u want it u can easily turn off our computer yes johnnybenotsogood!

This is a serious discussion, the mods have to be strict with this, u can also set a maximum on signature size!

So... i dont see any reason why we shouldnt have the possibilty to use the [img] tag.

[Teh_Necro]

Its a forum.... if Jolt have trouble maintaining it then i suggest they review their equipment and admins

-Necro

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally posted by Teh_Necro
Its a forum.... if Jolt have trouble maintaining it then i suggest they review their equipment and admins

They don't appear to like PAF very much.

[Zitos]

the employed of the month.. as seen on tv
give a special avatar piss to the person who have been the most allright poster through the week.. this will be good, because it will push the quality of the posting things a bit up.. it will then become competition, and people will try to be as 'good' posters, as pssobile - to win that stupid avatar thingy..

i should be the winner of the first week, as i came up with this idea.. (thus making the forum, a better forum..)

or people could be allowed to use either this: or this: as their avatar.. (-:

[MrL_JaKiri]

Noone's having the sodding banana as their avatar.

ps.

That's a really stupid idea. How would you define who had the best posts? Popularity contest? That's hardly objective.

[Cochese]

I was just about to pose that same question...

[wakey]

Originally posted by SYMM
You arrogant, stuck up piece of twaddle.
Why should he shut up? He's making a perfectly valid point, and one that has not yet been properly counted (mod inactivity does not cut it. If they can't cope with pictures, get new mods), and who are you to dictate what he can and cannot say?
If you have a counter-argument, then post it, otherwise you may as well "turn off your computer".

SYMM you really are being a bit dim. We could have 500 mods on this forum but the chances of having at least on of those activly modding each forum here during every minute of the day thus allowing them to catch abusers immediatly would still be almost impossible. Mods are volenteers who arent paid to mod these forums hence we all have real life commitments which stop us being here 24/7. This simply fact makes this 'mod inactivity' as you put it a major factor in any decision on a topic like this.

So heres a suggestion for all of you wanting this feature, you all club together and pay us Mods a yearly salery that allows us to live comfortably and give up our RL commitments (anything over £50k a year EACH should be ample) and then maybe this major stumbling block will be removed and allow the feature to be implemented but until then it really has little chance of ever seeing the light of day (not without these forums going into a state of civil war with the mods all walking out due to the increased workload and everyone abusing it such as happens on teh jolt forums)

[Dante Hicks]

It'd be fairly easy to imagine just giving Sig Images to people registered more than six months (much like custom ranks were, I'm not sure if this is still the case now).

Since most idiots lose their account within a week, I don't think this could cause many problems.

Having said that, I don't use an IMG signature or avatar in forums where I can. I just can't be arsed. But I don't like that Mods + others have avatars.

[SYMM]

wakey:
I only quoted someone else's response...i'm perfectly happy with mod activity. [edit] re-read and i guess i mis-understood you- when you said mods on narrowband i assumed you meant they wouldn't be online as much- rereading i realise you meant downloading images (a simple size restriction would help...)
[/edit]
Weren't forum accounts going to be linked to the game for r10 anyway? SO you mess up with a siggy-pic, you lose your game account, and only those playing can have them?

I didn't think it worth replying to the rest of the nonsense in your post, but surely if there was a full time paid mod, there would only need to be one? as they'd have nothing else to do. And its hardly worth 50k a year- while I have respect for (most of) the mods, doing the job itself (reading post, clicking buttons) is hardly "skilled", and i don't know where you live (well, I do but nm ) but 50k a year is enough to live more than comfortably

The aggressiveness in my previous reply was directed only at JonnyBGood, who seems to think he has the right to tell others what to do...noone else need take offence