Crappy signature limitations

[BrytaPlanka]

The character limitation is way to short. Its extremly annoying with a signature limit of 400 characters.
This is one of the few forums when others signature with a detailed computer setup is actually interesting and relevant.
With this current limitation its impossible to write whats important and display it in in a nice way to make it more easy on the eyes.
If you want to write more then one build its very hard.
I want to add another computer to my sig for example, and its pretty much impossible now.
This is partily for the very stupid choise to count the code commands for characters in the signatures.
I dont understand how someone could miss that obvious huge flaw when coding the forum.
The only signature limitation should be the maximum size of the text in it.

Change it at once, its frustrating!

[continuum]

Signatures suck-- I much prefer to store such information in my profile. Can I get them disabled from my personal forum view?

[Erssa]

I think it's fine as it is. Thank god SPCR has no avatars.

[BrytaPlanka]

Often when someone say "I tried this <computerpart> in my computer" its good to see what the rest of the computer is.
To be forced to write it when it simply could be put in the signature is a bad solution. To write "look in my profile for the rest of my computer setup" is also a ineffective solution.
The same thing goes if someone replies with any opinion about a product anywhere. Its interesting to see what that person relates his/hers noise comparisons to or satisfies to use as a main rig to get a better chanse of judging the value of the opinion.

[qviri]

I think it's fine. SPCR is not a general-purpose hardware help forum, so if someone does ask for general hardware troubleshooting help, it's reasonable to request that they include specifications that would be otherwise irrelevant (such as RAM, display type, or keyboard).

In your particular case, are the specs of the "old" computer still relevant? Are you actively using it?

Oh, and the "very stupid choise to count the code commands for characters in the signatures" is a phpBB "feature" that SPCR has no control over - unless you're suggesting that they learn PHP to give you back the 30 characters you spent on [color] tags.

[Erssa]

Often when someone say "I tried this <computerpart> in my computer" its good to see what the rest of the computer is.
To be forced to write it when it simply could be put in the signature is a bad solution. To write "look in my profile for the rest of my computer setup" is also a ineffective solution.

This works with the current sigs as well.

The same thing goes if someone replies with any opinion about a product anywhere. Its interesting to see what that person relates his/hers noise comparisons to or satisfies to use as a main rig to get a better chanse of judging the value of the opinion.

If you really need to put more then one computer in the sig, then why not just put links to your general gallery threads about the computers.

[BrytaPlanka]

All your opinions are retarded! Just obey me and change the damn thing!
Nah.. Just kidding, I just dont agree with any of you and cannot understand your point of view at all.

Your opinions are like this:
Its not extremly bad for ME so dont improve it at all for anyone who might be happy for an improvment.
Satisfy with the poor way its done, let the coding chars continue count as characters even though they aint visible at all.
Just let everything in the whole world I dont use suck for the rest of my and everyones life.
Dont improve the forum, let people in Africa starv, what do I care!

And when you write your replies you think like this:
"Yeah! Torture that BrytaPlanka fellow, hahaha! I feel so good when he suffers from my crazy opinions!"

[dragmor]

Give me an option to turn off sigs on a per user basis i.e. not all or nothing and they can have them as long as they want.

[qviri]

Its not extremly bad for ME so dont improve it at all for anyone who might be happy for an improvment.

Well, your poll did ask whether "I want a change in the signature rules" - and I don't. I think considering the circumstances, they're fine. It's not extremely bad for the vast majority of forum members, so why should we change it to suit you?

You charge that we don't think about you, or poor people in Africa - but did you think about others?

Shorter signatures invariably mean less bytes to download. You're in Sweden, so on the balance of probabilities you probably have a broadband internet connection. There are SPCR members who browse through dial-up. (Of course, with the table-hell HTML design the impact is minimal - but did you think?)
Shorter signatures invariably mean less visual clutter, which others may prefer.
Changing the way bbCodes are counted is not a trivial matter and would take admins' time away from writing reviews. This is probably the most important factor, and from seeing the changes being done to SPCR over a few years, I have to say it's probably the reason.

As an engineer at heart, I agree with you - the technology is here, so why should be limit ourselves? I'm working on a project that's pulling out all the plugs because we can, and it's fun to say the least. But in this case, there are good reasons to limit ourselves.

[Mr Evil]

I have visited a few forums with generous limits on signature length, and what happens is that the signatures take up more screen space than the average post, so you have to spend extra time sifting through the text on screen trying to spot what needs to be read.

[BrianE]

I agree with Mr Evil.... if anything I find limits on signatures to be a good thing since they can become pretty obnoxious and take up a lot of space. It gets so bad at some places that the message text takes a back seat visually to the signature and while I like the look of a good signature as much as the next guy, I didn't go there just so I could read signatures....

[qviri]

I have visited a few forums with generous limits on signature length, and what happens is that the signatures take up more screen space than the average post, so you have to spend extra time sifting through the text on screen trying to spot what needs to be read.

To be fair, I've seen signatures on this forum that were visually much much longer than Bryta's current signature - while containing less actual information and less characters. No font size control and overzealous use of newlines will do that.

I think the limit does help a bit, though.

[jaganath]

As an engineer... I'm working on a project that's pulling out all the plugs because we can, and it's fun to say the least.

consider my curiosity piqued...can you give more detail,or is it classified?

[HueyCobra]

I have visited a few forums with generous limits on signature length, and what happens is that the signatures take up more screen space than the average post, so you have to spend extra time sifting through the text on screen trying to spot what needs to be read.

This can also affect search results for the site. Searches on components can lead you to people's signatures in irrelevant threads, rather than useful information. (Though it is occasionally useful when trying to find if components fit within or are compatible with other components.)

[BrytaPlanka]

Give me an option to turn off sigs on a per user basis i.e. not all or nothing and they can have them as long as they want.

Very good suggestion! Me like.

[qviri]

As an engineer... I'm working on a project that's pulling out all the plugs because we can, and it's fun to say the least.

consider my curiosity piqued...can you give more detail,or is it classified?

I may have exaggerated that a little bit... but I haven't worked on a project for which the development servers are dual-Xeon 5160 machines with four 300 GB 10k rpm hard drives before.