Feedback - Improving the user experience: Signatures

[LabZero]

No problem in my opinion, the signatures were a nice addition but I look at the substance, and here the substance is not lacking for sure!

 

[DardiM]

I only don't understand one thing : it was an option, if we didn't want to see signatures, we just had to deactivate it on option, no !?

About images, it could have been another option

 

[enaph]

No problem in my opinion, the signatures were a nice addition but I look at the substance, and here the substance is not lacking for sure!

Well said sir!
Personally I am the big fan of minimalistic signatures and some of the sigs here were way to cluttered.
And second thing is that linking to the external sources increases the chance to spread malware and that is the last thing which we would like to see here I guess..

 

[Exterminator]

Everything is the same without them.Everyone is still a member,the forums are still the same,the content hasn't changed and we are still a tight knit community.
Putting it in perspective it is a trivial change at least in my opinion.

 

[frogboy]

The signatures were a nice personal touch i kinda miss them. But guess whatever is best for the forum.

 

[Exterminator]

The signatures were a nice personal touch i kinda miss them. But guess whatever is best for the forum.

I think Jack is going to implement some type of text only signatures without images and in their preferences members can opt in or out whether to see other members signatures.
@Jack listens to everyones concerns or he would not have posted this thread.I think meeting everyone half way without slowing down the site is an acceptable resolution

 

[BoraMurdar]

Guys, consider this as MalwareTips started using Adblock for Signatures
A joke

Now seriously. The content is important, and the less images and links drawing our attention away from the content is essential, among other security and traffic reasons. Actually there are very few practical reasons for signatures to stay on the site and very big ones to abandon them. Again, making most members happy will make us happy also.

If there is a common solution we will certainly find one

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

There goes our ability to display our individuality
Sigs have that big an impact ? I could see banning flash
enabled sigs or "gif" but all of them ? wow.
I will love this community reguardless, but this seems an extreme
step to take

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

This feels like a trap having all those beautiful images offered up, many created by staff
only to have the ability to display them yanked out from under us, now I understand why
Huracan dumped his project so abruptly

 

[Cohen]

Disabling them altogether seems like a bit of an extreme step to take, I enjoyed looking at people's signatures. Though, I do see how not having them makes the site look more professional and less cluttered.

I think it should be left to the user's decision whether they want it on or off (as it was before, only seeing them is disabled by default maybe?). We could also have a text-only signature with a character limit that way the users can still use signatures while also not taking attention away from the content.

 

[Exterminator]

I think members display their individuality with their knowledge and forum posts and don't really need a signature to do that.
I have nothing against signatures but I don't find myself viewing them very often.
I find them entertaining and fun to make when I have some spare time.
Personally they have become something that is just there like the Like,Quote and Reply buttons.
I am sure Jack will find a solution that everyone can live with.
His reasoning for removing images in signatures was one out of necessity for the site.
Not really extreme as many sites do not use them at all.
The uncluttered professional look is not the reason for disabling them but a benefit of doing so.
If the member has a choice it will still slow down the site with images linked from hosting sites.It has nothing to do with the members but the running of the forum.
Remember it is @Jack website so the way I look at it is he really doesn't have to give an explanation but he was kind enough to do so.
He has already posted that if he can find a resolution he will do so.

 

[Jack]

Ok, thank you for your feedback. Some good suggestions in this thread. First off all, I've already said my opinion about Signatures - they are nothing more than an outdated feature of forums software.

Now, we've re-implemented the possibility to add a signature, however some restrictions were added.
We've removed the possibility to add images in the Signatures as they are distracting, and what's worse is the fact that they are loaded from other websites which comes with a performance impact. Furthermore, we've notice that people often add large images which do clutter the thread.

To view the Signatures, members will need to opt-in in their account preferences.
Go to Preferences and enabled "Show people's signatures with their messages"

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

@Jack
Limit it to one small image as well Jack, one image per user would help a lot.
that way both sides are compromising
---
So what your saying is it's limited to text only ?
I will just leave mine off, Thanks

 

[Jack]

@Jack

So what your saying is it's limited to text only ?

Yes, the restriction is for images. Right now, you should be able to add text and style it with out any issues. Also up to 3 links can be added.

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

Yes, the restriction is for images. Right now, you should be able to add text and style it with out any issues. Also up to 3 links can be added.

I'm just leaving it off, thanks Jack

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

I can see where adding images to posts would lag the server, some posts have 3, 4, or more images embedded in them hosted remotely and most are large images.
You have a system for adding images locally that would help. I would remove the ability to add images to posts that don't use the forums
builtin method, I would bet money that is having a more adverse effect than a small image in a sig.
The wallpaper show off section would be a drain as well closing that would help too.

 

[CMLew]

I would agree that signatures lately is getting bigger/sluggish and hence, it's really gonna eat-up my data usage. I'm okay without those signatures.

Somehow, I felt it can be made better too with standardized signatures; it's what I called badges.

Perhaps I can post an example link below and show what a badge look like.
MIUI Diwali Theme Contest: Join to Win Mi Notebook Air, Mi 5, Mi Max & More! - Themes - Xiaomi MIUI Official Forum

Those badges are on the right hand of every user posting (just below) the "send PM". You can fix the dimension to be equal (of course ideally small as well) and everyone have the same formatting. No more own-self-colourful-sluggish-signatures. The badges can be those from AV/AM companies logo indicating their config or even MT's own limited edition badges (where you need to earn it) or etc.

Not sure if this is a good or bad feedback but just a thought if you wish to have signatures back.

 

[Deleted member 178]

My view about signatures:

1- ok, i will miss some ; but not others. Many sigs were just huge ugly and annoying banners just copied-pasted, not much creativity on them... i spent hours on mine, made it with a decent size and special effects... i will miss it, but can live without it easily. Avatars reflect who you are , not the sigs.

2- as @Rebsat said, they helped to directly reach the config thread at first glance, that was the main advantage of them. New members will not find how to see configs setup from the profile page; unless someone tell them.

I think the config link should be moved (if possible) under the avatar. so everybody can see it and click on it if interested.

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

My view about signatures:

1- ok, i will miss some ; but not others. Many sigs were just huge ugly and annoying banners just copied-pasted, not much creativity on them... i spent hours on mine, made it with a decent size and special effects... i will miss it, but can live without it easily. Avatars reflect who you are , not the sigs.

2- as @Rebsat said, they helped to directly reach the config thread at first glance, that was the main advantage of them. New members will not find how to see configs setup from the profile page; unless someone tell them.

I think the config link should be moved (if possible) under the avatar. so everybody can see it and click on it if interested.

I agree, there were many times that without Exterminators very informative sigs I would have not found things that I needed.
I know it's Jack's site and he calls the shots, but there are so many other resource hogging ways the images effect the site that
removing the sigs should have been lower on the list of options and not the first option, it was first I feel because it was the easiest to impliment.
allowing for 1 small image would have been sufficient combined with forcing posters to use the native image uploader when posting image
content within a post seeing that some posts contain many images of a large size. i wont post on this any more, I just wanted to say that.
Huracan and others know this was coming so I don't like that it was passed off as a community discussion either when it was obviously
already decided in advance, but this is just my opinion and I can accept it or hit the road.
PeAcE

 

[DardiM]

Ok, thank you for your feedback. Some good suggestions in this thread. First off all, I've already said my opinion about Signatures - they are nothing more than an outdated feature of forums software.

Now, we've re-implemented the possibility to add a signature, however some restrictions were added.
We've removed the possibility to add images in the Signatures as they are distracting, and what's worse is the fact that they are loaded from other websites which comes with a performance impact. Furthermore, we've notice that people often add large images which do clutter the thread.

To view the Signatures, members will need to opt-in in their account preferences.
Go to Preferences and enabled "Show people's signatures with their messages"
View attachment 116063

Thanks, that is a good compromise