Is console gold allowing images in sigs now?

[angrycoder]

I've noticed a few people using image banners in their sigs around here. Is this something that console gold is allowing now? If so, can you provide a way for us to block out these sigs if we don't want to partake in them?

Nothing against those who like their little sig banners. They just look really tacky and make the pages look very cluttered. Often the banner is 200-300% larger than the users post.

You can see what i'm talking about in this thread.

http://www.consolegold.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8391

[Daehawk]

Those are some huge arse banners. Maybe a size limit like on avatars?

[Calvin]

I was about to ask this earlier today. I enjoy the posts of the new guys, please do not misinterpret-I think the 3 or 4 guys that are Rachet beta testers that have showed up are nice, cordial, and are a nice addition to the community. The images in the signatures however, I do not like. I agree with AC-they distort the layout of the posts and pull attention away from the actual message, they look tacky, and I think they get screwy with the formatting.

[warning]

Well you can go to your Profile and hit the button "No" by "Show Signatures in Topic".  But that will disable all sigs, not just the pictures.

I know we've allowed Xfire images in sigs here.  I think Knightshade had a BF2 stats image in his sig for awhile.

Let me or someone else get back to you with an answer on this one.

[Beer Goggles]

Heh, I was going to ask that question.  I just use Firefox's image blocker.

[Charlatan]

Ditto, I just adblock the images I don't like.. presto chango, no big-ass picture sigs.

[warning]

The Powers That Be have had a meeting of the minds on the topic of images in signatures.  Until recently we have never had any posters (to my knowledge) add images to signatures except for Xfire profiles and Battlefield 2 stats.  That explains why we haven't addressed the issue until now.

The consensus among The Powers That Be is that images of any kind will be disabled in signatures.  This affects not only personalized graphics but also Xfire profiles and BF2 stats are now disabled.  We will be updating the Code of Conduct to reflect this.

The reasons for this are twofold: 1) We already provide several ways to personalize your forum presence - including avatars as well as (written) signatures.  Images in sigs aren't really necessary.  2) Images in sigs are often quite distracting.  You literally have to scroll past the image in signatures in order to get to the next post.

And remember that both avatars as well as signatures can be toggled off in your profile if you do not want to see either one.

Finally this should in no way reflect poorly on any of the newer forum members.  I'm glad they choose to hang out here with us and hope they continue to.  Different forums have different views on what is okay on their boards and what is not okay.  Some boards freak out at the thought of trading or selling games - ours does not.

Feel free to post here, email or PM me if you have any questions.

[Tustin1]

I thought the sigs broke up the endless text quite nicely.  To each thier own I guess.  

Anyway, I've resized my sig as an avatar and my new sig pretty much says the rest.  

Don't get me wrong, this is a cool site, but considering artwork and graphics feature prominently in games it just seems natural to include custom artwork in one's sig.

[stiffler]

Thanks, Powers That Be!

The problem I had was sigs was not with them being ugly, but the fact they sometimes took awhile to load when the server was being hammered (BF2 sigs) and thus I'd have to twiddle my thumbs waiting for the rest of the page to load and zoom down to the new messages.

 

[Darren8r]

Well I use a fairly large screen resolution, well actually its average, 1024 By 768 pixels.

My sig actually looks quite small to me.

I could scale it down though just to please you, I mean I put alot of effort into making it that size, but as long as we dont have any problems.

I'm sorry for ruining your forum experience.

And the measurements of my image are 350 by 130, thats avergae signature size.

Edit: There I edited the size, its now the size of a avatar  :lol:

[Tustin1]

Make a new post so we can see the new size.

...psst, by the way, if you click on the link in my sig, there's a gaming forum on chunite that I co-mod, and pics in sigs are allowed - oh, the horror....

[warning]

Well I use a fairly large screen resolution, well actually its average, 1024 By 768 pixels.

My sig actually looks quite small to me.


I could scale it down though just to please you, I mean I put alot of effort into making it that size, but as long as we dont have any problems.

I appreciate what you are trying to do but, as posted above, we will not be allowing any images in signatures.  While it is quite cool and you are very talented, unfortunately it won't be able to stay in your signature.  Maybe make it your avatar?

I'm sorry for ruining your forum experience.

Good grief no!  Honestly this forum has only been up less than 1 1/2 years and I don't think we've had to deal with the issue of images in sigs before.  It was bound to come up sooner or later.  I appreciate your cooperation.  We want to be as accomodating as possible to as many people as possible.  You two have added a lot to our forums in the short time you've been here.

...psst, by the way, if you click on the link in my sig, there's a gaming forum on chunite that I co-mod, and pics in sigs are allowed - oh, the horror....

 

Some sites have images in sigs and some don't.  Another site I frequent doesn't even allow sigs or avatars.  We hope to make our boards a unique place to hang out.  I hope you don't let this be a frustration that keeps you away from Console Gold.

[Darren8r]

ahaha to Tustin1

Ok I'll take out my image (hangs head).

I guess you gotta love the text, I've hand this problem a few times with websites, and forums I used to own, I usually put restrictions on what size a person could use in there signature image. If anyone went over they would have there image removed and PMed a warning, and so on, which would then lead to a ban  :twisted:

Most people would comply with the set limits, but I've seen alot of forums that just dont have it, due to advertising and such.

[Tustin1]

Holy quotes, Batman!

I especially like this earlier one by you,

Well you can go to your Profile and hit the button "No" by "Show Signatures in Topic".  But that will disable all sigs, not just the pictures.

It's not a big deal and it is only a sig but I think a size restriction would have been a nicer alternative to an all out ban.  Especially since it's only a couple of us that were actually using pictures in our sigs.

I'll continue to hang about, regardless, but I am a little disappointed by this one thing.  

Happy gaming  :wink:

[Darren8r]

Place Image Here <---- Just like my sig says lol.

Is no biggy to me.

[TheMissingLink]

You could always make an image via text...for instance!

8()->-<|8

Homer Simpson on a skateboard.

[Tustin1]

You could always make an image via text...for instance!

8()->-<|8

Homer Simpson on a skateboard.

...yeah...that's cool....looks just like him....

LOL  :wink:

[Darren8r]

Yeah you could do that, but I think its dumb lol

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[Calvin]

Good call Warning, and really really well written out and explained. Very well put, not unnecessarily wordy, and direct and to the point. Excellent stuff.

Please hang around new guys, we like you

[Darren8r]

I'm not going anywhere man, just because of some signature lol.

I've had alot worse from a forum before, and by alot, I mean ALOT!!

[Knightshade Dragon]

It was a question of moderation.  Its one more image that we have to moderate and control.  Believe me, its all in the interest of a faster and work-safe forum.  

[Tustin1]

It was a question of moderation.  Its one more image that we have to moderate and control.  Believe me, its all in the interest of a faster and work-safe forum.  

I think that an unaccaptable image would come to your attention fairly quickly with the apparent close-knitted relationship of everyone here.

Look at the sig I use on chunite - it takes approx two lines of text, is tastefull and non-intrusive.

[mytocles]

NSFW       NSFW       NSFW       NSFW      NSFW      NSFW      NSFW

Wow, sorry Deadlocked guys - I would've warned you if I'd known!  In defense of my friends, I'd like to note that the Deadlocked forum had quite a few pics in sigs, and I didn't think they were distracting at all (well, most of them, lol). But that's fine too...

However, why (the few who did) pick a somewhat rude way of objecting to them, instead of a polite or genial way?  

They just look really tacky

Those are some huge arse banners.

they look tacky

big-ass picture sigs

If you'd worked on the image yourself - and didn't just swipe it from elsewhere (like I do)... maybe the above comments could make you feel just a bit... uncomfortable.  Personally, I'd be at least "annoyed," if not downright offended.

And:

I think Knightshade had a BF2 stats image in his sig for awhile.

Yes, he did - as big as the pictures under discussion - full of stats and some different colors, but apparently no one got distracted by that. Or mentioned it, rudely or otherwise.

AND - as long as my rant is rolling along quite nicely now, another point:  this forum is so, so very mature - one of the great points I always emphasize when talking about CG... we love intelligent, mature, sane discourse, right? We're not a bunch of puerile reprobates, right? Here's one of my favorite examples of CG maturity - oh, I get it now - I was using the wrong definition of mature!  Silly me!  I must have been distracted by some erudite text (I still can't believe I'm doing this - and, yes, this was something posted here):

[Tustin1]

My goodness!!

I'm...not...offended - lol.

[AgtFox]

I'm with you there Mytocles.  I'd rather talk about games and other things than look at NSFW pics honestly.  In fact, I hate the fact that we cover booth babes at all at E3...I think it's a waste of time (I am a guy by the way), but every site out there does it unfortunately.

As for the images, I personally wanted to nip it in the bud before it exploded.  Nothing was done about it because no one really piped up about it until recently.  It probably would have gone on for a long time had no one piped up about it.  I think the Avatar gives people enough creative leeway if they want to use it.

[Tustin1]

I'm with you there Mytocles.  I'd rather talk about games and other things than look at NSFW pics honestly.  In fact, I hate the fact that we cover booth babes at all at E3...I think it's a waste of time (I am a guy by the way), but every site out there does it unfortunately.

As for the images, I personally wanted to nip it in the bud before it exploded.  Nothing was done about it because no one really piped up about it until recently.  It probably would have gone on for a long time had no one piped up about it.  I think the Avatar gives people enough creative leeway if they want to use it.

Enough creative leeway, eh?  Look at my avatar versus the original sig i posted here - the one I use on the PlayStation forums.



The only reason it's that big is that it's the standard size on the PS forums - I'd be happy with the size I posted above from the chunite forums.

[depward]

I enjoy originality and creativity.  I think the image sigs are creative, tasteful, and pretty neato.

That being said, the thing that differentiates Console Gold from a whole heck of a lot of other forums is how we don't use images as signatures.

I don't think it's because Console Gold believes in stamping out individuality that we don't really do the whole image signature thing.  I mean hey, when I scroll through posts I can tell pretty much immediately who posted what just from the little picture avatar we use.  It expresses enough without having an image signature to distinguish one user from another.

And I think it's just the style and culture of this forum that we don't use image signatures.  It keeps it relatively clean of a whole lot of mumbo-jumbo (i.e. image signatures) that I always see in other forums.

I'm not saying I dislike image signatures.  No no no.  And I like the ones seen in this thread.  But I just think it's this forum's culture of not having images in our signatures.

Just my two cents  

[Calvin]

Myto you know I absolutely heart you, but I disagree with you here on several counts-this is not so much about maturity as it is a few things:
1. ease of moderation
2. site clutter
3. the look of pages/formatting
4. the ease of reading posts.

It is nothing personal, anti-creative/expressive, nor is it some odd expression of "maturity". I think the above reasons are more than enough to justify the decision-and I think our personal little avatars give us all more than enough personality for the others to really be able to attach things to the images. To me you are always that little tiger thingy-to you I am always a cute little Calvin So, yeah, I think those avatars are more than enough for us to express that.

Also, I know that the picture you posted may, um, not be tasteful to a woman, but by god I don't think I can possibly say I mind it at all  :twisted:

[Daehawk]

I cant be sure but I can almost swear theres a car in that pic somewhere. Ill find it eventually. Wheres that pic from?

[mytocles]

Now, Rage, I think you've been post-skimming again... tsk!

I knew I shouldn't have posted that pic (I'm still blushing, but I was on a tirade), and I believe it distracted you from my point, lol.

I don't have a problem with the decision -  I totally understand why the Powers weighed in against the whole sig/ image thing (and your points as well.)  My emphasis was on the rude way that a few people expressed themselves regarding the sig images. Like I said, these were creative images that the folks worked on themselves, and I believe they shouldn't have been referred to as tacky or big arse, or whatever was said... and although I understand that they were just offhand comments, they just got my dander up!

See, Rage, I'm the sensitive type, and if I was new at a forum, and did something different at said forum, I'd like people to say... hmm, these images are a little distracting, or they stand out differently from the rest, or they're slowing my load times, etc.  You know, the mature, thoughtful, polite approach that we normally enjoy here (and that most people did use.)  

Honestly, reread my post and I think you'll see what I was trying to convey.  I shouldn't have added the pic, but that was meant also to show something else..  I've seen pictures and read discussions here that would curl Grandma's eyelashes, and I've never complained about any of it (a little teasing, maybe, lol, just to remind you that there are like 3 women here!)  But my friends use a few sig pics - like they're used to doing at other forums - and you'd think the sky was falling in, the way some people responded.

And that picture has been posted here before - don't tell me you don't have it bookmarked (and memorized!)

I heart you too, Rage!  "Little tiger thingy" + "cute little Calvin" ...  :p

[Daehawk]

Yeah im pretty sure I had that pic at one time but Ill never find it in my mess.

[stiffler]

And:

I think Knightshade had a BF2 stats image in his sig for awhile.

Yes, he did - as big as the pictures under discussion - full of stats and some different colors, but apparently no one got distracted by that. Or mentioned it, rudely or otherwise.

Actually I did just that way back when the BF2 sigs started coming up here on 6/28.:

I agree.  I think it would be best if we just made one thread where you post your graphic and leave it at that.  Then one can just browse over there and look at them as they please.  Mods can kill all the discussion there and just leave it to the pics and it would be smooth.  Remember to uncheck the "Attach signnature" box when you post your graphic and we can have a little nook (maybe stickied) that will have a uniform look.  Just my idea to keep the clutter out.  Otherwise it's gonna get real messy when people start adding pics or other dynamic stuff to their sigs.

Of course nobody stopped to pay it any mind.  But my opinion of sigs still stands.

[Tustin1]

http://www.consolegold.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8421

So let me get this straight - picture sigs are tacky, clutter the boards and take too long to load but spam images like the ones in this post are okay?

Not complaining, just confused by the logic.

[warning]

You'll find images often posted throughout threads here.  Some by me, most by others.  You might check out the threads on animated gif's (here's one: link) or the 36 page This Is Fun! thread (link).  The last one was actually the third part of a thread that was started (by someone else - not me sadly) on GoneGold before it went away.

There's also the numerous hot chick threads that have surfaced here from time to time.  The UPS girl one was one of the most recent ones.

There's a pretty clear difference in my head between posting images in threads to make a humorous point or whatever and posting one in your signature which has to be scrolled past each time you post in order to see the next post.

[the Nightbreeze]

Exactly so. I might see an image in a thread, but hopefully I will not need to see the same picture several times in every thread I view.  Your pictures in your sigs are neat and all, but not "I want to see it over and over fifty times" neat.

[Darren8r]

Exactly so. I might see an image in a thread, but hopefully I will not need to see the same picture several times in every thread I view.  Your pictures in your sigs are neat and all, but not "I want to see it over and over fifty times" neat.

I usually change mine weekly, gotta keep the graphic skills up

[Tustin1]

Exactly so. I might see an image in a thread, but hopefully I will not need to see the same picture several times in every thread I view.  Your pictures in your sigs are neat and all, but not "I want to see it over and over fifty times" neat.

I usually change mine weekly, gotta keep the graphic skills up

I think mine changed at least four times during the Ratchet beta.  

I get it - you don't want picture sigs on the site and I'm okay with that.  

The point I was trying to make is that the reasons being given are in no way picture sig specific.  Any picture can be considered tacky (everyone has their own tastes), clutter a board (quoting it over and over), take to long to load (animations) etc.  As for having to scroll past the pictures - how much effort does it take to scroll past a sig that takes up anywhere from 2-5 lines?

It's enough to say they're not allowed - no need to keep stating reasons that make no sense over and over.  I found that animation in the other thread to be really annoying especially after it was quoted several times, but one click and I didn't have to see it anymore  :wink:

[warning]

Well the reasons may or may not make sense to you.  I hoped they would - they obviously didn't.

I'd much rather frequent a forum where the moderators (and I emphasize the plural - this decision was made by all the mods not just me.  I was just the bearer of bad news  :cry: ) gave reasons for their decisions instead of just stating "This is the way it is.  End of discussion."

[Darren8r]

I'd much rather frequent a forum where the moderators (and I emphasize the plural - this decision was made by all the mods not just me.  I was just the bearer of bad news  :cry: ) gave reasons for their decisions instead of just stating "This is the way it is.  End of discussion."

So you were forced upon this terrible task hehe

[warning]

Knightshade Dragon is a harsh master indeed.

Just between you and me he threatened to cut my pay in half!