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Forum question - signatures

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PR1Berske

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Hey all

I've spotted some users whose signatures are "bus destination" style ones, as you'd see on a Stagecoach bus or similiar.

How easy are these to use? I quite fancy making one but I'm clueless!
 
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bb21

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They are not difficult to make. Some of them are just animated .gif files displaying a number of frames at differing speeds.

Do you have any graphics editing software on your computer?
 

PR1Berske

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None at all

if there's no "template", then it doesn't matter, I don't want to learn a whole programming language to just have a signature

Thanks anyway :) No further questions!
 

telstarbox

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You can use Excel to make them quite easily if you set the column width and row height to be roughly equal, then use black or orange to fill the cells.
 

Temple Meads

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Alternatively, if you have an OK camera, just take a picture of the destination blind you want, and then crop it ;)
 

Ivo

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If you're very patient and careful you can even make this kind of thing in MS Paint. It is a pretty extreme of dot art however, and can take hours.
 

VTPreston_Tez

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I'm also sure Beserke that you could ask Preston Bus nicely and you can take a photo of their modified LEDs (I know they'll have to design and download it but ah well) so that might be an option. (Or ask VT to do it with one of their Voyagers if you want to waste money doing it <D)
 

yorkie

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Following a recent consultation, we've recently introduced some new Forum Rules (an announcement will be made shortly).

Previously we allowed 2 lines of text plus an image that could be quite large and animated. However many people did exceed the 2 lines of text limit, and we did not enforce this (after all, there was a loophole in that it could have been got around by converting the text to images!;))

We now only allow an overall size limit of 40 pixels high by 500 pixels wide, so if you want an image it must be within that size.

If you want a line of text plus an image, then the image would need to be around 20 pixels high.

Images can no longer be animated, so the destination would need to be static (though of course you could change the image every day, or week or whatever to change the destination).

The new rules in respect of signatures are:

  • Signature limits are:
    • Up to two lines of size 2 text; maximum 150 characters (including spaces)
    • Use of bold and colours must be reasonable and not excessive
    • A non-animated image is allowed
    • Overall maximum height 40 pixels; width 500 pixels (inclusive of image, text and blank lines)
You'll have until the end of next week (Friday 6 July) to edit your signature if it doesn't fit within this size.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.
 

90019

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The new rules in respect of signatures are:

  • Signature limits are:
    • Up to two lines of size 2 text; maximum 150 characters (including spaces)
    • Use of bold and colours must be reasonable and not excessive
    • A non-animated image is allowed
    • Overall maximum height 40 pixels; width 500 pixels (inclusive of image, text and blank lines)

Why so restrictive?
 

David

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Sure we'll hear its all about the Almighty Server Soave. And how they want us to be economical.

Not really. vBulletin can be a bit of a system resource hog, especially if it's a popular forum, such as this site. Animated pictures only add to that load on the server.
 
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Techniquest

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Lot of people still needing to change their signatures I see. I changed mine the other day to more accurately reflect what's going on and I had to rip out my Flightdiary signature and lose the space between my RM signature and my text. Yet I see many, many, many users still not abiding by these new rules so far.

Gotta say my signature looks dull and boring now, as if my bosses have been having a go with the new signature rules...!
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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I too cut down my signature size by deleting the space between the two lines and I did ask permission (which was granted) to use the colour purple in the line that carries that colour, as it is just the right sombre colour to give the correct emphasis to the wording on that line.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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I thought that the signature character limit was going to be 150, not 140. :(
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Following a recent consultation, we've recently introduced some new Forum Rules (an announcement will be made shortly).
The new rules in respect of signatures are:

  • Signature limits are:
    • Up to two lines of size 2 text; maximum 150 characters (including spaces)

See limit of 150 characters stated above. Yet I accessesed my signature to add one single character this morning and a panel appeared saying the limit was 140 characters. So I have deleted part of the quotation.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I thought "cuneiform" had an e in it...

See my later posting. I note from your own signature that you have read the works of J.R.R.Tolkien, including "The Hobbit" (1937) and therefore know of the Black Speech that was devised by the Dark Lord, Sauron. The ring only shows the wording when it is heated to a high temperature.
 
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Badger

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Apologies, have removed my sig. I'm used to other forums with much less restrictions (not using that as an excuse of course!).

As for why the restrictions:

- The same signature over and over on the same page increases page load unnecessarily. No new content is added when two posts on the same page have the same signature, and yet it still has to be loaded!
- Images DON'T increase load for the server, since they're hosted by other sites. They DO however increase page loading times for visitors
- Signatures can visually distract people from what's important, the posts!
- Animated images are the scourge of the Internet <D
 

SS4

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Is my sig small enough? I've no idea what 40 pixels long looks like....

Your two images are each 19 pixels high. This would be allowed but I don't think you would get away with the text as well although I note it's size 1 so if the mods are kind you may get away with it.
 

deltic1989

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My sig may be all different kinds of illegal but like mbonwick I have no idea what 40 pixels looks like, if some one would be kind enough to advise so that I can remain within the rules then I would be grateful :)
 

SS4

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My sig may be all different kinds of illegal but like mbonwick I have no idea what 40 pixels looks like, if some one would be kind enough to advise so that I can remain within the rules then I would be grateful :)

Your picture is 100 pixels high. You can right click on an image and view it's details to get it's size. In Firefox if you "View Image" it tells you in the window title.

The image below is 500x40 pixels:
vZWsweQ
 

Bungle73

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Apologies, have removed my sig. I'm used to other forums with much less restrictions (not using that as an excuse of course!).

As for why the restrictions:

- The same signature over and over on the same page increases page load unnecessarily. No new content is added when two posts on the same page have the same signature, and yet it still has to be loaded!
Not really. The image only needs to be downloaded once, after that it's already in your cache.
- Signatures can visually distract people from what's important, the posts!
Has anyone actually found that a problem? Because I haven't.

They also add variety to the page, rather than a page of boring text, and also help identify regular posters.

It's funny how when people's monitors are getting larger, and broadband speeds increasing, web forums are decreasing sig sizes. There's another forum I frequent which used to have very large sigs, and they've decreased the allowed size over the years too.
 

SS4

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Because a sig goes under the post it makes it more work to scroll down to the next post. Generally on this forum people are wise but I've been elsewhere where you'd have massively long ones - some where the equivalent of 17 lines of text

That's this















much

Granted 17 lines is a bit extreme and maybe 40 pixels is too low but it's certainly better than nothing. If anything this forum is one of the better ones, it's one of the few webpages in general that allows me to use all the width of my monitor.
 

deltic1989

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Your picture is 100 pixels high. You can right click on an image and view it's details to get it's size. In Firefox if you "View Image" it tells you in the window title.

The image below is 500x40 pixels:
vZWsweQ


Ah I see, I'll get right on to changing it then don't wamt to fall foul of the new rules.
 
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