Avatar Restructuring and Signature Query

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This seems to be generating a gigantic furor.

"There's no reason to do this!"
"Why oh why did you remove sigs?"
"Mystic is a bad man!"

Well, everyone here needs to remember there is a major reason for the change, and it wasn't done on a whim because I decided I wanted to do THIS today. Here is why the changes were done:

1. Policing the signature and avatar limits is a major hassle. Especially signatures, where it's not as simple as right-clicking on the image and checking three numbers. It takes a significant amount of my day to
2. The people breaking the signature rule were NOT n00bs. In fact, about 50% of the people I had to warn for breaking signature rules were in fact older members of the community. If the older members won't follow the rules, why would the newer members? If you're one of the people in recent memory I warned, you're part of the few I actually pushed it so badly that you needed to be warned, and honestly, it's been getting ridiculous in how far the entire forum has been pushing signature size.

Everyone who said "The old system was working fine" wasn't actually enforcing the old system. I really don't want 30 minutes of my day to be based around checking image pixel height, filesize, and other idiotic details. I'd much rather read the forums, find idiots, and remove them from the forums. These new rules, while I agree, suck for the people who actually have been using it properly, will allow the administration, and everyone else for that matter, to stop seeing how huge an avatar or signature is.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. The signature line is not for novels. It's not for showing your Photoshop skillz or whatever have you to the world. And honestly, I'm tired of it being a headache to police constantly.

If you have a CONSTRUCTIVE solution to the problem, please feel free to comment with a suggestion, however, anything with "PUT IT BACK THE WAY IT WAS" will simply be ignored. I'm tired of screaming at people who should god damn know better for breaking a rule no one listens to.
 
If you have a CONSTRUCTIVE solution to the problem, please feel free to comment with a suggestion, however, anything with "PUT IT BACK THE WAY IT WAS" will simply be ignored. I'm tired of screaming at people who should god damn know better for breaking a rule no one listens to.

Would it be possible to make signatures an earned privilege? That is, intelligent posts, and no rule-breaking (ESPECIALLY Avatar rule, as it would obviously show how the signatures would be treated), and the like? For the members who haven't broken the rules in these ways, it would be fair for them to have their signatures.
 
What we need is a plug-in that automatically checks signature height and image size (if one exists). But yeah, something like that wouldn't work on the random sig image I used to use (reports 0 bytes, the real files are about 6kb each). Trouble is, there are no easy answers to this problem. I do see where you're coming from Mystic, but it's just that we're so spoiled with sig images and all...

But what Dark Warrior said might work, but it could be a bit difficult. And it would mean more work on your part...
 
The problem is, Dark Warrior, the people I've been reprimanding recently AREN'T new. They're long-time members that have had accounts for over a year. This isn't a "n00b" problem. This is a "no respect for the rules" problem.
 
Which is why I said that they should have had to have no previous record of sig-rule-breaking, and follow basic intelligence and avatar rules. Because it shows they can.
 
Yes, and that reeks of the avatar removal. Several people permanently lost their avatar because they screwed up twice, often-times seperated by a long period of time. Bigboi, Zeshiro, and Roboashura come to mind as people who lost their avatar permanently for screwing up early or just making two idiotic mistakes. Also, doing that defeat the whole point of removing sig images in the first place, because I'd still have to police the people who gain the privilege.

There is only one practical solution to the problem that I can come up with, and I've taken it. I know it's going to suck for a while, but stick with it. I'm sure you can do some awesome stuff with text-only if you're creative.
 
Honestly, this doesn't really matter to me or not now. I never really changed or used my signature much and I doubt I'll need to in the future. Anytime at all that I need to use my signature is for quotes and those are text only, small and compact. The only gripe I have is the avatar rules...128x128 almost destroyed the avatar I had up before. If signature limits are being lowered, why should avatar limits be lowered too? Especially since the board now automatically checks your file for any such rule breaking?
 
It doesn't if it's off-site.

Oh, and to use ASCII art, it MUST be in the code tags, because normal text doesn't allow for more than one space. This also eliminates color, links, and the like.
 
By "ASCII Art", I didn't mean having a huge 300x200 image composed of ASCII characters for your signature. I meant stuff like this:

.:/SSNTails\:.
 
So the only problem is that one person is tired of doing all the work? Then here's a proposal: recruit people to split the task up. Like, mini-mods of sorts, whose ONLY powers are to figure out who's over the limit and report it for an admin to take action later.

Alternatively, go lax on all these overly strict rules. Seriously, enforcing hefty rules seems to be the problem anyway... It's not like it won't be obvious who's over the limit anyway. It's how we do it over at the MoFo (50KB limit, but about 325 pixel height limit) and we don't have any problems, except in those rare situations where it's blatantly obvious.

Yes, I know, neither one of these are going to happen, judging from what I've already read. Even still, I'm feeling very pissed off at all the draconian image restrictions on here, where I get things taken away for the actions of others. Not pissed off enough that I'm leaving, going to be making Mystic voodoo dolls in my closet or anything similarly outrageous, but certainly quite peeved.

And SSN, nice as that is, it's seriously no replacement.
 
Shadow Hog said:
So the only problem is that one person is tired of doing all the work? Then here's a proposal: recruit people to split the task up. Like, mini-mods of sorts, whose ONLY powers are to figure out who's over the limit and report it for an admin to take action later.
While this sounds simple, lemme explain the steps here, and why it's such a big deal to do this. As an example, I'll explain how the avatar loss worked, and why I'm SO glad to get rid of any and all of this once and for all.

Step 1: Someone notices an avatar beyond the limit, be it me or someone else. This is generally done by right-clicking absolutely every new image that comes onto the forums.
Step 2: I go into the administrator panel, delete the image, and disable their avatar privileges.
Step 3: I go into the Hidden Palace, and add the following to the logs: "<nickname> lost his avatar privileges. (<month> <day>, <year>)"
Step 4: After a week has passed, if it was the first offense, go back into the administrator panel, and undo everything. Then go back to the Hidden Palace and italicize the text to signify that the period has expired.

While in of itself this isn't that bad. The fact that I have to do this kind of stuff every day just plain sucks. It's tedious, annoying, and it's all because SOMEONE decided not to read the rules before doing something. Signatures are even worse because there isn't a way to disable signatures from the control panel, so I have to decide if the offense is strong enough to warrant a forum ban if they keep it up. To take you up on your proposal, I'd have to reinstate all of this structure again, and add another layer of complexity by having a group of people going around the forums doing step 1 for me that I'd have to keep track of.

Personally, I agree. These new rules are overly strict, annoying, and I shouldn't have to do it. However, I don't really see a choice if I value my sanity. This forum takes enough effort to maintain as it is, and I really don't want to have to keep dealing with stuff like this if it's not absolutely necessary.

Also, to the people complaining about the drop down to 10 KB for avatar, that's due to the fact that we rape Sepwich's bandwidth bad enough as it is. I don't wanna make it any worse than I need to. Honestly, if your avatar is bigger than 10 KB, you need to use proper compression. The drop to 128x128 is because that's what it was always intended to be. It became 144x144 because a while back, while it was 128x128, AJ made a 96x144 avatar, and it looked fine, so I upped the limit. What I had forgotten was that while 96x144 isn't going to make posts bigger, 144x144 sure will. Hence, when I realized that changing the way avatars would be set would wipe all the avatars anyways, I changed it back to what it was originally.

I know all these changes are annoying, and it's going to suck for a bit while we all adjust, but I assure you, this will be beneficial in the long run. Changes around here are always considered negative, especially when you lose something that you like. Remember the loss of the multi-thok? I loved that abusive move, and really missed it when it left the game, however I admit SRB2 is a better game because of it. It just took time.
 
*Starts a slow clap*

Personally I don't have a problem with these new rules. But that might just be because I lost my avatar and sig privileges before. I think anyone who loses them again should just leave. Hell, if you're that dumb you probably don't have anything worthwhile to say on the forums anyway. Other than giving a cheap laugh at your own expense, that is.
 
In retrospect, the avatar changes are really no problem at all. 10 KB is far more than enough for an image of 128 pixels square, and an image that size is far more than enough size for an avatar. Anyone who seriously has problems with this needs to be hit upside the head. Your jpegs don't need to be 150 KB in size anymore than your MP3s need to be encoded at 6000 kb/s bitrate. It's meaningless.

But really, I would have thought a message board of this calibur would allow disabling sigs individually. But I guess that would make sense. We can't have any of that.
 
Damn, I finnally made my new avatar, and you make the rule 128X128 is the maximum total pixels you can have! Look at the bad quality now!

Aw......
 
Heh, the only way to truly see what's left of our picture sigs is by previewing our posts. That only goes to the ones who still hasn't removed their sigs at all.
 
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