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Chat => General Discussion => Topic started by: Goblin on March 28, 2006, 21:44:24 PM

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Goblin on March 28, 2006, 21:44:24 PM

Whats with the trend Ive noticed recently in forums all around the world of linking things in your sig by way of long thin pictures, usually with a part of a logo or pic in it?

example: Smugs sig line:
(http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/6229/animateduserbars4py.gif)

Maybe Im just jealous cos Im not arty enough :P

Goblin

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sara on March 28, 2006, 22:26:23 PM

Ill make ye one if you like?

Think the world has (finally!) come to realise that massive sig images only make reading a thread very annoying and full of clutter. We seem to have toned it down here in comparison to the previous forums - bravo!

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Mardoni on March 28, 2006, 22:43:20 PM

There is a site with 1000s of those bars on but I am buggered if I can remember the URL.

Its definatley better than having a huge sig, although if youre like me you end up with 100s of those bars instead :D

I like that animated sig bar, thats a great idea !

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: maximusotter on March 28, 2006, 22:52:42 PM

animation is posh. Might have to make some spam to add to the end of my quality posts. :lol:

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Goblin on March 28, 2006, 22:53:34 PM

I was wondering if there was a standard repository, fancy whacking a few together. Thanks for the offer Sara, I may call upon your services if everything goes pear shaped :)

Goblin

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Clock'd 0Ne on March 28, 2006, 22:57:06 PM

I might even be tempted to go new fangled if I have time. Or I might be the veritable lazy boy and stick my old skool images back in my sig.

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: M3ta7h3ad on March 28, 2006, 23:21:54 PM

I think the standard repository is Http://www.userbars.org or .com

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Goblin on March 28, 2006, 23:40:10 PM

M3ta7h3ad FTW :)

Goblin

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Ceathreamhnan on March 28, 2006, 23:54:45 PM

 .

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Clock'd 0Ne on March 29, 2006, 00:00:21 AM

Is that you Gregory?

Panoramic vista signatures FTW  :thumbup:

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Cypher on March 29, 2006, 00:27:34 AM

One a more reasonable size would be a bigger win.

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Clock'd 0Ne on March 29, 2006, 01:15:17 AM

Well, I couldnt find one I liked, so I made one  8)

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Dj-Liam-G on March 29, 2006, 01:19:42 AM

Damn, even sigs are dieting these days.....im gonna bring back my old big one to be different!

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Smugs on March 29, 2006, 01:20:11 AM

Quote from: Goblin

Whats with the trend Ive noticed recently in forums all around the world of linking things in your sig by way of long thin pictures, usually with a part of a logo or pic in it?

example: Smugs sig line:
(http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/6229/animateduserbars4py.gif)

Maybe Im just jealous cos Im not arty enough :P

Goblin

I thought about making a whole new sig  but for now I cant be arsed so I found a load of User Bars I liked and made a Animated gif out of them. :)

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Dj-Liam-G on March 29, 2006, 01:20:58 AM

Much better, old skool!

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sara on March 29, 2006, 01:35:25 AM

Boooo, too big!

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Christopher Monkey on March 29, 2006, 11:14:24 AM

Mesa just made me one:
\/
\/

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: brummie on March 29, 2006, 11:47:38 AM

made mine quickly, will do better later.

I like yours Christopher Monkey.  :thumbup:

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: soopahfly on March 29, 2006, 13:14:41 PM

Can I have that tekforums one?

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Christopher Monkey on March 29, 2006, 13:52:54 PM

(http://www.pks.coventry.sch.uk/csg/Userbar.jpg)

(http://www.pks.coventry.sch.uk/csg/Userbar-Computer.jpg)

(http://www.pks.coventry.sch.uk/csg/Userbar-Internet.jpg)

(http://www.pks.coventry.sch.uk/csg/Userbar-Oxygen.jpg)

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: soopahfly on March 29, 2006, 13:59:51 PM

Huzzaa!

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: DEViANCE on March 29, 2006, 17:26:48 PM

Made myself one :D

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Mardoni on March 30, 2006, 10:56:30 AM

I nicked userbars :p

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Christopher Monkey on March 30, 2006, 13:56:53 PM

For soopah....

(http://www.pks.coventry.sch.uk/csg/Soophafly.gif)

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: M3ta7h3ad on March 30, 2006, 14:01:15 PM

now that there is cushty! :D

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Christopher Monkey on March 30, 2006, 14:29:02 PM

why thank you!

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: M3ta7h3ad on March 30, 2006, 14:39:33 PM

Quick question how in all of feckdom do you turn off "snap to" in photoshop.

Trying to make my first user bar :D lol... just the damn text keeps snapping to the top or the bottom of the bar.

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Christopher Monkey on March 30, 2006, 14:42:29 PM

View > Snap To

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: M3ta7h3ad on March 30, 2006, 15:18:55 PM

Raaaagh! lol had to make a simple one first off :)

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Christopher Monkey on March 30, 2006, 15:26:00 PM

Not bad.....good effort!

(http://www.pks.coventry.sch.uk/csg/M3ta7h3ad.gif)

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: M3ta7h3ad on March 30, 2006, 15:29:04 PM

lol :) added :)

How do you do a black border? ive been faffing around but had no luck.

Im gonna remake the NDA Association one as its a wee bit too long :(

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Christopher Monkey on March 30, 2006, 15:40:56 PM

Create a new layer, Ctrl-A, Edit > Stroke, 1px, Black, Inside

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: brummie on March 30, 2006, 15:44:24 PM

here you go

(http://www.brummie.me.uk/old/uploads/iebar.gif)


(http://www.brummie.me.uk/old/uploads/iebar2.gif)

ill remove them later so be quick if ya want them  :-)

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sara on March 30, 2006, 15:45:03 PM

Quote from: M3ta7h3ad

Im gonna remake the NDA Association one as its a wee bit too long :(

Want me to give it a go - got the original layered-up file here still :) How long do you want it?

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: M3ta7h3ad on March 30, 2006, 15:46:35 PM

no worries :) made me own now :D

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: brummie on March 30, 2006, 15:47:43 PM

Quote from: M3ta7h3ad

no worries :) made me own now :D

oh i thought you meant the IE one as the other had already been done when i looked

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sara on March 30, 2006, 15:48:31 PM

Bah, you cant have a different one!

/me feels all hard done by now

Oh well, heres a shortened version anyway:

(http://sarawallen.com/stuff/NDA2.gif)

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: M3ta7h3ad on March 30, 2006, 15:56:55 PM

Better? :)

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Christopher Monkey on March 30, 2006, 16:03:02 PM

M3 - with the white glow, create a new guide at 0 hor, 19 hor, 0 ver, 130 ver make sure snap to guides is on, then drag your oval marquee from corner to corner, fil with white, then hit v and nudge the whole thing up 8 times, then change the opacity to 50%

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sara on March 30, 2006, 16:07:27 PM

:D :D :D :D

You need something else for the bottom-right now :)

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: M3ta7h3ad on March 30, 2006, 16:23:00 PM

Sorted it. :)

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: maximusotter on March 30, 2006, 17:09:47 PM

This is getting out of hand, tbh. Soon your sigs will look like whole packs of cigarettes spread upon the table.

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Smugs on March 30, 2006, 17:52:44 PM

Had quick muck about myself this was my first effort.

(http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/2434/rohuserbar5fz.gif)

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: maximusotter on March 30, 2006, 18:01:06 PM

These sigs might be small in visual real estate, but the file sized are getting rediculous.

The user guidelines warn against this, without giving an exact file size.

I believe on the old forums, it was <50K. You can do a lot with that amount.

Remember, that a lot of users, even on DSL, have annoying page loading speeds that are caused by pointless bandwidth.

For example, M3ta7h3ads sig is already at this artificial limit, while Smugs visually smaller sig is over 100K.

;)

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Smugs on March 30, 2006, 18:12:05 PM

In this day and age when most of us have BB I cant see a problem with 100k sig most forums I post on let you have even greater sizes and tbh 100k is not much even for 56k.

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sara on March 30, 2006, 18:14:07 PM

Yuh guys - if you lot are using photoshop, use "Save for Web" and save as a selective *.gif with as few colours as possible. I think theres only 32 or 64 colours in the NDA sig-bar.

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Smugs on March 30, 2006, 18:18:22 PM

All the Userbars Ive used or made are under 5k its just Ive stuck loads togeather in an Animated gif which bumps it up to 111k.

I dont plan on adding anymore so 111k is as big as its going to get.

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sara on March 30, 2006, 18:19:37 PM

Blimey, thats 22 bars youve got there...

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Smugs on March 30, 2006, 18:21:42 PM

I thought against putting them all in separately lol so made the Animated Gif instead.  :)

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: M3ta7h3ad on March 30, 2006, 18:26:17 PM

Mine arent that big :) lol under 5k

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: maximusotter on March 30, 2006, 18:40:21 PM

Quote from: Smugs

In this day and age when most of us have BB I cant see a problem with 100k sig most forums I post on let you have even greater sizes and tbh 100k is not much even for 56k.

Problem with that, is that you dont make the rules, and if everybody decides to have ~150K of av+sig, it gets painfully slow on DSL. A lot of people are still on DSL at home, including myself, and your sig affects my page loading times.

You have, what, 22 images in there? Why? Pick four or five and weed it out.

Ill go have a chat in the mod/admin lounge and see if we should set hard and fast limits.

Meanwhile, have a read at the official guidelines:

Quote

** Signature File Guidelines **

Please refrain from using what has become known as a "Monster Sig". By that I mean a signature file that contains their full system specs including part numbers, their Email, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, other email, other other email, phone number, postal address, next of kin, grannies email address, grannies neighbours website, and all 65 clubs that they subscribe to.

All a "monster sig" does is annoy people trying to read a thread (who see more sig than real post), make pages take longer to load, and wastes bandwidth.
The other thing to consider is that 90% of the people reading your post dont really want to know about the info in your sig.

So please try to keep them succinct and to-the-point.
If you feel the need to include info like system specs, please do it on a single line.

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Smugs on March 30, 2006, 18:54:28 PM

Cant believe you complaing over 100k I could understand if it was near 1mb or 500k.

I dont have the fastest DSL only 512kb and the page loads fine for me.

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: maximusotter on March 30, 2006, 19:00:59 PM

Quote from: Smugs

Cant belive you complaing over 100k I could understand if it was near 1mb or 500k.

Does your sig convey important information that makes it "worth" the 100K? No it doesnt, imho, but thats not the point. Whos gonna sit through a cycle of 22 images? The point is setting the rules back up so this doesnt snowball and get really annoying.

Currently were looking at reinstating the 100K limit, av and sig combined, which is plenty. Im only using a fifth of that myself, and my sig has three frames. 100K is more than enough to annoy other forum members.

Its not official, but looking to be the trend. Well keep ya updated.

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Clock'd 0Ne on March 30, 2006, 19:05:22 PM

Max does make valid points, it is only fair that we have a reasonable cap on this, if it doesnt happen now well only toe everyone in line later on. Then the bitter resentment will begin  :mrgreen:

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Smugs on March 30, 2006, 19:05:53 PM

Quote from: maximusotter

 100K is more than enough to annoy other forum members.

.

Well so far its only you thats been complaining.

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: maximusotter on March 30, 2006, 19:09:37 PM

Quote from: Smugs

Quote from: maximusotter

 100K is more than enough to annoy other forum members.

.

Well so far its only you thats been complaining.

Thats one of my job requirements at Tekforums Limited Holdings and Seal Clubbing Supply.

Im complaining about your sig, and mildly at that, because its an example of going over the top.

Im just using you as an example, but if you feel the need to martyr yourself over a debate over a forum sig, go right ahead. :mrgreen:

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: DEViANCE on March 30, 2006, 19:10:30 PM

if everyone had 100k sigs it would get stupid. 20 posts on a page of a thread.
20x100kb = 2mb, 2mb just for sigs is stupid. that would take a couple of mins for someone of 56k.

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: maximusotter on March 30, 2006, 19:13:11 PM

Its not just about 56K its about the forums "feeling snappy" as well. Certainly 56K users can set their cache to obscene levels to deal with this, but for sigs? Nah.

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Smugs on March 30, 2006, 19:15:02 PM

Quote from: maximusotter

Im complaining about your sig, and mildly at that, because its an example of going over the top.

Im just using you as an example, but if you feel the need to martyr yourself over a debate over a forum sig, go right ahead. :mrgreen:

WTF not sure where your going with that but its the wrong way I made the sig for NO other reason than to have a nice sig, I liked alot of user bars so I decided to make an animated gif out of them and at 111k I thought the size was ok as Ive been on other forums with much bigger sizes which run just fine.

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Clock'd 0Ne on March 30, 2006, 19:18:08 PM

I have strategically optimised your bits, now they are under 100kb :D

(http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/2678/animateduserbars4py6rb.gif)

(http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/8161/fearandloathing2kk0lt.gif)

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: maximusotter on March 30, 2006, 19:19:08 PM

that must tickle!

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sara on March 30, 2006, 19:19:12 PM

Well, in a week Im going to be back at my mothers for 3 weeks on 56K, as I am every time I stay with her. And of course 56K is never that, I think its 43.5K or something daft over there.

Your sig doesnt hack me off now Smugs (uni connection @ 10Mbps), but it will then.

This isnt a personal attack on you, its like DEViANCE says - if everyone had a sig at the top of the limit (or just over it), each page would be a nightmare. Thats not to mention the constant flashing of images changing, which is actually doing my nut right now (yup you too max :p)!

EDIT: Hrrrm, is there any way I can ignore sigs for a couple of weeks?

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Smugs on March 30, 2006, 19:19:27 PM

Thanks clockd problem solved. :)

How did you do it btw what software did you use ??

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Clock'd 0Ne on March 30, 2006, 19:21:02 PM

Pleasure. If anyone else wants a similar servicing of their bits let me know :lol:

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: maximusotter on March 30, 2006, 19:25:12 PM

Quote from: Sara

Thats not to mention the constant flashing of images changing, which is actually doing my nut right now (yup you too max :p)!

Ill slow it down for ya. :P

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sara on March 30, 2006, 19:29:07 PM

Quote from: maximusotter

Quote from: Sara

Thats not to mention the constant flashing of images changing, which is actually doing my nut right now (yup you too max :p)!

Ill slow it down for ya. :P

Ta dude :)

EDIT: Dont think it works well as an Av though...

EDIT2: /me keeps refreshing to see what max is up to...

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: maximusotter on March 30, 2006, 19:31:32 PM

Quote from: Sara

EDIT: Dont think it works well as an Av though...

EDIT2: /me keeps refreshing to see what max is up to...

Using the pooter w/o my glasses is what. :lol:

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sara on March 30, 2006, 19:32:17 PM

LOL, fair enough. Think yer sigs dead for the moment...

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: maximusotter on March 30, 2006, 19:33:10 PM

Quote from: Sara

LOL, fair enough. Think yer sigs dead for the moment...

see my previous post.  :mrgreen:

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sara on March 30, 2006, 19:37:25 PM

Smaller and slower. Lovely :)

EDIT: Who am I to buck the trend... me too me too me too!

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: M3ta7h3ad on March 30, 2006, 20:16:56 PM

Can we also have guidelines with animated siggies..

As sara says the fast moving userbar things that are going on are almost as annoying as the damn car flashy things.

Speed limit of some sort? at least 2 seconds per frame? with concessions for animated character AVs (such as smugs cigar dude and saras mini-sara in a bikini). Or is that just being arsey?

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: maximusotter on March 30, 2006, 20:20:16 PM

I had mine at 3 seconds, but bumped it to 15 as  when I saw several on screen at once, it was very annoying as Sara and you mention.

Flashing car lights=ugh. LOL

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: DEViANCE on March 30, 2006, 20:26:22 PM

made myself another and still less than 15kb. :D
I dont mind the flashing/animated ones at all tbh.

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Christopher Monkey on March 30, 2006, 20:37:46 PM

My sigs only 12.7k and my avs 15k in a totally non-IE compliant png

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Serious on March 30, 2006, 21:10:29 PM

Avatar 28.21kb,  sig 5.34kb, 33.55kb total, well within limits :)

I remember the limit for avatars being 4.5kb, youve never had it so good  :mrgreen:

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Alien8 on March 31, 2006, 02:05:12 AM

one or two of the non animated user bars are quite cool but to many and its a bit busy, not sure what i think of the animated ones yet as i havent lived with em

im currently pimping flicker with my av n sig, about 25k tops though

Title: Re:Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sweenster on May 12, 2006, 19:25:09 PM

decided to trade in my old big sigs for a couple of user bars

incredibly easy to make and look very stylish

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: redneck on May 13, 2006, 00:09:53 AM

us hysteria theme all the way baby.

those writings can be clicked on you know ;)

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: Sweenster on May 13, 2006, 01:17:32 AM

Quote from: red

us hysteria theme all the way baby.

those writings can be clicked on you know ;)

no they cant you need to put in the http:// in the links

they are coming up as "http://www.tekforums.co.uk/posts/list/75/www.muse.mu"

see the problem?

Title: Sig trends - everythings gone all lines
Post by: redneck on May 13, 2006, 02:17:55 AM

now i do :D

ta :D