Signature line rule -- Things are changing!

[Charles L. Cotton]

As noted several times, we've had numerous requests to to make some changes to help those who read the Forum on mobile devices. These changes included smaller photos in signature lines, as well as a limit on the number of lines in a signature line. Most people have complied with the signature line rule and we appreciate your efforts. However, a number of Members are still using signatures that exceed the 4 line limit. A few have simply used a very long sentence that wraps to multiple lines.

For several months, we have requested that Members comply with the signature line rule, but because of the time/effort required to enforce the rule, we've relied primarily on voluntary compliance. We've had complaints from Members about the perceived lack of uniform enforcement and these complaints have some merit. Still other Members have complained that the lack of compliance is still creating problems when they read the Forum using a mobile device.

To deal with these issues, we will begin active enforcement of the 4-line limit. Due to differences in screen resolution, we are also limiting lines to 80 characters and blank lines will be counted. As previously mentioned, it takes a fair amount of time and effort for us to access a Member's profile and delete everything over 4 lines. If we are forced to do this, we are just going to delete the entire signature line. This may irritate some folks but look at it this way. A Member only has to do this once, but we have to do it many dozens of times. Please take care of this issue yourself and help your fellow Members who read the Forum using mobile devices.

Thanks,
Chas.

[baldeagle]

Charles, is it possible to generate a list of all the IDs that have overlong signature lines?

[E.Marquez]

As noted several times, we've had numerous requests to to make some changes to help those who read the Forum on mobile devices. These changes included smaller photos in signature lines, as well as a limit on the number of lines in a signature line. Most people have complied with the signature line rule and we appreciate your efforts. However, a number of Members are still using signatures that exceed the 4 line limit. A few have simply used a very long sentence that wraps to multiple lines.

For several months, we have requested that Members comply with the signature line rule, but because of the time/effort required to enforce the rule, we've relied primarily on voluntary compliance. We've had complaints from Members about the perceived lack of uniform enforcement and these complaints have some merit. Still other Members have complained that the lack of compliance is still creating problems when they read the Forum using a mobile device.

To deal with these issues, we will begin active enforcement of the 4-line limit. Due to differences in screen resolution, we are also limiting lines to 80 characters and blank lines will be counted. As previously mentioned, it takes a fair amount of time and effort for us to access a Member's profile and delete everything over 4 lines. If we are forced to do this, we are just going to delete the entire signature line. This may irritate some folks but look at it this way. A Member only has to do this once, but we have to do it many dozens of times. Please take care of this issue yourself and help your fellow Members who read the Forum using mobile devices.

Thanks,
Chas.

Perfect, thank you very much for the clear and concise requirements

[G26ster]

My browser is set to open the forum on "View new posts," so I see all new posts to all sub forums. It's obvious, to me at least (based upon the number of duplicate threads posted every day), that many of our members only view certain forums and do not see all the posts made. That's their choice, but I'd bet that the majority did not see the original post about signature lines or this latest one.

Is there any way in the software that "Site Announcements" could be made global to appear in all sub forums? Otherwise, I believe many announcements will go unnoticed and unread. MHO.

[RX8er]

Sounds good. Just so I know, is that 80 characters per line or 80 characters total? I think you are saying per line to keep the lines from wrapping.

I'm sure everyone knows but if it is a big deal, why not just turn off the show signature option? ucp.php?i=prefs&mode=view" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Charles L. Cotton]

Is there any way in the software that "Site Announcements" could be made global to appear in all sub forums? Otherwise, I believe many announcements will go unnoticed and unread. MHO.

That's a good idea. I'll do that now.

Thanks,
Chas.

[Charles L. Cotton]

Sounds good. Just so I know, is that 80 characters per line or 80 characters total? I think you are saying per line to keep the lines from wrapping.

Correct, 80 characters per line, not 80 characters total.

Chas.

[RX8er]

Sounds good. Just so I know, is that 80 characters per line or 80 characters total? I think you are saying per line to keep the lines from wrapping.

Correct, 80 characters per line, not 80 characters total.

Chas.

Thanks Chas!

I just checked and I am legal.

[The Annoyed Man]

Hi Charles, I just want to be sure I'm understanding clearly.....

My current signature is 279 characters, including spaces between words and punctuation. On my 13" laptop, that resolves to two lines of text, but on my iPhone 4, it resolves to 4 lines of text. When I use my word processor to count the characters per line on my iPhone, each line comes to less than 80 characters.

Based on this, my signature is compliant, right?

[Charles L. Cotton]

Hi Charles, I just want to be sure I'm understanding clearly.....

My current signature is 279 characters, including spaces between words and punctuation. On my 13" laptop, that resolves to two lines of text, but on my iPhone 4, it resolves to 4 lines of text. When I use my word processor to count the characters per line on my iPhone, each line comes to less than 80 characters.

Based on this, my signature is compliant, right?

You're fine.

Chas.

[Keith B]

To clarify the 80 characters is that your total lines all together should not be more than 320 characters. This would cause the lines to wrap more than 4 lines on a mobile device.

So, TAM, for yours it goes to almost 4 lines total when on an iPhone, but is OK.

[TREKFAN]

Okay! Everyone just get the Samsung note 2 phone that's like 6 inches big and use that. I love it and im blind in one eye. I use it to surf the internet more than a computer. I actually do 99% of my reading from here on it. =)

[MadMonkey]

Woops! Somehow I missed that rule. I'll fix mine.

[puma guy]

I'm not close to meeting the character and line limit, but I have a picture as well. Does the picture affect character count and line limits? I think it's the same size as my avatar 80x80 pixels and 6.0 KiB.

[Charles L. Cotton]

I'm not close to meeting the character and line limit, but I have a picture as well. Does the picture affect character count and line limits? I think it's the same size as my avatar 80x80 pixels and 6.0 KiB.

Photos are fine as long as they meet the size rule. Yours is fine.

Chas.