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Thread: Signatures, advertising and stuff

  1. #1
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    Default Signatures, advertising and stuff

    Hi, the site has been down for some ours, as we have been exceeding our max. bandwidth again (and have increased it). This is due to several reasons, one being increased interest for our site, which is great! Other reasons are the above mentioned use of large photos, and of user photos that are not user photos really (not we don't like pictures of your companion animals... ).

    Finally, please look at our FAQ about signatures. A few of you have up to 8-10 lines of info, which in many cases doubles the size of each post you send and thereby double the bandwidth usage for every visitor who reads it. Please limit the signature to one or two lines. Thanks!

  2. #2
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    Default

    If an article contains interesting info, and is not copyrighted, it's a great idea to have it here for our visitors to read. Having articles in our forum also might make it more easy for newcomers to find us using search engines.

  3. #3
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Signatures and stuff

    Hi,
    we've had many attempts from people who want to use their signature area to advertise sites or products. We have this policy here about not having advertisements (which may be silly, because having ads could bring some income to cover the expenses), but I know for sure that I and many others like the non-commercial feel of the site. One thing I'm 100% sure about, is that if we ever should have ads in the future, we should not have them is the avatars or signatures (and they would not be free either).

    From our FAQ:

    If you want to promote another relevant site, please post a (one) link in the subforum called 'Links, news, articles', or in the 'Project/product info & promotion'.
    I hope you understand (and know that a lot of you do) that we don't want advertisiments all over the place. If you don't... too bad, because we won't change it .

    Some people still try advertise in signatures or avatars, and what we have done is to remove the signature and/or remove the signature abilty from their account. So please don't even try... you'd just have it removed anyway, and possibly get a PM like the one I sent a member today:

    Hi,
    I'd be very happy if you wouldn't initalize using the signature area as something that only look like an advertisement. Please see the FAQ about posting links to other sites:

    8) If you want to promote another relevant site, please post a (one) link in the subforum called 'Links, news, articles', or in the 'Project/product info & promotion'.
    We have removed many advertisement-like signatures since we started, and by allowing one/some, we'll just get a lot more.
    Korn
    I know it's tempting to use this area to promote whatever you want to promote... The thought struck me when I started veganforum in 2003 (and had only one member: myself!): I could participate in other forums and put few nice words and about - and a link to - my almost empty forum in my signature, and this way get hundreds (or thousands, dependng on how many posts I had in these forums) of free ad's. But it felt wrong... we've had this FAQ item above since the early days of veganforum.com, and I'm glad almost all of you respect it - thanks!


  4. #4
    told me to Mr Flibble's Avatar
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    Default Re: Signatures, advertising and stuff

    Can I clarify what is meant by advertising? I was on the understanding that it was putting links to any site (be they commercial or not), but I've noticed that several people (including older members) have links to organisations and personal sites. I'm not meaning to be a snitch, just to clarify what the rules are. I seem to remember there being a thread about it previously, from which the above post was moved.
    "Mr Flibble - forum corruptor of innocents!!" - Hemlock

  5. #5
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Signatures, advertising and stuff

    Hi,
    we don't want profiles/avatars/user pictures/signatures to be used as a way to post spam of any kind. Neither do we want signatures or profiles to be used for 'sneaking in' stuff that's against the board rules.

    In some cases, we discuss individual cases amongst the moderators; instead of writing long detailed board rules we try to use common sense and improvise a little.

    We don't have any problems with eg. personal blogs or homepages (if they don't contain material in conflict with our board rules). Neither would we consider a link to a tasty parsley soup recipe 'spam'. We try to interfere as little as possible.

    Does this make sense, or do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions re. how we could deal with this in a better way?

  6. #6
    Blueshark
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    Default Re: Signatures, advertising and stuff

    Hi Korn - I believe you are the head admin, right?

    How about you restrict, signature links to vegan and non-commercial sites.

    Then perhaps you can send an email warning if a member goes against it.

    Then perhaps you can issue a ban.

  7. #7
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Signatures, advertising and stuff

    Hi Korn - I believe you are the head admin, right?
    Yes...

    How about you restrict, signature links to vegan and non-commercial sites.
    That's not too far from they way we do it now actually, except that we don't accept any signatures that links to other sites in conflict with our guidelines, even if they are 'vegan-friendly'. A link to a site - personal or not - that supports illegal AR activities, for example, will be removed. The board rules apply to PMs, signatures and other profile info as well. Please see this thread...

  8. #8
    Rentaghost Marrers's Avatar
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    Default Signatures

    Your signature should not contain more than two (2) lines
    I notice some people have quite long sigs but I found it wouldn't let me have two lines. It would only allow me to have a few more letters than I have now.
    Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell

  9. #9
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Board hints & tips

    Maybe they entered their signature before the current settings existed? To avoid long/large/flashy signatures, the settings both have a limit re. characters, lines, and possibly a line break setting that limits how many characters you can have pr. line. I know some people don't like it, but these settings are set to satisfy people who prefer short signatures (it also makes the board easier on the eye, plus, as a bonus effect, saves a little bit of bandwidth).

    Edit:
    I tried to add a long signature with a dummy account, and got this message:

    1. Your signature can not be longer than 140 characters including BBCode markup.
    2. Your signature contains too many lines and must be shortened. You may only have up to 2 line(s).


    BBCode include characters describing use of alternate fonts - in other words, if you can live with the standard signature font, the system allows you longer signatures.

  10. #10
    Rentaghost Marrers's Avatar
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    Default Re: Board hints & tips

    I imagined it would make a longer sig into two lines but from what you say it sounds like you have to do that yourself. It only seemed to allow me another few letters - and as you can see my sig is quite short.
    Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell

  11. #11
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Board hints & tips

    Hi Marrers, I just edited the post above while you were responding to it. I looked at your signature from my admin account... here's what it looks like for the system: t

    (FONT="Century Gothic")I've been a long term disappointment to myself (/FONT)

    The software obviously has been designed in such a way that your font information 'eats' a lot of characters...

  12. #12
    Rentaghost Marrers's Avatar
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    Default Re: Board hints & tips

    Ah. Yes that's what I thought - that it was telling me I could have many more characters but not letting me have them!
    It's a shame I think because if you use the standard font the sig is a little too prominent for my taste - I prefer it to be small and not compete with the posts. I think smaller sigs are 'easier on the eye'!

    ETA Having just looked at a couple of sigs it looks like the normal sig font is smaller than it used to be - or I'm remembering wrong!
    Having said that I do recall having to change my sig from the previous font because everything got miniaturised a while back.
    Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell

  13. #13
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Board hints & tips

    It's a shame I think because if you use the standard font the sig is a little too prominent for my taste - I prefer it to be small and not compete with the posts.
    ETA Having just looked at a couple of sigs it looks like the normal sig font is smaller than it used to be - or I'm remembering wrong!
    You are right, the default signature is smaller than it initially was (not to compete with the text in the posts).

    Your signature look is actually close to the new default look now... shall I remove the font info from your signature for you?

  14. #14
    Rentaghost Marrers's Avatar
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    Default Re: Signatures

    Thanks Korn. Don't worry - I'll do it and at the same time complete the lyric I was trying to quote!
    Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell

  15. #15
    Rentaghost Marrers's Avatar
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    Default Re: Signatures

    Well I tried but still can't - I'm getting the message about only being allowed 2 lines but keeping it all as one or trying to break it into two lines isn't making any difference. Never mind.

    (I'm trying to use this lyric:- 'I've been a long term disappointment to myself but it hits like a hammer when I'm that to someone else')
    Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell

  16. #16
    Alex ALexiconofLove's Avatar
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    Default Re: Signatures

    I had problems with this too and just gave up. I wanted mine to say "Lovers, givers, what minds have we made/ that make us hate/ a slaughterhouse for torturing a river?" = = AF. Which didn't seem like 140 characters... but the sig disagreed with me, so I just bastardized the quote.

    To clarify: I was going to use the slashes as characters, not actually attempt to break the quote into three lines (as we are only allowed two, I think?).
    "Lovers, givers, what minds have we made/ that make us hate/ a slaughterhouse for torturing a river?" ==AF

  17. #17
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Signatures

    I'll try to change something called 'Signature Soft-Linebreak Character Limit' from 40 to 70... please see if that helps.


    Signature Soft-Linebreak Character Limit
    When counting the number of lines in a signature, this setting controls the number of characters that can be displayed before text wraps in the browser and is displayed as multiple lines. Once this value is surpassed, the run of text will be counted as multiple lines.

    The value in this setting should be based on the number of normal-sized characters. Other sized characters will be scaled appropriately to this setting.
    I will not eat anything that walks, swims, flies, runs, skips, hops or crawls.

  18. #18
    Alex ALexiconofLove's Avatar
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    Default Re: Signatures

    Hooray! Thank you!
    "Lovers, givers, what minds have we made/ that make us hate/ a slaughterhouse for torturing a river?" ==AF

  19. #19
    Rentaghost Marrers's Avatar
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    Default Re: Signatures

    Yay! Thanks Korn!
    Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell

  20. #20
    frugivorous aubergine's Avatar
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    Default Re: Signatures

    Nice choice Marrers!

  21. #21
    Vegan Oldie Penny's Avatar
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    Default I can't post my blog address under my signature

    I tried to show my new blog address under my signature, but am getting the message 'BB URL not allowed' (or something similar...) I don't know what to do about this. Can you advise me, please?

  22. #22
    Why hello! xwitchymagicx's Avatar
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    Default Re: I can't post my blog address under my signature

    Just but it in your profile instead.
    "It's not that people suddenly start breeding like rabbits; it's just that people stopped dropping like flies" - population explosion

  23. #23

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    Default Re: I can't post my blog address under my signature

    URL's aren't allowed, as far as I'm aware - most forums do this. Have a look at the FAQ, and see what that says.

  24. #24
    Cake Fairy Cherry's Avatar
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    Default Re: I can't post my blog address under my signature

    I used to have my website url in my signature, but foolishly took it off one day then couldn't get it back. I can see the logic - having a url in your signature means it gets posted about all over the forum, and it could be advertising or something it shouldn't be. Mine's just a vegan recipes site that I lose money through, so not exactly harmful or exploitative.

    Why don't you post the link here so people can have a look

  25. #25
    Vegan Oldie Penny's Avatar
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    Default Re: I can't post my blog address under my signature

    Quote bryzee86 View Post
    URL's aren't allowed, as far as I'm aware - most forums do this. Have a look at the FAQ, and see what that says.
    I had a look, Bryzee, but I'm not the most knowledgeable person about computer terminology, and neither of the 'kids' was around to keep me right. I was able to add my blog address to my signature on another forum I'm a member of, so thought I was probably doing something wrong here...

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