Signature Rules & Regulations [Updated 12/05/13]

[Patchisou Yutohru]

There has been an overhaul to the current signature rules. For a simple understanding, we've come up with the concept of limited space in your signature. Think of it this way. Your teacher gives you an index card and tells you that you can put whatever you want on it and it'll be the only thing you're allowed to take into the classroom the day of a major upcoming test. As long as it fits there, it's good to go. That's pretty much what we've taken up here. If after reading these rules, you have any questions about whether your signature follows our rules, you may do so here. But we hope to eliminate the need for replies! Let me explain...

Signatures

If your signature breaches any of the following rules, it will be disabled and a notice will be appended in your signature space. After your signature has been disabled three times, you will receive a 1 point infraction with a 14 day expiry and a consecutive infraction for each breach afterwards. Excessive violation of the rules may result in revoking signature privileges entirely.

Signatures cannot exceed 350 pixels in height total.
Signatures are exactly that: signatures. They're simply used for better identification of the poster and a form of expression on a forum. They do not need to take up anymore space than the content of your post. Signatures larger than 350 pixels in height are larger than they need to be. This includes blank space, text, images, and CSS.

Signatures cannot exceed 600 pixels in width.
The total width of a signature cannot exceed 600 pixels in width. Images stretch the forum for smaller styles, and 600 pixels is the point where some of our smaller width styles and smaller screen resolutions start to break the HTML tables if something is too large in the post content. Text is permitted to exceed this limit.

CSS can not exceed 600 pixels in width.
We need to clarify that while CSS can be fluid, a signature doesn't need to take up that much space and doesn't need to be that wide. While it may not hold the risk of stretching the forum, it defeats much of the purpose of a signature to have it larger than the width of signatures. In saying that, CSS is included in the 600px width limit.

CSS width% is not allowed.
In addition to the above, and to simplify CSS for everyone -- sorry CSS-wizzes -- CSS width in percentages is not permitted. It should be noted that all staff members have the ability to view the code in your signature, and if it's found to have a width% value, it will be disabled.

There are filesize limitations for images.
Some of the users browsing the forum have slower internet speeds, so it takes longer for them to load pages than those who have faster connections. One of the many contributing aspects of loading a web page is loading images, and large file sizes heavily impact the load time of a webpage. Large file sizes for images are most commonly seen in large, animated .gif images. Your signature images may not exceed 1 megabyte in file size.

Spoiler tags are not permitted in signatures.
There isn't much of a need for them and they only take up even more space due to padding and extra blank space.

A Quick Check

For a better understanding of if your signature does indeed meet these requirements, we're implementing a method of determining that. You see, since signatures can only be 350 pixels in height and a maximum of 600px in width, that's how large the signature area is going to be (should you choose to have a signature). If your signature exceeds this limit, a scroll box will appear. If this scroll box appears, staff will easily be able to pinpoint the problem in your signature while viewing a thread. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT YET IMPLEMENTED IN ALL STYLES! We are hoping that this is an incentive for you to be sure to fix the problem immediately.

Should you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to use this thread for the purpose of asking them. We are hoping to eliminate the purpose of a signature review thread by simplifying the rules and implementing these changes.

[Team Fail]

Ooh I like the plan of the signature size scroll. I think it'll be good as it won't stretch the page if something goes nuts because some kind of CSS malfunctioned.

Perhaps a small addon to that, but perhaps the forum could notify you if your signature is too large. If it has to display the scrollbar, or if the filesize exceeds 1MB, it should notify you and tell you to modify the signature.

[Xeberos]

These are great news!

Because it's very frustrating to scroll down when someone have much text.

And I have one question: So if signature is 600x350 but it's filesize is more than 1 Mb, it will be disabled?

[Forever]

Originally Posted by Xeberos

And I have one question: So if signature is 600x350 but it's filesize is more than 1 Mb, it will be disabled?

Yes. It's just like the last signature rules, more than 1mb filesize got your signature disabled no matter what size/width it was.

[♪Twiggy♪]

Hmm... the expansion in signature space... Well, at least I finally can have my signature uncropped!

600x350 seems to be quite a large amount of space to fool around with, when you consider what should be in a signature. But in the end, it works out, huh?

Having the scroll bars appear when the signature is oversized should also make things easier for staff and users alike.

Also, one hypothetical situation - let's say that there's a 1MB image in use in the signature. There are multiple instances of the same image (exact same URL) in the same signature. All images combined fit within the signature size. What'll that be?

[Went]

Also, several identical images (same URL) only load once, so you'll only have to download 1 MB. The issue we want to avoid with this rule is gifs that take ages to load, so, if you only force someone to load one image, regardless of how many times you use it, there won't be any problems.

[aRedMoon]

Why are signatures getting BIGGER? >_______>

[Shining Raichu]

That's awesome news! I love all of these ideas . I think the expansion in space will cut down significantly on the need to disable.

[Abnegation]

Because screen resolutions aren't exactly as small as they used to be when the rules were first made years and years ago.

[BinaryPeaches]

I liked 300px, but I'm not one to complain. I'll get over it, anyways. I'm just glad that a general max limit is being implemented, tbqh! I'm tired of seeing signatures that are 500+pixels just full of text, or something along the lines.

[Patchisou Yutohru]

Originally Posted by aRedMoon

Why are signatures getting BIGGER? >_______>

Signatures aren't getting bigger. They're getting total size restrictions. 600x350 pixels in total, with images, text (excluding for the width), and blank space all included is hardly bigger than most of the signatures I see around here that take up an entire page.

[TheSmartOne]

Question, probably a dumb one: Will the limited area be coded to follow around the alignment we put it in? Like 600x350 on the right or in the center rather than having it squished up against the left?

[Pikapal642]

The scroll bar thing seems like a great idea! And genius, to be honest. >__> /totally dense person here xD

Will the scrollbar appear when you preview your sig? If so, then that would be a way for the site to "notify" you that your sig is too large; simply preview before you save, if a scrollbar appears fix it! If not, you're good to go!

[dragon456]

Can anyone help me determine if my signature complies by the new rules?

[Alternative]

Originally Posted by dragon456

Can anyone help me determine if my signature complies by the new rules?

Each of those images are 112px in width each. Considering you've got six images, they all make 672px in width, so you'd have to change it to comply with the new signature rules.

[Rukario]

oh no I'm gonna be breakin' rulez now

[dragon456]

Originally Posted by Rukario

oh no I'm gonna be breakin' rulez now

lol they can't ban you anyway...
You're a Staff Admin. Anyone who tries to ban or kick you will be kicked out themselves :D

[Mew~]

Okay, just a second, so are we allowed to use CSS to modify text that goes past the 600px limit, seeing as it says text is permitted to go past that limit, but not CSS, so that isn't very clear. Take my signature for example.

[Pokestick, good times.]

I'm guessing since your CSS-modified text won't stretch the HTML, it should be fine. I'm no expert though :P

Are there any specified rules about YouTube videos and the sort, since they aren't mentioned here at all? Are they okay as long as we keep them a certain size (and don't have them on auto-play of course)?

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

Well, I just had to tinker with mine to get rid of the scrool bar... turns out that the image was within the old (300px height limit) but the CSS wasn't, which I wasn't even aware of until I double checked my code again.

Though the scroll bar has appeared with my signature in the "About Me" section of my profile for some time now...

And of course y'all have to come up with the expanded sig size after I finished making my Christmas sig using the old, smaller dimensions. Not that I would have had anything to fill in the extra empty space anyway

[deoxys121]

Just looked over mine and confirmed it's about 351x310. Phew! Don't have to make changes. I thought mine might be too tall.

[Lolipiece]

Mine complies with the rules, right?

[Fireworks]

Obligatory "is my sig okay" post.

[Forever]

Originally Posted by Fireworks

Obligatory "is my sig okay" post.

Yours is okay!

Originally Posted by Lolipiece

Mine complies with the rules, right?

Yes it does. :)

Also while I don't know the answers to most of the other questions, on the Youtube front, they haven't been allowed in the past for signatures so I'm assuming unless anything was specifically stated, they'd still be disallowed, though if an upper staff member knows otherwise they can correct.

And in regards to previews on signatures, Jake mentioned earlier that due to something already having the name for signature previews he can't make a special template for it, so technically as far as I know for now you'll have to just check when you make a post. :(

Actually @TheSmartOne, and also since the code only applies to height, then technically you can centre your signature wherever and it won't count (for now, who knows if width code will work in the future somehow).

[Patchisou Yutohru]

Originally Posted by Mew~

Okay, just a second, so are we allowed to use CSS to modify text that goes past the 600px limit, seeing as it says text is permitted to go past that limit, but not CSS, so that isn't very clear. Take my signature for example.

Yes, using CSS to modify text that happens to go past the 600px limit is permitted. What the CSS limit is for is for background widths.