Dealing with Signature spam ? (Here's my today's irrevelant post)

[Transisto]

I am against policing the promotion of paid advertising in signatures but I think it's time we set some rules to the use of signature in an attempt to improve content quality.

This sentence made me cringe.
4) You must post at least one post every day - somewhere on the forum during the contest period.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=114454.0

Suggestions :

* Signature filter.  >  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=114511.0
It could be done with a greasemonkey script but I think the latest events command for a built-in feature.

* Limit size of signature,  Text size of no more than 3 line and size 10 ?

* Allow for longer / bigger signature but with a cut-off at 2-3 lines and a mean to expand signature, (like we do with "Show post" of ignored users)

These are relatively easy to implement, require no maintenance and does not censor anyone.

Given the site-wide exposure of signatures there should be clear guidelines as to what is prohibited and what are the consequences of infringement and repeated offenses.
Would it be better to ban the user or block it's use of signatures. ?

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[theymos]

* Limit size of signature,  Text size of no more than 3 line and size 10 ?

This is something I would very much like to enforce. I've looked into adding a height restriction, but it requires a lot of modifications to the parseBBC function to accurately determine the signature's height unless I want to ban a lot of markup in signatures (which maybe I do).

[Transisto]

If that help : http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/60027

Allows display toggle of user's signature ...

[capn noe]

* Limit size of signature,  Text size of no more than 3 line and size 10 ?

This is something I would very much like to enforce. I've looked into adding a height restriction, but it requires a lot of modifications to the parseBBC function to accurately determine the signature's height unless I want to ban a lot of markup in signatures (which maybe I do).

So instead of outright banning the behavior you think it would be wise to put some rules into effect to at least minimize the influence of what are viewed as bad decisions. Why not let people make impossibly huge signatures and encourage people to carefully weigh ignoring people who take it 'too far'. It might be good for the forums too, if you know what I mean. (financially). Heck, I bet BFL would support any such move... and they wouldn't be alone!

Really, what innovation lies in a sig waiting to be let free without the shackles of size restriction?

[Raoul Duke]

If that help : http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/60027

Allows display toggle of user's signature ...

Why do you need that? Go to your profile settings and disable signatures.



It always bugs me why people love to complicate simple things lol

[theymos]

So instead of outright banning the behavior you think it would be wise to put some rules into effect to at least minimize the influence of what are viewed as bad decisions. Why not let people make impossibly huge signatures and encourage people to carefully weigh ignoring people who take it 'too far'. It might be good for the forums too, if you know what I mean. (financially). Heck, I bet BFL would support any such move... and they wouldn't be alone!

Really, what innovation lies in a sig waiting to be let free without the shackles of size restriction?

That might be OK if there was a web-of-trust rating/ignore system in place, but as things are now it's too much work to ignore people with annoying signatures.

[BurtW]

it's too much work to ignore people with annoying signatures.

What is so "hard" about checking one simple check box and updating your settings to get rid of all signatures? 

I did because I got tired of seeing my own damn signature (but I really want to win the miner so I have to keep it up until the end of the contest).

[nybble41]

I've looked into adding a height restriction, but it requires a lot of modifications to the parseBBC function to accurately determine the signature's height unless I want to ban a lot of markup in signatures (which maybe I do).

Why bother parsing the signature markup when you can just put this in the CSS?

Code:

.signature {
  max-height: 30pt;
  overflow: hidden;
}

[theymos]

Why bother parsing the signature markup when you can just put this in the CSS?

Is that widely-supported?

[capn noe]

I've looked into adding a height restriction, but it requires a lot of modifications to the parseBBC function to accurately determine the signature's height unless I want to ban a lot of markup in signatures (which maybe I do).

Why bother parsing the signature markup when you can just put this in the CSS?

Code:

.signature {
  max-height: 30pt;
  overflow: hidden;
}

Abstinence is never the answer.

[salty]

I don't get it, it's trivial to turn signature display off in your profile.

[BadBear]

I don't get it, it's trivial to turn signature display off in your profile.

Not all sigs are spammy, obnoxious, and annoying. Just the ones like yours.

[salty]

I don't get it, it's trivial to turn signature display off in your profile.

Not all sigs are spammy, obnoxious, and annoying. Just the ones like yours.

Oh well, c'est la vie.

[nybble41]

Why bother parsing the signature markup when you can just put this in the CSS?

Is that widely-supported?

It's a standard CSS2 property, and http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_dim_max-height.asp claims that it's supported in all the major browsers (though not in IE6 or earlier). If it's not supported, the only side-effect is that you see the entire signature instead of just the top 30pt.

[theymos]

It's a standard CSS2 property, and http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_dim_max-height.asp claims that it's supported in all the major browsers (though not in IE6 or earlier). If it's not supported, the only side-effect is that you see the entire signature instead of just the top 30pt.

This seems to work well. I added it. I used 42px instead of 30pt -- the same height limit as ads. Thanks!

[Bjork]

I strongly disapprove of the signature change.  I have my own threads I would like to advertise in my signature and I can't because there is not enough room now.

[theymos]

Since size is no longer a problem, I increased the allowed number of characters in signatures to 2000.

I strongly disapprove of the signature change.  I have my own threads I would like to advertise in my signature and I can't because there is not enough room now.

Use a smaller font.

[greyhawk]

I increased the allowed number of characters in signatures to 2000.

[kano]

So ... anyone know how to make a 3 line table that doesn't get screwed up as mine is?

Yeah my sig code is WAY larger now - more work for the forum software

(I'm using 8pt which seems to be the same size as a normal sig)

Edit: oh and Transisto - your sig you made for that exact advert that you dislike, is now truncated, so you should be disbarred from the competition IMO

[pekv2]

AdBlockPlus w/ Adblock Plus Pop-up Addon, click adblock plus icon, select element to hide, then select the "signature field"  then click add element hiding rule.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b2hrkwrz688a5ta/Untitled.jpg

That is, if the signatures bother you.

[pretendo]

strongly agree

[Transisto]

...
Edit: oh and Transisto - your sig you made for that exact advert that you dislike, is now truncated, so you should be disbarred from the competition IMO

I'm following the contest rules, I really hope to win the Quad miner.

 

[TravisE]

Please consider making it overflow : auto rather than overflow : hidden. That way if someone wants to view the rest of the signature, they can (it adds scrollbars as needed without losing the advantage of the size being limited). Just because someone doesn't want to see the whole signature doesn't mean everyone else doesn't.

Also, I'd make the height relative (e.g. em or ex units), not absolute. Pixel units do not take into account the user's screen size and discriminate against people with visual impairments who may need to use a larger font size. Relative units allow the size to remain reasonable under different conditions.

[RB26DETT]

why u got an advert in your sig then?

[theymos]

Please consider making it overflow : auto rather than overflow : hidden. That way if someone wants to view the rest of the signature, they can (it adds scrollbars as needed without losing the advantage of the size being limited). Just because someone doesn't want to see the whole signature doesn't mean everyone else doesn't.

Also, I'd make the height relative (e.g. em or ex units), not absolute. Pixel units do not take into account the user's screen size and discriminate against people with visual impairments who may need to use a larger font size. Relative units allow the size to remain reasonable under different conditions.

I'm not very familiar with Web length units. What should I use to make it about 3 lines of default-sized text?

[TravisE]

I think max-height: 3em should normally match 3 lines. For some reason, 4em seems to come closer to exactly three lines in this case. Might be a good idea to test in a few different browsers to make sure it's consistent. But whatever the em value is, it should automatically scale to match the overall font size in use.

[Raoul Duke]

I think max-height: 3em should normally match 3 lines. For some reason, 4em seems to come closer to exactly three lines in this case. Might be a good idea to test in a few different browsers to make sure it's consistent. But whatever the em value is, it should automatically scale to match the overall font size in use.

3em should be 3 lines of text, the extra 1em is for the line spacing probably.

Or not...

[theymos]

OK, I made it 4em and overflow:auto.

[theymos]

Actually, overflow:auto is annoying because my cursor occasionally ends up in a signature while I'm scrolling down a page and then my browser thinks that I want to scroll through the signature instead of the page. So I removed that.

[TravisE]

I guess the best solution would be some kind of “expand” button that makes the sig full size when clicked, but that'd probably be more complicated than a simple CSS style change. Thanks for considering, though!

[Kontakt]

It's not THAT bad, is it?

[BadBear]

It's not THAT bad, is it?

Not anymore  .

[Bia Yao Ma]

You can easily switch off signatures in profile. There should be some rules about signature size though.