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Signatures disabled by default

Posted by Andres , 26 December 2012 · 1,788 views

Today we're going to be testing out a change here on the forum which will disable signatures by default for all users.

You still have the option to re-enable signatures if you prefer seeing them, just go your 'Ignore Preferences'in settings and uncheck "Ignore all signatures when reading topics and personal messages".

Why the change?

I have quite the pet-peeve with signatures. They're large, take up more space than content when reading a thread, and slow down page-load times significantly. Not to mention the fact that often users will use an image host that Google marks as harmful, then when those users post in a thread, people using Google Chrome get a warning that the page may contain a virus or malware.

I think a thread is much more readable without signatures turned on. It makes content easier to read without having to scroll page giant signatures.

It might take a little getting used to, but I'm fairly certain the far majority of users will either not care or will prefer it this way. For those of you that prefer signatures and want to use them feel free to change your settings.

This is also a good time to remind everyone that if you do decide to use signatures, we have a size-limit rule which we will be enforcing. Get more info on that here.

lizziebix

Dec 26 2012 02:34 PM

Looks cleaner already so I'm sure I'll get used to them not being around and shortly forget they even exist.

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Tabeeb

Dec 26 2012 03:00 PM

I didn't even notice Haha.

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Little Girl Little One

Dec 26 2012 03:29 PM

er, why can't sigs be the default and if people are having trouble they can disable them, not the other way around? i'm pretty sure most people don't have issues with them.

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Daughter.of.Rage.and.Love

Dec 26 2012 03:31 PM

A bit boring and now you can't get messages across via sig, not to mention some beautiful sets are lost to the big audience, but by now I know that bitching about changes doesn't work anyway And I guess it's not that big a change...

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LMC

Dec 26 2012 04:15 PM

I've had signatures turned off for quite some time now, and I can't say I've missed them. I agree with the points that Andres is making. Sure, a creative space might be lost, but there are many (in my opinion superior) alternatives anyway.

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Dirntbag

Dec 26 2012 04:41 PM

What will this mean for the 'rate the signature above you' thread?

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WestboundSign!

Dec 26 2012 04:49 PM

They always worked fine for me and I always thought this was a pretty nice feature of GDC.. Let's see.

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November's Storms

Dec 26 2012 04:53 PM

I didn't even notice. Shows how much I care about sigs and how little negative impact it will have. Great idea!

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Maria Gloria

Dec 26 2012 04:58 PM

er, why can't sigs be the default and if people are having trouble they can disable them, not the other way around? i'm pretty sure most people don't have issues with them.

I agree, why can't people just disable them if they don't like them? They're a really nice way to express yourself on here and now new members won't be aware of it. Never heard anyone other than Matt complain about them before.

Not liking this change at all as a graphic designer, but whatever.

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Andres

Dec 26 2012 05:05 PM

I don't think signatures serve a useful purpose inside a thread. Yes, people can use them to be creative and express themselves, but to me it feels like being bombarded with 30 ads on every single page. They're not relevant to what's being discussed and take up a lot of resources for something most people end up skipping by.

If we see that many users are going back and prefer sigs, we'll change the default behavior again. But if we find most people aren't bothered by it then they'll stay this way.

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Jizz

Dec 26 2012 05:09 PM

Good call. They are annoying.

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BeachBum

Dec 26 2012 05:11 PM

I haven't had then enabled for over a year and to enable them to help a user it made it so much harder to go through threads, as they overtake the content in the threads and are beyond annoying. Thinking back, it is likely why I avoided the actual forum for the first 5 and half years on GDC as I wasn't aware I could turn them off.

So there is no change to me.

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Maria Gloria

Dec 26 2012 05:17 PM

I understand that some signatures are really annoying, especially massive ones with 100 lines of lyrics or videos. Surely it'd be better to put something in place that prevents people from doing that or is that not possible? It's easy to block them if you dislike them but this might as well remove the option of having one altogether. I had individual ones blocked which is easy to do too.

Not that my opinion matters but might as well post it anyway. It seems like quite a few people aren't happy with it though.

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Harry Potter.

Dec 26 2012 05:26 PM

I'll switch back because now I can't see whenever FLO COMES BACK WITH SOMETHING NEW!

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Giov

Dec 26 2012 05:32 PM

I disabled sigs as soon as I realized I could.

When I lurked on here as a guest a few months ago, one of the first things I liked about this forum was that it looked cleaned and well organized, then when I signed in the sigs appeared and it was a bit hard to read the threads.

I think people could post their sigs, banners, shows they have been to, links to their twitter on their About Me page.

If they want to show their crativity there's the Brink of Your Vision forum, with some good threads in.

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Andres

Dec 26 2012 05:57 PM

I disabled sigs as soon as I realized I could.
When I lurked on here as a guest a few months ago, one of the first things I liked about this forum was that it looked cleaned and well organized, then when I signed in the sigs appeared and it was a bit hard to read the threads.

I think people could post their sigs, banners, shows they have been to, links to their twitter on their About Me page.

If they want to show their crativity there's the Brink of Your Vision forum, with some good threads in.

This is exactly my reasoning. There's a profile page for people to customize and let other users get an idea of your personality.

And I really knew this had to happen because it's a bit jarring to go from a guest reading a topic, to signing in and seeing random blocks of text and images all over a page.

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RevDrFunk

Dec 26 2012 05:58 PM

I used to think I was easily distracted, but sigs never distracted me, I'm finding out. They're fun little diversions every once in a while, but I've never found them a bother unless they're obnoxious, and on that end, we have guidelines for a reason. I always tried to make my signature say something about me...which hasn't worked yet, but meh, I'm an optimist and I still think it looks cool. So I'm leaving them on.

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tigress

Dec 26 2012 06:17 PM

I've had sigs turned off for years. It makes browsing the forum faster and far more enjoyable.

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Amanda

Dec 26 2012 06:24 PM

Disable usernames, we can all be numbers instead.

Seriously though, massive sigs and ones full of gifs can be annoying, but enforcing a size limit is a much more reasonable way to go.
At least have a poll or something to see what the majority of members would prefer.

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BeachBum

Dec 26 2012 06:35 PM

At least have a poll or something to see what the majority of members would prefer.

I will point what Andres has already said.

If we see that many users are going back and prefer sigs, we'll change the default behavior again. But if we find most people aren't bothered by it then they'll stay this way.