*Note: JPEG and JPG are synonymous.
- Signatures shouldn't be so tall that we have to scroll around an excessive amount to read. They also shouldn't be so wide that they stretch the screen too much. Mobile viewers can expect screens to be stretched and having to scroll up, down, left, and right all the time, but it's another thing if my 17" screen can't handle your posts just because of the signature. Below is an example of an acceptable size of a signature, though most should be a bit smaller. Using spoiler codes to shorten your signature's "visible" length while still maintaining all the actual content is advised.
- Normal, inanimate images should be in the JPEG format or at least be exceptionally small. BMP and PNG formats allow images to have some aspects and higher quality, but that usually ranges from "unnecessary" to "unnoticeable" to "no difference whatsoever because the original quality isn't that high-resolution, anyway." Very rarely is it worth five times the filesize. Notice that the image of my size example is merely 24 KB, which is nothing. It's fine if your image is a few hundred KB, but it's pretty silly to have a 12 MB image popping up ten times on a single page when it could be much more efficient.
- An exceptionally large image can be allowed if it's a JPG and is spoilered (encapsulated in a spoiler code so that it's just a small button until someone intentionally clicks on it).
- Animated images, usu. GIFs, but also Flash animations and others, should mostly be left out, but, if you insist on having one, it should be small and probably spoilered.
- There is pretty much no reason to ever use a video as a signature, but it may be allowed if it is spoilered and not so data-costly that it causes huge lag.
- Similarly, using the YoutubeAudio code to embed videos, but only show the play bars, is more practical because it's handy to have character-specific songs, but still shouldn't be used excessively. Videos that are just songs tend to be pretty data-efficient, in the first place, since they're often just audio files conjoined with a picture/slideshow of pictures, and having them in the form of small, handy-dandy play bars is nice, so it's easy to be more lax with YoutubeAudio than with just Youtube, but some moderation is in order. It is generally recommended that players keep their signature songs down to three. Four is pushing it, but they may go as high as five once in a while, maybe.
- Text, of course, uses almost no data, so using text in signatures is totally fine to no end, but signatures should still respect a length limit. Honestly, if you have to put that much content down, it should probably go in a post of its own, not your signature that's attached to every post, but, well, use your own judgement.
For the most part, I've found that people agree on these guidelines pretty accurately; I've only had to ask people to change something a couple times. What do you think, users? This is a community, so we should reach a compromise that suits our average connection speeds. Do you find that these are too restrictive, and people should just be more patient if they have slower connections, or do you find that your situation is patience-testing enough as it is, and things need to stay as they are or be cut down more?
Do you think that 5 is entirely too many YTAudio songs to put in, and 4 is already pushing it? Is 4 too many for you? Is 5 totally fine, but 6 is pushing it, to you? Tell me what you think on this and any other considerations.
Keep in mind the fact that the idea is to not only be able to easily load at least one or two pages with 15 posts (That is to say that you have 30 sigs loaded, and that's pretty bare-bones, compared to the ten pages that I may have up at any given time.), but still be able to comfortably attach files within these posts and have other things going on, too, like watching some other Youtube video and, I don't know, Facebooking or something. The idea is to be able to use Seinvocc comfortably. Signatures shouldn't obstruct that, and, as far as I know, they haven't, but I want to get the community consensus as to how to make things most comfortable.
Like I said, it seems like most people are cool with the restrictions as they are, but I want to hear your input as a community, so respond to the poll, please.
Also, if you're a reader who has not joined the site, for one, you should totally join. Ahem, getting back to why I started this sentence, you should go to the Guest Area and participate in the poll over there, 'cause you still matter, too.