[Cspace]

With sigs brought into the open again, I thought maybe everyone would like to discuss what they like and dislike in sigs. I'm not talking about what kinds of images they like or anything regarding image design, but the placement of images and text, marquees, dimensions, and other similar aspects.



What I Think Should Always Be Considered:

- While one is easily drawn into making a dense sig with a ton of information or quotes, the viewer should be taken into account. What will the reader of a topic want to see? He/she is there to read the topic and won't sit there reading everyone's signatures. The reader will also not want the thread bogged down by signatures, both in terms of breaking it up as well as in terms of load times. I think the best sigs are those that are short and easily identifiable, since after all a "signature" is a "signature". That is most respectful to other members, and will also focus the brief time that they would view your sig on specifically what you think is worth seeing.

- One should not abuse marquees. They are very appealing when trying to fill your sig up with as much information as possible, but will broaden your sig to the point where it does not do what it's intended to do... Identify you. Marquees are also not as likely to be read or viewed as static text or images. While vertical marquees are no longer allowed, I would recommend horizontal marquees to only be used for creative design reasons and not for information packing. Some members also consider marquees annoying and distracting, so (at least in my opinion) they should not dominate the sig.

- I think this is worth another line: Please keep others in mind when designing your sig.

- Take care when placing images in your sig. Horizontal rectangles are much better in a sig than a vertical rectangle or a square. Vacuums are bad, so don't leave a lot of unnecessary emptiness (such as with a vertical rectangle). On the other side, don't have an image that completely dominates the sig area (such as a square). Don't want to slow people down either.

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Lastly, to expand on my first and second points about sigs being to the point, find a couple different sigs. One that is dominated by marquees, and one that is static and kinda short. With the name of the user or any other identifying information removed from the text and/or images, would you naturally be able to identify who the users are who have the sigs (assuming that you don't know them really well)?

Unless you study the marquee-dominated sig, you'll probably have an easier time identifying the one that is shorter. A signature is supposed to be used for identification. Which better accomplished that goal?

[Hax the Cook]

I personally like sigs like spacey's or mine (don't mean to brag or anything XD). A single picture and a line or two of text (quotes, something funny, or something original and clever. You know what I mean).

[Dragonman]

I agree with you on all those points Cspace. For some myslef, I'd say try to get an image in your signature (of reasonable size and shape). I personally am turned off by an all text sig. Sure, I like reading some quick lines in sigs, but what grabs me first is a nice image. Just one, right at the top, is what looks nice to me.

[JGJTan]

Yeah sigs with a nice picture or quote look real good but having it nice and small works well too.

Horizontal marquees look real cool now - it's effective with your sig Draggy.

[Zoo]

Centering is nice in some cases. Like mine, since it's small, I like it better in the middle instead of a ton of space to the right of it. Others are wide enough that it looks fine either way. To me short text tends to look better centered, but only if everything else is.

[Baseballl]

I think mine would be a good example of a short sig and I actually just put the car picture in, but it is still a small sig.

[Cspace]

When it comes to a marquee, something like what Dragonman has works well. One line, one purpose, and his sig doesn't revolve around it. It's also a quote that compliments his sig.

Centering is nice in some cases. Like mine, since it's small, I like it better in the middle instead of a ton of space to the right of it. Others are wide enough that it looks fine either way. To me short text tends to look better centered, but only if everything else is.

Yeah, I'd agree with that.

[Dragonman]

Heh, thanks. I've had that marquee there since I first joined SeeD, and still have found no urge to remove it since it's kind of a nice "cut-off" for my post. Time for a color change though...

[Ratty]

Wow.... My brain tells me to quote every single post, and then put a emote under them, but my foot tells me to just say that i agree with you all like this...

Yarr, One nice looking pic, Couple lines of text, maybe a horizontal marquee, Centering looks good in most cases

Are you planning on taking out HTML completely? I'd lose my funky glowy text

I dont mind too much if you do, Not like there arent enough Hex codes for kewl colours

[Goto]

A while ago when Spacey was talking about removing HTML, he mentioned that if he did he might see if there was any other features that should be added to compensate for that. I'm not sure how feasible glowy text would be, but it might be worth looking into.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with everyone. Not a lot else that needs to be added here, I think.

[Ratty]

Lol, no worries

I got rid of the glowy text, I'll probably put it in when i feel like it.

Anywayz, (8) Whatever will be, will be (8)

[P H U O N G]

Everything you do is just fine, Its works for me, Keep up the good work by the way =D

[Cspace]

A while ago when Spacey was talking about removing HTML, he mentioned that if he did he might see if there was any other features that should be added to compensate for that. I'm not sure how feasible glowy text would be, but it might be worth looking into. 

Yeah, I pretty much agree with everyone. Not a lot else that needs to be added here, I think.

I think I'd probably be able to find some way to make glowy text without HTML. May be a little limited in customizations but I could probably write tags to make it possible.

I'm not disabling HTML quite yet though (if I ever do), but there is a chance later on when activity increases and the ability to moderate sigs becomes difficult.

[Xemem]

like ya' said cspace...a signature is a "signature".

I think it should be your stamp...your seal. should say who you are or how you view yourself. something graphicaly pleasing is nice...but sometimes it gets a little siesure inducing lol. Personaly I dont think one needs to show the viewer every web site they have ever been to and every game they have ever played...thats what homepages are for lol. maybe a buttonised sig or something that takes you to a page where you can suffer through that stuff( if you are into torture that is)

above all it should be nice enough to go any where but easy enough to duplicate any where. there is an easy way to determine if you sig is over loaded...try to print it. if you can with out your ink jet pressing charges against you for assualt you should be fine.

I personaly don't need to know who decided you should have purple eyes and be god of war, and I think those little tests are pretty dumb lol. I regard them as spam and just prey they don't ask me for personal information.

[Phieta]

I'm going to just jump on the bandwagon and agree with everyone else short and simple tends to be the best. Although, some people can still work magic with the more fancy stuff -- remember when we "discovered" glowy text and everyone started using it? Those were some of the best sigs I've seen on here, I think.