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[Suraknar]

Well, I think in the present days of Higher Speed Internet, and a Majority of people sporting DSL and Cable connections we could raise a bit the limits to reflect the modern state of the Forums here.

(I am very aware that there are still people using Dial Up, and it is not meant as a demeanor, High Speed connections are not available everywhere or resonably affordable everywhere yet either).

I would tend to say 40k as a Limit, mainly because of the Signature.

I don't think an Avatar is a problem of 10k.

But with all the new features present to us(like many wonderfull Graphics Software of later years, Animated Gifs etc etc), with all the talented people that the modding sections attract, to come in and limit their expression is not a means to invite people in this fine place.

To be honest here, I was never aware of the limits in signature files, and the Avatar I always considered part of the General Theme here and so the restrain of choice never bothered me.

But recently I have been made aware of the Limits on the Signature, and to say the least I was surprised that there was one to begin with, I mean, I can understand if someone has a 200k Signarture file and they spam all over the place it can cause some bandwidth issues specially when more people read the threads, and to say nothing of our Dial up Users.

But on the other hand, we are all so used to the "apparent" freedom the Internet does offer in late years, we are also used to be Spammed with Pop Ups (I use a blocker), and Millions of Pictures, and Animated Content in all the Ubber Dupper new and verry Commercially inclined Websites, and to feel constrained down to 10K of personnal expression in a place which is suposed to give freedom peace and quiet of the Chaotic Internet of today, is somewhat frustrating.

Don't take me wrong, I am a graphics artist, I could make a new Signature in a matter of minutes, the one I have now however was made by a 75 year old friend that learned to use a Coputer and Graphics Software all by himself, at the site it is linked to, and I am just proud for his accomplishment, and have it there in most Forums sites that I register.

If it really offends however please tell me in an official manner and I will re-evaluate to accomodate appropriatelly.

Thank you

[KukriKhan]

Appreciate your input. At 37K, your current sig would meet your suggested limit of 40K.

To meet our current standard (which I must officially request you do, for now - as we have imposed it on the entire org membership, and they have complied), you would lose the (admittedly cool) waving flag:



That image comes in under 10KB, with no appreciable loss of quality, save the flag-waving. As a graphic artist, I'm certain you can do better than I.

[Suraknar]

Well,

Yes I can do good enough I think...But,

It will no longer be the work of my friend if I changed it otherwise, and there is no point Using it in that case to render hommage to his work.

On the Other hand, I understand the rules here, and as a member of quite some time now since Shogun Total War, I have loved this place.

So for now, I will justn (reluctantly) remove it all together, untill the rules are amended and this site comes up to present-day higher speed and content Internet standards.

[KukriKhan]

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but here goes:

No animated gifs.

That's my personal opinion, but I think that they make things seem to flashy, too sugar-coated. Even if the gif is clever, or entertaining, you can only stand that "stick-figure-attacking-the-wall" gif so many times.

I guess what it boils down to is that animated gifs could allow for a lot of abuse and cheapen the forum. If they are allowed and widely used, I might turn off the avatars. But then I lose out on the other good avatars some people may have.

Just my two cents.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Suranakar there are still people using the org on dial up. I have admittedly excellent dial up that gets 52k consistently, but back before the sig rules were put in place I had long load times on many of the threads where people had huge sigs. It will be even worse if there were lax avatar rules. 10k is a good amount of room, 15k or some othe near amount is good as well, however I do not think it should be much larger. My computer would die and anybody else still trapped in the dial up age for whatever reason will suffer the same fate.

[Epistolary Richard]

As a dial-up user who struggles to get 52k myself, I whole-heartedly emphasise, however signatures are not really the matter for debate at the moment.

To Alexander the Pretty Good I agree completely - animated gifs are extremely annoying.

But with all the new features present to us(like many wonderfull Graphics Software of later years, Animated Gifs etc etc), with all the talented people that the modding sections attract, to come in and limit their expression is not a means to invite people in this fine place.

I don't really see this discussion about custom avatars as revolving around limitation of expression. A forum that has no avatars doesn't seem to limit expression, a forum that only has system avatars doesn't seem to limit expression. This forum has entire boards set aside for off-topic talk so people can do things like post pieces of artwork for others to admire.

To be honest here, I was never aware of the limits in signature files

It's this that particularly bothers me. If someone who's obviously willing to be reasonable and abide by forum rules such as Suraknar can be infringing them without realising it, then something's wrong. I know this is moving even further off-topic than before and I can start a new thread if people prefer - but even if a size-check isn't possible before signatures are uploaded, is it at least possible to put the rules for signatures on the same page as people edit their signatures?