There have been a few issues with our rules regarding signature size recently. The limit has pretty much always been 8 lines of text, but we've also said 140 pixels before. The problem is that 8 lines of text isn't really 140 pixels, so we were enforcing two different sizes. This combined with the fact that many users have oversized signatures means we need a bit of an update, one that most users will hopefully find fair.
Thus, effective Saturday, we will be implementing a few changes. The signature size limit will remain at 8 lines, or roughly 125 pixels. This includes any text and images combined you may have in your signature. There is no limit to width [EDIT: not true anymore, width is limited to 550 pixels], but bear in mind that some users will be using lower resolutions and your signature will appear differently to them. The only other requirement is that you keep the filesizes of your images down to a reasonable filesize; if it slows down page loading for other users we may remove it or lock your signature. This is mainly an issue for those with long animated GIFs.
Now, in order to enforce this, we will be adding an automatic cut off to signatures. Any signatures that are too long will be clipped in a user's web browser. We've tested the code behind this in several browsers, and it should work well with IE 5+, Mozilla/Firefox, Opera, Safari, and most other browsers that support max-height in the CSS 2 standard. Hopefully we can have a test set up so you can see if the clipping script will work for you.
Please note that these changes will result in the removal of all signature size warnings in the future, as these rules will effectively enforce themselves. Any warnings received until the change are still valid though, so no, we won't be removing those. Also note that if you still abuse your signature (mainly if the filesize is too big) you may have your signature locked, and possibly changed to something slightly embarrassing in the meantime.
Questions and comments are welcome.
Thus, effective Saturday, we will be implementing a few changes. The signature size limit will remain at 8 lines, or roughly 125 pixels. This includes any text and images combined you may have in your signature. There is no limit to width [EDIT: not true anymore, width is limited to 550 pixels], but bear in mind that some users will be using lower resolutions and your signature will appear differently to them. The only other requirement is that you keep the filesizes of your images down to a reasonable filesize; if it slows down page loading for other users we may remove it or lock your signature. This is mainly an issue for those with long animated GIFs.
Now, in order to enforce this, we will be adding an automatic cut off to signatures. Any signatures that are too long will be clipped in a user's web browser. We've tested the code behind this in several browsers, and it should work well with IE 5+, Mozilla/Firefox, Opera, Safari, and most other browsers that support max-height in the CSS 2 standard. Hopefully we can have a test set up so you can see if the clipping script will work for you.
Please note that these changes will result in the removal of all signature size warnings in the future, as these rules will effectively enforce themselves. Any warnings received until the change are still valid though, so no, we won't be removing those. Also note that if you still abuse your signature (mainly if the filesize is too big) you may have your signature locked, and possibly changed to something slightly embarrassing in the meantime.
Questions and comments are welcome.
