Signature Lines 13

[XR250]

@Dik and others who have signature lines...

For me, it makes it annoying to follow posts sometimes - especially when the responses are short as I incorporate the sentence into the response I am reading. Are these really necessary?

See the attached thread...

Anyhow, maybe I am just easily annoyed

 

[hokie66]

No, I am suggesting no such thing. Opting out would be opting completely OUT.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Please reread what you wrote. I'm not sure that it's really clear as to what you're trying to say.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[hokie66]

I'll try to be clear. Option #5 would allow a member to opt out of seeing ALL signatures, regardless of the reason for doing so.

 

[hokie66]

There is already a site limit of 4 lines to signatures, but that limit is obviously not enforced.

 

[waross]

KootK;
When you enter a reply, you will see, in the toolbar above;
B, I, U, S, X[sup]2[/sup], X[sub]2[/sub]
These may be used on highlighted text to
Bold
Italicize
Underline
Strikethrough
Show as [sup]Super Text[/sup]
Show as [sub]Sub Text[/sub]

--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!

 

[ggcdn]

I like signatures. Personally don't find them distracting at all, and I've enjoyed seeing what others are working on, as well as getting some feedback on what I'm working on. I did cave to the pressure and reduce my number of lines and words. I also think its important for company reps to be able to state that like John's case.

If user experience upgrades are on the table then a proper tagging / @ / quoting system so you actually know you've been tagged/quoted would be nice too.

-JA ([link calcs.app]Calcs.app[/url])

 

[Just Some Nerd]

Option 5 would be a site-wide toggle based on the user's account preferences, no need to add additional complexity checking every time you load a page whether to display them, I imagine that's not too substantially different to any other check before displaying something (e.g. is a post edited, how many stars, etc).

If Option 5 is not an option whatsoever, then size/formatting restrictions on the signatures to keep them discrete or very obviously signatures so they can be skipped over naturally also seems the easy to do.

One potential annoyance I see is that if signatures are given their own little <div> for signatures rather that what seems to be text in every post (given edits seem to kill them) then displaying a signature on an older post will lead to some annoying doubling up without hiding all the existing sigs

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Why yes, I do in fact have no idea what I'm talking about

 

[NorthCivil]

I clicked on this thread thinking it was going to be something highly theoretical/technical that i had yet to hear of...

i was reminded of the old method of solving for indeterminate beams back in school using "influence lines" ...

 

[XR250]

The irony of this thread is that we have to see everyone's signature line as they comment - LOL

 

[skeletron]

Perhaps signatures could be available after ## thread responses or ## days active. I've been involved with message boards where an established user is granted certain features, which helps prevent single users popping up for the sole purpose of self-promotion.

Sincerely,
Mr. No Skin in the Signature Game

 

[KootK]

...and maybe even to affirm the idea that my wrong opinion is respected enough to try changing it

I see what you did there. Naively, I thought that signature might make me less frustrating for people to deal with when I come in a little hot. No. Such. Luck.

In the spirit of this thread, I've decided to rock a new, temporary signature formatted appropriately. You can all enjoy being forced to view it 75 times a day for who knows how long.

Complain and I'll adjust it to be vaguely offensive to minorities and people of faith.

[sub]That's a horrible idea. What time?[/sub]

 

[Just Some Nerd]

Skeletron, I'll be somewhat disappointed if you don't make that your permanent signature now, if only because it would be very amusing.

That being said, I'm not sure how meaningful a difference it might make imposing that sort of restriction, particularly because this typically isn't a very fast moving forum - usually see them in the context where moderation is impractical to not impose some automated barriers due to large community size. I also imagine they'd be easily circumvented by putting information in posts themselves, but I wouldn't want to create a situation where a new user makes an account only to find out they can't ask a question yet.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Why yes, I do in fact have no idea what I'm talking about

 

[dauwerda]

I see what you did there. Naively, I thought that signature might make me less frustrating for people to deal with when I come in a little hot. No. Such. Luck.

For what it's worth, I actually really liked that line, I felt like it did do that - but I of course have typically been an innocent bystander quietly gleaning all the information I can while some other poor soul dons the boxing gloves.

 

[KootK]

When you enter a reply, you will see, in the toolbar above.

While I appreciate the tip, I'm afraid that I don't understand why you chose to share it. I often apply formatting to my replies and consider myself to be fairly adept at it. Can you elaborate?

[sub]That's a horrible idea. What time?[/sub]

 

[KootK]

For what it's worth, I actually really liked that line, I felt like it did do that...

Sweet. Koot the Confrontor rides again!!

[sub]I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.[/sub]

 

[Just Some Nerd]

Koot, are you about to starting giving baptisms by fire to newcomers? You seem in a zealous mood today

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Why yes, I do in fact have no idea what I'm talking about

 

[KootK]

Koot the Confrontor... Ed the Confessor... Threatening to offend people of faith... was that too much of a reach to be effective humor?

I'm currently "watching" a weekly 2HR live webinar at 9pm that's boring the heck out of me, per usual. A PhD does not an engaging presentation make...

[sub]I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.[/sub]

 

[jerseyshore]

Nearly every other online forum has a nice enough format to show username, date posted, location, date joined, signature etc. In a little box on the top or left side of the comment. Well defined and separated from the text of the post. And most usually have a spot for a profile pic.
You can choose to put as much or as little info on there as you want.

Because I agree 100% with the OP, signatures get messy in these threads and annoying with the current format. I had no idea there were even profiles on here, but it's nice to get a little info about each person, even if it's just their state/country (which is really handy sometimes).

 

[JohnRBaker]

Speaking of how other message boards handle the 'signature' issue this is what it looks like at the 'Ugly Hedgehog Photography Forum':

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[dold]

I'm all for #5. As Just Some Nerd mentioned, the signature is a separate part of the html code from the body (and the other parts of each post). So, I'd assume (I have no html experience) there's an easy enough way to just hide that division or class or element or whatever via a toggle in your user profile.

But if the eng-tips back of house isn't responsive to any of this discussion then maybe we can convince one of the more savvy programmers in here to cobble together a browser extension?

Since we're all here griping and bickering, I guess I'll take this moment to vent about *some* members (not just you HTURKAK) who take more than their fair share of real estate in threads. I suppose there's not much that can be done about this though. Here's one particularly egregious example:

Like...did we just have a stroke and fall onto the return key???