LAST EDITED ON 04-01-08 AT 05:26 PM (EST)

I can't help but notice that many siggies in use now are above the guidelines, for example: at 60K

FORGIVE ME, please, for using this as an example.

In fact, the siggie warning which admonishes us to stay within 20K is itself beyond the guidelines at 44K:

Do we need new guidelines? Can we add a Flash format to our guidelines?

Or, of course, we can stay where we're at, no worries.

 
Edited to remove Seanas' sig which I never should have singled out to pose this question, I apologize.

• RE: sig size,tribephyl, 06:33 PM, 03-27-08
• RE: sig size,Bebo, 03:01 PM, 03-28-08
• RE: sig size,AyaK, 06:29 AM, 03-30-08
  • RE: sig size,agman, 10:00 AM, 03-30-08
  • RE: sig size,tribephyl, 11:20 AM, 03-30-08
• I'm an elephant,smokeysmom, 05:30 PM, 04-01-08
  • RE: I'm an elephant,Seana, 11:35 PM, 04-03-08

I see the first sig as 35K, not 60K. Still over the maximum allowable but closer.

And as far as IC's sig-example goes, it looks 20K exactly to me.

Overall, I imagine that policing 30 thousandsuch posters with their multiple siggies is a task too daunting to dedicate time solely to it.
I do see the blue peeps warn folks who display larger pixel parameters and I personally have experiences with being told to alter siggies to lower the file size.
So the guidlines are still being upheld and enforced.

I'm not quite sure about the flash question though.
I'd ask IceCat or RollDDice, as I believe it was Ice Cat who told Rollie how to post his flash siggies.

When you see a sig that is in violation of the guidelines, alert the moderators. We don't open every single post and check every single signature - it's just not practical for volunteers. The guidelines ask posters to keep the height a maximum of 60 pixels, and most of the alerts we get are for signatures that are above that.

And the siggie warning is just that - a warning, not a sig pic itself. Therefore, it is not in violation of any guidelines. We often allow non-signature pics and graphics that are taller/bigger...otherwise, our vidcap analysis would be nonexistant.

Just like any other guideline, if you see a violation, use the alert system to notify the moderators.

LAST EDITED ON 03-30-08 AT 06:52 AM (EST)

I would expect that most of the sig files that are violators of the size guidelines were created as gifts for other people, and the creators were unaware of the guidelines. I know that's the case with the file above that was created for Seana.

Frankly, I freely admit that I'll check the height and length of pictures, but I don't think I ever remember to check their file size. I guess I'll need to start doing that.

However, I don't know where you are getting a figure of 60MB for the Seana sig above. Checking the image in Windows, I get 34MB -- still above the guidelines, but not triple-sized. And the IceCat sig, with your purported size of 44MB, is actually 19MB by my measurement. So basically, both of those figures are overstated by 25MB. How did you get those numbers, smokeysmom?

Edited to add: Based on what I've seen in the sig files, I don't see any reason to rework the guidelines -- but I've also realized that you don't need motion to go over. For example,

is 31MB.

is 27MB.

is a gutbuster at almost 57MB, although it's completely static. And even this one:

is 27MB.

I've posted this whole assortment not to embarrass the people involved but just to point out that it's obvious that we haven't been monitoring file size, due to how widepread the violations are. If anyone would like to help shrink these sig pics, I'm sure the posters to whom they belong would be grateful.

Now, if you'll excuse me, checking sig pics has made me thirsty...

LAST EDITED ON 03-30-08 AT 02:14 PM (EST)

Well, the "gutbuster" I made has visited Jenny Craig, and has dropped from a whopping 57 Mb to a trim and fit 15.2 bytes.

ETA I have also resized the siggie I made Seana

Samboohoo:

Abman:

Kimmah:

in a china shop. I am so sorry for posting Seana's sig to ask my questions about guidelines, please accept my apology.

I really was wondering how we could incorporate everyone's creativity into the guidelines now that so many of us can do animations, etc. Hoping we could add other sizes or formats.

After all my lurking, and fairly long time posting, you'd think I could be less clumsy -- but apparently, not! Sorry my friends, it won't happen again.

Thank-you for your kindness. It's a good topic, and one that clearly needed discussion. Agman has been kind enough to re-do the sig for me, so I can happily assert my geekishness without slowing things down for the dial-up crowd.

Agman made it so!