Signatures in the Playing the Game forum Part: 2 (PbP players please read)

[James Heard]

I'm just going to chime in and say I'd really rather the sigs stayed - not that my own is incredibly valuable but not being able to look at the GM's sig and direct link to important threads is a pain in the behind. Plus, unless you're actively looking for a sig does anyone ever really see them anyways? It's more like pattern for me, something to gloss over like banner ads.

If someone figures out a way to toss a popup out of their sig then I say we all beat the crap out of them, but I just don't see sigs as being this awesomely awful problem.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

I'm just going to chime in and say I'd really rather the sigs stayed - not that my own is incredibly valuable but not being able to look at the GM's sig and direct link to important threads is a pain in the behind.

Every signature is located in a user’s profile so instead of browsing up looking for that users first post on that page, theirs only one signature a page now anyhow, or even going to the first post on the first page, you can view them and their links via the profile. Easy enough I imagine.

Plus, unless you're actively looking for a sig does anyone ever really see them anyways? It's more like pattern for me, something to gloss over like banner ads.

I see them, but if you want to compare them to banner ads do you want banners in-between the first post of every page in an thread IC?

If someone figures out a way to toss a popup out of their sig then I say we all beat the crap out of them, but I just don't see sigs as being this awesomely awful problem.

Its very possible, at least with HTML turned on, but its not turned on.

Anyhow, no change, I'll have them turned off on Monday and we can test it without them.

 

[James Heard]

Every signature is located in a user’s profile so instead of browsing up looking for that users first post on that page, theirs only one signature a page now anyhow, or even going to the first post on the first page, you can view them and their links via the profile. Easy enough I imagine.

Maybe you could link me to the lengthy threads of people complaining about them though? I just haven't seen any PbP sigs that were so off-putting that I see that it's a problem maybe? Is there someone specific whose signature is so distracting outside of the sig virus? Maybe the answer is just telling users of the PbP forums to show some restraint in their sigs, rather than making a blanket decision to moderate them out of existence based on some weird interpretation of poll results ("Less than half of the people want them removed, but some people don't care - that means I should go ahead with testing their removal!") I'm really not trying to be snippy, but that's crazy. A 2-1-1 result isn't the same as a 2-2 result, especially since a status quo interpretation could argue that the results are more likely to actually (assuming that "I don't care" results are assignable) to be 3-1

I'm just saying, maybe this is something you want really badly, but isn't an issue for the rest of the forums as much - and maybe because of that you're projecting your wishes against the numbers. Especially seeing as how this is the second poll that's still not meshing with the "we should turn sigs off!"

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Is there someone specific whose signature is so distracting outside of the sig virus?

I have no desire, nor will I email everyone on this forum who I think his or her signature is to big or is out of place for IC posts. (Yours would be on the list though as would any signature over three lines of text, is simply witty, or is contained in an sblock.)

Okay, if you want to talk about statistics how many people play PbP gaming? (Hundreds) How many have objected to a test run of a mouth. (One, cause you’re right, most don't really care, and/or are willing to see from the other side for a month.)

Edit: Also James, the people of this forum know I go out of my way to make sure everyone has the best possible chance at fun. My desires are always in the right place and, well, it’s a month. Its not that long of a wait. Is it?

 

[James Heard]

And now I think you're getting unreasonably defensive, for no apparent reason other than someone is disagreeing with your notion? I repeat, I think you're too close to this.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

And I don’t think you’re giving the other way an honest try. Honestly, I’ve got ten thousands post on these forum 70-80 % of them in the PbP forums… These forums mean more to me than probably anyone else on ENworld. So trust me, I’m not out to harm them, okay?

 

[James Heard]

I'm not suggesting you're trying to "harm the forums" somehow. I'm saying that your experience as someone who posts so extravagantly more than 90+% of ENWorld makes your anecdotal contentions of "better" and "worse" a lot different than the average user, which might be underrepresented in the tiny percentage of poll returns you got - but they were represented...twice.

Frankly though, I admit that it just bugs the hell of me when someone pushes something as an apparently democratic process and then proceeds to acts as if the results weren't good enough because they disagree with their notions. Maybe that's not what you intended to do, but it really does sort of stink of "We're all making this decision, but in the end what I want is what goes because I know better than you all."

Anyways, as you've made it abundantly clear, you're going to do what you want. I'm not a mod, don't really care enough to argue about it anymore, and I'm not so invested in your ideas that I want to go to the trouble of doing anymore. I just wanted to give you a heads up on what I see as maybe being an ego check - good for us all or not, if there wasn't going to be any real result for polling you should have made that clearer from the onset so everyone would know not to vote at all. Heck, maybe that's what happened - since there was already a poll before, right? I'm not impugning your authority, I'm saying that presenting it as a democratic process when in fact it was an autocratic one doesn't sit well.

Anyways, I'm going to bed and hope this stupid hurricane doesn't drop a tree on the house. Have fun, and good gaming!

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Anyways, I'm going to bed and hope this stupid hurricane doesn't drop a tree on the house. Have fun, and good gaming!

Good luck. (To you and the trees)