Early Parole...Yes or No

[sparky3008]

Sparky3008...I love your lead in & the way you let it hang out there B) ...just gotta love that smooth & discreet style B) le

Just pushing the edge

 

[Scab]

I must add - I feel that my punishment has somewhat led to this whole appeal thing. However, it should be know that my crime was not offending the keepers of the house, but was poor usage of the forum. SkooterG, being an admin, of course is well within his rights to do what he did. BUT, it should probably be known that even when it was initially done, he PM'd me and explained things. It was all in GOOD FUN. He told me that I could change it any time I chose, but ASKED that I leave it up for awhile. His intent, the way I understood it, was to promote better usage of the forum. PERIOD. So, we played it for all it was worth. I was in no hurry anyway, I had no other avatar of preference at the time.

Again, it played out the way it did because of MUTUAL RESPECT. We were just willing partners trying to promote better forum ettiquete (if that is how you spell it).

It should also be known that I speak not for SkooterG. He can do that well enough himself.

 

[twowheelnut]

Uh-oh... Iggy and Skooter are in da house! Double secret probation coming up!

 

[Ignacio]

As one admin I'm not undoing it unless I see motorgod do something extra beneficial for the community. Even if one ignores this stunt thread--I haven't seen some other act that's notable in helping.

For one, I think we should get rid of pictures in sig lines altogether. They're distracting even if they're not animated. I already see it proliferating where people want more than their avatar and are slipping them in sigs.

 

[Toecutter]

As one admin I'm not undoing it unless I see motorgod do something extra beneficial for the community.  Even if one ignores this stunt thread--I haven't seen some other act that's notable in helping.

Let the admins admin. If you don't like the way you're treated, either put on your big boy undies and get over it or find another place to hang. JMHO

For one, I think we should get rid of pictures in sig lines altogether.  They're distracting even if they're not animated.  I already see it proliferating where people want more than their avatar and are slipping them in sigs.

The new personal photo feature is the place for that, IMO

 

[sparky3008]

As one admin I'm not undoing it unless I see motorgod do something extra beneficial for the community.  Even if one ignores this stunt thread--I haven't seen some other act that's notable in helping.

Let the admins admin. If you don't like the way you're treated, either put on your big boy undies and get over it or find another place to hang. JMHO

For one, I think we should get rid of pictures in sig lines altogether.  They're distracting even if they're not animated.  I already see it proliferating where people want more than their avatar and are slipping them in sigs.

The new personal photo feature is the place for that, IMO

Well, now that toecutter has spoken :huh:

 

[Bounce]

I gotta toss my hat in with those who like to keep the sig blocks simple and text only. An occasional image that helps a post is one thing but putting a graphic into a sig gets old fast. And, in the end the forum gets SLOW. Anyone who's wandered through some of those forums know what I'm talking about. Everyone posting with photos and graphics and animations to every message they post. It eats up more bandwidth with each sig than the entire thread's text from all contributors.

That's the main reason why Joos totally stopped all graphic sig blocks.

 

[bikepoor]

I am on High-Speed so I don't have any problems. I can certainly see though on Dial-Up it would be a pain with the animations and graphics.

 

[bikepoor]

There, I just went simple (no avatar). It is really all about the bike anyway. I am just grateful this site is around.

 

[Warchild]

Everyone posting with photos and graphics and animations to every message they post. It eats up more bandwidth with each sig than the entire thread's text from all contributors.
That's the main reason why Joos totally stopped all graphic sig blocks.

And it's also the reason why we are looking at implementing the exact same thing here.

 

[toophast]

Never thought of it from a dial up perspective...POOF! mine be gone : )

 

[slapnpop]

Please everyone keep in mind the difference between AVATAR and SIGNATURE LINE.

 

[toophast]

Please everyone keep in mind the difference between AVATAR and SIGNATURE LINE.

The avatar doesn't do the same thing to the dial up folks as the sig. line??

Seriously, I don't know...

Toophast

 

[bikepoor]

Yea, me either. Dosn't a GIF or JPEG or whatever slow things down?

Just trying to do my part oh mighty Gods of the forum.

 

[slapnpop]

Bandwidth wise, it doesn't matter. You can right click on the image, and go to properties to find out the file size. My Avatar size is 4kb. Toophast's little man running around the box is a little over 5kb. The Brittany animation is 497kb. That's a 100x difference is download time for two different avatars. Animations are larger than still images, and have more impact on download time, but the main factor is file size.

Images in a signature line are more of a style and design question than a load time question. It's distracting to have large images breaking up the text of posts. The avatar is off to the side, so the flow isn't disrupted as much.

Damn, I didn't think this thread would de-volve into a fung-shui conversation.

 

[Ignacio]

I concur that some sigs detract from being able to scan and read posts. As we get larger and have more users--there are more postings to go through. A second here and there adds up.

Since I enabled user personal photos--I think that's a better place to put the vanity stuff anyway. If people are interested in particular users they can make that easy choice to click on their name and see whatever the heck is under there. It gives users the option.

The download thing certainly hits all of us the first time we view a page and image--dial-up users worst of all. Then it's possible images are cached and then only slowed down by the user's computer and/or graphics processor. Still a 500KB file is impacting the user experience either a little or a lot.

I think we should go with text only sig lines made with the default font size.

 

[slapnpop]

Ok, to better explain what I'm talking about.

I ran THIS THREAD after my last post through a bandwidth analyzer. Basically it tells you what items on the page are the largest, in order of size. The following are the results:

Just going on file size, Motorgod's, Rouge's, Sparky's, and Scab's avatars are all larger than the page itself. Rouge, Sparky, and Motorgod are all calling a larger image file to be displayed a lower resolution as well, which makes the file needlessly large. Rouge and Sparky could probably cut 75% of the filesize and still have the image display exactly the same.

If anyone wants help with your images to make them as small as possible, let me know. I'll be happy to help optimize.

Also, anything larger than 50k will not upload to the server, and is being hosted offsite. It doesn't add to the bandwidth we pay for hosting, but it does add to download time.

This thread is listed to take 181 seconds at full 56k modem, which is 3 minutes for this one page!!!

 

[Ignacio]

Ditto on offering to help optimize avatars and images (even personal photos). I got my avatar to 5K very easily. My sig line is about 0.1K of text.

 

[motorgod]

Ok, to better explain what I'm talking about.
I ran THIS THREAD after my last post through a bandwidth analyzer.  Basically it tells you what items on the page are the largest, in order of size.  The following are the results:

Just going on file size, Motorgod's, Rouge's, Sparky's, and Scab's avatars are all larger than the page itself.  Rouge, Sparky, and Motorgod are all calling a larger image file to be displayed a lower resolution as well, which makes the file needlessly large.  Rouge and Sparky could probably cut 75% of the filesize and still have the image display exactly the same.

If anyone wants help with your images to make them as small as possible, let me know. I'll be happy to help optimize.

Also, anything larger than 50k will not upload to the server, and is being hosted offsite.  It doesn't add to the bandwidth we pay for hosting, but it does add to download time.

This thread is listed to take 181 seconds at full 56k modem, which is 3 minutes for this one page!!!

[SIZE=21pt]I'M #1 I'M #1 I'M#1.....HAHAHAHA[/SIZE]

 

[motorgod]

Are we getting happy, happy, joy, joy?