Forum signature?
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I'd like to put my system specs in a signature here to make things easy, but I don't see any place to do that. Thanks.
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There's no way to do it, and such features are often abused. It has been discussed before. I insert a signature like this below, whenever it is relevant to the post. It is not relevant to most posts. Just add the signature as a note, then insert it when needed using right-click insert note.
Specs: AMD A10-6800K, 8 Gb on Win 10 64-bit • Snapshot 1.10.862.6 (64-bit)
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Ok, thanks. If it's not openly recommended, I'll skip it and do it manually when needed.
BW.
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The information how to do this was leaked yesterday quasi unintentionally. I hope they will close it down. In the meantime you can however use a signature, we have no forum rules against it.
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This post is deleted! -
I am most probably "the leaker".
BUT I don't understand why a forum signature is such a problem/bad thing.
I was a moderator of several forums for about 4 years. One had even more than million of visitors per month.
Of course, everywhere you can find some ***, but disable something just because of them is a concession to those "bad people".Also, if the forum software is good enough (and not just for effect, even someone could call them "old school"), the administrators can very easily (in about 3 clicks) set some restrictions — like limit number of lines, limit image height (or disable them completely), limit number of emoticons, etc. etc.
I think that single line of reasonable text signature doesn't bother. Also there is a lot of free sapce under each post with no usage.
Conclusion: Disabling features for fear of abuse is a whip for all of us. Do not punish ourselves, but punish those who deserve it. In case of forum signature and all other cases.
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@nfsmaniac There is none at all. A signature adds at least three lines to each post, which adds up to a lot of extra scrolling, especially in the Feature Requests thread.
Signatures can be useful to save repeating system specs, but overall I think it's best to disable them. There are workarounds.
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@Pesala I agree, however thinking about it a bit more, there is an easy solution which should satisfy everyone. Additionally to the restrictions nfsmaniac mentioned (but oh lord, pls no pictures!), it would make sense to let the user decide personally. A simple on/off switch in settings would do the trick, and should be easy enough to implement. This way you won't ever see a single signature, if you don't want to.
You can already hide them btw, if you are willing to run custom css for Vivaldi forum:
.post-signature { display: none; }
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@Pesala It depends on how the forum style is space-saving (so the style could be also one of the largest space creator you have to scroll). Also with a little modification or extension is possible to disable signatures on specific section server-side way. Everything is solvable.
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I don't think turning off sigs would help much. The purpose of the sig would be to advertise system specs. One line of text could be allowed, no images. If one turned off sigs, the specs would be hidden. Of course, choice is generally a good thing.
An alternative would be to have a specs form on the user profile, with encouragement on registration to fill it out, and then give a little more space to the left of the posts' body to display them. This shouldn't take up much vertical space, I think, and somewhat shorter line lengths in the body would, in my estimation, be a good thing.
Edit: or the specs could be in a tooltip or js popover.
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@paul1149 Agree. I think it's in reasonable borders.
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@nfsmaniac Seeing specs can help a mod help. Usually we have to ask for them.
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@paul1149 A side panel with specs like we have on the IrfanView support forums does not waste space, and the shorter line length is a good thing. However, the problem is that many users don't fill it in, and if they do, they don't update it. The same goes for a signature below the post. I update my note with each Snapshot. This way, old posts have my old signature with the Snapshot version I was using at the time, not what I am using now.
I also have a signature below every post to remind users to fill in their forum profile, but many users don't read it.
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@Ayespy Exactly the users, who need help the most, won't have their signature set -- even if it would be an option on sign-up. I have experienced this time and time again on technical forums... If you want to help someone you will end up telling them to fill out their signature, with the additional step that they might ask how to do this. Then the sig will likely be incomplete and/or have information irrelevant to the problem at hand. This won't work like you imagine.
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@Pesala said in Forum signature?:
the problem is that many users don't fill it in, and if they do, they don't update it
Yes, this is a problem. I personally try to make sure my specs are good at least before I post for help. There could be a reminder on the New Thread composition page, or even a form there.
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@luetage I know few might use it, and fewer still use it right - and the most needy will be least likely to have it. Still, every little bit...
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Let me add my 0.5 pence here: I think that as long as the feature exists, it can just be used. I just don't like this approach of hiding the options instead of configuring the software in such a way that it does not allow for it.
If the moderators or admins should come to the conclusion that signatures are not bearable, they should just disable them. No need for such a big discussion.And apart from this: I think that the user CSS approach is much nicer than people adding some lines to their post because they think that "for this post people might be interested in my setup", but then really NOT giving people the chance to filter for that. I'm especially referring to this post here.
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I had a really long one on My Opera. I thought it was useful as it had lots of links to answer FAQ, and even a link to edit your signature to enter your specs, but YMMV regarding such long signatures.
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@Ayespy @paul1149 HW specs are harder to get but purely browser version and OS can be optionally obtained from the browser automatically and included to the post without user interaction. NodeBB already "track" users on
user/username/info
page. This is not necessary to be publicly available but for moderators it could be nice improvement (=usage of data that are already logged somewhere). -
@Pesala I remember that one.
// I believe that a limit for lines and a limit for characters should be sufficient, though