Ok folks, to try and reduce load times and server queries (which in turn take up processing power, which in turn make the WHOLE server slower) I'm setting the following guidelines for avatars and signatures. These ARE rules. Please keep to them as I don't want to be going around editing everyones profiles - and if I notice people change back their sigs, I'll give them a strike.

Anyway...

1. Avatar pics MUST only be 65x65 pixels big and the types of files that can be uploaded are GIF, JPEG, JPG and PNG. If they are animated, they can only be minor and below 30kb in size.
2. Sig's can only be 450w x 300h pixels in size...this includes TEXT and PICTURES. For text, thats about 8 lines max. Max file size 110kb, this doesn't leave much for animation.

TUTORIAL - How can I tell if my signature is within the posted limitations?

1. Make sure your post with your signature is visible in the browser and press the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard. This copies the entire screen into memory.
2. Open "Paint" under Start, All Programs, Accessories and click Edit, Paste.
3. Click Image, Attributes. Set Width and Height to 1 and click OK. This makes the initial image very small (lets paste image show only the image pasted)
4. With the "Select" tool highlighted (selected by default), arrange the image editor where you can see the entire signature area.
5. Press ESC to de-select the image if it is already selected.
6. Click the top-left corner of your sig and drag the selection to the bottom-right corner of your sig which should include all text and images.
7. Click Edit, Copy
8. Click File, New
9. Click Edit, Paste
10. Click Image, Attributes. The Width and Height of your signature is displayed. Compare these numbers to the rules.

TUTORIAL - How can I add images to my signature?

1. Upload your image somewhere such as Photobucket.com and copy the direct URL into memory (highlight and press CTRL + C)
2. Edit your signature and past the URL inside IMG tags. Example:
   CODE
   [img]http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee11/Conan_Lon/Oblivion/LHammonds_Profile_Photo_Large.jpg[/img]

Why such harsh legnth-limits on sigs? I can understand for height to prevent spamming, but 450 width isn't very close to layout-breaking at all... And why text width-restrictions as well?

It screws up the forum display, moving some options that you will never see off of the screen.

These options are quite important to those who manage and moderate the site. I have seen signatures so wide, that I have had to change my monitor resolution, and view size down to the point where the characters become obscured to the point of being unrecognizable, hit the wrong button and bad things can happen.

It is not limited to signatures either, holding down a key and just letting it go on will do the same thing, this may call for deleting the post/thread or worse.

Would it be possible to make a size limit for the signatures like the avatar and personal photo size limits? Mostly, I've been viewing the boards as "Logged Off" because of this, that way no pictures on the posts or signatures show

Well if you use firefox, go to tools/options/content and uncheck the box for load images automatically.

I use that option on some other sites that have like issues with overssize images messing up the forum display there.

Here is a pic of why the right side is so important.

http://tesnexus.com/imageshare/image.php?id=14506


do you see a difference between what I see and what you see.

I hope mine's ok now

Well, you should have to guess. The 1st post states it needs to be no larger than 450 x 300.

Here is a screencapture of your sig area (image+text) and the dimension size is 342 x 248
Click to view attachment

Here is what your sig looks like inside a 450 x 300 template (which shows you how much room you have inside the limits:
Click to view attachment

I think I will add a template image to the 1st post to provide a visual example to the maximum size.

EDIT 11/17/2008: Thread cleaned up with remaining posts clarifying the rules. Tutorials based on commonly asked questions added to first posting.

LHammonds