- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Although I see the problems with signatures on forums, but all in all they really arent that significant. I have never been to a forum where rude, racist, or exposing material was present in a signature. Even if it was there, banning the member would be an easy task. Its no different than a false link in someones signature to a pornographic and vile nature website. I would at least think that we could post images within our own topics, making the need to hotlink less prevelant and making it easier for users to preview the images, be it fan-art or whatever.
Signature images are also a great way to get a much more diverse community, IMO. They allow a sense of individuality, where these set forum avatars make it very difficult. I realise the precautions your taking, becuase Halo2sucks.com has the same fears, which are definately IMO misplaced and exaggerated. There are forums with hundreds of thousands of members just like Bungie.net that allow signature images as well as custom avatars (Artisticgfx.com, Neowin.net, etc.) There are virtually no problems with vulgar material on those forums because it is filtered out after a certian amount of time.
Sure, there may be a few people who try it the first couple months, but after a while they will get tired of the trick and just stop trying. That is how it is with any form of expression, be it text, video, or image. The ability to express yourself in image can sometimes be more effective than just a phrase or motto. "A picture is a thousand words" as some would say, especially if it is a depiction of your artistic style and talent.
Should we ban signature text becuase we can link to offensive content? Or becuase we can make images of inappropriate things with the text? No, becuase that would destroy near all sense of individuality on these forums. This is the same phylosophy you should view a signature image as. Sure, people may be idiots and post outside the rules, there is always some rule to be broken. But that shouldnt stop you from serving your members the right to express themselves in more than just text.
Posted by: Recon Number 54
Posted by: A Zebra
Why can't we have pictures in sigs? Other forums do, and it is fun to see who can make the best signature, and it also just lets you have some freedom to express yourself.
You are free to express yourself. Within certain limits.
These are discussion forums, discussions that take place in text. It is the medium of expression that is preferred here. What you say and do is far more important (and telling) than a graphic inserted after every post.
Smaller, less populated forums, or ones with less restrictive Terms of Use (or more mature members, either one) support and allow such sigs. To me, they are clutter, visual noise that distracts from what I am really there to do. To see what others say and to say what I think. In text.
If someone wants to "stand out" here, they only need to express themselves using their own words and actions. After all, that is what we have to go on here.
More than anything? I think that it is another difference that sets this site apart from many others. The clean consistency of the forum layout and the lack of pictures of people's 'nads.
[Edited on 12/13/2006]