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Re^4: Distribution of Levels and Writeups (sig)

by diotalevi (Canon)
on Sep 29, 2004 at 23:48 UTC ( [id://395180]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Re^3: Distribution of Levels and Writeups (sig)
in thread Distribution of Levels and Writeups

I don't. I'm not convinced there should even *be* a signature feature here.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^5: Distribution of Levels and Writeups (sig)
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Sep 29, 2004 at 23:57 UTC

    Why?

    Update: How does asking for an explanation warrent a downvote?

    My conclusion: The downvoter cannot justify their expressed opinions, so they relieve their frustrations by hitting the --.

    Ah well, plenty more where they came from:)


    Examine what is said, not who speaks.
    "Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
    "Think for yourself!" - Abigail
    "Memory, processor, disk in that order on the hardware side. Algorithm, algorithm, algorithm on the code side." - tachyon

      There's nothing useful about having a "paste my favorite quote onto all of my posts" feature. Its a vanity feature. I wouldn't say that vanity features are a bad thing or that in PM's case we've gone over. I would say that it gets annoying to read the same damn quotes all the time. Or quotes, period. That's what homenodes can be used for. This isn't a well reasoned argument - I find signatures to be a vanity feature I would prefer that no one used.

      As for being functional, I've found that people's signatures make searching for nodes difficult since sometimes the search matches the content of the signature. When this occurs, it is highly annoying. It has prevented me from searching for some things because I was overwhelmed by the number of nodes that matched because of the signature. I don't recall if I ever completed my search or not or whether I just gave up.

      Anyhow, because I wanted to be fair about things I pulled the signatures currently in use on perlmonk's recent nodes. It works out that use of signatures for everything above 100 characters was 69% quotes, 15% vanity tags, 12% quality disclaimers, and then 1% licenses and useful stuff. The smaller signatures were nearly always salutations. I would draw from this that the sweet spot seems to be signatures at or around twenty to forty characters.

      I'm not going to post any root level nodes wringing my hands about this and I'm not going to be serious about bugging people with useless signatures. It isn't worth the disruption to PM. I just want to note this once that I really do wish that you and the other people who are misusing this feature would please, quit it. Or at least nix all the vanity tag and quote stuff. At least the disclaimers and license stuff is at least useful.

        Of course, if the sig feature was done right, it would be a separate entity in the DB, only be stored once, and not become a part of every node.

        Then the css hack that allows people to not see other peoples sigs (why don't those that don't want to see them use this?), wouldn't be necessary, as sigs could be turned off as an option, then they wouldn't even consume bandwidth.

        That said, I think that physiologically, it probably takes something like 1/10th of a second for the human visual cortex and brain to pattern match a recurrent sig. to it's memory.

        Just as I never bother to read the monk's quip's any more (or for the last 2 3/4 years) because there is nothing new there. When the little witisisms at the top of the Other Users nodelet changed recently, my brain noticed and for a few days took in the new information. Now, I once again don't notice them.

        The only time an unchanging visual (or oral) cue continues to grab my attention beyond the initial recognition period, is when it takes on a phsycological significance beyond it's content. For example, there are often tiny notes on the bottom of both print and TV ads for financial services "*Subject to status"; These bug the begeebers out of me because they invariably mean that the advert in question has just extold their virtue with words akin to "Faster, cheaper, simpler; Anyone can apply". The footnote often as not make the main content a lie.

        Perhaps that's the secret behind some people's distaste for some people's sigs. They don't like the content and therefore blame the messenger? But that's life. People hold contrary opinions; value different things; prioritise in different ways. Allowing oneself to be bugged by others preferences and foibles is human, but ultimately, a waste of effort.


        Examine what is said, not who speaks.
        "Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
        "Think for yourself!" - Abigail
        "Memory, processor, disk in that order on the hardware side. Algorithm, algorithm, algorithm on the code side." - tachyon

        Of course the signature of mine that you showed there also contains a template that i use for updates, and most of it is markup anyway. Just counting the chars is a bit meaningless isnt it? Surely you should remove the markup first?

        ---
        alter ego of demerphq

      I ++'d. To paraphrase a dead old lady: the only evil thought is the refusal to think.

      I'll take a bite at why I think they're less than useful.

      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.
      I like Fossas and you should too.

      Conceptualizing the point:

      for ( 1 .. 1_819 ) { show_same_sig(); }
      Repetitive filler that would be consistently downvoted as anything else; like an OT SOPW that was 10 lines long without a point and then got posted again. And again. And...

      I don't have a personal preference (they're easy to ignore and some vanity features are nice for the personality they convey) but the site already offers a user page without any real content or size restrictions. Personal statements, preferences, loves, philosophies, especially those that haven't changed in a year, or two, might sit better there.

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