Factorio Forums

I hate rules. Really. But sometimes they are needed and I think this is such a point, cause when it costs too much time to ask for behaviour, which is in the eyes of the most common norm.

Till now I personally asked those, who had big banners in their signature via PM, if they could reduce it.

The process tooks some time for me, cause sometimes I need to discuss or repeat the question. But I did it, cause it was not much.

So long story short: I don't like to ask them any longer. The problem will stay and with more new users we get more, which like to make ads. In my opinion it's a waste of time, to discuss about it and cause it will continuously repeat. (No offence to those, who think I mean them!)

And because I remembered how it is handled in many other forums and they have rules for such things.

We already had discussions about rules, there was a kind of consensus, but I want to spare discussions about general rules here out, should be made separated, please!

I want only discuss about the banner size.

My suggestion is:


* A signature in this forum (not the banner, the whole signature!) should not be bigger as 600 x 100 pixels. (With normal font)
* URLs in the sig (including the banner) can link to non-commercial websites or sites/pages, which are mainly about Factorio


I don't want to use a ruler, but more or less this size makes sense. More is in my eyes annoying....

The rule comes goes to a "forum rules" thread and we can expand it from time to time if needed (of course not only about banner sizes).

Well, big thumbs up. Even 50px height can be very annoying, if a person writes multiple times in a thread and the signature consists of screaming colours ^^.

I disagree with the links one. That should be manual moderator work as always, depending on the link. Rarely will the mod have to step in, and they shouldnt ask, just snip out the signature and leave a note.


But I have and always agreed with too large of a signature, but I have yet to see anyone with a really tall signature.
Edit: and text wraps, a long sentence on a small monitor or browser window will use multiple lines. Most people use 1920x1080 now so I dont think it is much of a problem but you will the the occasional small monitor people.

I must admit I hate big signatures. Most of the time, they have no functional purpose apart being somewhat decorative.
Most of the time, there is not even need of a signature : every post has the poster on the side.

What I consider useful as a signature is a link to a FAQ, hints&tips, ... within the forum, or eventually a link to a factorio dedicated website.

If I was asked what should be a rule for sigs :
- No more that 2 text lines that don't wrap on a 720p screen
- No images
- Maximum one internal link and maximum one external link

It's much easier to enforce it with CSS.

You can't specify a maximum of XY pixel if you include text. Different font size, browser size, accessing the forum from a mobile telephone.. All this changes the pixel amount of the same text. "Normal font" is too variable. We can specify a max height for a banner, that would be possible. We can say "if you have lines of text, than you can't use such a large banner.".

I fully disagree with the "links only to non-commercial, Factorio-related sites". Let the people link, but I agree that we should bann missleading links like "Sweet kitten pictures for free!" if it links to a commercial, non-kitty related site. I like cats.

Nova wrote:You can't specify a maximum of XY pixel if you include text. Different font size, browser size, accessing the forum from a mobile telephone.. All this changes the pixel amount of the same text.

With CSS you can. If anything causes it to grow over 100px, it gets cut off.

Yeah, I did read your post, but it has the disadvantage of rendering scroll bars. That should be avoided, if possible.

The only measure here I would support, is limiting signatures to at most a single image, with a max size of somewhere around 150 by 800.
I've been on forums that had this integrated into the control panel itself, so no moderation was needed.

All other issues here are somewhere between pointless bitching, and borderline censorship.
There's an option to turn off signatures. People you've added to the Foe/Enemy list are hidden unless manually shown. Learn to use these options instead of wishing your will on the whole community.

Ok, I try to answer to some posts. No order.

CSS is not an option. And another reason: We (forum users) cannot make this change. It is an unneeded hurdle, if change is needed.

I have chosen 600x100 as suggested size, cause it will work even on really small monitors and it is already some kind of agreement I handled out with the "banner problem users".

It might be bigger. I mean I have no problem if someone makes it bigger. My problem begins, when a post takes more space than other equivalent posts. Rule of thumb: if someone writes only one line in a post, then the resulting post should have about the same height as the right box (avatar, user info, status...). So it is easy to see, if it is too long. Maybe a good idea, if some measure that size on different platforms?

I know of course, there are different font sizes on different platforms. I think the user-box rule is easier to understand?

Links make sense. They are useful, for example for you-tubers. For me it is some kind of fair exchange: be active in the forum. Write good posts and the users will click on the signature... And limitation to the mentioned contend should avoid spam and is easy to check.

ssilk wrote:Links make sense. They are useful, for example for you-tubers. For me it is some kind of fair exchange: be active in the forum. Write good posts and the users will click on the signature... And limitation to the mentioned contend should avoid spam and is easy to check.

Not checking the links for commercial properties is even simpler.
There's nearly no spam here. I see no spam at all, but maybe the mods are just doing a good job. Reducing this even more with the dubious methode of regulating the signatures is in my opinion no good idea.

Nova wrote:There's nearly no spam here. I see no spam at all, but maybe the mods are just doing a good job. Reducing this even more with the dubious methode of regulating the signatures is in my opinion no good idea.

Hm. You're right. We can do that, if it is really needed...

Signatures almost never serve a practical purpose anyway. Just ban banners / pictures in signatures and limit them to a single line of text.

That's a fairly bad idea. If you don't like signatures: Okay, you can deactivate them. Other people like and can use them in a usefull manner. A good idea are small pictures for mods.

After reading all replies, I personally think what would be fair is 2 images signature should not exceed W600x280H.
Font size should not go bigger then THIS for signature use. PHPBB3 has a option that if the poster post more then once on a thread only his first post will show the signature you could use that if signatures are really a issue here.