Signature Filesize PSA / Harsher Punishments

[[ R ]]

This is probably pretty low on the radar among other "pending issues" on Gaia, but I honestly don't feel like a lot of users understand the filesize limit on signatures.

I do a fair amount of reporting when I see rules broken in the CB. I don't vocalize it to the people I'm reporting- that would take all day, and the rule of thumb is supposed to be "just report it and move on, don't say anything"- but do you know what I probably report the most? Signatures that over the filesize limit.

And you may ask me, "But [ R ], why are you checking every signature's filesize?"

I'm not. Just the animated gifs.

It's gotten to the point where I don't even feel the need to check the filesize, because I already know it's over the limit. It's typically a reaction gif that I'd see on Tumblr, in a user's signature. And they think it's okay, because when they right-click it, it says "0 KB". I can tell you right now: It's not 0 KB, and there was never any conceivable way it was 0 KB, or even 100 KB. Save it to your computer, hover over it with your mouse, and you'll realize it's way more than that.

So Gaia Staff- if you could just do us this little favor, and make a PSA telling users, "Hey, that filesize limit is still a thing, and is still 100,000 Bytes- especially when putting a gif in your signature, DON'T actually believe that the gif is 0 KB, you're not fooling anybody", that'd be great. I think the userbase just needs a reminder that the rule is in effect, and "pixel size" isn't the only thing they need to care about.

Thanks.

[ R ]

I also realize that there are people ( perhaps even a lot of people ) that understand the signature rules completely, but just don't care. Which is unfortunate. They just say "I'll just pay for it, no problem".

Maybe if there was a harsher ramp-up on payments for locked signatures after the first one or two payments. I don't remember how much it is right now, or how much it increases each time ( if it increases at all? ), but the way it stands right now, there are a lot of people who just don't care.

( Plus, hey, bigger goldsink. )

[ R ]

There needs to be a very serious ramp-up on the payments for signatures. ONCE is a mistake and it's okay to be a pittance; TWICE might just be that they forgot after a long time; THREE TIMES is when it starts to become pretty obvious that they just don't give a damn, and it needs to start hitting them in the damn wallet, or permanently banning their signature.

And yes, I'm being perfectly serious about permanently banning signatures of repeat offenders. These are privileges, not rights; constant abuse of them needs to be treated just like any other rule breaker.

[HauntingEchoes]

I would love if they did that. I probably report signatures more than anything else. And it's almost always .gif signatures. I'm not even sure many users check their file size before using them. And with the advent of tumblr I find there's even more really annoying .gif images that people seem to think are just dandy.

It bothers me to no end when people ignore the signature rules. Not everyone has unlimited internet, and images like that can make a big dent on a small download limit.

I would absolutely love if there was an announcement made clarifying the rules on signatures.

Also, I find handing out this site is amazing in Q&A when people say "but I don't know how to check!". They don't have to do the hard work with that site, it does all of the work for the users.

[[ R ]]

Oh god, yes. Ever since Tumblr was introduced ( and made much more popular the short, reactionary gifs ), it's become incredibly more problematic.

Don't get me wrong- I use Tumblr too, nothing against people who use it- but in this case, it's just made oversized signatures more common.

[White Flag Idiot]

I would agree to this. A few times I've had my signature disabled because I misread the byte size or didn't re-size it properly and trust me, I learned how to resize my gifs over time.

I don't think people realize that there are websites that can help you resize a gif image, I used one on my recent sig pic, sure the qaulity is down a little but I still get the picture I wanted.

[StrawberryZ0mbie]

Ugh...yes. I report oversized signatures all the time. I'll admit that I'm far more likely to check on it if it's flashing or otherwise annoying, but in the end, every gif signature I've ever decided to check on for whatever reason, was definitely oversized.

I have a more than reasonable internet speed and a decent laptop. But if you give me a page with five or six animated signatures and a few animated items and it will definitely make my laptop and browser very, very unhappy.

[Gundamu]

Yes please!

[Opera Phantomess]

Masquerade! Paper faces on parade. Masquerade!

Hell yes please! emotion_facepalm I cannot tell you how many times I have seen obvious large files and users complaining that their signatures were disabled for no reason even though their images or gif's were lagging even the best computers and internet connections insanely.

Hide your face so the world will never find you.

[Cecilia Davidson]

I can't post Flutterrage pics on mobile so a simple WHY HASN'T THIS BEEN DONE ALREADY will suffice

[A mali]

Ever since Gaia cached the images in the sig, many tend to appear as 0kb when you inspect the file with browsers other than Chrome and takes another tedious step of cutting and pasting urls for you to view with other browsers. I'm not sure how contributory this is to people ending up with sigs that break size rules, but it can help if there is a way to make viewing easier. That site that inspects file sizes is a good idea, but how to make that more accessible?

[Maggot]

Not only would I like to see a PSA about signature file size, I'd like to see a PSA about signatures in general. Recently I reported a signature for having a YouTube video in it and was told that the policy on YouTube videos in signatures had changed and they were allowed now. How am I suppose to know these things?
emotion_donotwant

[StrawberryZ0mbie]

A mali

Ever since Gaia cached the images in the sig, many tend to appear as 0kb when you inspect the file with browsers other than Chrome and takes another tedious step of cutting and pasting urls for you to view with other browsers. I'm not sure how contributory this is to people ending up with sigs that break size rules, but it can help if there is a way to make viewing easier. That site that inspects file sizes is a good idea, but how to make that more accessible?

I run into that problem with FF. It took me a while to realize that if I right click and do "view image" and then do "view image info" I can see the actual information for it. But I suspect that is contributing to at least some of the oversized images because most people will just look at the info and see 0kb and think that the file really is that small or that no one will care/be able to see how big it really is. >.<

[Pilotslover]

I would love if they'd include some rules about post styles too, someone the other day posted in site feedback with a simply obnoxiously sized one just to say 'I agree' emotion_facepalm

[Ryxios]

Maggot

Recently I reported a signature for having a YouTube video in it and was told that the policy on YouTube videos in signatures had changed and they were allowed now.

Wha? Who wants to put videos in their sig? And why is that okay? neutral

[Maggot]

Ryxios

Maggot

Recently I reported a signature for having a YouTube video in it and was told that the policy on YouTube videos in signatures had changed and they were allowed now.

Wha? Who wants to put videos in their sig? And why is that okay? neutral

I wish I knew.

[HauntingEchoes]

Maggot

Ryxios

Maggot

Recently I reported a signature for having a YouTube video in it and was told that the policy on YouTube videos in signatures had changed and they were allowed now.

Wha? Who wants to put videos in their sig? And why is that okay? neutral

I wish I knew.

I reported one of them a while back (video in signature thing) and was told they were allowed now, so I asked for clarification (which I have actually deleted accidentally), but I believe the mod told me it was because they don't autoplay, something about for that reason they don't go over the limit. I'd give better information, but I can't recall and since I didn't save the message I can't even quote it unfortunately.