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In reference to the Q/A below -
Did Narumi seriously just say they won't increase character length due to slow forum loading times?
The problem as I see it is not the text. It is all the graphics some folks have in their sigs, including all the animated gifs.
I've watched folks (including myself) have to mess around with shortened URLS trying to get some links into their sigs even though the amount of data being loaded was nothing compared to all the graphics.


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Nenanah Wrote:
Features
Would you consider increasing the number of characters allowed in our signatures? I'd like to be able to display banners for all my BG guilds I am in, and even with tinyurl it's not possible.
Question is originally by Furbish Lousewort


Narumi Misuhara Wrote:
Sadly no, the limit is in place to help keep forum loading to a minimum. To get an idea of just how much signatures affect forum loading, try forums lite from Gaia Labs...the difference is like a car vs the Millennium Falcon ... or the Starship Enterprise.

Except that some people still manage to get several images into their sig.
Especially if they are including some of the Gaia stuff like show my tank, and show my car .
If I am willing to use something like TINYURL just to link images I can easily post multiple images and many users do. I've seen some sigs that were so long you had to scroll to get to the next post, yet appeared to still meet the size limits of signatures.

On the other hand, this all text conversation you and I are having well exceeds the character limit of a sig yet is so tiny in terms of file size it would load in the blink of an eye even on a slow internet connection. And I'm well versed on that because I spent nearly 10 years on dial up before I finally moved to AT&T Wifi (can't get cable where I live).

So to my point of view there is a complete disconnect between allowing more characters in a sig and page loading times. Pages and pages of text - sure - that would be annoying. But bumping the limit by enough characters to make it easier to insert URLs or a few more words would have about zero impact on page loading times.

Current sig limits are -
Less than 500 pixels in size in both width and height.
Total byte-size of less than 100,000 bytes.
512 character limit for signature (including BBCode)

That first one is usually interpreted as the limits on a graphic but as written applies to the entire sig.
Poster was only asking for the character limit to be increased.
If a user still obeys the 500 pixel size limit (not positive how you measure that for text) then presumably if the character limit was bumped up they could add more text and omit the graphic and still have a faster loading sig than what is currently legal.

I guess I have opinions about this because back when I was active with my booty grab thread and guild I had a fairly simple sig but was having trouble fitting in about three URLS to my BG thread, bump thread and tank with rather short wording for each. I had to in part use shortened urls but some people won't click on a "blind" url if they can't clearly see where it is going. Meanwhile the actual "weight" of my sig was very lean and loaded quickly and did not take up much space on the screen. Adding a few more characters so I could use "normal" urls and less abbreviated text descriptions would not have changed that.

Felt like this week's ATS felt like I was reading the past three ATS's. I feel like they gravitate more towards certain questions and suggestions rather then branching out which saddens me. I mean I understand that some questions can't be answered and the staff are restricted with how much they reveal but it just gets sorta...dull?, if that's the right word for it, reading the same similar things over and over again.

Although I must admit, that for the first time I felt like bluealaris's response towards the LQI question did seem a bit - words are obviously not my strong suit - like they were brushing the question off. Sorta like they were answering it but not dealing with the situation. Six months is a hella long time to wait for one item and even then there is no GUARANTEE that it's actually going to come out. More then likely the original won't, only the -in my opinion- sub par recolors will come out. And I slightly felt insulted reading the line: ' The items can be re-released after 6 months, so users that are patient and really desire an item can get another chance at it.' Because no one knows what's going to happen six months from now and without a for sure guarantee that it will be released it's practically false hope.

I don't know, I never know. I feel like certain things that are obviously an issue within the community tend to be brushed off and only smaller questions that revolve around the same three answers: 'Oh that's a good idea! We'll think about it!', 'No we didn't know about this glitch, thanks for letting us know!', and lastly 'Just keep your eyes peeled!'. I just want other questions to honestly be addressed. But hey, not like my voice matters at all. That's for sure.

It's getting rather frustrating that the answer to anyone's item idea posts is 'oh the golden ticket is for that!'. Can't they take an idea and at least think about it? Or hell can't they create one of their contests so that the winner can create an item, the runner up can create a recolor and the third runner up gets a perfect parcel? It's just my opinion to make it at least possible for people who don't have the money to quest for a ticket.

I just want answers that don't feel like they're brushing it off or it's a standard response. Maybe for them to have a conversation? Like would it kill them to think about the ideas ideas pitch them their likes and what they honest think about them in the thread rather then one sentence responses? Or the occasional '*shrug*'

Sorry if I am coming off annoying and offensive. I'm just tired of the same thing over and over and over being said. There are so many questions that it'd be nice for something different.

I also somewhat wish they'd stop answering questions that they've already answered.....

I stood there watching her as if she had not a care in the world....

I have been terrible with keeping up with my quote notices so I apologize for not responding. I started a new job and the hours are high which is good for me.

But onto this weeks ATS.

Again it felt like they answered the same types of questions they do every week. But now I'm sorta getting the feeling that there are really only two staff who pay attention to the questions. I have noticed Narumi and Zero have taken a back seat to answering questions. They answer a handful where the artist and GM answer a great deal more. Bluealaris and Milkbun or Finni tend to answer a bulk of the questions. Now this may be because the questions fall to their specific jobs but again I will say it would be nice to hear their opinions on matters.

I will say that Milkbun sorta dropped the ball when someone brought up tickets and how there's a monopoly on them. I felt like it was a genuine question that many people have been asking lately since there is a small group of users that have over ten custom ticket items. Bringing up the verge boxes seemed pointless, yes you're getting a custom item but they are not tickets. Tickets are won by chance. The verge boxes have always been able to be bought whether in Club Verge or a spending tier. Cub Verge boxes are significantly less rare then the tickets are so they shouldn't have been brought up at all.

Now yes, perhaps I am a bit bias since I have been wondering if they would limit ticket redemption per user or per theme or per item recolor. But it was a legitimate question that many people have had. There should be no reason why they should allow these handful of users to redeem more then ten tickets of any kind. But I do understand that they don't want to not allow 'richer' gaians to be limited or whatever. I just don't agree to that. I don't think it's limiting to a select group if it's a blanket limit for all gaia users.

Over all with each passing ATS I am both thankful for them but at the same time I sorta feel like topics get more confusing with some answers. I don't know anymore. I'm starting to wonder if there really is favoritism going on.

...as she was Dancing In Lunar Rays

May 18 - Another ATS that is almost 100% about items and crafting items and buying items.

I found this post interesting -

Dear Finni, how many artists are there at HQ so I know how many cookies to bring for when I visit HQ on Thursday. o uo b

You are so sweet! I think not everyone is allowing sweets in their diet (as some of us are trying to stay healthy >_< ) but if you bring two dozen, that will be enough to share with the entire Gaia team.

That is the closest I've seen to a comment on their current employee numbers.
The entire "Gaia team" is now under 24?
Didn't it used to be well over 100 or 150?. I can't recall for sure but I think I remember some number well over 100 when they were doing better.


And thanks as always for taking the time to compile these threads. I don't care about most of what is being discussed so it really speeds things up.

Well, she did say "Gaia team" and not "artists".
My guess is she was talking about everyone except perhaps for some higher level management who might not be around the office.
My impression was she was intentionally avoiding saying how many artists there are or for that matter exactly how many employees there are.
And even if she did exclude some folks she knew would not eat a cookie I doubt that would have made much difference as there probably are not many of those.

My impression is Gaia is operating with about 20% (or less) of the staff it had several years ago when times were better.

I wonder if some of those people are still trying to work on other projects like a Facebook game. I know they were trying to expand their revenue stream but it seems like the things they tried were largely fails.

And I'm sure Tentacl was a disappointment for them. No matter what you thought of it I think it had to be kind of bitter to put all that effort into artwork and coding and such to have it belly flop.

I actually liked Tentacl but there were aspects of both the site and how they chose to market it that made failure seem likely to me from the start. But I'm not king and nobody asked me so there you go. smile