# Removal of Signatures



## Null (Oct 14, 2013)

Signatures no longer appear under every post. I felt like they cluttered the forum and made content hard to read. When two people with large and/or animated images  had a conversation, it became extremely annoying to actually pay attention to the text -- which is the main feature of an Internet forum. It's also very difficult to regulate signatures. How big is too big? What constitutes an unsightly signature? What constitutes too annoying? I could add CSS rules to restrict size, but content is entirely different.

Someone literally had a desktop wallpaper as their signature so I disabled inline signatures system wide. This is a bit of a test. I think the improvement is immediately apparent, and people can view your signature in your profile, so if you want to deck that shit out with animated GIFs and music like it's a 1990s geocities webpage knock yourself out.

Discuss.


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## LM 697 (Oct 14, 2013)

Fine with me. Maybe you could keep text or something, though. I like seeing "I once knew a man from NANTUCKET!" on all of Brooklyn's posts.


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## Null (Oct 14, 2013)

CompyRex said:
			
		

> Fine with me. Maybe you could keep text or something, though. I like seeing "I once knew a man from NANTUCKET!" on all of Brooklyn's posts.


I'd love this as a solution but phpbb is really garbage. I enabled the setting for signatures but disabled the


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## Mourning Dove (Oct 14, 2013)

I'm fine with it. I think our avatars are sufficient enough to identify ourselves. Big flashy signatures do tend to clutter up the pages...


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## Surtur (Oct 14, 2013)

I don't care either way. Too bad there was just no way to reduce the sig size.


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## Dork Of Ages (Oct 14, 2013)

In my opinion, it's better to put spoilers in signatures, especially big flashy images, instead of simply removing them. Take The Dude's spoiler sig as an example. Of course, not forced spoilers, since that wouldn't work well, but more of a recommendation to make visual clarity of other users less confusing.


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## Pikonic (Oct 14, 2013)

I know a lot of people (including myself) had one of Hitlers vanity smilies. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



But if the images are getting too big and you can't put a size limit on them, do what you gotta do.


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## Null (Oct 14, 2013)

Surtur said:
			
		

> I don't care either way. Too bad there was just no way to reduce the sig size.


Well, there is. With CSS rules I can do something like this:


```
.signature
{
	max-height: 300px;
	overflow: none;
}

.signature img
{
	max-height: 300px;
	max-width: 100%;
}
```

This caps signatures at 300px tall and scales images to fit the screen and the signature box. If there's any spill over it gets completely hidden. I could try something like that, and it's probably what I'm going to end up doing. Just a bit of a test. I can also do display: none; in the image definition to hide images, but it won't stop the browser from downloading them.

I'll probably end up doing this. Seems people enjoy their vanity.


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## Watcher (Oct 14, 2013)

I've been on forums in the past that did things like disabled animated gif signatures and rigorously enforced the pixel limit. It seems to work for the most part.


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## TastyWoodenBadge (Oct 14, 2013)

I don't mind the removal of sigs, you can still view them on your profile so they are not totally lost forever.


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## rad (Oct 14, 2013)

This is really nice. I disabled signatures and avatars the first day I started browsing the forum, but now I guess I'll turn them signatures on again if there's going to be a size limit. I'd also suggest making the avatars smaller... 250x250 is way too big in my opinion, 100x100 would be better.

Either way, it's a step in the right direction.


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## Null (Oct 14, 2013)

rad said:
			
		

> This is really nice. I disabled signatures and avatars the first day I started browsing the forum, but now I guess I'll turn them signatures on again if there's going to be a size limit. I'd also suggest making the avatars smaller... 250x250 is way too big in my opinion, 100x100 would be better.
> 
> Either way, it's a step in the right direction.


I'd agree if not for the fact that the forums are fluid width. If the board ran on a fixed width of like 1280px I'd definitely have reduced the size, but since the typical monitor is going to be 1640 or greater I don't see a problem.


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## The Hunter (Oct 14, 2013)

I'm really gonna miss my two lines of text.


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## Male (Oct 14, 2013)

How will lurkers know that imdabes?


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## rad (Oct 14, 2013)

Null said:
			
		

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Width is fine, the problem is height. Big avatars make one-sentence posts be over twice as big (or rather, tall) as avatar-less posts.

Here's an example:

Surtur's post: 450 pixels tall





Surtur's post without avatar: 200 pixels tall





As you can see, the difference is quite noticeable... 

And while we're talking about "cleaning" the forums, I'd also suggest removing post count and thank count, as those add nothing to the quality of the posts. Or alternatively, allow us to disable them (like signatures and avatars), although I don't think that's possible to code.


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## The Hunter (Oct 14, 2013)

rad said:
			
		

> I'd also suggest removing post count


That's stupid. How am I supposed to know who the most autistic CWCki forums member is?


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## CatParty (Oct 14, 2013)

The Hunter said:
			
		

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## Pikonic (Oct 14, 2013)

The Hunter said:
			
		

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Like you don't already know.
IMO the post count and thank count is fine, but if you wanna make another poll to see how others feel go nuts.


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## Seahorses (Oct 14, 2013)

Somebody had a pig and a dog making love and I was disturbed by that picture. I'm all for this rule.


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## LM 697 (Oct 14, 2013)

The Hunter said:
			
		

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    Respect one another and be civil. We're all friends here. Be nice.
    Don't start drama. Contact administrators if you have a problem with another user. Do not start flame wars. This is a very close community and there will be no tolerance for shit-flinging.


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## The Dude (Oct 14, 2013)

I prefer the sigs. Especially mine. I thought mine was clever. Maybe make a rule that all big pictures have to be put in a spoiler like mine was.


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## Dork Of Ages (Oct 15, 2013)

The Dude said:
			
		

> I prefer the sigs. Especially mine. I thought mine was clever. Maybe make a rule that all big pictures have to be put in a spoiler like mine was.


It wasn't clever.


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## The Dude (Oct 15, 2013)

DorkOfAges said:
			
		

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Yeah? Well, y'know, that's just, like, uh...your opinion, man.


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## Bgheff (Oct 15, 2013)

Fine with no sigs.


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## sparklemilhouse (Oct 15, 2013)

In miss the sigs. Especially hitlers little designs.


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## José Mourinho (Oct 15, 2013)

Don't really find it an improvement, but eh, I'm okay with it.


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## rocket (Oct 15, 2013)

can we make an exception for that poster with the cat eating sushi


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## Dark Mirror Hole (Oct 15, 2013)

Yeah, I was getting sick of my own signature so I don't mind the change.

^And I second rocket's suggestion, Niachu's sig should stay.


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## Watcher (Oct 15, 2013)

Dark Mirror Hole said:
			
		

> Yeah, I was getting sick of my own signature so I don't mind the change.
> 
> ^And I second rocket's suggestion, Niachu's sig should stay.



I want Cat Party's sig to stay. Without a girl asking me "You know what's fun" I don't know how to function anymore.


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## Judge Holden (Oct 15, 2013)

Butbutbut WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE "whats your signiture" THREAD IN GENERAL!?

AND WHAT OF MY MADLY TONGUING PIG SIG?! HAVE YOU NO HEART!??

(Honestly though I have no objection to the removal if it helps unclutter)


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## Holdek (Oct 15, 2013)

Seahorses said:
			
		

> Somebody had a pig and a dog making love and I was disturbed by that picture. I'm all for this rule.



Aww I thought it it was sweet    



			
				The Dude said:
			
		

> I prefer the sigs. Especially mine. I thought mine was clever. Maybe make a rule that all big pictures have to be put in a spoiler like mine was.



How about a rule that sigs have to be clever or funny or cute or otherwise cool?  We could set up a committee to determine this plus an appeals committee.


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## Niachu (Oct 15, 2013)

B-but, my cat...the way he earnestly and flawlessly ate from those chopsticks brought a smile to everyone's face!

Seriously though, I don't like it. I agree that there were a few too many people with entirely too huge signatures (giant text, two pictures, _youtube videos_) but it's not fair to do away with a staple of forums when this is a solvable issue.

There could be some rules like,

1. _One_ picture per signature (with that picture meeting size requirements)
2. No huge bodies of text
3. Anyone who won't adjust their signatures to meet those requirements gets them deleted outright

Personally I like signatures as a way for people to express themselves and I'm adamant about them staying.

Edit: 4. Disturbing or sexually graphic content gets spoilered like everything else.


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## Night Terror (Oct 15, 2013)

I'm not bothered either way, but it's not that hard to regulate a max sig size rule, say 400 pixels, and ask people whose sigs are too big to resize or replace them.
But it's not a big deal.


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## Saney (Oct 15, 2013)

Yeah, I kind of agree with Nia on this. I miss the loveshy slaying smiley Hitler made me.


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## ChurchOfGodBear (Oct 15, 2013)

I thought the image signatures were a bit obnoxious, especially when someone added a very large one, and more so when viewing on a smartphone.


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## Fialovy (Oct 15, 2013)

I guess it's fine, but, but how are people gonna know that I'm Dun's sweetheart from the ground-up? Oh well, it's pretty common knowledge anyways.


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## José Mourinho (Oct 15, 2013)

Fialovy said:
			
		

> I guess it's fine, but, but how are people gonna know that I'm Dun's sweetheart from the ground-up? Oh well, it's pretty common knowledge anyways.



Maybe a rank title?


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## champthom (Oct 15, 2013)

I've privately spoken to people about huge ass sigs, but I supposed this works as well.

My complaint though is people won't know I don't bullshit.


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## Holdek (Oct 15, 2013)

Ideally I'd like a more moderated approach but failing that then I vote for the removal of sigs as I've had to request people by PM to change their rapidly animating sigs on more than one occasion and that gets annoying.


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## Fialovy (Oct 15, 2013)

Alan Pardew said:
			
		

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no, no, not now, it's fine, really. You should probably all know by now, seriously, that is not necessary. I'd rather not have a custom rank title


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## Null (Oct 15, 2013)

Fialovy said:
			
		

> You should probably all know by now


Y'all should know by now


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## Fialovy (Oct 15, 2013)

Null said:
			
		

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Exactly


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## MrTroll (Oct 16, 2013)

Every forum should do this. I had taken to using my browser's (Opera) built-in content blocker to block especially large or annoying pictures. This is much better, though text signatures don't bother me.


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## WWWWolf (Oct 16, 2013)

Null said:
			
		

> I'd love this as a solution but phpbb is really garbage.



Yeah, why do we have to bear with this phpBB bullshit. DRUPAL 4 LYFE [/have had too many reebs]

Seriously though, I don't think signatures are necessarily evil, but I do think there should be guidelines and CSS hackery and upload limits and whatnot to deal with totally over-sized stuff. But if signatures remain disabled until a solution is found, that's not that terrible. Better a working solution than allowing everything.


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## TrippinKahlua (Oct 16, 2013)

Aww. I enjoyed letting the forum know how much I thought of Thorg as a "Stupid Atheist Fuck" and how much of a cheat he was at Chris trolling.


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## Christ-Chan (Oct 16, 2013)

The Hunter said:
			
		

> That's stupid. How am I supposed to know who the most autistic CWCki forums member is?


You could always keep a mirror next to your monitor.


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## Fialovy (Oct 17, 2013)

Christ-ian said:
			
		

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I see what you did there...


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## Cute Anime Girl (Oct 17, 2013)

Christ-ian said:
			
		

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## Lefty's Revenge (Oct 19, 2013)

Personally, sigs don't bother me. I kind of enjoyed them. But I understand that it bothers other people.


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## DV 259 (Oct 19, 2013)

I didn't have a sig myself, but I didn't mind them, either.  I actually really enjoyed Male's sig/avatar combos he'd do.  The only ones that made things difficult for me (since half the time I'm browsing the forums on my phone at work,) were the enormous ones, particularly if the ones with huge sig pictures posted multiple times on the same page of a thread, ESPECIALLY if they only replied with one-liners or emoticons.


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## Watcher (Nov 7, 2013)

So... are signatures coming back?


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## Null (Nov 7, 2013)

Dr. Cuddlebug said:
			
		

> So... are signatures coming back?


oh i totally forgot I removed them

god this change is so wonderful


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## Niachu (Nov 7, 2013)

Null said:
			
		

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The majority seems to disagree.


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## brooklynbailiff (Nov 7, 2013)

I only want Niachu's signature back.


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## Niachu (Nov 7, 2013)

I don't like them being gone from every post but it is kinda nice in some ways to see a page less cluttered. I just miss people being able to express themselves in their sigs without getting obnoxious about it.


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## Null (Nov 7, 2013)

brooklynbailiff said:
			
		

> I only want Niachu's signature back.


ok


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## brooklynbailiff (Nov 7, 2013)

Null said:
			
		

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The matter is settled. Niachu has the only signature that was ever worth looking at.


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## Saney (Nov 7, 2013)

brooklynbailiff said:
			
		

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Feelings...crushed...


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## Watcher (Nov 7, 2013)

Saney said:
			
		

> Feelings...crushed...


 

I miss signatures


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## brooklynbailiff (Nov 7, 2013)

I don't miss them.


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## Male (Nov 7, 2013)




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## brooklynbailiff (Nov 7, 2013)

Male said:
			
		

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Dem delicious special snowflake tears. Noone will know you without a huge annoying signature!


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## Watcher (Nov 7, 2013)

I still don't understand why we don't regulate signature sizes if that's the real issue.


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## brooklynbailiff (Nov 7, 2013)

The board is smoother without them no matter the size.


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## CatParty (Nov 7, 2013)

can i have a signature, but have said signature be a quote and picture of brooklynbailiff?


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## LM 697 (Nov 7, 2013)

the line has to be drawn here

this far and no further


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## applecat (Nov 7, 2013)

I'm very upset about this, guys. I was going to have this be my signature and it was going to be great.


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## CatParty (Nov 7, 2013)

not better than my signature


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## Saney (Nov 7, 2013)

applecat said:
			
		

> I'm very upset about this, guys. I was going to have this be my signature and it was going to be great.


Damn it Null, how can you deprive us of _that_?


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## exball (Nov 7, 2013)

Null is coldhearted and MEAN!


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## Watcher (Nov 7, 2013)

Couldn't they design an option in the preferences to "show signatures" and have it off by default so people could choose? Or have a specific forum skin that enables signatures? Then everyone wins.

I mean I wouldn't want to defend this so much if it weren't for the fact that the majority wants signatures back according to the polling.


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## Pikonic (Nov 7, 2013)

I just noticed Niachu still has her signature out.


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## IanBrannanSOMETHING (Nov 7, 2013)

I really enjoy this change. I remember browsing on my laptop, someone had a "motivational poster" image in their signature that took up the entire height of my screen. It was getting ludicrous.


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## spaps (Nov 7, 2013)

It's weird, the giant sig images always seemed to be resized for me. Even NEET's.


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## Null (Nov 7, 2013)

spaps said:
			
		

> It's weird, the giant sig images always seemed to be resized for me. Even NEET's.


They're resized by one factor:
Maximum width can only be 100% the size of the signature's container, meaning nothing can stretch the page horizontally past the boundaries of your browser.

I could add more rules. I could make images 250px high tops, but what if someone has 3 images? What if someone uses a YouTube video? People would put 2 reasonably sized pictures in their signature, but put a break between them so they were forced on to two different lines. It's like have 3 avatars and 90% of your post is random whitespace and stupid shit as opposed to whatever text you wanted to show people.

Like yeah, I get the whole idea of personalizing your posts and having added character, but signatures just aren't the way of doing that. Neither is making all of your posts in the color cyan that nobody can read -- truly those people are worse than Hitler.


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## Gul Ducat (Nov 7, 2013)

I believe that having these images is a severe flaw.


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## sparklemilhouse (Nov 16, 2013)

brooklynbailiff said:
			
		

> I don't miss them.




I miss having the lil bull from night court smiley on the bottom if my sig.


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## Watcher (Nov 16, 2013)

sparklemilhouse said:
			
		

> I miss having the lil bull from night court smiley on the bottom if my sig.


I miss "You know what's fun... Alcohol"


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## Dark Mirror Hole (Nov 16, 2013)

Well, too bad. Niachu's signature is the only worthy one.


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## José Mourinho (Nov 16, 2013)

In case anyone misses Niachu's sig:


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## Null (Nov 16, 2013)

Alan Pardew said:
			
		

> In case anyone misses Niachu's sig:
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> http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luji4 ... o1_500.gif


you mean in case anyone misses niachu's signature despite the fact that she's the only one that still has a signature?


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## Pikonic (Nov 16, 2013)

Guess we all have to visit each others profiles now and get to know each other to see signatures.


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## Watcher (Nov 16, 2013)

Pikonic said:
			
		

> Guess we all have to visit each others profiles now and get to know each other to see signatures.



I'm still wishing signatures would be off by default... but there's be an option in the menu to turn them back on just for us 'spergs.


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## José Mourinho (Nov 16, 2013)

Null said:
			
		

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Darn it. Didn't notice it. Thanks, Null.


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## Holdek (Nov 20, 2013)

I just realized each user can turn off signatures in their personal settings if they want...so maybe we don't need to remove them?


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## Null (Nov 20, 2013)

Holdek said:
			
		

> I just realized each user can turn off signatures in their personal settings if they want...so maybe we don't need to remove them?


that only affects your own posts.

edit: nevermind, but I'd still need to police them because only a small percentage of people would bother looking for it.


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## RV 229 (Nov 27, 2013)

Null said:
			
		

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I have moved on to a darker shade just for you, Null. You're welcome.


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## Null (Nov 27, 2013)




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## spaps (Nov 27, 2013)

Null said:
			
		

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Wow Null you greedy bastard.


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## Butta Face Lopez (Dec 31, 2013)

Now people won't know to tell me if they like me


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