Suggestion: set the 'Show your signature' default to 'no'
Hi,
It is generally unnecessary and rather annoying to see signatures being repeated under every message of one author every time that author posts a message in one thread. And that includes my own messages...
I keep forgetting it, and for the detick field one has to scroll down. Wouldn't it be a good idea to have that option default deticked?
A lot of users (myself included) will periodically refer OP's to written tips or useful links in our signatures to help with questions asked. You're going to make an extra step for us, which will slow down the flow of information - particularly if we forget to re-tick the box and come back later to find a confused OP.
We already have pretty spartan signatures here which I appreciate immensely. But if the community agrees that 4 lines or less of plain text per post is too unsightly to bear then it's probably time to consider doing away with signatures entirely rather than making it a nuissance for users who do want to use them.
A fair number of people would most likely whip up a greasemonkey script to auto-tick the box anyway, and that would include link spammers. [Speaking of which, if you are frustrated with forgetting to detick the box, have you considered greasemonkey to automate that for you?]
In the end, you always have the option in the control panel to turn off the display of signatures when you view pages, if that is more to your liking. Maybe a better solution would be to have that display option, plus one more that shows only the first instance of a user's signature in a given thread? I would like that idea much more. That way information is in the page somewhere, if needed, and people don't have to hunt down and re/detick anything each time they post.
^
This is my thoughts as well. I don't see a need to jump through extra hoops to default the signature to an off state for users that want to use signatures. The reason why its my signature is I want to set it and forget it, not need to remember to check the box every time I post it.
As mentioned, you can disable the view of signatures by changing the setting in your user control panel > Edit Options section.
I do like the idea of perhaps having it unchecked on each subsequent post. That would require a code modification for though, so I doubt we'll see that happening.
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^ I have to third the motion to not do this... my signature advocates validation and provides references to both www3.org and MSDN- it's a gleaming symbol as a reply to my posts to CHECK those references... a lot of questions post would be answered by OP's themselves if they were to check those references... I think removing them would further the ignorance.
Maybe a better solution would be to have that display option, plus one more that shows only the first instance of a user's signature in a given thread?
I think we're close to an agreement. How about an automated system that includes the signature under the first message in a thread but no more in following messages of that same author in that thread?
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