Notice - Regarding Signatures and Bandwidth, Updated: 8/3/07

Mmkay. I've been taking special notice of signatures lately and I've noticed several things.
Some people have far too many pictures. Some are stealing bandwidth. And some are far too big.
So I've decided to set some guidelines for signature images.

The Guidelines:

• Don't steal bandwidth. This means; ask the artist of the picture for permission and upload it to your own Photobucket account (or whatever you use).
  (People take bandwidth theft very seriously. People are allowed a limited amount of bandwidth and everytime someone loads a picture uploaded to their account, it uses some of their bandwidth. Once all bandwidth is used up, no one will be able to view the pictures for awhile.)
  
• If the picture is not your own, please credit the original artist.
  
• Pictures should be no more than a width of 400 pixels or a height of 200 pixels.
  
  
  
  While this picture size is acceptable. It is recommended that you use smaller sizes.
  
• No more than three pictures in your signature. These pictures must fit on one row.
  
  Smilies don't count. But please. Don't go overboard.
  Seriously. Loading your signature with tons of images and smilies is not cool. It makes the page load slower for some people.
  
• Only one animated picture in your signature. (Note: This does not mean that you can have two images, plus the animated image.)
  
• The size of the text in your signatures should not exceed the size of 4. Really. The default size is just fine.
  
• No more than five lines, please. That is to say, five enter spaces.

Bandwidth
Mmkay. Bandwidth. I mentioned this earlier in the post and you're probably wondering, "What in the world is bandwidth? O_o;"

So... Bandwidth. It's a very important part of the internet.
Every site you load, every picture you load... It all takes up some bandwidth.

Let's say someone has signed up to Ripway, a web host. Ripway gives you 150 Megabytes of bandwidth per day to use and have fun with. Very nice.

Let's say this person has uploaded a web page that is exactly one megabyte in size.
Let's say one hundred fifty people load said page.
It's a really cool page, too.

Now person number one hundred fifty-one comes along and tries to load the page. "All of the bandwidth has been used up! This page can't be displayed again until tomorrow when the bandwidth has been restored. Have a nice day~!"

It works the same way for images. Except they don't get a nifty message telling you the bandwidth is gone. They just show up as a broken image.
So, please... Be courteous and don't steal bandwidth.

I agree with Len here. I'm getting annoyed of having to wait for an entire page of picture of what people's avatar looks like just to get a few lines of conversation and an emoticon.

If you want people to know what your character looks like then put it in your avatar pic, like mine. You can clearly see what my character looks like but I don't take up an entire page of random bits of information and umpteen pictures of me.

I would also like to add to try to keep your signatures short. They are not read every time you post and so just take up extra space, please, for the sake of space, try to keep them short and relevant. Thank you.

Or you may put a link to such a picture. Links are better. Much better.

I would like to point out that your signature does not need pictures in it.
Just text is fine.

You know... Signatures are generally a name. Not pictures or quotes or random things like that. Just a name.
You write a letter and sign your name at the end. You don't put a little picture. You sign your name.

I actually made my pic in my avatar. I also made the one for Tagaki's character. I use bits of the movie and chop off, shade and draw over the different bits. It takes a little while. Just print screen a bit of the avatar:the last airbender show from YouTube and then just chop and change. It takes a while but it looks great in the end.

Updated guidelines and added explanation of bandwidth...
(1/6/07)

Thank you Len for clarifying and important subject. I'm sure a lot of us out there didn't realize the problems that can occur with a user's bandwidth when numerous icons are added to signatures and it really does clutter the forum pages up unecessarily sometimes.

Our intention is not to sound mean but rather to inform and to help make the forum run more smoothly so it can be fun for everyone.

Also I believe it's important to aknowlege the many artists out there who make the awesome graphics and icons available for public viewing. Many certainly don't mind thier work to be shown but do appreciate getting permission and being aknowledged for thier efforts.

If you are using someone's else's graphics please:

1. Get permission from the artist
2. Copy, save the image onto your own computer and then upload the image to your own image hosting services like ripaway or photobucket
3. Acknowledge the artists in your signature (And if the artwork is your own, please let us know so we can all clap and cheer for a nice job well done!)


*note: As for myself, fans are welcome to copy and use my artwork/graphics on the main site for your own fun or for your own A:TLA sites with the exception of my character avatars used for member roleplaying .

I purposely make the graphics to share since I know many of you do not have access to graphic programs. But please be so kind as to aknowlege the source or give a link back to www.bluespiritgal.com

Artwork made by Zookins, Lilfirebender, Len, Kes or any other staff/member, please get thier permission first.

Members are free to use the awesome collection of Avatar smilies made by Zookins on the forum. However we at BSG.com do not give our permission for them to be copied and used on other sites.

There is a variety of free file and photo hosts out there. Here's a list of a few that I know of:

Picture Only:
Photobucket
Imageshack
Imagepile
ImageCave

All types of files:
Ripway
FileAve

Of course, they all ask you to sign up, first. Signing up is free, you just need a valid email.

And I cannot stress enough how important it is to ask permission before using an image. Seriously, you do NOT want one of those nit-picky artists to catch you in the act - they can be vicious. I should know, I'm one of them.

Another big no-no is editing pictures without permission. This is even worse than just taking the picture, cropping it and resizing it for use as an avatar. I'm talking about recoloring, drawing on it, slapping text on it, anything that alters the actual picture. Even more artists get REALLY ticked about that.

So please, listen to Len and BSG. Don't use pictures that you don't have permission to, don't even think about editing them, and don't waste our bandwidth.

This post has been edited by Zookins on Mar 10 2007, 07:20 PM

Updated guidelines. Please do not put more than one Gaia (Read: TekTek) avatar in your signature. The limits to the number and size of pictures still stands. Please follow these guidelines.
(1/17/07)

So i get rid of 5?

No. You get rid of one of them.

The one below the four smilies exceeds the image size limits.
Its height is 253 pixels. The limit to image height is 200 pixels.

Ok Len the one with Sango and Miroku!

better Len?

Photobucket does vids too.

You people should know that.

(Please excuse Shira. She hasn't been in a good mood for years.)

I feel the need to remind you all that there are LIMITS to the size of signatures. Images, text and whatnot. Read the first post, please. I will disable signatures entirely if I have to.

Your rather large signatures are driving Em to the brink of a mental breakdown.
... And now she's ranting about... Harry Potter Legos. What that has to do with the signature limits, I'll never know...

But anyways... Please read the signature limits in the beginning post of this topic thoroughly and make sure your signatures don't exceed the limits. Give the poor moderators a break. ):

There's an image in the first post, too. Save it to your computer, open it in paint and paste your signature image over it. That'll help you determine whether an image is too big or not. P: