are the signatures getting bigger?

[RAPPLEBY2000]

Hi slight gripe,
no names mentioned But I've noticed some of the signatures are getting a bit big. A couple I've noticed, the signature is taking up more space than the text the member has added to the thread.
I'm all up for the witty remarks but please not big ones.
On other forums its annoying to search through the signatures to get to the thread, please don't let it happen here!

 

[Tony]

Yeah they are, it never used to be a problem but it's starting to creep in, i'll be limiting the space for signatures and i'm looking at server resources generally and seeing where to cut back on server resources, it's likely to be sigs, searching (a huge resource chomper) PM's etc.
On the one hand it will help the place stay neat and on the other it will let everything run faster and be more economic on the pocket.

 

[sandbender]

"...searching (a huge resource chomper)..."

Does this answer my earlier questions about whether the 'New Posts' button will only be available to members who have logged in from now on?

 

[apj1974]

... i'm looking at server resources generally and seeing where to cut back on server resources, it's likely to be sigs, searching (a huge resource chomper) PM's etc.

Just a thought. I mostly use the search to find out about bits of kit / technique, so if we could condense review type threads and delete old chatter then surely that would help.

Do we need PM's why not just have the system send an email.

Also I've noticed that photo's in threads get quoted along with the text - is this needed?

 

[Tony]

I'm not really inclined to chop threads and posts, lots of people find them helpful even years later.
PM's are used by nearly everyone on here and have been for over 6 years so they're going to stay, i'll probably drop the max amount for the registered users and prioritise the FM's.

If the photo is relevant to the quote i suppose it is, although that may be another one tha tjsut FM's can do in the future, not sure.

 

[fred gordon]

Perhaps I am being dumb, but, if we don't want bigger signatures then why have the option of text sizes in the 'edit signature' area! - simples!

 

[Whittler Kev]

I'm not really inclined to chop threads and posts, lots of people find them helpful even years later.

Got to agree. Us newbies are finding a plethora of useful info that you old hands have already digested (look at all the see here type posts to queries)

 

[Tony]

The text size options are new with the forum upgrade and the regular users are already limited in that area, you as an FM are not

 

[apj1974]

I'm not really inclined to chop threads and posts, lots of people find them helpful even years later.

I agree, I find them helpful, but it is the search function having to deal with so many old threads that uses resources. If there could be more logic to the old threads it would make life easier for the search and for the users searching. I know you dont want to delete many old threads, but for example why does anyone need to know that on the 9th April 2006 Bjorn Victor wanted to swap a primus omnifuel stove which he did 4 days later.

Perhaps if the default search was more restrictive, say defaulting to only searching over last year and not searching all topics, then it might use less resources. People would still have teh option of a fuller search in advanced.

re PM's - all my PM's are automatically emailed to me anyway! I'm not suggesting scrapping the feature to send a PM to another person, but how many people bother deleting them from their inbox?

 

[leon-1]

There is a problem with what you are suggesting. Deleting threads and not including things in searches as they are more than a year old doesn't work.

Merging threads so that there are fewer still leave people having to rake through post after post after post.
Some of the searches that come up go back a long way and some of the answers that people are looking for go back a long way.
Deleting threads which are old and have no significance to you doesn't mean that it doesn't have significance to the people involved.
Deleting old threads as a whole doesn't work as somebody is gonna have to go through them and that then means that someone will have to make the choice of whether a thread has any worth or not. That takes a lot of time.

More logic to the old threads, it doesn't work like that either. More logic to the search query on the other hand does work.

 

[fred gordon]

The text size options are new with the forum upgrade and the regular users are already limited in that area, you as an FM are not

Thanks Tony. Didn't know that. Discipline, that's the thing