Some helpful hints about signatures

[adsii1970]

I do not remember seeing another thread that covers what I am about to share here. If there is one, I would like to make an apology to those who have ventured to share what I am about to share. I've always been fascinated by the various signatures I see on this forum and after a couple of months, have decided to pass on some information that I've learned by trial and error. This is a work in progress and will probably be revised, edited, and changed as I discover more information to pass on.

There is a 1,000 character limit when customizing your signature

Yes, that's correct. Whether it is straight text or the use of tags and urls, there are only 1,000 characters you can use to customize your signature. For many users, this will never be a problem. If you are like me and want to highlight your most popular thread, your online photo album on Photobucket or Imgr, or maybe your various challenge badges, it becomes fairly easy to approach or even go over the 1,000 character limit. Here are some tips I have learned in the process of developing my forum's signature.

Shorten URLS

This was a "well, duh!" moment I had this morning. I actively blog (religion and politics ) and often use outbound links in my blog. I also teach at a local college and often will reference Internet sources for my students to use. It hit me that in each of those cases, I always change the long url (this is the address that tells the computer where to go on the web) to a short url. Personally, I use tiny url for that task. You can save a significant amount of characters by shortening your outbound urls. So far, this works with IMGR, Photobucket, KerbakX, and every other url you care think of AND that won't get you in trouble with the moderators.

RedIronCrown offered me a bit of assistance today about another way to shorten the url, specifically to links within the forum. There are two commands that may be used that reduce the character count specifically. Both are considered tags and can efficiently reduce the character count. They are the [thread] and tags. For the below examples, the thread tag will take you back to this page and the post tag will be RedIronCrown's insightful post:

[thread=134953]Thread tag redirecting to the original thread[/thread] and [post=2210573]The post tag redirecting to RedIronCrown's post[/post]

And this is how they would appear (and behave) in your signature:

[thread=134953]Thread tag redirecting to the original thread[/thread] and The post tag redirecting to RedIronCrown's post

Why say it with text when an image will do

Not all image files contain...images! Using your favorite photo editing or graphics editing software, use the text tool to type in all the text you desire. Then save the image as a PNG file, upload it to an online photo storage site, such as IMGR or PhotoBucket, and use the photo hosting platform's url for the image. Be sure your image is no taller than roughly 145 pixels - any longer than this and the forum format will cut the bottom off your image. Oh, yeah, by using the photo/graphics editing software, you can combine images and text to create a unique signature and minimize the characters you use by shortening the url.

Tables can help you structure your signature

I use a table with four columns with the contents of each cell centered. The script to create a table is fairly simple. I have included all the scripting here used in my signature:

[TABLE="width: 950, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD][URL="http://tinyurl.com/nazem9e"][img=http://tinyurl.com/pa7fasa][/URL][/TD]
[TD]

[CENTER][SIZE=1][B]Member of the KSP community since October 2013[/B]

[img=http://tinyurl.com/o4qwn2q]
[B]Flag of the United Kerbin Republic[/B][/SIZE]
[/CENTER]

[/TD]
[TD]

[CENTER][SIZE=1][B][COLOR=#B22222]Original Forum Threads include[/COLOR][/B]

[thread=132659][B][I]The Highly Educated KSP Player - legends in our own minds?[/I][/B][/thread]
[thread=134953][B][I]Some helpful hints about signatures[/I][/B][/thread]
[/SIZE][/CENTER]

[/TD]
[TD]

[CENTER][URL="http://tinyurl.com/pv2bv8t"][img=http://tinyurl.com/oh6clm3][/URL]
[/CENTER]

[/TD][/TR]
[/TABLE]

By using images and shortening the urls, the signature consists of 626 characters (including spaces) or 598 characters if spaces are not counted. Between the use of image files and shortened urls, the possibilities for further customization of a signature are nearly limitless.

Using tags in your signature

Since I've introduced a couple of BBCode tags already and in the example of my signature, you've seen a few more examples of the BBCode. There are many different BBCodes that can do everything from [highlight]highlighting key text[/highlight], adding a line through text, embedding images, videos, or any other special format you can think of. Since I do not believe in recreating the wheel, I'm going to link to the websites, BBCode List - Ubuntu Forums and phpBB BB Code Guide. While both sites list the possible BBCode tags that can be used, I have found the phpBB BBCode Guide to be the most useful.

Just remember that BBCode tags count towards the 1,000 character limit for signatures. With that said, formatting text, such as bold, underline, or Italics adds an additional 7 characters to whatever text you are planning to format (those are fairly short BBCodes)! The more complex you make your signature, the more characters you will use in formatting the signature.

Getting inspiration for your signature

Your forum signature should reflect...you

This sounds like a common sense thing, but I have learned that common sense is not necessarily common. If you spend a few minutes viewing any of the threads, it becomes apparent that there are literally hundreds of variations of signatures used on this forum. Some are very specific and will focus on a particular theme while others seem to be more

Edited November 11, 2015 by adsii1970

[Red Iron Crown]

Great post adsii1970!

I've moved it over to the Kerbal Network (the forum forum).

Regarding shortening URLs, if you are linking to a post or thread here on the forums you can use the [noparse] and [thread] tags. Like so:

[thread=134953]This thread[/thread]

and

The OP[/noparse]

Gives this:

[thread=134953]This thread[/thread]

and

The OP

Edited September 23, 2015 by Red Iron Crown

[adsii1970]

Thanks for the encouragement. And thank you for letting me know about the {post} and {thread} tags. As I have the time, I want to continue to work on this more...

[monstah]

Hey, I just might use {post} and {thread}!