Enlargen signiture space?

[Angrboda]

If I'm not mistaken, the height is 150 pixels, though I haven't verified it. This has been discussed before. Ultimately, it's a decision the owners and staff have to decide based on what they feel is in the best interests of the forum, and their goals for the forum. Evidently, that judgement has been resolved to keep signatures as a minimal element in the thread displays, and I don't see that it makes much sense to try to argue the point. I'm all for larger signatures as in my view, a significant part of the forum experience, as with most electronic media, is the social aspect, and more space means more ways to "be me" on the forum. That said, I understand the alternative reasons for keeping it small, and note that like any cost-free resource, it is susceptible to a tragedy of the commons in which it is overused simply "because they can."

It's a matter of focus. I have a lot of avatars for another forum whose avatars can be up to 200px by 250px, and because of the ~150px height limit (more like 140px), most of them cannot be used here because of the considerably smaller dimensions allowed. (Some of the difference may be required by element placement in the thread design.) For whatever reason, the owners and staff have chosen differently to encourage certain behaviors and discourage others; that's their prerogative, and it's hard to argue with success.

That being said, I would be delighted by having a little more room 'to work', especially on avatars, but as noted, I understand if I am denied.

While we're on the subject of forum layout, I was wondering if it would be possible to put all the control links that are at the top (pm's, search, today's post, etc) in a second strip at the bottom. I cycle thread/today's posts/thread/today's post on a tablet computer using the non-mobile version, and having to finger scroll all the way back to the top each time is most inconvenient. Even for those not in my specific circumstance, having the controls at the bottom of the page would be very convenient (or, as an alternative, a 'go to top of page' link at the bottom; ETA: I found the return to top link, it needs to be bigger and iconic, imho, and especially 'closer to the bottom of the last post in the thread').

One thought that occurred to me but would depend on software limits is if a larger signature or avatar space could be granted to forum donators. That would limit it such as to avoid abuse and overuse, as well as providing an additional incentive for donating. If the software itself doesn't have sufficient flexibility, it alternatively could be implemented by enlarging the size allowed, and checking the size at time of submission of the avatar or signature (in control panel) to see if it conforms to the member's privileges, and if not, reject it at that point.

Another thought I've had is that it would be nice if there could be a set of small icons that one could choose from and which would be displayed similar to the donator icon in the profile space of a post, but which would correspond to common religious/non-religious identities (maybe multiple, to allow things like humanist+deist or secular+buddhist). While I enjoy the discussions, as noted elsewhere, I'm more into the social aspects, so I'm all about presentation; yes, I could use the 'religious views' text space for that, but it seems a waste of what otherwise becomes considerable expressive space.

Any other details people could or would want displayed in the thread design, if possible?


(ETA: Just my personal tastes, perhaps, but I could easily do without 'warning level' and 'join date' in the thread space devoted to profile information, as well as the somewhat garish 'badges' for so many thousand posts, etc; they are a bit much, though I would like to see an ostentatious display of member awards preserved.)

(ETA2: Is there a way to get a list of the members you've given reputation points to? That would be very handy (privacy concerns?). I see people using searches to track various things like kudos stats and such, but most of that appears to be the sole province of wizards. It would be nice if some of those more common incantations could be canned in a sticky or permanent page somewhere, or an explanation/tutorial for those of us lazy sods like me who aren't up to puzzling it out on our own. [Or perhaps just a sticky thread with 'advanced user tips'])