I'm a hoveroverer. It's true. I learned to be careful what i click on because the kids might be in the room. There are some things you really don't want to have to explain to a 7 year old.

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Reality Internet Personality

4. This thing looks terrible;

Ice, for the master of Signature Optimisation, you can do a lot better than that!. I have faith in you my friend....Go on, show us what you can do!

As it happens, it took a lot of work to combine two gifs into one and to optimize it down to 15037 bytes to be fair on people who have to download these images, and to enable me to cram yet another image into my signature. This compares with 66183 and 16305 byte sizes of your 'flat' images in your signature (my combined gif is made up of multiple images to give the animation effect).

I also happen to like it, and I'm not going to make signatures just to please you, but will leave it as is - a masterpiece of gif combination and optimization ;)

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flaming balloons

4. This thing looks terrible;

Ice, for the master of Signature Optimisation, you can do a lot better than that!. I have faith in you my friend....Go on, show us what you can do!

As it happens, it took a lot of work to combine two gifs into one and to optimize it down to 15037 bytes to be fair on people who have to download these images, and to enable me to cram yet another image into my signature. This compares with 66183 and 16305 byte sizes of your 'flat' images in your signature (my combined gif is made up of multiple images to give the animation effect).

I also happen to like it, and I'm not going to make signatures just to please you, but will leave it as is - a masterpiece of gif combination and optimization ;)

Hmmm.... I did not mean it as an insult Ice. It was offered as constructive criticism so you could improve. I know full well just how much work goes into making images look good. Especially GIF images.

Here is my take on this;
If you are selling a "Toolbar" to people, then would it be a good idea to tell folks what the toolbar is about?. I think so. It might also be a good idea to show folks the toolbar you are trying to sell. And tell them about the features that you have in this "Brilliant Toolbar".

So this is what i might put in my sig if i was trying to sell that;



That image is 26k so its not a very big image size for forums. In fact its considerably smaller than most of the stats images that everybody else has. That image also has all the info you need to know about the toolbar and its features. Plus its a nice compact height at 22 pixels and it will fit well in any forum signature. It took about 20 minutes to make it.

Ice, my friend, the image is yours, if you want it, you are welcome to use and abuse it!

Johnney.

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4. This thing looks terrible;

Ice, for the master of Signature Optimisation, you can do a lot better than that!. I have faith in you my friend....Go on, show us what you can do!

As it happens, it took a lot of work to combine two gifs into one and to optimize it down to 15037 bytes to be fair on people who have to download these images, and to enable me to cram yet another image into my signature. This compares with 66183 and 16305 byte sizes of your 'flat' images in your signature (my combined gif is made up of multiple images to give the animation effect).

I also happen to like it, and I'm not going to make signatures just to please you, but will leave it as is - a masterpiece of gif combination and optimization ;)

Hmmm.... I did not mean it as an insult Ice. It was offered as constructive criticism so you could improve. I know full well just how much work goes into making images look good. Especially GIF images.

Here is my take on this;
If you are selling a "Toolbar" to people, then would it be a good idea to tell folks what the toolbar is about?. I think so. It might also be a good idea to show folks the toolbar you are trying to sell. And tell them about the features that you have in this "Brilliant Toolbar".

So this is what i might put in my sig if i was trying to sell that;



That image is 26k so its not a very big image size for forums. In fact its considerably smaller than most of the stats images that everybody else has. That image also has all the info you need to know about the toolbar and its features. Plus its a nice compact height at 22 pixels and it will fit well in any forum signature. It took about 20 minutes to make it.

Ice, my friend, the image is yours, if you want it, you are welcome to use and abuse it!

Johnney.

Thanks John, but I'm not trying to sell anything. I made the toolbar for myself to help me navigate the BOINC forums and other useful links I could easily find find on whichever computer I use, wherever. If others want to to use it, they are welcome to. I would still use my toolbar, and find it fantastically useful, even if nobody else did - that's up to them. I prefer not to have a pushy flashing selling advert in my signature thanks ;)

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flaming balloons

I also happen to like it, and I'm not going to make signatures just to please you, but will leave it as is - a masterpiece of gif combination and optimization ;)

I haven't seen sigs or avatars for years because I think they are a waste of time and bandwidth--but on a whim I thought I would replace them and take a look.

Ice, that thing is an abortion. But ohdearjeebus so are plenty of them.

Folks, it's wasteful. It's wasteful of time, bandwidth, server space and effort, et cetera. That isn't to say that you aren't entitled to post these um, well, masterpieces, of waste. Choose as you wish using your own decision making skills. But it should also serve to illustrate the point I often make in the great we're-all-going-to-die debate about gloBULL warming.

Even though these things are wasteful, there are no costs to you to post them because you a) don't have to worry about it, and b) the value to you of having them is worth more to you than the costs of using them.

Sure, it's a small amount. But the principle is the same. The benefits outweigh the costs. Many people drive SUVs because the few times it's full of their family, their family is nearly as safe as it's possible to be--in a collision, the Prius driver will end up as raspberry jam--and therefore the environmental costs are minor compared to the lives of their children. That is a reasonable position to take regardless of whether you would take it or not.

People heat and air condition their homes because even if they turn their thermostat up or down to "save energy" they still realize that they are happier and more productive instead of being miserable and freezing/sweltering.

The same thing happens here. If I remember correctly, Eric asked that people stop creating "waste of time du jour" and "post here in this endless cycle" and "post for the sake of posting" threads because that affects the project. That still happens, endlessly. Similarly, many pack their .sig with this stuff.

More power to you, of course, but forgive those of us who cannot take your exhortations about cutting down and using less seriously.

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Cordially,
Rush

elrushbo2@theobviousgmail.com
Remove the obvious...

More power to you, of course, but forgive those of us who cannot take your exhortations about cutting down and using less seriously.

Rush,
You made many very good points there, i agree 100%. I like making images because i spend Hugh amounts of time doing more serious stuff that is difficult and time consuming. I find the images are fun to make and they take my mind off things for a while.


Ice wrote:

Thanks John, but I'm not trying to sell anything. I made the toolbar for myself to help me navigate the BOINC forums and other useful links I could easily find find on whichever computer I use, wherever. If others want to to use it, they are welcome to. I would still use my toolbar, and find it fantastically useful, even if nobody else did - that's up to them. I prefer not to have a pushy flashing selling advert in my signature thanks ;)

I use the word "Sell" in relation to everything, ie; "Everything can be a sale in some ways". You signature is a kind of shop window to what you want people to see about you.

That's fair enough so!

John.

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More power to you, of course, but forgive those of us who cannot take your exhortations about cutting down and using less seriously.

You made many very good points there, i agree 100%. I like making images because i spend Hugh amounts of time doing more serious stuff that is difficult and time consuming. I find the images are fun to make and they take my mind off things for a while.

No worries, John. Enjoy yourself.

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Cordially,
Rush

elrushbo2@theobviousgmail.com
Remove the obvious...

I use the word "Sell" in relation to everything, ie; "Everything can be a sale in some ways". You signature is a kind of shop window to what you want people to see about you.

That's fair enough so!

John.

Not really John. My signature has two primary functions. One, to display my copyright and protect all my images as my own intellectual property. Two, to display my stats so that I can keep an eye on them, as many people do. There is a third of course; a reminder that you all use my Brilliant toolbar if you want. But you don't have to buy it. It's freely made available by me to all. Always has been.

That's fair enough for me.

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flaming balloons

I haven't seen sigs or avatars for years because I think they are a waste of time and bandwidth--but on a whim I thought I would replace them and take a look.

Ice, that thing is an abortion. But ohdearjeebus so are plenty of them.

Rush, you are entitled to your opinions. As for bandwidth, I have plenty of photos to take care of that on this forum ;)

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flaming balloons

I made these nice CSS style buttons that match the BOINC software used here by SETI@home. When you put these in your signature, they look like they are part of the forum setting rather than a signature!
____________________________________



________________________

They all click to the address written on the button!. That's exactly what they will look like in your signature!

I just made a few but really i can make them to say anything at all. If anyone wants a particular one, i will make it for you!

John.

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I made these nice CSS style buttons that match the BOINC software used here by SETI@home. When you put these in your signature, they look like they are part of the forum setting rather than a signature!
____________________________________



________________________

They all click to the address written on the button!. That's exactly what they will look like in your signature!

I just made a few but really i can make them to say anything at all. If anyone wants a particular one, i will make it for you!

John.

I have a "Brilliant" toolbar with myriads of links to very useful places so that you won't even need any in your signature :P

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flaming balloons

They all click to the address written on the button!. That's exactly what they will look like in your signature!

I just made a few but really i can make them to say anything at all. If anyone wants a particular one, i will make it for you!

Thanks John.

A quick question, why is the text on your buttons blurry? Is that the font on your machine that is somewhat different? I'm curious.

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Cordially,
Rush

elrushbo2@theobviousgmail.com
Remove the obvious...

They all click to the address written on the button!. That's exactly what they will look like in your signature!

I just made a few but really i can make them to say anything at all. If anyone wants a particular one, i will make it for you!

Thanks John.

A quick question, why is the text on your buttons blurry? Is that the font on your machine that is somewhat different? I'm curious.

Rush, the truth is, because i'm not great at this!

But now that you said it, i was having difficulty getting the font to match perfectly. I had no idea why it was bluring on me. So i went back and tried again and found a setting that fixed it!

So here are th new results with the bluring fix;
The old way;
The new way;

I think its better now!

John.

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The buttons look good Johnney.

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A quick question, why is the text on your buttons blurry? Is that the font on your machine that is somewhat different? I'm curious.

Rush, the truth is, because i'm not great at this!

Not your fault John. Graphic programs will tend to merge lettering onto another graphic in a way that it blurs, the thicker the lettering the more it will tend to blur. There will be no blurring of the button if it is white (with a black border). You could then use a 'replace white for gray', or fill the white area to gray to get a button with sharp lettering. This will work for other colors than gray of course, but in all cases you will lose any textured effect on the button. Your solution to use a thinner font, resulting in minimal blur and retaining the textured button, is a good one.

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I have and will quit forums where signature images are so large the site is more like a signature image showcase than anything else-

All those neon colors, huge images- with sparkly things going blinky- blinky- blinky. One site even set their sig areas to allow scrolling for such things- and that's just as bad.

when a person makes a single line post- ya miss it because it's lost to the signature.

Simple- clean- and basic- otherwise- set links to pages that with show all that garbage.

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He who trims himself to suit others soon whittles himself away. - Raymond Hull

To each there own.
I like signatures.

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Join Calm Chaos

oh I like them too - just not when they over dominate a person's post content.

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He who trims himself to suit others soon whittles himself away. - Raymond Hull

when a person makes a single line post- ya miss it because it's lost to the signature.

Now ya tell me... ;)

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It may not be 1984 but George Orwell sure did see the future . . .

Rush, the truth is, because i'm not great at this!

You're better than I am, I can't do it.

But now that you said it, i was having difficulty getting the font to match perfectly. I had no idea why it was bluring on me. So i went back and tried again and found a setting that fixed it!

So here are th new results with the bluring fix; I think its better now!

Much better, well done.

Thank you for the explanation as well, Ice.

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Cordially,
Rush

elrushbo2@theobviousgmail.com
Remove the obvious...