Do not vote unless you understand exactly what this is! It has nothing to do with signature dimensions/size increasing! If you don't want to read the whole post, read the summary box. If for any reason you feel that it shouldn't be increased, or doesn't need to be increased, post why. Don't vote no without giving a reason. tl;dr is NOT a good reason to vote no. Also, "Because I'm fine as it is" is a selfish reason and also not a good reason to vote no.

First of all, this has nothing to do with suggesting an increase for the maximum allowed image (400x150 pixels, 70 kB). This has to do with the coding involved when you write the code for your signature.
This is reposted with a more clean layout and explanation, perhaps this is the largest suggestion ever.

SUMMARY
The limit of length of signatures is making some people who want to use an artsy display of images and links in their signature unable to do so. For god knows what reason, there is also a limit on the number of pictures allowed in a signature, this limit should be increased to at least 5. In order to expand the customization ability of signatures for those who need/want it, should the limit be increased?

MY SUGGESTION
Increase the limit of character in a signature from 400 to 1000-2000, and the number of allowed images in a signature to at least 5. This is a pretty big privilage, so perhaps only have it available to those with 0% warn.

The signature rules. You should know them. Learn more about them.
Before addressing the issue, this is a review and expansion on the 3 size rules for signatures:


Rule A is only enforced for images, as it seems, since to calculate the whole size of the signature varies on text and such, and it has to be measured using a program. In other words, if you have a 150 tall image and then 3 lines of text, no one is going to bother you about that. If you have 10 pictures on top of each other, they are all 15 pixels high, that would make the total height 150, which is in accordance with this rule, and would be allowed as long as they are less than 400 pixels wide and meets the requirement for rule C as well.
Rule B means that if you don't have an image, you get 6 lines of text (a blank line counts as a line of text), and if you do have an image (meaning at least 1 image), you can only have 3 lines. QUOTE (XXXXXXX) also counts as a line. For some reason, this is the rule I've found most commonly broken, but it is weakly enforced, actually typically is only taken if you have like 10 lines or if someone reports directly to a Member++.
Rule C means that no matter how many images you have, the size of all of them needs to be less than 70 kB TOTAL. Mods are a little lenient on this rule if the limit is only a few .1 kB over, sometimes up to 2 kB. Sometimes, images will change size according with stats on a web server. They are known as dynamic images. Dynamic images MUST come from a specific location in order to be dynamic. If you take that image, save it to your desktop, then upload it back to imageshack/photobucket/tinyurl/etc., it is NO LONGER DYNAMIC.

Reasons for suggestion
There are quite a few reasons my suggestion, obviously it's something I want to do personally in my signature, but here they are.

I'm sure many of you have been editing your signature, finished, went to press the edit signature button and got the most annoying message in the world,
"Wtf, why is my signature too long?" you think to yourself, "I'm 100% sure all images are total less than 400x150 and 70kB, and I don't have 3 lines of text!" This will undoubtly occur for people who try to use many dynamic signatures, or a "multiple part" image, which is elaborated on bellow.
(also, did everyone anyone else notice that OCCURRED is spelled wrong in that? lmao.

Links
Links can take a lot of room to post. First of all, if you want to post an authorized outside link, you have to use the following code, since you're not allowed to mask links leading outside of jsp.org, this is to prevent users from going to links they don't know.

Typically a link is close to 50 characters, so this takes up nearly 100 characters, 1/4 of the currently allowed limit. The limit for posting text is 6 lines without an image, so if you wanted to post 6 authorized outside links, each on 1 line, you would be unable to. There's no rule that says you can't, SO WHY CAN'T YOU?

Other links, like linking images that lead to other places on jsp look like this picture shown bellow. It is a donor star and will link you to my profile if you click on it.

The code for it is:

Having a couple of these in your signature really reduces the amount of space you have to work for some actual text you may want as well.

Dynamic Signatures
A dynamic signature is an image which tracks stats or progress from a server and automatically updates in accordance to what is there. You can't make your own (say you wanted a dynamic server for # of posts on jsp), the only way you could is if you have a server and program a feature that will look for X stat @ X site and import it into X image.
Even though you may not be able to actually MAKE your own, you can often customize the style of them.
This is a dynamic signature from draynor which automatically updates as you gain EXP.


It is 29 pixels tall, so if you wanted 5 different ones in your sig, which would be a total of 145 pixels tall. No problem right? WRONG!

It is too much text, this code in particular is 368 characters exactly, just barely in the limit, but then there's the 2 image limit. Why in gods name is there a limit for number of pictures you can put in your signature? *shrug*

Multiple Part (Dynamic) Images
This is the major reason, for me anyways, that I would like the # of images limit to be increased and the limit for codes to also be increased. A multiple part dynamic image is more or less a dynamic image that has other regular images surrounding it. This is an example of a multiple part dynamic image:

(Design is property of Chavez at MAL)

The area inside of a red box is a DYNAMIC image. The 4 areas inside blue and yellow boxes are regular images, in other words what you see here is actually 5 seperate images. The code for this kind of image (this on in particular) looks like this:


From this code, you can clearly see where the 4 non dynamic images are hosted, and where the dynamic image is hosted. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th image are on the same line so they appear horizontally next to each other. Obviously this one couldn't be used on jsp since the total size itself is too large, but even if you had one that totaled less than 400x150 and 70kB, you STILL wouldn't be able to use it because of the limit on images and text coding.
So why can you just take a picture, put it on tinyurl and use that? Well, I already covered it, but if you do that to a dynamic image, it is no longer dynamic, and will no longer update automatically.

Convenience Factor
Being able to put whatever you want in your signature in itself is a true saver, since you don't have to be worried about links and images using all the room. In the end, you probably won't have a ton of actual text in your signature, most of it is taken up by codes, links, and images.

Counter Arguments
Reasons people may say to not have the limit changed.

Increase site load
On the contrary, if you were to say use 5 images as 1 picture, the sig is all the same size, it is STILL less than 70kB, and it is in fact MORE EFFICIENT to have multiple images rather then to have just 1 image. Multiple image locations means the server can do 5 small packets of data instead of having 1 large picture alone. The images for the actual pictures are stored off site anyways.
The transition from 400 character limit to say 2500 is NOTHING. 2500 characters is close to 3 kB, something small enough that you can load in under a second using a dial-up connection.

People will post a wall of text!
You're not allowed to post more than 6 lines of text without an image anyways, so they wouldn't be able to anyways without getting in trouble.

People would just post a ton of unrelated images in their signature.
They should be limited by total size (which they are), not by the quantity or style of the images.

Combine the Images into a single image and use an image server like imageshack.
This issue has been covered several times already, this wouldn't work if any images you use are dynamic. Dynamic signatures NEED to be a certain link or they WILL NOT WORK. The reason for having a dynamic image is having it update automatically, no use in having a dynamic signature that doesn't update, and it's just too much of a pain to update it by hand. (updates for some signatures happen a few times an hour)

Why would you need more than 2 images?
Reasons posted above, go read them.

Signatures are fine as they are/it wouldn't matter for me anyways.
This is probably the most self-centered reason you can use for not wanting to change these limits. Who cares if YOU don't want to use them, OTHERS may, and you're extremely selfish to not want something because you don't need it, where as other people could use it, and them using it would not effect you at all.

Can't post more than 3 in your post, why have more than 3 in your signature?
Once again, just for customization, if you ever wanted to use a picture made up of a dynamic pic and 4 other non-dynamic. Why shouldn't you be able to? It loads faster than a single image anyways, and in the end, the size limit is 70kB no matter how many pictures you have.

Would be too hard to remove limits
On the contrary, I think Paul could easily do it in under a few minutes...if he wanted to, which is the purpose of this topic.

If you have any other, better counter argument, feel free to post. As suggested above, this would be a privilage that only those who have 0% would be able to use, like those with 10%+ warn can only have 3 images in their profile instead of 20 something. Anyways positive criticism is supported, go for it.

This post was edited by Godel on Nov 19 2008 03:32pm

Yes, and would I plan to take advantage of a new limit to make my signature look better than it currently does.

My signature sucks at the moment,
I can't add my Urls to other sites etc.
Would be great if this will be approved!

I'm glad you changed your mind, in the last thread you posted no

You Got My Yes

alot of people would use this

although idk how are you going to pull off making njaugar getting more than 3 images in a sig XD since anywhere the max = 3

This post was edited by Djsem on Nov 19 2008 03:39pm

If enough people want it and have a good reason, why not? Even just 2 is kinda unfair for those who want to use a very creative display of skills using a dynamic core.
And you are infact allowed to have more than 3 in your profile if you have 0% warn.

This post was edited by Godel on Nov 19 2008 03:42pm

i already suggested this and it was denied.

Really?
Was there a reason?
Though I did spend like an hour on this o_o lol. Maybe times have changed.

This post was edited by Godel on Nov 19 2008 03:47pm

Bump