Sig wars!

[shmax]

Hey guys, if your shmax signature recently vanished on http://www.tfw2005.com, it was because I inadvertently raised the file size over their 40k limit with my recent changes to reflect the site's new logo. Someone at tfw noticed the change, and went on a bit of a spree yanking sigs, bless their miserly little heart. The good news is I was able to do some optimizations, and the "compact" version of the sig is once again well under 40k.

You can get the bbcode for it here (the last option):
http://www.shmax.com/sig_help

Sorry for the screw-up, folks!

[Wajo357]

there there... we all make mistakes. You are forgiven. I would say this thread should be front-paged, but I see you changed that section from News to "Photo-of-the-day".

[Tripredacus]

Hey mr 4000 posts, I see you aren't a newbie anymore!

Oh and nice stealth forum change... I don't recall any thread about that. lol 

[shmax]

Hey mr 4000 posts, I see you aren't a newbie anymore!

Heh, I never did figure out where "Newbie" was coming from. Now that it's gone, I, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.

Oh and nice stealth forum change... I don't recall any thread about that. lol 

Actually Tripredacus contributed that.

[Wajo357]

Also noticed that we can get to people's collection and wishlist in the forums from links in the author column.

[Antron007]

Also noticed that we can get to people's collection and wishlist in the forums from links in the author column.

Nice. Thanks Max.

[Tripredacus]

Hey mr 4000 posts, I see you aren't a newbie anymore!

Heh, I never did figure out where "Newbie" was coming from. Now that it's gone, I, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.

It may be that you had disabled custom titles that made it become "locked" on newbie for that time. But you can customize the membergroups.

Admin -> Features and Options
Members -> Membergroups
Scroll down and there are 5 default groups with a post count value.
That's where it comes from.

[engledogg]

You can turn off the titles for members of certain groups (mods, global mods, and admins only)...I turned it off about a month ago. 

Overall, though, the titles are based on how many posts you have.

After doing a little research, I just created a new title (User) with a required # of posts of 0...so basically, everyone has been promoted out of the Newbie status and is now a User.

Other titles can be added later on, although I can't imagine anyone clamoring for other titles...so, I just did what needed to be done to remove the "Newbie" status.

Does this work for everyone?

MIKE
engledogg

[shmax]

You can turn off the titles for members of certain groups (mods, global mods, and admins only)...I turned it off about a month ago. 

Overall, though, the titles are based on how many posts you have.

After doing a little research, I just created a new title (User) with a required # of posts of 0...so basically, everyone has been promoted out of the Newbie status and is now a User.

Other titles can be added later on, although I can't imagine anyone clamoring for other titles...so, I just did what needed to be done to remove the "Newbie" status.

Does this work for everyone?

MIKE
engledogg

Thanks Trip and Ed!

[Tripredacus]

Great now I got that song in my head. 

[shmax]

Apparently a lot of people are still having trouble with tfw. It seems my assumption that most of them were already using the "compact" version was wrong. I'm torn as to what to do, here--I really like the new logo version, but if I keep branching on all the possible variations of the sig (fancy/regular background, full collection tallies/just fun facts, etc) the "Your dynamic signature" page is going to become a mess.

Maybe I should just make a "Build your signature" page where you can choose features to display, pick colors and a background image, and just tune it until it's under whatever size you're looking for. It'll push the toyline expansion back yet again, but I think I could probably bang it out in a few days. Thoughts?

[shmax]

Apparently a lot of people are still having trouble with tfw. It seems my assumption that most of them were already using the "compact" version was wrong. I'm torn as to what to do, here--I really like the new logo version, but if I keep branching on all the possible variations of the sig (fancy/regular background, full collection tallies/just fun facts, etc) the "Your dynamic signature" page is going to become a mess.

Maybe I should just make a "Build your signature" page where you can choose features to display, pick colors and a background image, and just tune it until it's under whatever size you're looking for. It'll push the toyline expansion back yet again, but I think I could probably bang it out in a few days. Thoughts?

Working on this, even though I know I really shouldn't let it distract me from More Important Features. I'm planning on making the following things customizable:

• show collection (y/n)


• show fun facts (y/n)


• show personal message (this is a string of text entered by the user... it can be any length, but longer messages will of course make the image that much larger)


• choose background image (can select one of the stock presets, or upload your own)


• rounded corners (y/n)

You will be able to make multiple signatures (up to some max, such as 3) so you can make a small signature for a site like tfw that has a size limitation, or a large one on a site that doesn't care (like this one). Am I missing anything?

[Antron007]

Might I suggest that you eliminate the upload a background picture? Sure it's nice but could become a headache but most importantly, in a word, BRANDING.

I found out about shmax.com from the sig in someones seibertron.com post.  And because of that, you've been stuck with me ever since. ;-)

[shmax]

Might I suggest that you eliminate the upload a background picture? Sure it's nice but could become a headache but most importantly, in a word, BRANDING.

I found out about shmax.com from the sig in someones seibertron.com post.  And because of that, you've been stuck with me ever since. ;-)

Oh, well the shmax logo would still be stamped over on the left. I figure if people could sort of work their own image into the mix somehow they might be more likely to use the signature.

[Antron007]

Now that is not a bad idea at all. Honestly, I just enjoy being able to showcase my collection. However you see fit is good with me.