The "About Me" page, signatures and you!

[Siegfried]

This new board has some nice features, and one of my favourites is the new profile page. It gives everyone a page that summarises their EB content, and by using the About Me feature they can add to it as much as they want. For some time I've seen the need for this ability and I've even considered trialling a sub-forum where everyone has a page as a temporary solution. But now that Eurobricks has it as a board feature we'd like you to use it, as it has the potential to resolve the issue that bothers many members on both side of the debate; signatures.

As an example, I just spent the afternoon summarising my time on EB over the last two years; take a look! Now I can show off the work I've done and not feel guilty about it! We'd like all members to do something similar in future rather than fill their signatures with past work that most people will ignore anyway. Remember after all that the signature rule is...

Signatures: As a rough rule, you may use up to four pictures each with a maximum pixel height of 200, a file size of 250k and no more than 200 words. If your sig is bigger than your average post, it can confuse someone reading a thread and you may be asked to reduce it, or a staff member may do it for you. Some exceptions may be made on a case by case basis, but please try to limit the space you use. Font size should be kept to a minimum: ideally no bigger than size 3.

...and by using the About Me page it will be much easier to follow these rules. Additionally, things like "wish lists", long lists and multiple links will no longer be acceptable in signatures; the About Me page is a much more appropriate place.

On a positive note, as a trial we'll try be extremely flexible with what you do post on your About Me page; loads of links, lots of pictures, quotes, lists, items for sale... you name it! You can then post in your signature when you do updates to it and everyone will be happy. Just remember to keep your page as on-topic as possible; please don't make it into a shrine to Mötley Crüe or similar.

So in summary;

• About Me is cool.
  
• Try to keep you signatures small, the rest goes to the About Me page.
  
• Wish lists are to be moved to your About Me page.
  
• Feel free to use your signature to advertise sales in your About Me page.
  

Questions?

[Dunjohn]

One question, yeah: Are you psychic? One more review and I would've hit eight, which is the link limit in signatures. I'd been wondering what to do after that, because I like to keep track of them. So your timing on highlighting this is suspiciously perfect, but thanks!

[Ralph_S]

That is a very nice feature. I posted a few small pictures of my recent MOCs on there, after reading this thread.

Thanks

Ralph

[Hobbes]

So in summary;

• About Me is cool.
  
• Try to keep you signatures small, the rest goes to the About Me page.
  
• Wish lists are to be moved to your About Me page.
  
• Feel free to use your signature to advertise sales in your About Me page.
  

Then you have to make the user profile accessible for visitors not logged in. Same goes for the search function. I don't like forums that force you to log in to search or see pictures or user profiles. Those are functions that also help decide possible new members whether they actually want to become a member. The search function helped me back in 2005 to decide to register.

I have my reasons why I don't log in every time I visit here. But it's really annoying that I have to log in to use the search function or can't see user profiles (like my own with my posts from the past). E-mail addresses and IM account infos are made anonymous anyway so why can't I see the profile or use the search function?

And don't say traffic...

[Siegfried]

And don't say traffic...

Well, sorry to say that is the answer in regard to search. Banning search for guests reduces our server load by a large degree.

As for hiding member profiles, that's an anti-spammer measure.

But you know about all of this so I don't understand why you are asking.

[Hobbes]

Well, sorry to say that is the answer in regard to search. Banning search for guests reduces our server load by a large degree.

That may have been true for the old server but I don't buy it for the new one. Pictures generate a lot more traffic.

As for hiding member profiles, that's an anti-spammer measure.

As far as I remember contact info was made anonymous when you viewed a profile and weren't logged in. Did that change? Then I can see the reason.

But you know about all of this so I don't understand why you are asking.

Because I don't know and because I wasn't around anymore when those measures were decided. The board's really become annoying to use as a lurker and I just wanted to know why.

[Siegfried]

That may have been true for the old server but I don't buy it for the new one. Pictures generate a lot more traffic.

We have a lot more guests than we used to (and much more than most other LEGO sites), and when we let the search engines in our traffic spiked as well. It comes down to it that without banning guests from searching the site will slow down or even crash in daily peak periods. bzpower.com has comparable traffic to us and they have banned guest searching as well.

As far as I remember contact info was made anonymous when you viewed a profile and weren't logged in. Did that change? Then I can see the reason.

It's standard policy on many forums, including my own and, for example, Classic-Castle.com and Classic-Space.com. To my recollection EB has always been that way. A forum that doesn't do this becomes a bigger spammer target as they don't even need to post; all they do is edit their signature and they get free advertising!

Because I don't know and because I wasn't around anymore when those measures were decided.

Indeed. Soon after you left the issue of increased traffic became a problem. But I was more referring to the fact that reducing/preventing guests from searching and hiding member pages is common practice. Sorry for not explaining myself better in the earlier post; I made it on my phone while in bed!

The board's really become annoying to use as a lurker and I just wanted to know why.

I am sorry that you find the board annoying to browse. If you want to be anonymous without logging in I do have some ideas of how you could do this. I do like seeing you around, but it is understandable wanting to do this as ex-Staff. I could look into re-enabling the Guest searching and tackle the load issue with a high search flood setting (at least 2 minutes), but I'm not sure if that will treat all guests as one "member" or track it via IPs. If it's the latter it might help and probably wouldn't affect our server too much.

[vexorian]

Then you have to make the user profile accessible for visitors not logged in. Same goes for the search function. I don't like forums that force you to log in to search or see pictures or user profiles. Those are functions that also help decide possible new members whether they actually want to become a member. The search function helped me back in 2005 to decide to register.

I have my reasons why I don't log in every time I visit here. But it's really annoying that I have to log in to use the search function or can't see user profiles (like my own with my posts from the past). E-mail addresses and IM account infos are made anonymous anyway so why can't I see the profile or use the search function?

And don't say traffic...

traffic.

Search pages are disabled in most modern forum software by default because it is like opening the door for DoS attacks.

If you want to search while not logged-in , google does much better. In fact, google generally does better than most canned forum software search features. The only exception is when you want to search stuff that is in private forums, but then again, you'll forcefully need to be logged in to see the private forums anyway...

[CP5670]

This is a good feature. I'll need to add a few lines to my profile too.

As for the search issue, one solution is to embed the Google Custom Search panel into the forum, and leave that option open for guests. This is done on a lot of other forums these days. I would like to see the search time limits for registered members removed though, as I've said in the past.

[Captain Green Hair]

You show off!

Indeed a good feature, when I find time I'll definitely write something too on mine.

I forgat which set I got first though...

[Siegfried]

As for the search issue, one solution is to embed the Google Custom Search panel into the forum, and leave that option open for guests.

Yes, this is actually a priorty job too; I have a secondary usage for integrated search...

I would like to see the search time limits for registered members removed though, as I've said in the past.

You need to do a search more than every ten seconds?

You show off!

I'm only half finished too!

[Rick]

You need to do a search more than every ten seconds?

Searching often doesn't give you the intended/wanted results, so in that case, yeah. *mumbles something about being glad the timeout is lower for fellows*

[Siegfried]

Searching often doesn't give you the intended/wanted results, so in that case, yeah. *mumbles something about being glad the timeout is lower for fellows*

[yodavoice]

Learn to use search better, you should.

[/yodavoice]

Don't worry; I have a planned solution to both problems.

[Rick]

Learn to use search better, you should.

I'm learning master Yoda. I like that the 'Advanced' button is so much more reachable on the new board.

[CP5670]

You need to do a search more than every ten seconds?

If you forget about something when doing a search (for example, a phrase without quotes) and the results come up bogus, you usually know it right away. Although 10 seconds is fine if you have changed it to that. It used to be 30 seconds the last time I tried it, which was excessive.

[Matn]

Thanks for the information! I never said much in my "About Me" page, but you really have convinced me with all the stuff you have on yours, Siegfried. It's and ideal place to store links to my creations and reviews for myself and for people who are interested. I'll make my work of it tomorrow.

[Big Cam]

Even as a fan of signatures, I think this is great timing, as many sits have been getting out of hand.

I say kudos on keeping the board easy to navigate and fast.

[L-space]

Today I wanted to change my signature banner to this:

However I get the message

[#10211] This image is larger than the maximum allowed dimensions of 200 x 600.

But I have resized it to 99x599 to fit with the guidelines.

Can someone tell me what's wrong with it?

BTW this is what I wanted to make of my signature:

<font size="2"><font face="Palatino Linotype"><i>The Turtle moves......</i></font></font><br><font face="Book Antiqua"><div align="center"><font size="1">the banner is a clicky<br>[topic='45745']<img src="http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/L-space/avatar/banners/banner_wip.png">[/topic]<br></font></div></font><br><div align="center">[topic="31228"]<font size="2">the Discworld Index thread</font>[/topic]</div><br><div align="center"><a href="http://www.l-space.nl" class="bbc_url" title="Link" rel="nofollow external"><b>L-space</b></a> <a href="http://www.mocpages.com/home.php/22462" class="bbc_url" title="Link" rel="nofollow external"><font color="#0000ff">MOCpages</font></a> <a href="http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=L-space" class="bbc_url" title="Link" rel="nofollow external"><font color="#ff0000">Brickshelf</font></a> <a href="http://www.brickset.com/search/?ownedBy=l-space" class="bbc_url" title="Link" rel="nofollow external"><font color="#008000">Brickset</font></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/38180943@N06/sets/" class="bbc_url" title="Link" rel="nofollow external"><font color="#00bfff">flick</font><font color="#ff0000">r</font></a> </div>

[Siegfried]

Can someone tell me what's wrong with it?

Nothing! I set up the feature wrong; it should have been 600x200...

Sorry for the delay; to test and fix this I needed to use two accounts as well as the admin panel and that's a lot of bother, and it wasn't important enough to drop everything for it. Issues like this I tend to note and deal with when I have a block of time big enough.

(You did post this in the wrong topic topic though. )

[L-space]

Nothing! I set up the feature wrong; it should have been 600x200...

Sorry for the delay; to test and fix this I needed to use two accounts as well as the admin panel and that's a lot of bother, and it wasn't important enough to drop everything for it. Issues like this I tend to note and deal with when I have a block of time big enough.

(You did post this in the wrong topic topic though. )

Silly me, thanks for solving it.

And it works too

Edited September 15, 2010 by L-space

[Siegfried]

Silly me, thanks for solving it.

Not a prob. I never got around to testing the banner sized signatures; as it turns out most I did right, but a few weren't.

[WhiteFang]

Just a bump on this topic, to encourage Eurobricks members to actively use your own "About Me" page to talk about yourself. It's very useful and neat feature to arrange all of your related info altogether instead of squeezing everything under your signature.

[Big Cam]

Just a bump on this topic, to encourage Eurobricks members to actively use your own "About Me" page to talk about yourself. It's very useful and neat feature to arrange all of your related info altogether instead of squeezing everything under your signature.

So I FINALLY got around to updating my page and I must say this is a brilliant idea.

I love how simple my signature is now and I love the amount of detail I get to put on the about me page.

This is by far the best feature EB has implemented in a while.

Dear Seiggy, the set index is badass, this was just implemented first.

[Legostein]

Hello everybody,

let me use this as a chance to thank everyone, staff and community for the great atmosphere on these forums. I can't imagine a better place for presentation and discussion of MOCs and the exchange of ideas. I enjoyed this very much over the last year, and I am glad to tell you a bit more about me in my brand new "About Me" page! A great feature, thank you.

Cheers,

~ Christopher

Edited November 6, 2010 by Legostein

[Zorbas]

Brilliant job Chris. It turned out great.