GameBanshee Forums

I'm curious to see how attached people are to them. Disabling them would close a door to any bots or people trying to misuse the site's search rating at Google to promote their own adverts.

I am personally not that fond of a piece of forum etiquette/custom that is over a decade old and isn't really present in any new kind of social network anymore.

For this particular forum i would miss the signature, as it's not some cheesy quote or useless saying, but a helpful link that i couldn't add anywhere else.

For most others.. nah. Don't care.

Tricky wrote:I'm curious to see how attached people are to them. Disabling them would close a door to any bots or people trying to misuse the site's search rating at Google to promote their own adverts.

I am personally not that fond of a piece of forum etiquette/custom that is over a decade old and isn't really present in any new kind of social network anymore.

Google don't attribute much search engine value to such links.
Advert links in signatures is more to attempt to bypass moderation but otherwise function like spam e-mails in simply trying to create traffic because a certain percentage of traffic usually converts into actions.
So more links, more traffic, more action - hence spamming works.

And the only reason why "signatures" (for example) aren't present at social networks and thereby are build upon status messages and not larger posts such as a forum. The faster update via status messages or smaller messages (twitter for example) don't lead to much benefit of signatures.

Signatures isn't a part of forum etiquette, but like avatars and display names a part of your "identity" (if you so choose).

Also you can turn off displaying of signatures in your User CP options, so there's no need to remove them for others.

If I lost my signature I would be devastated.

I don't find signatures important. Just like I don't find a reputation system important, and applaud gamebanshee for not really having one.
Usually I just put some random, slightly amusing phrase in my signature. Like so...

Moot wrote:I don't find signatures important. Just like I don't find a reputation system important, and applaud gamebanshee for not really having one.

There is a reputation system at the news section here when you post a comment. If you ask me, I find it silly and pointless. You get positives when the majority agree with you but if you take a contrary line, you get negatives. Hooray for democracy.

What do you mean there's no rep system?? I am an exalted member!!!

endboss wrote:What do you mean there's no rep system?? I am an exalted member!!!

That's a rank system, and it's based on post count.
A reputation system is different, and involves people liking or disliking your posts. It generally reflects the content of what a user posts. It's rather frivolous, in my opinion, as such things are easily abused. Also, reputation is harmful to newer members, as they are generally disregarded as untrustworthy due to lack of a high rep count. On top of that, as DesR85 pointed out, someone could damage your reputation over a difference of opinion, regardless of how helpful or sourced the content of your post may be. I've even seen it used as a tool for personal vendettas.

But all that's just my opinion, and it's also quite off-topic.

So what you're saying is I'm not really one of the most valued members on this site?

DesR85 wrote:There is a reputation system at the news section here when you post a comment. If you ask me, I find it silly and pointless. You get positives when the majority agree with you but if you take a contrary line, you get negatives. Hooray for democracy.

Yeah - that's the reason such reps are pointless for sites like this basically. It is rarely given for the quality of the post, but for agreement of the post.
So post something favorable about Bethesda and you'll get plus, but show how bad their games are you'll get negative (oh yes, I just used your post to rant about a company :laugh: )
I know Buck loves feedback, so your observations might be valuable to him.

I don't frequent the news section much myself so I hadn't even noticed.

@Moot:
There is however a significant difference between reputations systems and signatures. One is a method for the poster to express something "about" himself and create an identity so to speak along side avatar image and name and so on.
The other is usually just a pointless popularity contests disguised as a reputation.

endboss wrote:So what you're saying is I'm not really one of the most valued members on this site?

In your case, you are. It is just a coincidence that your exalted is named the same as all others :laugh:

Dang! I want to give you a negative for the Bethesda jab, but a positive for your compliment! We need the ability to rep sentences. :laugh: