When I set up this site, I felt that allowing such things as images for avatars and graphics images and banners within the signature area would be a nice touch for all the members to utilize. Sometimes things got carried away, and I had to limit the number of text lines used in the signature area, but all in all there really weren't many problems that had to be dealt with concerning those areas.
However, lately I believe things are getting a bit carried away. Specifically I am referring to the dragon images that some people sport in within their signature areas. My understanding of the way they work is that they provide a link back to a website, which accepts the incoming image request, processes it, and then returns an image based on some sort of criteria related to hits and views. So, as anyone who thinks about this a bit can see, this provides quite a bit of overhead for any site that is having those images viewed on the webpages for their viewers. Of particular concern to me are external calls made to another server for each viewing of the image (and some members here have MULTIPLE dragon images within their signature area). Obviously that can affect the page loading for ANY viewer who views a page where a member has posted a reply and the signature area is visibly displaying those dragon images. I really don't want to be a wet blanket concerning people have some fun, however when it affects the performance of this site and quite probably incurs a penalty on the other viewers, then I am afraid that I must ask everyone to remove such images from their signature area immediately.
Sorry about this, but I really can't have something like this affecting the throughput of this site and causing a penalty for all viewers. I hope you understand my reasoning for this concern.
However, lately I believe things are getting a bit carried away. Specifically I am referring to the dragon images that some people sport in within their signature areas. My understanding of the way they work is that they provide a link back to a website, which accepts the incoming image request, processes it, and then returns an image based on some sort of criteria related to hits and views. So, as anyone who thinks about this a bit can see, this provides quite a bit of overhead for any site that is having those images viewed on the webpages for their viewers. Of particular concern to me are external calls made to another server for each viewing of the image (and some members here have MULTIPLE dragon images within their signature area). Obviously that can affect the page loading for ANY viewer who views a page where a member has posted a reply and the signature area is visibly displaying those dragon images. I really don't want to be a wet blanket concerning people have some fun, however when it affects the performance of this site and quite probably incurs a penalty on the other viewers, then I am afraid that I must ask everyone to remove such images from their signature area immediately.
Sorry about this, but I really can't have something like this affecting the throughput of this site and causing a penalty for all viewers. I hope you understand my reasoning for this concern.