in reply to Re^5: Distribution of Levels and Writeups (sig)
in thread Distribution of Levels and Writeups

There's nothing useful about having a "paste my favorite quote onto all of my posts" feature. Its a vanity feature. I wouldn't say that vanity features are a bad thing or that in PM's case we've gone over. I would say that it gets annoying to read the same damn quotes all the time. Or quotes, period. That's what homenodes can be used for. This isn't a well reasoned argument - I find signatures to be a vanity feature I would prefer that no one used.

As for being functional, I've found that people's signatures make searching for nodes difficult since sometimes the search matches the content of the signature. When this occurs, it is highly annoying. It has prevented me from searching for some things because I was overwhelmed by the number of nodes that matched because of the signature. I don't recall if I ever completed my search or not or whether I just gave up.

Anyhow, because I wanted to be fair about things I pulled the signatures currently in use on perlmonk's recent nodes. It works out that use of signatures for everything above 100 characters was 69% quotes, 15% vanity tags, 12% quality disclaimers, and then 1% licenses and useful stuff. The smaller signatures were nearly always salutations. I would draw from this that the sweet spot seems to be signatures at or around twenty to forty characters.

I'm not going to post any root level nodes wringing my hands about this and I'm not going to be serious about bugging people with useless signatures. It isn't worth the disruption to PM. I just want to note this once that I really do wish that you and the other people who are misusing this feature would please, quit it. Or at least nix all the vanity tag and quote stuff. At least the disclaimers and license stuff is at least useful.

PodMaster1224 <div class="pmsig"><div class="pmsig-107642"><p><table border=0 cellpadding=1 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr><td colspan=2 bgcolor="#FFF0FF"><small><font color="black"><a href="http://perlmonks.org/index.pl?node=MJD"><b><font color="#0F0FAA">MJD</font></b></a> <a href="http://www.perl.org/yapc/2002/movies/themovie/"><b><font color="#0F0FAA">says</font></b></a> "you <i>can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo</i><B>!</B>"</font></small></td></tr><tr><td colspan=2 bgcolor="#FFE0FF"><small><font color="black">I run a Win32 PPM <a href="http://perlmonks.org/index.pl?node=162391"><b><font color="#0F0FAA">repository</font></b></a> for perl <a href="http://crazyinsomniac.perlmonk.org/perl/ppm"><b><font color="#0F0FAA">5.6.x</font></b></a> and <a href="http://crazyinsomniac.perlmonk.org/perl/ppm/5.8"><b><font color="#0F0FAA">5.8.x</font></b></a> -- I take requests (<a href="http://crazyinsomniac.perlmonk.org/perl/ppm/README.html"><b><font color="#0F0FAA">README</font></b></a>).</font></small></td></tr><tr><td colspan=2 bgcolor="#FFD0FF"><small><font color="black">** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.</font></small></td></tr></table></div></div>
japhy623 <font color="#ff0000">_____________________________________________________</font><br> Jeff <tt><font color="#0000ff">japhy</font></tt> Pinyan, P.L., P.M., P.O.D, X.S.: <a href="http://japhy.perlmonk.org/modules/">Perl</a>, <a href="http://japhy.perlmonk.org/modules/Regexp-Parser/">regex</a>, and <a href="http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=perl5-porters"><tt>perl</tt></a> <a href="http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?query=hacker">hacker</a> <br> <i>How can we ever be the sold short or the cheated, we who for every service have long ago been overpaid? ~~ <b>Meister Eckhart</b></i>
FoxtrotUniform519 <p><tt>-- <br> <font color="#110000">F</font> <font color="#330000">o</font> <font color="#550000">x</font> <font color="#880000">t</font> <font color="#aa0000">r</font> <font color="#dd0000">o</font> <font color="#ff0000">t</font> <font color="#ff0000">U</font> <font color="#dd0000">n</font> <font color="#aa0000">i</font> <font color="#880000">f</font> <font color="#550000">o</font> <font color="#330000">r</font> <font color="#110000">m</font><br> Found a typo in this node? /msg me<br> % man 3 strfry </tt></p>
theorbtwo426 <p><hr> <font size="-2">Warning: Unless otherwise stated, code is untested. Do not use without understanding. Code is posted in the hopes it is useful, but without warranty. All copyrights are relinquished into the public domain unless otherwise stated. I am not an angel. I am capable of error, and err on a fairly regular basis. If I made a mistake, please let me know (such as by replying to this node).</font> </p>
jonadab419 <hr /> &quot;In adjectives, with the addition of inflectional endings, a changeable long vowel (Qamets or Tsere) in an open, propretonic syllable will reduce to Vocal Shewa. This type of change occurs when the open, pretonic syllable of the masculine singular adjective becomes propretonic with the addition of inflectional endings.&quot; &nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;Pratico&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;Van&nbsp;Pelt,&nbsp;BBHG,&nbsp;p68
Juerd379 <p><font color="#800000"> Juerd # { site => '<a href="http://juerd.nl/" target="_blank"><font color="#800000">juerd.nl</font></a>', plp_site => '<a href="http://plp.juerd.nl/" target="_blank"><font color="#800000">plp.juerd.nl</font></a>', do_not_use => '<a href="mailto:spamcollector_perlmonks@juerd.nl" target="_blank"><font color="#800000">spamtrap</font></a>' } </font></p>
dragonchild366 <p>------ <br><i>We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.</i> <p><i>Then there are Damian modules.... *sigh* ... that's not about being less-lazy -- that's about being on some really good drugs -- you know, there is no spoon.</i> - flyingmoose <p>I shouldn't have to say this, but any code, unless otherwise stated, <i>is <b>untested</b></i>
demerphq326 --- <br /> demerphq<br /> <br /> <sub> <ol> <p><em>First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. </em><br /> -- Gandhi</p> <p align="center"> Flux8 </p> </ol> </sub> <!-- <hr /> <sub> <p> <strong>&bull; Update:&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong><br /> </p> </sub> --> <br />
BrowserUk321 <hr /> <font size=1 > <div>Examine what is said, not who speaks.</div> "Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham<br /> "Think for yourself!" - Abigail <br /> "Memory, processor, disk in that order on the hardware side. Algorithm, algorithm, algorithm on the code side." - tachyon<br /> </font>
DaWolf314 <BR><HR style="width: 140px; height: 2px; color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Er Galvão Abbott<BR><A HREF="http://www.galvao.eti.br/" target="_blank">www.galvao.eti.br</a><BR><A HREF="http://portoalegre.pm.org/" target="_blank">Porto Alegre Perl Mongers</a></font>
radiantmatrix308 <small> <tt>require General::Disclaimer;</tt> <p> All code, unless otherwise noted, is <font color="#A02121">untested</font> <p>"All it will give you though, are headaches after headaches as it misinterprets your instructions in the most innovative yet useless ways." - Maypole and I - Tales from the Frontier of a Relationship (by Corion) </small>
BigLug301 <br>Cheers!<br>Rick<br> <font size=1 color=gray><b>If this is a root node: </b> Before responding, please ensure your clue bit is set.<br> <b>If this is a reply: </b>This is a discussion group, not a helpdesk ... If the discussion happens to answer a question you've asked, that's incidental.</font>
Chady280 <hr> <small>He who asks will be a fool for five minutes, but he who doesn't ask will remain a fool for life.<br> Chady | http://chady.net/ <div><strong> Are you a Linux user in Lebanon? join the Lebanese Linux User Group. </strong> </div> </small>
dfaure237 <p>____<br/> HTH, Dominique<br/> <font size='1'><i>My two favorites:<br/> If the only tool you have is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail. --Abraham Maslow<br/> Bien faire, et le faire savoir...</i></font></p>
pfaut222 <center><table><tr><td><font size="-1">90% of every Perl application is already written. &#8658;</font></td></tr><tr><td align="right"><font size="-1"><i>dragonchild</i></font></td></tr></table></center>
pelagic218 <br><font color="#0000ff">p</font><font color="#002aff">e</font><font color="#0054ff">l</font><font color="#007eff">a</font><font color="#00a8ff">g</font><font color="#00d2ff">i</font><font color="#00ffff">c</font>
dvergin216 <p align="center"> ------------------------------------------------------------ <br> <font size="-1">"<i>Perl is a mess and that's good because the <br />problem space is also a mess.</i>" - Larry Wall</font> </p>
antirice209 <font size='1'><p align="right">antirice &nbsp; &nbsp; <br><i>The first rule of Perl club is - use Perl<br>The </i>i<i>th rule of Perl club is - follow rule </i>i<i> - 1 for </i>i<i> &gt; 1</i></p></font>
Jenda194 <p>Jenda<br> <small><i>Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.<br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;-- Rick Osborne</i></small></p>
Ovid189 <p>Cheers,<br /> <a href="/index.pl?node=Ovid&lastnode_id=1072">Ovid</a></p> <p><small>New address of <a href="http://users.easystreet.com/ovid/cgi_course/">my CGI Course</a>.</small></p>
thor182 <p>thor <p><small><tt> Feel the white light, the light within<br/> Be your own disciple, fan the sparks of will<br/> For all of us waiting, your kingdom will come</tt></small></p>
davorg179 -- <br> &lt;<a href="http://www.dave.org.uk">http://www.dave.org.uk</a>> <p><i>"The first rule of Perl club is you do not talk about Perl club."</i><br> -- Chip Salzenberg</p>
sulfericacid166 <br><br> "Age is nothing more than an inaccurate number bestowed upon us at birth as just another means for others to judge and classify us" <br><br> sulfericacid
nite_man160 <p> ---<br> Michael Stepanov aka nite_man </p> <p><font size =-1><i> It's only my opinion and it doesn't have pretensions of absoluteness! </i></font> </p>
Brutha160 <p><small><em>And it came to pass that in time the Great God Om spake unto Brutha, the Chosen One: "Psst!"<br> (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)</em></small>
merlyn157 <p>-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker <br> Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.</p>
Sidhekin155 <p align=center> <font size=-1><code>print "Just another Perl ${\(trickster and hacker)},"</code></font> <br>The Sidhekin <b>proves</b> Sidhe did it!</p>
erikharrison151 Cheers,<br> Erik <p><i>Light a man a fire, he's warm for a day. Catch a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life. - Terry Pratchet</i></p>
Cody Pendant145 <HR> <BR> <blockquote> ($_='kkvvttuubbooppuuiiffssqqffssmmiibbddllffss')<br> =~y~b-v~a-z~s; print </blockquote>
jfroebe143 <p><i>No one has seen what you have seen, and until that happens, we're all going to think that you're nuts.</i> - Jack O'Neil, Stargate SG-1
hardburn139 <p>"There is no shame in being self-taught, only in not trying to learn in the first place." -- Atrus, <i>Myst: The Book of D'ni</i>.</p>
talexb139 <p>Alex / talexb / Toronto</p> <p><small>"Groklaw is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds</small></p>
jepri137 <p><A HREF="http://jepri.perlmonk.org/programs/pdav/">___________________</a><BR> Jeremy<BR> I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.
bradcathey136 <br>&mdash;Brad<br><small><i>"Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up."</i> G. K. Chesterton</small><br>
chanio134 .{\('v')/}<br> _`(___)' __________________________<br> Wherever I lay my KNOPPIX disk, a new FREE LINUX nation could be established.
SciDude133 <br> <font face="arial, helvetica" size="1"> SciDude <br>The first dog barks... all other dogs bark at the first dog. </font>
jweed127 <br> <br> <br>Code is (almost) always untested. <br><a href="http://www.justicepoetic.net/">http://www.justicepoetic.net/</a>
CountZero125 <p>CountZero</p><p><i>"If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler."</i> - Conway's Law</p>
tbone1124 <P> --<BR> tbone1, YAPS (Yet Another Perl Schlub)<BR> <I>And remember, if he succeeds, so what.<BR> - Chick McGee<BR></I>
pizza_milkshake119 <p style="Color:Green"><small> perl -e"\$_=qq/nwdd\x7F^n\x7Flm{{llql0}qs\x14/;s/./chr(ord$&amp;^30)/ge;print"</small>
muntfish115 <hr><font color=orange><code>s^^unp(;75N=&9I<V@`ack(u,^;s|\(.+\`|"$`$'\"$&\"\)"|ee;/m.+h/&&print$&</code> </font>
kutsu115 <p><i>"Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - I think that I think, therefore I think that I am."</i> Ambrose Bierce</p>
Boots111111 Boots<BR> ---<BR> Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.<BR> -1984
zentara111 <hr /> I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. <a href = http://zentara.net/japh.html>flash japh</a>
sporty106 <p> ----<br> <i>Then B.I. said, "Hov' remind yourself nobody built like you, you designed yourself" </i>
Paulster2105 <p>Paulster2</p><br><b><i>You're so sly, but so am I.</i> - Quote from the movie <i>Manhunter</i>.</b>
NetWallah104 <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<small><i>Earth first! </i>(We'll rob the other planets later)</small></p>
Kzin104 <HR width="200" noshade><center><Font Face="Verdana" size=-1><h5>By Kzin</h5></font></center>
hsmyers103 <p>--hsm</p> <em>"Never try to teach a pig to sing...it wastes your time and it annoys the pig."</em>
b10m102 -- <br /> b10m<br /> <br /> <font size="-3">All code is usually tested, but rarely trusted.</font>
DrWhy101 DrWhy "If God had meant for us to think for ourselves he would have given us brains. Oh, wait..."
domm100 <code> -- #!/usr/bin/perl for(ref bless{},just'another'perl'hacker){s-:+-$"-g&&print$_.$/} </code>
gnork98 <br><small> cat /dev/world | perl -e "(/(^.*? \?) 42\!/) && (print $1))"<br> errors->(c)</small>
strat92 <P> Best regards,<BR> perl -e "s>>*F>e=>y)\*martinF)stronat)=>print,print v8.8.8.32.11.32"
amt90 amt.<br><br> <a href="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.8.4/pod/perlcheat.html">perlcheat</a>
Plankton89 <BR><TABLE><TR><TD bgcolor=lightgreen>Plankton: 1% Evil, 99% Hot Gas.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Roy Johnson82 <hr> <small><b>Caution:</b> Contents may have been coded under pressure.</small>
CombatSquirrel81 <hr> <font size="0">Entropy is the tendency of everything going to hell.</font>
cfreak80 <a href="http://lobsteraliens.com">Lobster Aliens Are attacking the world!</a>
zakzebrowski76 <BR><BR>----<BR> Zak - the office
neilwatson76 <p> Neil Watson<br> <a href="http://watson-wilson.ca">watson-wilson.ca</a>
sleepingsquirrel74 <p><hr>-- All code is 100% tested and functional unless otherwise noted.
skx73 Steve<br/> ---<br/> <a href="http://www.steve.org.uk/">steve.org.uk</a>
gmpassos73 <p> Graciliano M. P.<br> "Creativity is the expression of the liberty".
QM70 <p>-QM<br /> --<br /> Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of
ajt67 <br/>--<br /> <a href="http://use.perl.org/~ajt/journal/">ajt</a>
tye67<p align="right"> - tye<tt> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</tt> </p>
coreolyn65 <a href="/index.pl?node=coreolyn&lastnode_id=1072">coreolyn</a>
logan64 <p> -Logan<br> "What do I want? I'm an American. I want more."
belg4mit62 <p> <tt> -- <br> I'm not belgian but I play one on TV. </tt>
rinceWind62 <p><small>--<br>I'm Not Just Another Perl Hacker</small></p>
Skeeve62 <hr><code>$\=~s;s*.*;q^|D9JYJ^^qq^\//\\\///^;ex;print</code>
Beechbone60 <hr><small><sub>Search,</sub> Ask, <sup>Know</sup></small>
Theo60 <p>-Theo-<br> (so many nodes and so little time ... )</p>
idsfa60 <hr/> <I>If anyone needs me I'll be in the Angry Dome.</I>
etcshadow59 <code> ------------ :Wq Not an editor command: Wq </code>
sauoq58 <pre> -sauoq "My two cents aren't worth a dime."; </pre>
halley56 <p>--<br><tt>&#91; e d @ h a l l e y . c c &#93;</tt>
tachyon51 <p>cheers <p><font color="#0000ff">tachyon</font>
gryphon51 <P>gryphon<BR> <I>code('Perl') || die;</I></P>
broquaint49 HTH <p/> <tt>_________<br><u>broquaint</u></tt>
Ninthwave46 "No matter where you go, there you are." BB
cbraga43 <p><tt>ESC[78;89;13p ESC[110;121;13p</tt>
particle41 <p>~Particle *<em>accelerates</em>*</p>
hattmoward40 <tt>mhoward - at - hattmoward.org</tt>
Limbic~Region39 <p> Cheers - L~R </p>
eric25637 <br />___________<br /> Eric Hodges
xaphod36 --<br> TTFN, FNORD<br> <br> xaphod
Velaki34 "Perl. There is no substitute."
Tii34 <font color=goldenrod>Tii</font>
PerlingTheUK33 <br> Cheers, <br> PerlingTheUK
Zaxo33 <p>After Compline,<br/>Zaxo</p>
amphiplex32 <br> ---- amphiplex <br><br>
Kanji31 <p>&nbsp; &nbsp; --k.</p><br>
TheEnigma30 <p> <small>TheEnigma</small>
Prior Nacre V29 <p>Regards,</p> <p>PN5</p>
edan29 --<br />edan<br /><br />
zejames28 <br> --<br> <i>zejames</i>
JediWizard27 May the Force be with you
petdance25 <P> xoxo,<BR> Andy<BR>
leriksen22 <p><i>use brain;</i>
theguvnor22 <p>&#91;Jon&#93;</p>
clscott22 -- <br> Clayton<br>
MidLifeXis21 <P>--MidLifeXis</P>
zigdon21 <P>-- zigdon</P>
herveus20 yours,<BR> Michael
davido19 <br /><p>Dave</p>
johndageek19 Enjoy!<br> Dageek
waswas-fng17 <br><br>-Waswas
opqdonut16 <br> J <br>
Avitar16 avitar.net
bassplayer16 <p> bassplayer
buckaduck15 <p> buckaduck
EdwardG15 <p>&nbsp;</p>
blokhead14 <p> blokhead
kvale12 <p> -Mark
blackadder12 Blackadder
duff11 <p>duff
gwhite9 g_White
borisz7 Boris
Gunth7 -Will
stvn7 -stvn
rockmountain6 Rock
ggg5 ggg
  • Comment on Re^6: Distribution of Levels and Writeups (sig)

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Re^7: Distribution of Levels and Writeups (sig)
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Sep 30, 2004 at 13:37 UTC

    Of course, if the sig feature was done right, it would be a separate entity in the DB, only be stored once, and not become a part of every node.

    Then the css hack that allows people to not see other peoples sigs (why don't those that don't want to see them use this?), wouldn't be necessary, as sigs could be turned off as an option, then they wouldn't even consume bandwidth.

    That said, I think that physiologically, it probably takes something like 1/10th of a second for the human visual cortex and brain to pattern match a recurrent sig. to it's memory.

    Just as I never bother to read the monk's quip's any more (or for the last 2 3/4 years) because there is nothing new there. When the little witisisms at the top of the Other Users nodelet changed recently, my brain noticed and for a few days took in the new information. Now, I once again don't notice them.

    The only time an unchanging visual (or oral) cue continues to grab my attention beyond the initial recognition period, is when it takes on a phsycological significance beyond it's content. For example, there are often tiny notes on the bottom of both print and TV ads for financial services "*Subject to status"; These bug the begeebers out of me because they invariably mean that the advert in question has just extold their virtue with words akin to "Faster, cheaper, simpler; Anyone can apply". The footnote often as not make the main content a lie.

    Perhaps that's the secret behind some people's distaste for some people's sigs. They don't like the content and therefore blame the messenger? But that's life. People hold contrary opinions; value different things; prioritise in different ways. Allowing oneself to be bugged by others preferences and foibles is human, but ultimately, a waste of effort.

    Examine what is said, not who speaks.
    "Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
    "Think for yourself!" - Abigail
    "Memory, processor, disk in that order on the hardware side. Algorithm, algorithm, algorithm on the code side." - tachyon
[reply]
      No, mostly I dislike signatures because they are visually at a peer level with the content and that is distracting to me. I'd do something like .pmsig { display: none; } except that people still post inside their signature so hiding the signature hides these people's content as well. It was a nice idea but it just doesn't seem to work all that well.
[reply]
[d/l]
Re^7: Distribution of Levels and Writeups (sig)
by de-merphq (Beadle) on Oct 01, 2004 at 16:41 UTC

    Of course the signature of mine that you showed there also contains a template that i use for updates, and most of it is markup anyway. Just counting the chars is a bit meaningless isnt it? Surely you should remove the markup first?

    ---
    alter ego of demerphq
[reply]

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