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Dynamic Signature Images
#1
I have a very big problem about the dynamic signature images people on this forum use to show off their "l33t PHP skillz". I am talking about signatures that show my IP, what country I am in etc.

This is stuff like the Qhost or TBBQ's signature.

TBBQ's signature for example is the biggest waste of space. It is a fairly ugly background over which my country and IP address is put. Why? So you can say that you are cool with your PHP skills? Why? So you can log where everyone comes from and make your hacking/spam lists?

While I have plenty of protection on my computer from Internet malice, I just don't like seeing private information like that about me, who knows if it is being logged or not.

I know (although I don't do it) about a lot of information that can be extracted from images like those and still can be kept secret from the user, and I am not too happy with the state of my privacy.

Wildcard, I am surprised that you haven't even raised an issue about this yet.

I personally feel images should not be allowed inside signatures. It is really a waste of bandwidth.
·~¹'°¨°'¹i|¡~æthérFòx~¡|i¹'°¨°'¹~·-
avinash.vora - http://www.avinashv.net
#2
Images are not a waste of bandwidth.

Your computer stores the images in something called a cache :rotfl:





..Apart from PHP sigs, which must load each time.
#3
No need to act clever, or sarcastic, DP. Because when I start, everyone bitches.

My browser clears my cache each session.

And, you also validated my point about the dynamic php images, which are updated each time. Waste of bandwidth.
·~¹'°¨°'¹i|¡~æthérFòx~¡|i¹'°¨°'¹~·-
avinash.vora - http://www.avinashv.net
#4
i agree with you atherfox period
quote="NecrosIhsan"]
[Image: yagl1.png]
[/quote]
#5
Maybe I wouldn't say this if I were on 56k, but I like graphical sigs - it gives people's posts a little more personality (so says the sigless one).

If you use Firefox or Maxathon (an IE frontend), there are ways for you to block images from certain domains or that have certain filenames.

Are your IP, country, and time(s) at which you viewed certain topics really that important and private to you? I don't see what else could be determined about you from it...
#6
I've tried to make my sig image as small as possible (it's less than 1000 bytes) so that it's "dialup friendly."

As far as your "privacy" goes, *any* image, whether it's static or dynamic, sig image or avatar image, gives away your IP to the hosting server. There are plenty of people with avatars hosted on remote servers; all they have to do is look at their server log files and they can see everybody's IP, along with the time and date.

That said, I do think sig images that tell me my IP are pointless. I'd rather see something useful or mildly amusing, like a random quote or what music you're listening to or whatever.
#7
Meh, even if you removed the ability to post PHP scripts or whatever as images, you can still rig some servers up to execute various files with image extensions as scripts. There's no way to remove dynamic images in signatures short of removing the ability to post images in your signature.

As far as wasting your bandwidth goes... sorry to sound rude, but suck it up. I have a shitty 56k connection at home (never connect faster then 26.4kbps) and I have no real problem with browsing these forums. Sure, topics take a bit longer to load, but oh well... that's the price of a slow internet connection. But anyway, for some reason I don't think you have a 56k connection, so this probably doesn't apply to you.

But yes, I agree, signature images that show your IP are really kinda stupid heh. No point whatsoever. But it's your signature, do whatever you want with it... if people like TBBQ (since you brought up his sig) want to put an image like that in their signature, then so be it. Now, if the image has an absolutely huge filesize, then yes, tell one of the admins and we'll definitely get rid of that image.

But unless wildcard says any differently, as it is his site and he has the last say, there's no problem with posting images in signatures, and the ability to do so won't be removed. But we'll discuss the dynamic signature image posting ability.
#8
Is mine amusing?


If you read the book it would be. Tongue
i]"But...it was so beautifully done"[/i]
#9
If you're using the AdBlock Firefox plugin (I can't remember if it comes with Firefox by default any more), you can just add the dynamic signatures to the AdBlock list (right-click image -> "Adblock Image").

A bit of a nuisance, but it stops them annoying you... you could even add an adblock mask of restricting *.php if you were sure you wanted to block all of them. Smile

-shiftLynx
img]http://www.cdsoft.co.uk/misc/shiftlynx.png[/img]
#10
Big Grin I run Dail up, and my comp is dead slow some times, but it trucks right on with all your images avatars and sig ones... I think AOL buffers or something cause when my site was using BMPs, that didn't even hurt it, unless I went on IE, heh, oh well.. :wink:

I can care less about the imgs, and I'm on dial up, so they not bad.. Smile
Kevin (x.t.r.GRAPHICS)

[Image: 11895-r.png]


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