Brent ( hoosierbanana ) has been trying to restore some missing threads to the forum.  It used to be that searches did not include signatures but now they do.  That means if you list your wants or haves in text in your signature and someone wants to find out about a variety in there they'll get all of your posts.  If someone wants to find info on Maltese Falcon they'll pull up every unrelated post from everyone who wants that variety and puts it in their sig.  A searcher might have to wade through 100 unrelated posts to find 1 post s/he wants to read.

There are many things you can do to help.  What I've done is convert the text to a picture and used the control panel to upload that .jpg to my signature.  Since it's a picture the search engine won't see the text there.  Otherwise nothing's changed.  I can still hope some kind soul will deliver a 12 foot tree of my desired varieties to my door   :)

To save you time I'll tell you that 9 point text was papa bear.  It seemed to big to me. 8 pt was too small so I settled on 8 pt bold.  I used Times New Roman.  Other fonts may need a point or 2 up or down to look good.  My picture is 4.5" wide and less than 2" tall in case that helps you set your sizes.  6.5" worked for a full screen browser at medium size viewing but the text (14 pt) was way too big.

Thank you Bob! I understand not everyone will do it, especially members who are not active.  Anyway everybody who helps is gonna count.  I was thinking of replacing os(ohs) lol. with zeros and that sort of thing, maybe jamming two names together you know but it is hard to experiment because the old sig will still show up on Google for a long time, sometimes.

But your solution is very elegant ; )

Very clever, gentlemen.  Hoping it will catch on.

Another workaround is for people to keep their wish lists and collection lists in their profile rather than in their sig. 

I keep my wish list in the 'hobbies' section and my collection list in the 'occupation' section: http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/profile/1875694

Good idea. Maybe just slightly misspell, put a dash in the names, or something that effect so it's recognizable but not exactly correct? I feel a lot of people won't have the patience to make up pictures...

I like your idea Ampersand. I made an attempt at the picture thing, but your idea is a go for me.

Regards,
bill

Thanks guys, I guess my first sig was not cool enough to entice the artists. 

I used an online generator thing and there weren't many options. There was another site that had one with a wolf but it was apparently not meant to be.

At any rate I made my own that I like more.

I noticed you had to make a change already Bob... My advice is to pick one that is unattainable and stick with it ; )

I know this issue won't affect most people here, but Google is the entranceway to the forum. So it is how the rest of the world sees our community... And what they see now is mostly variety names in signatures, because they interface with the forum through Google, to find info about varieties and such.

How do you upload picture to your signature?

All you need to do is go to the control panel, at the top right of each page. Then scroll down to your signature and click on the small picture icon "insert photo", then insert the image url (you can upload/insert the pic to any one of your posts and then copy the image url, for some reason the signature box will only accept an url). To make a pic like mine just cut an image into a long rectangle, mine is about 1200 x 60 pixels, then select the text tool and type in your info, or you can just open a "new" blank picture in your picture software and select an appropriate image size (banner) or cut down a full image, then type in your info.

Just to be sure I went ahead and followed my directions with the clouds from your profile photo and signature info. Here is the product, you can just upload it from here if you like it (right click-copy image location). 

   

It does not make a difference to Google Alan. Any text in the signature space is counted as a keyword now. For instance, when I search for Lily Wong, I receive thousands of hits on the forum, although only a few actually contain information on the Lily Wong fig. The rest are a result of Google reading your signature.

 

If anyone wants help they can PM me...

My only concern with using images is that I sometimes have spare plants to offer and I like to search for people who are looking for that variety.  If we had an agreed to approach like Billy did with the * after the first letter then at least it'd be possible to search for people's wants.

I never thought of that Greg, I checked Billy's method and it does "trick" Google. Kelby's sig has not been cached yet so I am not sure, but it should work also. I think a standardized method is a great idea.

Looks great Alan, thanks : )

One issue with the pictures is poor visibility on a smart phone. I do some of my forum reading on my phone, and plain text is far easier to read than the pics.

I like this method better:
Wish list: R*onde de B*ourdeaux

Easier to edit also. Just my 2 cents

I don't have a tablet or use my phone for the forum so I never thought of that either Ed. For my own experience, I sort of like having my info in an actual pic because it clearly defines it from the text of the post. I find myself reading very lengthy signatures over and over again (parts anyway) like they are a block of text in the post. But I am sure a picture could be made that is even more distracting to my ADD, lol. 

Good point about editing. 

I don't get it.  Leave Jon alone.  This is a good forum.  It aint broke.  Don't fix it!

Suzi

I'll stick with my ooo at the start, not as annoying to look at.

How do we look now?

Thanks Brent

Danny
The font seems a little small.  Some people may not be able to read it.
Or maybe if the background photo is lightened so the text stands out more?

C'mon... really?  Looks good from here.

Very Nice Danny. 

Care to direct your accusations at someone in particular Suzi?

Maybe it is just me but the text on green background doesn't stand out?  Wonder if text on the dark purple will be any better?
Let me try it with my signature and see. 

That looks professional Danny!

I am with Greg on this one. I have used the search feature to seek out those looking for my extras. To me, this is more ideal. Not everybody who has a wish list in their sig line has posted the list to the thread dedicated to the subject. On my laptop the pics are tolerable. On the iPad they are distracting and some are hard to read. On my android phone (Firefox) the sig lines do not show at all. Why not drop the wish lists from the sig line all together and move them to the thread. It would solve the issue of cluttered search results while providing an single place to search for someone to appreciate our extras. We could ask Jon to pin it to the top of the list.

Hi all,
 What James said.
 Move the wish lists to the thread dedicated to that and keep updating your wishlist there.
 Keep your usda Zone in your signature.
 The point being that when doing a search for a specific variety on the forum or on gogle one does get hits on wish-lists instead of infos on the variety .

Another point is that too long signatures make posts almost impossible to read right at first reading. So keeping signatures short is better - there were already some bad posts about that point.

Thanks a lot and to all : Just relax and have fun on the forum - this is not an order or a "must-do or sentenced to death" but a recommendation from/to the community of this forum.

PS for eboone : R*onde de B*ordeaux - one U in the name of Bordeaux.

I kind of stop reading those threads and move on to the next, too much of a distraction to the post. Nice idea but the post is regular print and the add-on is too much. Just my opinion.

I know everyone is going to feel differently about this. And I don't want to make some rule, just hoping members will see this and empathize with the people who dig through old info to answer their questions, or the people who just got a fig tree and search Google for more info. Will those people find what they need? Or will they just find the same wishlists over and over again? 

I noticed most people have made one change or another, thank all of you.

Just my opinion:   The wide signatures are a distraction in general.  The ones with lots of text, I mean.  The photos are even more distracting.  I remember when this whole business of putting wish lists in signatures started, and IMO it made the forum threads less readable.  I like the idea of putting wish lists in those "wish list" threads instead for this reason:  it means that info is available to people who have something to give away and want to search for someone who wants that variety, but it's out of the way and doesn't distract everyone else who is reading the thread for its main content.  This problem with search is just an extension of that basic problem... the problem being that signatures are essentially spam that clutters every thread.  They're just extraneous info for almost every thread.  IMO, the pictures are even more distracting.  Although they circumvent the "search issue", they don't circumvent what my eyes see.  As a reminder of this, do you guys remember how upset some people became when a couple of members had signatures that were many lines long?  Some of them were in list format.  They were spam.  Most signatures in general just spam threads and distract from the actual content of a thread.  /opinion

Mike  

Well I got rid of mine, I liked it but what the hay.

I kind of like at least having ones location, growing zone, etc. but I do agree with many, tooooo much info in the sig block is far too distracting. Ive cut mine down as well.

Just got mine changed...plus Christmas is coming early. =) Thanks! I'm exclusively on mobile and very rarely request desktop but sometimes I do to see peoples names and zones in their sig. I think that is a nice feature.

I'm a convert! I became a victim of my own distracting picture after searching for info on a certain variety. I fully agree and got rid of the fancy pics in the signature line. You're right, there's no need for it. Moving wish list to the wish list thread where it's suppose to be. If anyone wants to take a look and grant a wish or two I wouldn't disagree too much. ;)

Bob, you should change the subject of this thread to something that would appeal to more members and get them on board. Maybe something like "Forum Needs Help - Update Your Signature Line Now". Just a thought.

Anyway... thanks for helping me see the light.