On 6/8/06, John Lee johnleemk@gawab.com wrote:
That is the reason why I am apathetic about userboxes (I couldn't care less whether they stay or go). Complex signatures complicate discussions, however, and as a result have a very direct effect on the encyclopaedia. If our editors can't communicate, or can only communicate inconveniently, then the encyclopaedia will inevitably suffer.
I'm happy to agree with that in principle, but I'm not sure we need a complicated policy to sort that one out. If a signature is legitimately fouling up editing (and it is not just a case of annoyance or aesthetics), we should contact the user in question, explain what is wrong with it, and ask them to scale it down a bit. I find it hard to see where this is different than any other user habits (i.e. if a user had a 6,000 pixel wide long image on their userpage), and am suspicious that most of the arguments about it I've seen here are based on relatively petty grievances, if not a total disdain for anything which looks "personal".
FF