Sig boasts interfering with searches

[ander]

let us know what you like and don't like about geekhack

I like everything about GH except some members's fondness for sigs that boast about all the wonderful KBs they own, over... and... over...and...

GH is one of the best sources of KB info. But try to Google for details about specific KBs plus site:geekhack.org and half the results you get are sig strings in topics having nothing to do with them.

You can filter out other parts of a person's sig from your search (and I have done that), but then you don't see any of that person's posts—is that any better?

Is there any actual value in these repetitious hey-look-what-I've-got sigs cluttering the site? Can't we safely assume most people here have cool stuff, without having to be reminded... every... time... they... post... about... anything...?

Remember having your photo taken slouching against your new hot car, then showing it to everyone at school? Didn't most of us already do that, like, 30 years ago? Maybe we could move on now? Just wondering.

[baldgye]

I think you should seek medical attention for your dangerously high levels of salt.

Though I think your problem resides with Google its self, imo Google searches have become almost worthless unless you know exactly what it is your looking for, in which case most of the time you don't actually need Google anyway... I can't tell you how many hours and hours I've wasted trying to find websites and things I've forgotten the name off and all Google has produced are worthless sponsored sites that bear no relation to what I want, but contain one of the words in my search.

[ander]

I think you should seek medical attention for your dangerously high levels of salt.

"Salt"? (Are you an ESL speaker by any chance? That sounds like one of the 19th-century slang terms they still teach in English classes abroad.)

Though I think your problem resides with Google its self, imo Google searches have become almost worthless unless you know exactly what it is your looking for, in which case most of the time you don't actually need Google anyway...

I'm sorry you've had trouble using Google. However, I use Google's website: parameter all the time, usually quite successfully, as it often works better than sites' own Search features.

And yes, I do know "exactly what I'm looking for". In this case, specific keyboard makes and models, as I've described. That's the problem.

I've now checked the forum and I see I'm hardly the only person here who's complained about "look what I've got" sigs interfering with searches.

In addition to the socializing (which is great), GH is a valuable source of info and help on specific KBs and KB technologies. Sigs that pointlessly list, re-list, and re-re-list people's collections make it much harder to use GH as it was meant to be used.

[nubbinator]

I've never had sigs interfere with my Google searches.  How are you searching that it's causing that problem?

And if people want to list their keyboards in their sigs, let them.  People on OCN list their computer setups in their sig and I've never heard anyone complain about the Google search results over there.

Sigs that pointlessly list, re-list, and re-re-list people's collections make it much harder to use GH as it was meant to be used.

And what makes you an expert on how GH was meant to be used?

[ander]

I've never had sigs interfere with my Google searches.  How are you searching that it's causing that problem?

Well, as I described—searching for info on a particular board, then getting a bunch of results that just point to the board's name in sigs. Others have found it a problem too.

And if people want to list their keyboards in their sigs, let them. People on OCN list their computer setups in their sig and I've never heard anyone complain about the Google search results over there.

I don't know what OCN is.

And what makes you an expert on how GH was meant to be used?

I didn't claim to be an "expert" on anything. I just pointed out that GH is intended, among other things, to be a source of info and help about keyboards—isn't that a pretty safe statement?

Anyway, I just thought I'd post this in case anyone still found the search thing as inconvenient as I did. Apparently not—but it is good to know we can discuss things about the forum without being made out to be villains.

[nubbinator]

If you wanted to have a discussion, you should change the way you as questions.  The OP is just straight up *******. 

And you didn't answer the question, how are you searching?  I just ran five searches for several boards and didn't get any sigs interfering with any of them.  360 Corsa, AT101W, G80-1800, Filco Majestouch, and G80 HQAUS.  I have never run into issues with sigs interfering with my searches.

And you're not being made out to be a villain.  You're just acting like a martyr and not answering questions.

[Findecanor]

I noticed this problem a long time ago. I now search for images instead of text - that helps.

[ander]

If you wanted to have a discussion, you should change the way you as questions.  The OP is just straight up *******.

Yes, that's because I'd put off posting about it for so long I'd gotten quite frustrated. But when it first started being a problem, I figured that if I posted about it right away, I'd be being too sensitive. You can't win.  :?|

For what it's worth, here's an example of what I'm talking about. It's a simple search for a Model M variant on the site.

• Number of links pointing to posts actually about the keyboard: 1

• Number of links pointing to sigs containing the keyboard's name: 744

This seemed like a general enough problem that it might interest others. If not, I'm glad it doesn't affect more people, and thanks for your time.

[jacobolus]

Personally I think sigs on forums are stupid and terrible and should be abolished. More generally, the layout of forums could be rearranged to be dramatically more respectful of readers’ time and attention, by reducing the vertical space wasted on metadata attached to each post and various action buttons, reducing the space between posts and the number of visually distracting horizontal lines and color boundaries everywhere, and by reducing the amount of vertical space used by various sub-elements like quotations. Information about the author and date of each post should be moved into a separate column at the left side, and there should be some width limit on paragraphs of text (text is much more readable when the text column is only 50–70 characters wide). Nobody ever uses or cares at all about per-post subject titles, so those should be abolished (of course, the original thread author should be able to change the overall thread title).

In general, the visual/graphic design of pretty much all web forums was handled by people with no relevant expertise and no taste. Oh well.

Avatars are fine (though I’m glad to turn them off and not have to see them myself).

[jacobolus]

ander: if you add inurl:wap2 to your search (or if you prefer, inurl:imode), you’ll cut out the sigs, and get more relevant results. In some cases I think you might miss a few threads though.

For example:
https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=92g7453%20site%3Ageekhack.org%20inurl%3Awap2

In general, if you add ;wap2 to any forum URL, the SMF forum software will spit out a version compatible with old school cellphone browsers, and that version skips sigs. I’m not sure exactly why google spiders the wap2 and imode versions of the site in addition to the standard version, but as long as it does, we can take advantage of that.

[jacobolus]

[killing off-topic time waster]

[Snowdog993]

I think you should seek medical attention for your dangerously high levels of salt.

And what makes you an expert on how GH was meant to be used?

If you wanted to have a discussion, you should change the way you as questions.  The OP is just straight up *******.  [...] And you're not being made out to be a villain.  You're just acting like a martyr and not answering questions.

These responses are super-duper unhelpful to anyone. When someone posts a thread in which they’re frustrated about something, what’s the point of insulting or berating them? Just ignore it and move on with your life.

Good point.  I was trying to see if there might be another way for the OP to search, like using Yahoo or even Bing to try as well.  Google isn't the only search engine out there.

[nubbinator]

nuked

[jacobolus]

[killing off-topic time waster]

[nubbinator]

Nuked

[Snowdog993]

Edit: I still know why I posted this.

[jacobolus]

Of course, if you'd rather just be passive aggressive and show everyone how much smarter than them you are, carry on.

Sorry, I’m not trying to be passive aggressive. I’m trying to be active aggressive, explicitly calling you two out for being jerks. The OP didn’t attack you personally, he was just whining in general, pissing in the wind as it were. Calling him a “straight up *******” is totally uncalled for, and beneath you, nubbs.

That’s all I’m going to say though. I removed my previous two comments. I think this digression (like the original insults) is a waste of everyone’s time.

Snowdog: you should cut that out.

[bueller]

I like it when people put their gear in their sigs, it cuts down on a lot of "what keyboard is that" questions.

[nubbinator]

I think this digression (like the original insults) is a waste of everyone’s time.

I can agree with this.

[tbc]

the thing about complaints is:

if you're a douche, you get treated like a douche.

less meta-y, you don't get taken seriously and get made fun of.  hence why baldgye made fun of him.

the real problem is nubs was being TOO nice.

[ander]

ander: if you add inurl:wap2 to your search (or if you prefer, inurl:imode), you’ll cut out the sigs, and get more relevant results...

Thanks, that really helps!

If the rest of you thought I was being jerky, sorry. I thought I had a valid point to make (and again, one I'd seen raised here before), but I still felt uncomfortable bringing it up—so I was just trying to add a bit of humour. I should've realized it could be a sensitive topic, though, as it's sort of pride-related.

It's often hard to tell what a person's intentions are in text. For what it's worth, I understand we tend to interpret ambiguities as we regard people in general. This usually motivates me to give people the benefit of the doubt. Cheers, A.

[baldgye]

I'm glad you found a solution.
My one liner in my post was because you just seemed to want to have a go at people because of one specific problem you encountered, which wasn't the fault of those people, or really, have anything to do with them.

The only way I've found that you can make your post seem more jokey and less jerky (hue) is to either add random 'lols' or be a member of the community and joke post and post nonsense and have arguments with people, and just be yourself. The more posts you have the more context your posts have, and so people are able to be more helpful.

[ander]

I'm glad you found a solution... My one liner in my post was because you just seemed to want to have a go at people because of one specific problem you encountered, which wasn't the fault of those people, or really, have anything to do with them.

I understand what you mean, but I'm not actually allowed to do that, as it's my wife's specialty.  :?)

The only way I've found that you can make your post seem more jokey and less jerky (hue) is to either add random 'lols' or be a member of the community and joke post and post nonsense and have arguments with people, and just be yourself. The more posts you have the more context your posts have, and so people are able to be more helpful.

Great ideas! I intend to keep posting and joining in whenever I can. The problem is that I usually know far less about KB tech than you guys, so it's easy for me to stick my KB in my mouth, so to speak. But they say the more willing you are to make a fool of yourself, the quicker you can learn. Besides, it seems to come naturally to me... Cheers, A.

[baldgye]

Spoilers: I don't know **** about keyboards

[ander]

Spoilers: I don't know **** about keyboards :D

Ack, my illusions have been shattered!

[wlhlm]

Personally I think sigs on forums are stupid and terrible and should be abolished. More generally, the layout of forums could be rearranged to be dramatically more respectful of readers’ time and attention, by reducing the vertical space wasted on metadata attached to each post and various action buttons, reducing the space between posts and the number of visually distracting horizontal lines and color boundaries everywhere, and by reducing the amount of vertical space used by various sub-elements like quotations. Information about the author and date of each post should be moved into a separate column at the left side, and there should be some width limit on paragraphs of text (text is much more readable when the text column is only 50–70 characters wide). Nobody ever uses or cares at all about per-post subject titles, so those should be abolished (of course, the original thread author should be able to change the overall thread title).

[...]

Avatars are fine (though I’m glad to turn them off and not have to see them myself).

Aren't you describing Deskthority's exact layout?

I  have the same feelings as you. Not too keen on the "typical" forum layout either.

[jacobolus]

Aren't you describing Deskthority's exact layout?

Deskthority’s layout is okay, definitely much better than Geekhack’s, but they should prevent text blocks from going wider than maybe 70 characters at the most. Right now the text goes to >100 characters. (Currently their text column has width of 742px, with 13px font size; if they limited paragraphs to being maybe 450 or 500 pixels wide, text would be more readable.)

Deskthority has some other issues. For instance, their forum software doesn’t bother specifying image heights in html output (it’s not even possibly to manually specify them), and as a result pages with many images repeatedly reflow as the images load.

[ander]

Deskthority’s layout is okay, definitely much better than Geekhack’s...

GH's cool colour scheme makes DT look like a bunch of accountants, though.

[rowdy]

Deskthority�s layout is okay, definitely much better than Geekhack�s...

GH's cool colour scheme makes DT look like a bunch of accountants, though.

+1

If you are referring to Nostalgia!

[CaplockJack]

Personally I think sigs on forums are stupid and terrible and should be abolished. More generally, the layout of forums could be rearranged to be dramatically more respectful of readers’ time and attention, by reducing the vertical space wasted on metadata attached to each post and various action buttons, reducing the space between posts and the number of visually distracting horizontal lines and color boundaries everywhere, and by reducing the amount of vertical space used by various sub-elements like quotations. Information about the author and date of each post should be moved into a separate column at the left side, and there should be some width limit on paragraphs of text (text is much more readable when the text column is only 50–70 characters wide). Nobody ever uses or cares at all about per-post subject titles, so those should be abolished (of course, the original thread author should be able to change the overall thread title).

In general, the visual/graphic design of pretty much all web forums was handled by people with no relevant expertise and no taste. Oh well.

Avatars are fine (though I’m glad to turn them off and not have to see them myself).

+1

Now I have to figure out how to turn them off here.

[CPTBadAss]

Now I have to figure out how to turn them off here.

Profile -> Modify Profile -> Click the checkbox that says "don't show user's signatures"

[CaplockJack]

Thanks!