Why does big forums have signatures?

[GleamPlay.com]

Aren't signature taking up too many spaces? Like usually, signature take up 1/3 to half of the total posts' space, and they are quite repetitive (by same user).

So isn't it always good to disable signature?

[Shambles]

On my forum, a member's sig only shows in his first post on a page (ie, once per page).

[Arantor]

I think it really depends on the community. There are some communities where the signature is really quite important for the vibe being aimed at, and on others, you wouldn't miss it if they weren't there. All depends on the style of community.

[GleamPlay.com]

There are some communities where the signature is really quite important for the vibe being aimed at,

Can you explain a bit more please?

[skb]

For instance, our forum is for Diabetics. We would like to have Signature in 3 columns of a fixed width. The first, giving details of their diabetes, the 2nd giving details of drugs being taken & the 3rd for other medical issues. Any response / advice to a post has to take all 3 into consideration. We've just started in March of this year & are about 40 strong now, but in the years to come, membership will grow & it is impossible to remember each one's details all the time.

[Arantor]

There are some communities where the signature is really quite important for the vibe being aimed at,

Can you explain a bit more please?

For roleplay communities, the signature is a huge part of building the persona and character, and a roleplay community that didn't allow signatures (and large ones, at that, often with pictures of the character in them) would die a quick and painful death.

For here, signatures can often include useful information about the site a person runs (and therefore can get help on), or links to useful resources. Or for a long time in my case a warning to not PM me for support unless people were willing to pay for it.

Really depends on the community.

[KnownSyntax]

You can always use plugins that limit the maximum height/width of the signature, turn it into a scrolling bar to hide a majority of the signature, or even just turn them off fully. I think in some cases a signature can be a positive thing, however if the forum is large than everyone tends to have signatures that are more geared toward what they believe in or want to promote.

I personally have signatures disabled on my community (although it's small, would rather not have the feature from the start than remove it later on). I think without signatures things look a lot more uniformed and clean, while still providing the user's request as having profile options open for them to put what they want in those sections.

[firemun]

I've always welcomes the use of member signatures. However, my rules have since changed. I only allow a certain number of links, characters and line per member signature. Also, no signature is shown to guests at all - this is meant to discourage those joining just to get what they think will be a back link. I also prohibit any commercial-based link in a signature even if it is relevant to the forum's niche. I do allow some commercial links on my admin forum though but they have to be directly related to forums and forum services otherwise that benefit will get out of control.

When joining most forums, I rarely add links to my signatures anymore. I feel like joining a forum to promote your own forum or site via signature is merely a waste of time anymore. Instead, join forums in your niche to promote yourself by being active on the forum. Earn a better reputation for yourself so that when the forum members find you on other forums, like your own, they recognize you as being a key resource of that niche.