+1 for 5 line maximum :up:
If you're only going to do a short, one-liner "+1" type of response, for example, your post should be no bigger than the avatar panel on the left (see Android's post above).
And please, no signature images, ever (smilies excepted, natch). I keep sigs on because I like to follow people's links sometimes, plus we already have avatars. If you add sig images to the mix this place would get very cluttered very fast...
+1 for 1 line sigs with forced size 1 text and light gray color, no bolds, no italic, no underline except in links, no all caps and no images. Maybe then I would enable signatures again..
i noticed something with my computer where for a period of time random sigs and sites had really small print, thus i thought it was some new thing and i made mine small.
It would be good if sigs and two lines of type was the size of the light blue box(with the avatar and personal info) on the left of each post, after two lines it would expand.
There really haven't been many signatures that I've found offensively large, or offensive in content. Sometimes they're a minor irritant, but I just spin a little harder on the mousewheel and they zoom on by.
I'd already been thinking that it might be nice to have the ability to add a few hyperlinked userbars instead of a signature, though the more 56k-afflicted members might suffer that badly.
Personally, I cannot see what problems people have with the signatures here. I honestly see none that are disruptive to the forums.
If it bothers you, just disable signatures because there are no limits that would work well, someone would always be bitching "ZOMG, I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH ROOM" or "ZOMG, THIS NOOB'S SIG IS LARGE!!".
Signatures are quite useful, I've clicked several . 4, 5 lines are enough to fit useful links and a quotation or two in a signature. Forum emoticons and text only should be plenty for that, anything else such as images and vertical text are overkill.