User:Zedmelon/sigs

customized Wikipedia signatures
Here is a page illustrating how I've devoted far too much time to studying custom signatures in an effort to produce my own--this is exacerbated by only having scattered sporadic nibbles of time to devote.

candidates
For my new sig, I'll include some of these links (most likely from bottom up):
 * detritus (d)
 * random article for improvement
 * email me
 * my contributions (c)
 * my user page (z)
 * a different view of contributions
 * recent changes
 * a favorites/noteworthy page (zedmelon/n)
 * my talk page (zedmelon)

final
Thirty-four general designs reduced to sixteen and again to seven, through over three dozen variations--most of which are still preserved below. Of those, it comes down to a handful of final contenders, each an amalgam of the ideas I like the most.


 * old: -- zedmelon(¿) -
 * new: ?¿

The box styles are prevailing as it comes down to the wire. I like all these--the character count is growing though...well beyond the limit of 255 in a few cases.


 * TreasuryTag - attractive box design
 * 518 c:  zedmelon – t – n – c


 * Adam the atom - interesting box, custom cursors:
 * 636 c:  zedmelon T N C
 * 625 c:  zedmelon T N  C


 * Ched - basic, boxed
 * 382 c:  zedmelon  c   n
 * 416 c:  zedmelon  c   n


 * Tomica - shadows
 * 559 c: zed m e lon - t – n – c


 * Wikipedian Penguin - I like the fonts, but it's not la creme de la creme
 * 288 c: -- zed M E LON  --
 * 312 c:  · zed  M E LON   · 


 * Mandruss - I like the shadow and rounded corners
 * 255 c:  zedmelon &#124;  talk

semifinals

 * Mandruss - shadow, rounded corners
 *  zedmelon &#124;  talk


 * Chairboy - The phone icon broke in some browsers, exemplifying how I shouldn't rely on non-ASCII characters.
 * (--) zed  MELON  (--) or (--) zed   MELON  (--)


 * Wikipedian Penguin - A Linux reference, perhaps?
 * [ · ] zed M E LON  [ · ] or [--] zed  M E LON  [--] or [-] zed  M E LON  [-] or [ · ] <font face="Times New Roman" color="black">zed  M E LON  [ · ]
 * [--] <font face="Times New Roman" color="black">zed M E LON  [--] or [-] <font face="Times New Roman" color="black">zed  M E LON  [-] or  ·  <font face="Times New Roman" color="black">zed  M E LON   ·  or -- <font face="Times New Roman" color="black">zed  M E LON  --


 * Tomica - shadows are nifty
 * -- zed m e lon  or --  zed m e lon  or --  zed m e lon  or  t – n – c -zed m e lon  or zed m e lon - t – n – c


 * Ched - boxed name
 * --  zed <font style="color:#fff;background:#036;"> melon  or  --   zed <font style="color:#fff;background:#9bd;"> melon  or  --   zed<font style="color:#fff;background:#9bd;">melon  or  --   zed<font style="color:#fff;background:#036;">melon  or  c   n   zed<font style="color:#fff;background:#036;">melon  or  zed<font style="color:#fff;background:#036;">melon   c   n  or  zed<font style="color:#fff;background:#036;">melon   c   n


 * Adam the atom - cool box effect, playing with cursors:
 * <font face="Verdana"> zedmelon T <span style="border:#036 1px solid;padding:1px 1px 1px 1px;1px;cursor:crosshair;background:#689;color:#9bd">N  C  or <font face="Verdana"> zedmelon  T  N  C  or <font face="Verdana"> zedmelon T <span style="border:#036 1px solid;padding:1px 1px 1px 1px;1px;cursor:crosshair;background:#689;color:#9bd">N C or <font face="Verdana"> zedmelon T <span style="border:#036 1px solid;padding:1px 1px 1px 1px;1px;cursor:crosshair;background:#689;color:#9bd">N C or <font face="Verdana"> zedmelon  T <span style="border:#036 1px solid;padding:1px 1px 1px 1px;1px;cursor:crosshair;background:#689;color:#9bd">N  C


 * <font face="Verdana"><span style="border:#036 1px solid;padding:1px 1px 1px 1px;background:#fff;color:#036;text-shadow:#aaa 0.1em 0.2em 0.2em"> zedmelon T <span style="border:#036 1px solid;padding:1px 1px 1px 1px;1px;cursor:crosshair;background:#689;color:#9bd">N C or <font face="Verdana"><span style="border:#036 1px solid;padding:1px 1px 1px 1px;background:#fff;color:#036;text-shadow:#aaa 0.1em 0.2em 0.2em"> zedmelon T <span style="border:#036 1px solid;padding:1px 1px 1px 1px;1px;cursor:crosshair;background:#689;color:#036">N  C


 * TreasuryTag - another cool box
 * <small style="color:#036"> zedmelon – t – n – c or <small style="color:#036"> zedmelon – t – n – c or <small style="color:#036"> zedmelon – t – n – c or <small style="color:#036;text-shadow:#aaa 0.1em 0.2em 0.2em"> zedmelon – t – n – c

demoted
Designs fell to this list as they lost favor.


 * Ched - I like this one but had to abandon it as too distractive.
 * <span style="border-style:solid;margin-left:1px;border-color:#689 #689 #689 transparent;margin-right:-4px;border-width:7px;color:transparent;font-size:0"> <span style="border-top:1px solid #689;border-left:1px solid #689;border-bottom:1px solid #689;color:#689;background-color:#eef;padding:1px 4px">zed melon <span style="border-style:solid;margin-left:-4px;border-color:#689 transparent #689 #689;border-width:7px;color:transparent;font-size:0">


 * Ttonyb - shadow, revisited
 * <span style="font-weight:bold; color:#268; text-shadow:grey 0.4em 0.4em 0.5em; letter-spacing: 2px; padding: 1px 3px;"> zedmelon


 * Chickenmonkey - borderless box, reciprocating colors
 * <b style="background:#036;color:#9bd;"> -- </b><b style="background:#036;color:#9bd;">zed</b><b style="background-color:#9bd; color:#036;">melon </b>


 * Becritical - good look but too distractive.
 * -- Zed— <span style="background:black;color:white;padding:0px 5px 6px 0px;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;letter-spacing:2px;">—melon or -- Zed— <span style="background:#036;color:#fff;padding:0px 5px 6px 0px;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;letter-spacing:2px;">—melon


 * Redrose64
 * (--) zed melon


 * JMiall - dashed box was a nice idea
 * <font color="#036">zedmelon ₰


 * Horse Punch Kid - cursors
 * zed <span style="color:#070;cursor:help;" title="Talk to me!">melon


 * Gfoley4 - Bummer this didn't translate well. I don't generally capitalize zedmelon, and this distinctive signature's aesthetics required caps more than I'd realized. As I didn't care for the underlined single word, my rendition of this solid signature--albeit classy in understatement--is uninspiring. How ironic that the sig which singlehandedly rekindled my interest in customizing my own missed the mark so widely.
 * -- zed  melon  --


 * Piotrus - After incorporating color, this duplicates Ched.
 * --  zed <font style="color:#eef;background:#036">melon

I like the look of Chairboy more with the monospace font. I may borrow Tomica's shadow (possibly on just one letter). Redrose exceeded expectations--fortuitous since I nearly omitted it from the short list. Ched's ribbon is too flashy, but I still like it.

expository ad infinitum
Presenting custom signatures from Zed Sig Search 2012. My final sig derives from these and my own ideas. After noting in particular one similar to Chickenmonkey I'm finally making my own a touch more distinctive as well.

I coalesced and duplicated a signature collection which I've and subsequently culled and narrowed here. Many far too gaudy for my taste, they offered good ideas--naturally, this is met with a wide variety of opinions. I'm on the more lenient side; I appreciate the creativity in naming one's talk page something like "walkie talkie" or "drop me a line". However some are a tad esoteric, such as "naggin' again?" and even "recycle kids!"

While it might be argued that the similarities to vanity license plates render the concept incompatible with the spirit of Wikipedia and the anonymity the editors are expected to assume with respect to their contributions to articles, I like the distinctive aesthetics--as well as the ease of finding a specific user or comment in a lengthy discussion. Further, I see no reason to begrudge a dedicated author for wanting a bit of recognition for hours of background work in talk pages and elsewhere--though this might again strike some as an oxymoronic perspective. As long as the style isn't incredibly disruptive I think it's great.

This began after I noticed — G FOLEY   F OUR! , who gets credit for catching enough of my attention to resurrect and readdress this curiosity.

I've altered my plan to delete this page when I've settled upon a design; it may prove to be a useful reference.


 * Mandruss - I like the shadow and rounded corners
 * <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:90%;background:#e9f2e9;border:solid 1px;border-radius:7px;box-shadow:darkgray 0px 2px 2px;"> Mandruss &#124; talk


 * Gfoley4 - green & orange professional fonts
 * — G FOLEY   F OUR!  —


 * Chickenmonkey - monochrome orange/black box, no border
 * <b style="background:#F83;color:Black;"> Chicken</b><b style="background-color:black; color:#F83;">monkey </b>


 * Ronhjones - yellow box, black border, green font, red initial
 *  Ron h jones (Talk)


 * Shirtwaist - Bicolored name, with a telephone icon (same as Chairboy) linking talk page.
 * <font color="DarkRed">Shirt <font color="Sienna">waist &#9742;


 * JarlaxleArtemis - a nice, clean, black/yellow look.
 * &rarr; <font face="Euclid Fraktur"> Jarlaxle Artemis


 * Chairboy - Reminiscent of Copperplate Gothic, same phone icon as Shirtwaist--though directly pasted in lieu of HTML code. The day I compiled this I was on Win7/Internet Explorer lacking that character, so I saw a square.
 * C HAIRBOY (☎)


 * RoyBoy - Simple bold 2nd half, superscript link to his "800 club," which aims to minimize horizontal scroll bars.
 * RoyBoy 800


 * Stollery - Interesting use of superscript and subscript for talk and contributions pages, plus a link to a nonexistent "Esperanza" page.
 * Gl e n   TC (Stollery) 


 * Funky Monkey - All-white text on a box, half burnt orange and half pink.
 * <font style="background: #CC9900" face="Ariel" color="#FFFFFF"> Funky Monkey  <font style="background:#CD00CD" face="Ariel" color="#FFFFFF"> (talk) 


 * Monkeyman - Monkeyman provides me the best reason yet for having created this section. What a great idea to upload your own image as part of your signature!
 * [[Image:Monkeyman.png]]Monkeyman(talk)


 * Journalist - interesting, and the dissimilarity between the username and the signature has me wondering about the story behind it.
 * <font color="navy" face="Garamond">Oran <font color ="#008B00" face= "Garamond">e (<font face="Garamond">talk  &bull; <font face="Garamond">cont. )


 * Great Orange Pumpkin - With superscript, subscript, and musical notes, this one has a ton of character. I wish the notes were coded in HTML instead of simply pasted.
 * ♫GoP♫ <sub style="color:red;">T <sup style="color:red;">C <sub style="color:red;">N


 * Calvin999 - Give him points for confidence, though a review of his page warrants it. It would appear he updated talk that talk to watch n' learn between 2011-11-25 and 2011-11-29, and he's since changed it to you da one and updated Calvin to Aaron.
 * <font color ="blue" face= "Aharoni">Calvin  &bull; Watch n'   Learn
 * This also brings forth a question I'd already considered in the process of compiling this list: For the sake of consistency, do I want to dig through Wikipedia for all my previous signatures?  Would that be considered a breach in etiquette?  I haven't added too many signatures--probably less than five, certainly less than ten.  I'd definitely settle on a design I want to keep before embarking on a project such as that.


 * Jivesh - Black text on a plain cyan background.
 * Jivesh 1205 (talk)


 * Legolas2186 - Most likely a LotR fan.
 * <i style="color:blue;">Legolas</i> ( talk 2 me )


 * Wikipedian Penguin - A Linux reference, perhaps?
 * <font size="2" face="Times New Roman" color="black"> WP: <font color="#0075FF">PENGUIN  · [ TALK ]


 * Tomica - shadowed text. Neat.
 * Tomica  (talk)


 * Rufus/Surfur222 - creative
 * <font color="Green">I Am Rufus  &bull; <font colour="Blue" face="Garamond"> Conversation is a beautiful thing.


 * Lil-unique1 - interesting use of Greek alphabet.
 *  Lil_ ℧ niquℇ № 1  <sup style="color:black;">[talk] 


 * TulisaMarshall - basic, but still demonstrates the technique.
 * <font color ="orange" face= "Script MT Bold">Tulisa Marshall ' ♥ Click On   Me


 * Koavf - Interesting use of special characters.
 * Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯


 * Pixelyoshi - wow, I'm not even certain what I'm seeing
 * <font face="Comics sans MS" color="#07CE89" size = "3.5">⁬⁬Πx ''' (discuter)


 * OlYeller21 - simple, yet aesthetic
 *  Ol Yeller21 <sup style="color:#827839;">Talktome


 * Redrose64 - simple colored text
 * -- Red rose64 (talk)


 * Becritical - white and black, quite cool
 * Be— <span style="background:black;color:white;padding:0px 5px 6px 0px;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;letter-spacing:2px;">—Critical


 * Ched - I suspect this is two revisions, or someone experimenting, but I'm not sure.
 * <span style="border-style:solid;margin-left:1px;border-color:#18a0ec #18a0ec #18a0ec transparent;margin-right:-4px;border-width:7px;color:transparent;font-size:0"> <span style="border-top:1px solid #18a0ec;border-left:1px solid #18a0ec;border-bottom:1px solid #18a0ec;color:#18a0ec;background-color:#d7e7f4;padding:1px 4px">Ched (talk) <span style="border-style:solid;margin-left:-4px;border-color:#18a0ec transparent #18a0ec #18a0ec;border-width:7px;color:transparent;font-size:0">
 * — Ched : ?


 * Adam the atom - I like the name, box, and custom cursors
 * <font face="Verdana"><span style="padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; border: 1px solid orange; cursor: crosshair; background: yellow; color: orange">adam the atom <span style="padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; border: 1px solid orange; cursor: crosshair; background: yellow; color: orange">T <span style="padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; border: 1px solid orange; cursor: crosshair; background: yellow; color: orange">E <span style="padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; border: 1px solid orange; cursor: crosshair; background: yellow; color: orange">C 


 * TreasuryTag - another neat box effect
 * <small style="background:#FFFFFF;border:#EB8500 1px solid;padding:0px 3px 1px 4px">TreasuryTag –<small style="background:#DBDBDB;border:#EB8500 1px solid;padding:0px 3px 1px 4px">t –<small style="background:#DBDBDB;border:#EB8500 1px solid;padding:0px 3px 1px 4px">c


 * HorsePunchKid - makes interesting use of custom cursors
 * HorsePunchKid &rarr;<span style="color:#070;cursor:help;" title="Kame-san says: Talk to me!">&#x9F9C;


 * JMiall - dashed box
 * JMiall ₰


 * Ttonyb1 - shadows, revisited
 * <span style="font-weight:bold; color:blue; text-shadow:grey 0.4em 0.4em 0.5em; letter-spacing: 2px; padding: 1px 3px;"> ttonyb


 * Piotrus - From Athaenara's original page, this is the only one I found visually appealing. Its structural similarity to Ched isn't as noticeable until the text and colors are adapted to my preferred blues, whereupon the two are nearly indistinguishable.  This one is several characters longer than Ched, so it's gone.
 * Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus