Links in signatures don't work properly

Keith - not sure how often you look at this but I'm wondering if this is part of the slowdown and general errors we often get on this site.

Links within signatures are not handled properly by the forum. It is stated that the "no follow" attribute is applied to all links from this forum. "No Follow" is used to make robots not follow your external links. If you have a legit site and legit links there is no reason to use "no follow". I'm guessing the reason you have this is because of the all the link spam on the site.

I think there are better ways to handle the link spam (see below) but regardless, "no follow" is not being implemented properly, at least when it is in a signature.

Example 1:
a) Here's the code I added to link to Google in a test post:


b) and here's how it appears in the forum:


c) and here's the source:


d)and here's how it looks if I were to edit my post in the forum:


So you can see that works properly and the forum adds the "nofollow". In the 4th image (d), you can see that it actually adds commas in weird places, but the code shows that it ends up perfectly. That is because the BBCode tags are simple tags for users which the forum translates to proper HTML. So the syntax looks odd if we were to edit our post, but the resulting code is correct.

But if we add links to a signature, something odd happens to the code:

If I edit my signature with links, I would do something like this:

Notice that I'm below the 200 character limit (152) and that I used the regular BBcodes like it says I can.

But the resulting code is not what I had in mind. My signature length was changed to 186 characters (still below the 200 character limit) but it added some odd code.


Now if you look at the source for my signature, you'll see this:


You can see that it does add the "nofollow" attribute, but it chops off the end of my code (14 characters short of the 200 char limit) and it doesn't close the final < a > tag.

I tested a signature with only characters and it allowed the full 200 and didn't chop anything off. I also tested a sig in which the last line did not end in code, it still chopped it off.

So this is a problem and it leaves signatures with invalid code.


Now, on to link spam. The signup form has a captcha which prevents robots/scripts from signing up but doesn't prevent a real person from going through the routine of signing up.

My suggestions would be to either or:
1) Implement a different captcha that requires the registrant to answer a question. Something like "Name one of the top 3 ski boat manufacturers" and allow answers like "nautique, correct craft, ski nautique, mastercraft, master craft, malibu, supra"

2) Make each new registration require admin approval. Set up 3 or 4 site regulars to be admins with the ability to approve/deny/hold. There are enough regulars here that there shouldn't be a long wait for approval.

Are you asking if there is a character limit on signatures? The answer is yes, its 200- and says so right in your profile when you go edit it.

I read it 10 times... if I understood what youre trying to communicate, I wouldnt have asked you to clarify!

I see. No, the problem has nothing to do with the number of links in your signature- it does the same thing to mine whether I have 1, 2 or 3. It does add the "no follow" tag as you describe to all links automatically (after saving), adding about 15 characters per link. If the addition of those extra characters puts you over the 200 character limit, then anything beyond that gets deleted.

I guess I could clarify by saying this: it cut off my signature at the 196 of "1969 San Juan". This cut off was not because the resulting code was more than 200 characters after automatically adding "nofollow"; it was only 186 characters. So I still had 14 characters left.

LOL I did the same thing... not sure now... but I added 4. WTF.

I think youre getting warmer. No problem adding 3 shortened links to my profile either.

I use firefox.