Avatars and Sigs Disabled for those not logged in?

[Ben]

When the heck did this happen and why? I like seeing people's avatars when I'm lurking.

Ben

[Jeremy]

How very odd. I don't think it was intentional. May have been part of some phpBB update. I'll see what I can find out.

It is an answer for those that've requested viewing without avatars or sigs though . . .

Jeremy

[wkohler]

What's the point of not being signed in? To me, that's stupid.

[Ben]

What's the point of not being signed in? To me, that's stupid.

What's the point of being signed in all the time if your not going to post anything?

[Jeremy]

What's the point of not being signed in? To me, that's stupid.

To each their own, dude. Everybody has their little quirks, no need to be calling them names.

I know a lot of corporate firewalls have some sort of cookie expiration thing that'll only allow you to stay signed in for like 5 seconds at a time before your session expires. Annoying as hell.

Jeremy

[wkohler]

What's the point of not being signed in? To me, that's stupid.

To each their own, dude. Everybody has their little quirks, no need to be calling them names.

I know a lot of corporate firewalls have some sort of cookie expiration thing that'll only allow you to stay signed in for like 5 seconds at a time before your session expires. Annoying as hell.

Jeremy

I didn't call anyone names. I just said that in my own frame of reference, since I'm the only person that knows how to use a computer in my house, I never need to sign out. It did come across wierd. For that, I apologize. It's getting to the point I need one of these disclaimer things.

[Ben]

No worries you guys. I use a couple of different computers from different locations, so I only log in when I'm actually posting something or need to check/send someone a PM. I'm more of a lurker (that definitely sounds weird), than a poster.

Ben

[wkohler]

You know, if I tried that, I might not post so often.

[wkohler]

But, I can't see what are new posts since my last visit.

[Jeremy]

OK, this is the deal. Avatars and sigs have been turned off for unregistered users to speed up the time it takes search engine bots to catalog the site and make the resulting catalog return better search results. The sig information is generally useless and unrelated to the information in the actual thread.

when Google bot decides to descend upon us by viewing hundreds of threads a second it eats up avatars and slows down the web server. When the site goes dead for 1-2 minute periods at random times this is what I think is happening. After the site pops back online you can see 100-200 instances of a search bot opening threads. You know that "most users ever online" on the opening page? That number is the highest number of search bots + real live users hitting the site at one particular moment.

Make sense?

[Corner Carver]

Damn! That means that the passing multitudes won't be wowed by our bling!