Remove character limit and add a line limit instead.
500 characters can either mean one-and-a-half line of serious text, or a signature that looks like this:
-----------------------------
1) useless stuff
2) useless stuff
4) more useless stuff about how there's no 3)
5) crap
6) more crap
7) didn't-need-to-know stuff
8) seventh line (or thirteenth if you count blank lines) of crap
9) and still going strong
10) kill me
11) now
12) done
-----------------------------
I've seen a signature like that and it was one too many. And the silly thing about the 500 characters limit is that URLs also count towards the limit. So while I might make a signature that looks like this:
-----------------------------
Google -----------------------------
If the link is too long (it would have to be really long, I know) or if there's more than one link, the 500 characters are spent really fast, but the signature is shorter than most other signatures. Including the one above with the twelve points of bull.
So, I say again: remove the character limit (or somehow make links not count towards the limit) and implement a line limit instead. Craptastic huge signatures are full of fail.
Edited, Jun 3rd 2009 11:08pm by Mazra
Though to be fair, I'd probably turn sig's off on my PC as well.