Your Signature And You!

Fran is a new member to the wonderful world of online truth and dare, having just joined today. Fran, though, has not spent any time lurking and so has yet to make a signature.

Why is that Fran?

Why, Fran says because they didn't think it through!

Fran, go urinate on yourself and then defecate onto a plate, and eat all of what you've made out at the nearest park.

What is that you say, Fran? That you do not like urinating on yourself, and that scan and public play is something you'd never do, not even for me?

If Fran had taken the time to properly build a signature, they wouldn't have gotten into this mess in the first place! Instead, Fran will be busy hanging from my ceiling for the rest of this post, and until they can get five comments to this saying "I give my permission to have Fran unbound."


Your Signature

Your signature is one of the most important things you can directly control about your user profile. Among it, your username (which you can control when first making your account), your avatar, and the contents of your user profile are all other useful things. There are also picture albums, and blogs which give you even more things. Look forward to reading more about these at a later point!

A blank signature is a shame, as Fran can tell you whenever they are lucky enough to have the gag removed. It wastes a change to give people an idea of what you want, what you don't want, what you'll never want, and anything else you may feel is important.

A signature should contain at least these basic elements:

• A short list of your likes, using only a single word for each.
• A short list of your dislikes, using only a single word for each.
• A short list of your limits, using only a single word for each.

An example might be as follows:

This gives everyone reading your post an idea of what you want, don't want, and what you will not do.

As you find your lists growing, you'll find that your lists become large enough that they are longer than your posts! At that point, it is a good idea to make a blog post (stay tuned for more on that if you aren't sure) to contain your likes, dislikes, and limits. You should then link to that blog post in your signature, saying something like "For my Likes/Dislikes/Limits, click here: <LINK>".

There are other useful things to add to your signature.

• A line with your gender, age (make sure to update this yearly!), and BDSM orientation (submissive/sub, dominate/dom, switch). This helps people understand more about you
• A line with your ownership information. This includes the name of your owner, and the name of your slave(s). This allows people to know when you're owned, or who you own.
• You can add a "loves" section for things that you like enough that you wish to have them listed in their own list. This gives a better gradient to allow things you find only minorly enjoyable to be listed with other such things, and things you find majorly enjoyable to be listed with other things of the same type. This makes rewards easier to assign and meter.
• In that same direction, a "hates" section is useful to make your dislikes things that you only minorly dislike, and have all of the things that you truly cannot stand but that are not limits listed by themselves. This makes punishment easier to meter and assign based upon your failure.
• A "PM Dare" request, which gives people a keyword to send to you via a PM (private message) to make you do something. Examples are "ice" for having you put an ice cube in your bum, "slap" for having you slap yourself (you can also ask to have them define the part to be slapped), and anything else that you can think of adding! If you aren't sure, try adding it, and seeing how well it works when you start getting PMs!
• Links to any blog posts you have made which are useful and interesting make for great signature content. Make sure to tell people what the post is about with a short description such as "Check out my blog post on the veggie conspiracy: <LINK>".
• Links to any of your posts that have ongoing content requests, such as an open slave/master ad, a poll/punishment request thread, or anything else which you think might fit. If you are unsure, try it and see how well it works to increase traffic to that thread.

There are also some things that you should try and avoid doing.

One of the most important is that you should try your best to avoid having useless information in your signature. A small quote either by another poster or from someone you like is alright, but having a paragraph detailing the mating patterns of the hammerhead shark is not very useful.

Additionally, your signature should not be very long, as long signatures end up getting overlooked.

If your signature is too "busy", which is to say that it has too much stuff going on at the same time, too many different colors, or is generally too disorganized, it will be much easier to overlook it.

Speaking of colors, and besides the color Fran's ass has turned after I finished with the paddling, colors can be a great way to have your signature noticed, and an even better way to have it ignored. Aim to have colors that contrast well with the color scheme of this site. Don't add anything with the same color as the background unless it is truly worth reading. And most important of all, stick to only a few colors.


And You

You can edit your signature by clicking this link: http://www.getdare.com/bbs/profile.php?do=editsignature

Alternatively, you can edit it by going to the "User CP" at the top-left, left click it and then go to the "Edit Signature" option on the left hand side under the "Settings & Options" submenu, and left click it. Finally, you can also go to the "Quick Links" drop down menu at the top-right, left click it and select the "Edit Signature" option under the "User Control Panel" submenu, and left click it.

If there is anything else you'd like to know about signatures, post a comment to this blog and I will update the blog to address it. And don't forget to make sure to not accidentally give Fran permission to be released!