[Rein]

I think it's very important for one to include certain pieces of vital information about themselves and their medical status so all readers can understand an individual poster's condition(s), possible biases and medical predispositions and experience(s). Without this information it is difficult (especially for newcomers to a forum, who must sift through dozens, if not hundreds of posts initially to find out who's who and what's what) to determine how valid any particular post may be or how applicable it may be to their own situation.

Personally, I prefer to include as much detail as necessary in my signature so anyone reading my posts will instantly know my vital statistics and the medical history leading up to my current status, plus any personal issues or thoughts which I might be concerned with or working on at the present time. An example would be whether someone has had (or is intending to have or trying to get) the ProDisc or Charite or Maverick device installed. Simply naming the surgeon who performed the procedure may be enough for oldtimers to the forum or people like myself (who have done extensive research on their own and already know most of the player's names) but for newbies to sort through all the surgeon's names to figure out which surgeon does which procedure(s) and which facility performs which procedure(s) (and then remember all that, once they've gone through the lists!) is a chore in itself.

Towards that end I'd respectfully like to suggest the current limit of 250 characters in the signature cell be increased. I use a whopping 822 characters for my signature in the BPSG Forum and there are others who use more space, so I really have no idea how large it should be. Perhaps no limit should be set on that area.

I'd also like to kindly ask those who have included no signature or very limited information in their signatures that they now rethink that part of their participation in this forum and perhaps rewrite their sigs to include more detailed information. I've been considering some sort of guideline or checklist or format for that information so it can be easily scanned by anyone for specific details.