Signature suggestion (having a global option for all posts)

[ipscone]

It appears that any changes to a signature file only affect posts that are made after a signature is changed.

Is there any way to make a signature file apply to all previous posts?

Or is that by design (rather than incidentially) that it does not?

[Chen]

What version of vBulletin are you using? Signatures are updated retroactively since the fist vBulletin 2 versions, since they are not stored with each post but only inside the user record.

[ipscone]

I am using the latest (2.2.6).

I have added an image to my signature shown on this new thread here:
http://www.msdsite.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=728 and it shows up.

But on this old thread:
http://www.msdsite.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=674 it does not.

Or this one:
http://www.msdsite.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=691

In fact, none of my previous posts were updated with the new signature.

[Chen]

I see. That's because you previously had no signature, so the checkbox at the bottom of the page when posting ("Show Signature") was not checked. Now that you have a signature, it is checked, but older messages won't have any signature (because the option is turned off for those posts).
So, basically, it's not an issue of older vs. newer signature, but the option is simply off for the posts.

But if you go now and change your signature, you will notice that it updates in the first message you linked to.

[ipscone]

So, it's only updated "retroactively", if one had signatures previously and had the signature box checked.

I guess that offers more control over having signatures on or off on a post-by-post basis but I also think that having a global signature on-off would be nice too. So, that any time, I might decide that I want all posts to contain my signature, without having to go back through all my posts and checking that "signature on/off" box.

[Chen]

That's a good suggestion. If you want I can move this thread to the Suggestions forum.

For now, you can run this query to turn On signatures for all of your posts:
UPDATE post SET showsignature = 1 WHERE userid = XX
(where XX is your user ID)
Or, to turn On signatures for all posts in the whole forum, run this query:
UPDATE post SET showsignature = 1

[ipscone]

Sure, why not make it a suggestion.

I would think this would be a user selectable feature. Not a global signature switch that would apply to all users. That way, each user could make the selection. And it could be reversible.

GlobalSignature = 1 (turns on all signatures; overrides "Show Signature check box")

GlobalSignature = 0 (use "Show Signature check box" value)