Cacheing is when internet explorer or netscape, save everything it comes across on the web to the Temporary Internet Files folder.
It is used so that when a user re-visits a page, IE knows it has seen stuff before and rather than downloading it again it simply copies the files from the temporary folder onto your screen.
This means that the 56K boys can surf at a speed something close to human, which is essential in an information heavy setup like these forums.
*****
StevieB would not discourage you from using any system you can to display sigs. Some longstanding DF-HQ members have their sigs stored at DF-HQ, some use their own websapce, some even use a friends.
The fact that e-boards have a no-cache feel to them does mean however that designers are sensetive to toward others.
a 100,000 byte file is excessive on a sig. Its will cause other people to slow down badly whe using these forums.
Some forums have size limits but DF-HQ believes in the freedom of expression which makes this place great.
Here is an example to show the file size of your sig in context.
<embed src="http://www.zza1pqx.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/siggy/panther.swf" quality=high pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="200" height="200">
</embed>
The Flash above is 40740 bytes in size. It includes (realtivley) complex animation as well as a reasonable sized wav converted to Mp3
despite this it is still less than half the size of your simple animated GIF banner.
you can check this by right clicking your banner.
Dont get me wrong, it is a kick ass sig and as you can see from mine below, I am not the best at critiqueing creativity, but before you go to the animation process, you must use either the image program you did the original artwork in to reduce the file quality and therefore its size OR, you can get image optimisers that work reasonably well which will do the same thing.
Most good ones, reduce the file size significantly before there is any visible deterioration in visual quality. Once you have done this you can get the animation tools out and create your super sig, without having to upset those boys on the telephone modems.
If you dont have an image optimiser try
http://www.tucows.com and search for a freeware one, there are plenty out there.
Lastly, I try and be constructive in my responses to posts like these but frequently they come across as arrogant. My apologies if this seems the case, I mean nothing but support in your endeavor to produce good web art.
Meanwhile, why not enter my competition, in this show us yer siggys forum.
Cheers ZZ out.