500 char's is a lot, are you sure chris's is more than that? If it is, it must have changed after the update. Its upped to 750 temporarily, but I'd only like to see small sigs - so use a small font
I had to edit mine for ages before it let me... i think it is 500 or less... it HAS to be, or i wouldn't have been allowed it. Maybe there were some spaces after the text you pasted that are counted as characters?
Its a little too big if I'm honest Any chance you can put a couple of things on the same line, or remove the little things like floppy/network card? A little smaller and its fine
Using word is never a good idea as it add formating tags (which are hidden, to get exact thing notepad is more suitable.
I personally never like the idea of large sigs as they waste a lot of time in scrolling the thread, two to three lines should be sufficient for most. Besides not many people read sigs, its the contents of the message which is more important.
The sig character count takes into account all formatting characters - not just the actual text displayed.
So, for example "KGB's Rig" contains 9 characters, but if you make it bold "KGB's Rig" it then contains 16 characters.
Adding colour tags will add upwards of another 20 characters, per instance.
So, if your sig doesnt fit, try removing some of the formatting.