I think users should have a signature either at the end of a message or under their armatar. Some other forum sites have that and I think it's creative.
I'm not against having small quotes or somethin, but the problems occur when yo uallow people to post large pictures everypost. THis not only kills load time, but just makes the forum look cluttered, and childish.
If you guys click on this link it will lead you to a forum based website and if you scroll down, to I think, the 2nd post then under his statement is .gif, that's what I think a signature is