Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wasatch!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!bbn!bbn.com!rsalz From: rsalz@bbn.com (Rich Salz) Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions Subject: Re: Signature files Message-ID: <1937@prune.bbn.com> Date: 18 Aug 89 17:07:48 GMT References: <15046@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> Organization: BBN Systems and Technologies Corporation Lines: 43 In most cases, the news software automatically fills in most .signature information, like the Organization and the E-mail address. If it's correct, why duplicate it? As the world goes to Internet-style domains, UUCP path examples become more and more pointless. (They suffer their own risks, too, in that they can get outdated -- I still see references to ihnp4!) Regardless of what the actual costs are, longer signatures cost more to distribute and store. The tend to be much more inane and useless, and the folks who pay the bills would rather cut .signatures than newsgroups. >I liked my old sig; I thought it was unique. Yes, perhaps it was, the first time. Maybe even the second time. By the third or fourth time -- and certainly by the twentieth time -- it is annoying. Don't you just hate it when you hear the same joke or anecdote three or four times? It's the same with .signatures. And isn't it REALLY bad when it happens several times in the same day? That's EXACTLY what happens when you read news once a day -- I see several articles by the same person, with the same .signature; at least the article text is different each time! > I also spent some time writing up >the design, thinking of a quote, etc. Some people feel a compelling need to make their signature be a statement of who they are. I never quite understood this: your postings should contain the content; how you sign your name is should be meaningless. I should admit, however, that this attitude did not come early; I added patches to the NOTESFILE system to support .signatures, and I used to have a silly song quote there. To quote an ex-colleague: "What can I say, I grew up." With few exceptions, the more experienced and respected posters on Usenet have minimal (Henry Spencer, "trish") or no (Doug Gwyn, Rick Adams) signatures. This is not coincidental. >= UMBRELLASWORD throwingplatter PLATTERCOVERSHIELD coatstaff CUTLERYLOCKPICK = The first time I saw this I thought it was a cute mixture of words. Now I think it's just plain stupid. /r$ -- Please send comp.sources.unix-related mail to rsalz@uunet.uu.net. Use a domain-based address or give alternate paths, or you may lose out.