From owner-they-might-be@gnu.ai.mit.edu Wed Mar 2 15:43:23 1994 Cc: tmbg@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: Re: Signature Files (.signature) Comment: They Might Be Giants mail Comment: For info on how to subscribe or unsubscribe, mail to they-might-be-request@super.org >****************************************************************************** >* "These are the last words I have to say, That's why it this took long to * >* write, There will be other words some other day, But that's the story of * >* my life..." Billy Joel, "Famous Last Words" * >*----------------------------------------------------------------------------* >* "Kiss me, Son of G-d" TMBG, "Kiss me, Son of G-d" * >*----------------------------------------------------------------------------* >* rfishler@drew.drew.edu redhead@chaos.bsu.edu * >* rfishler@bigcat.missouri.edu redhead@ocd.loni.ucla.edu * >* an675@freenet.carleton.ca Bitnet: rfishler@drew * >* Reid Fishler, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, USA * >* "And ya know what? If you have another address for me...I'll take it!" * >****************************************************************************** Reid's signature file (above) reminded me of that old ".sig" debate. I know I shouldn't bring it up, but here's some literature: ------ Subject: Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette **NOTE: this is intended to be satirical. If you do not recognize it as such, consult a doctor or professional comedian. The recommendations in this article should recognized for what they are -- admonitions about what NOT to do. "Dear Emily Postnews" Emily Postnews, foremost authority on proper net behaviour, gives her advice on how to act on the net. ============================================================================ Dear Miss Postnews: How long should my signature be? -- verbose@noisy A: Dear Verbose: Please try and make your signature as long as you can. It's much more important than your article, of course, so try to have more lines of signature than actual text. Try to include a large graphic made of ASCII characters, plus lots of cute quotes and slogans. People will never tire of reading these pearls of wisdom again and again, and you will soon become personally associated with the joy each reader feels at seeing yet another delightful repeat of your signature. Be sure as well to include a complete map of USENET with each signature, to show how anybody can get mail to you from any site in the world. Be sure to include Internet gateways as well. Also tell people on your own site how to mail to you. Give independent addresses for Internet, UUCP, and BITNET, even if they're all the same. Aside from your reply address, include your full name, company and organization. It's just common courtesy -- after all, in some newsreaders people have to type an *entire* keystroke to go back to the top of your article to see this information in the header. By all means include your phone number and street address in every single article. People are always responding to usenet articles with phone calls and letters. It would be silly to go to the extra trouble of including this information only in articles that need a response by conventional channels! ------ Emily goes on to talk about other things, but always keeps us reminded of our signatures! Here's one reason you should keep your signatures (.sig) short: Reid's signature, for example, has almost 1,000 characters in it. That's about 0.25 kilobytes. The They-Might-Be mailing list has nearly 500 subscribers. So every time Reid sends a message with his large signature, an astounding 125 kilobytes of text is distributed around the world! (In case you missed the step, that's 0.25 K * 500 = 125K.) If Reid had kept his signature down to four lines, he would have only been sending about 300 chars (0.075 K) to each person for a total of only 37.5 K sent around the world. Here's some more literature: ------ Subject: A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community A Primer on How to Work With the USENET Community Chuq Von Rospach *** You now have access to Usenet, a network of thousands of computers. Other documents or your system administrator will provide detailed technical documentation. This message describes the Usenet culture and customs that have developed over time. All new users should read this message to find out how Usenet works. *** *** (Old users could read it, too, to refresh their memories.) *** Don't Overdo Signatures Signatures are nice, and many people can have a signature added to their postings automatically by placing it in a file called "$HOME/.signature". Don't overdo it. Signatures can tell the world something about you, but keep them short. A signature that is longer than the message itself is considered to be in bad taste. The main purpose of a signature is to help people locate you, not to tell your life story. Every signature should include at least your return address relative to a major, known site on the network and a proper domain-format address. Your system administrator can give this to you. Some news posters attempt to enforce a 4 line limit on signature files -- an amount that should be more than sufficient to provide a return address and attribution. ------ Personally, I feel signatures are in general worthless. My e-mail address is in the header of EVERY message I send, and if I want someone to know my land address and/or phone number, I'll send it to them personally. But that is my own opinion. The literature above is NOT my opinion. I am merely quoting the original authors, without alteration. -- John P.S. Anybody out there have a tour schedule for They?