decot (04/01/83)
How many people out there like to read >= 8 lines of data about a submitter at the end of EACH of their articles? It's nice to know something about a person, but a lot of extra stuff about exactly what division, what building number, etc. you work in is probably not of general interest. I object (somewhat, but not terribly) to unsigned articles or simply one's initials at the bottom, though. Your name (or pseudonym, perhaps), and a path back to you is about all you need to say, unless it's clever or you want to include a picture. A path (although not always one that actually works to return mail through) is included at the top in the From field by almost every mailer I have seen used, so even the path may not be necessary. One or two lines is plenty, unless your submission is about you. Of course, you will do what you want, but I hope you will think about this. It's only a suggestion. -Dave Decot, ...!decvax!cwruecmp!decot
jeff@rlgvax.UUCP (Jeffrey Kegler) (07/23/83)
I was grateful to learn of the .signature feature. I do not know what to
make of the complaint about signatures being too long. Having not
said 'n' to the article, and then read it to the end, can one begrudge
a little white space? While I think some signatures are too whimsical
and long-winded for my taste, that is just a matter of personality. So I
cannot see any harm in any of the signatures I have seen on the net.
If someone finds the return address information these provide to be
unnecessary, they must fall into one of two extremes--either their
knowledge of the various nets, their interconnections, conventions and
idiosyncrasies transcends anything I have ever encountered, or else they
are rather inexperienced and naive about the difficulties of sending
netmail. I think everyone should include a signature, because the header
does not tell me enough, and if the article is worth sending (another
topic, entirely) it is well worth knowing how to get in touch with the
sender. Headers are often mangled by the time they reach us, and even when
not, they only state the path by which mail *did* reach us. This path may
well be impossible to reverse ("demand" one-way and "polled" the other) or
go through sites which forward news but not mail. Rarely do I see the
header on a news item give a path which at all resembles the best one back.
Jeffrey Kegler
CCI Office Systems Division (formerly RLG)
...{allegra,seismo,mcnc,lime,we13,brl-bmd}!rlgvax!jeff
P.S. Apparently the .signature feature does not work here, though it is
in the source code. My apologies to those receiving this
article on the importance of signatures without a signature.leichter@yale-com.UUCP (Jerry Leichter) (07/24/83)
"What's the harm in a little white-space" You obviously are blessed with a fast line. I read most of my news at 1200 baud, and the harm is, to me, VERY obvious. The real pain - not at all un- common when you have 5 and 6 line headers - si the message that would fit on the screen if not for the signature but forces me into more just because of the "harmless whitespace". That is slow even on a 9600 baud line, when the system is loaded! I have reduced my own signature to two lines (from 3) for just these reasons. -- Jerry decvax!yale-comix!leichter leichter@yale