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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!rutgers!lll-lcc!styx!mcb
From: mcb@styx.UUCP
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: .signature line limit
Message-ID: <21368@styx.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Apr-87 20:12:42 EST
Article-I.D.: styx.21368
Posted: Thu Apr  2 20:12:42 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Apr-87 16:22:57 EST
References: <1305@msudoc.UUCP>
Reply-To: mcb@styx.UUCP (Michael C. Berch)
Organization: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Livermore CA
Lines: 37
Summary: Automatic signatures -- an idea whose time has passed

In article <1305@msudoc.UUCP> lawitzke@msudoc.UUCP (John Lawitzke) writes:
> I think a 5-line limit is far more realistic:
> 
> Name                              UUCP address
> Title                             ARPA address
> Organization                      CSNET address
> Mail Stop                         Office phone
> City, State, Zip                  Home phone

Twaddle. This isn't a business card, folks. If you're asking specifically
for paper mail in your article, you might mention your (paper)
addrress, but otherwise, who cares? Same with telephones. Titles are
useless; who the hell cares if something was posted by the president of FooBar
Industries, or the washroom attendant? (For the person who suggested
that titles were useful in determining peoples' qualifications in
technical matters, all I can say is "dram on" -- if you can tell the
difference between a "Senior Progammer/Analyst" and a "Principal
Member of the Technical Staff" and whatever other title inflation goes
on these days, congratulations.)

Automatic signatures are an idea whose time has passed. I've seen too
damn many half-page cute drawings, boxed outlines (can you imagine how
painful those are at 1200 bps or lower?), repetitive quotations from
plays (harryb@slovax comes to mind), company logos (AT&T, Pyramid, and
a couple others : you know who you are!), silly pictures, and the
like. Come on, folks. Get a life.

I don't use a .signature; I yank it manually into the editor each
time; that way I can easily add an explanatory line if needed.
I'd put it on one line, but the UUCP path stuff won't fit, and until
everybody's doing domains it's still needed. If you need more than
your name, e-mail address (domain style and path-style if necessary),
and a single explanatory line one in a rare while, you're blowing it.

Michael C. Berch
News/mail admin - styx      <--- "explanatory line"
mcb@lll-tis-b.arpa / {ames,ihnp4,lll-crg,lll-lcc,mordor}!styx!mcb