Fix Yer .Sig!

   It has come to my attention that not everyone is fully aware of USENET convention for signatures - usually called ".sig"s, because most Unix newsreaders and mail use the file .sig in your home directory to store your signature. Your software may vary - if all else fails, read the fine manual provided with it.

   A proper signature starts with a delimiter, which tells newsreader software where the post ends and your signature starts. The delimiter is dash-dash-space-newline:

--

   Yes, the space is necessary - you're unlikely to ever type a line of two dashes and a space for any other reason, so newsreaders can rely on it really being the start of your signature.

   Now comes your signature. We have a rule, called the McQuary Limit, of 4 lines by (at most) 80 columns. And it means exactly that. No adding an extra line, and no blank lines after. If it doesn't fit, mangle it until it does, or replace it. Longer .sigs are an eyesore - the equivalent of banner ads and pop-up windows on the Web. In the old days, bandwidth was a problem, but a long .sig doesn't cost much now. But it still takes up screen space - someone's paging down through your message, and here's all this STUFF at the bottom. Where's the end of the message and the start of the signature? If your .sig is short, the reader's eye can just glance up a bit and see where it starts and ends. So please be polite.

   If your .sig is very long and ugly, it is likely to be abducted and publicly mocked by the cruel bastards on alt.fan.warlord.

   Also, avoid using tabs - use spaces to space things out. Not everyone has the same tabstops you do, and your .sig can be mangled on their screen.

   Following these simple rules will help you be a happy and productive member of USENET. Breaking these rules will get you in endless arguments over your .sig from pedantic people like me. Wouldn't you rather be discussing something more interesting than your .sig? Right. So fix yer .sig.

Example

   Here's my current .sig:

-- 
 <a href="http://kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu/~kamikaze/"> Mark Damon Hughes </a>
"No one is safe.  We will print no letters to the editor.  We will give no
space to opposing points of view.  They are wrong.  The Underground Grammarian
is at war and will give the enemy nothing but battle." -TUG, v1n1

   There's two things worthy of note here:

  1. It includes my name and URL, wrapped in an HTML tag. But USENET messages are not, and should not be, in HTML. I just write so much HTML by hand that it was the most obvious way for me to write it. Please don't learn bad habits from this and start writing your messages in HTML.
  2. I had to mangle the quote I put in there to fit the space - I couldn't write out "The Underground Grammarian" twice and fit in 80x4, so I abbreviated it the second time. Other quotes, I've had to modify even more or just put on my quotes page.

References

Last modified: 2002Jan18
Created