Thread: No sig lines means no sig lines

Nobody has taken away anyone's right to add names, greetings, good wishes etc. It is just that we would have to type them every time. This is getting to sound like these things are very important, but not so important that they shouldn't be quick and easy. It doesn't seem a lot of trouble, for a courtesy, and not having them doesn't sound like the kind of discourtesy anybody is liable to notice.

Originally Posted by Caledonian

Nobody has taken away anyone's right to add names, greetings, good wishes etc. It is just that we would have to type them every time. This is getting to sound like these things are very important, but not so important that they shouldn't be quick and easy. It doesn't seem a lot of trouble, for a courtesy, and not having them doesn't sound like the kind of discourtesy anybody is liable to notice.

Originally Posted by MickR

G'day Mick, yeah I had my sig line automatically removed too, but I wasn't sure if the rule of no sigs extended as far as a please don't sign your name at the end of each of your posts as I tend to do.

Mick

Originally Posted by MickR

Pardon my ignorance here, and this is meant to be a polite set of questions. When we are talking about signiture lines, it's what has already been removed right? It's not about signing off at the end of your post with your name or anything is it? Or is it? If it is then I will stop doing that too. No problems with that on my part.


Mick

Originally Posted by Bruno

Yes, actually it is.
We are looking at a way to automatically put your name next to the post.

Other than that, please do not put signature lines inside your post. We removed the 'sig line' functionality because that was what everyone was using for doing this.
With that disabled, some people started typing their sig lines at the end of every post. The reason we wanted the sig lines gone (other than the space they occupy) is that they're off topic and have no relevance for the discussion.

Actually Caledonian, you're mistaken. That 'right' was taken away according to the answers I recieved.

Originally Posted by MickR

Actually Caledonian, you're mistaken. That 'right' was taken away according to the answers I recieved.

Indeed. Though I admit freely that we had not looked at the difference between valedictions and expression of opinion.
Some people started pasting their old sig line (with political / philosophical expression) at the bottom of their post. That is what triggered this thread. The rules we implemented: 'no sig lines' had the effect of banning both, whereas what we wanted to target was only one thing. One of the reasons we didn't see it was because not all of us (most of us IIRC) did not use valedictions. I know I didn't, or at least not in group based communication like forum posts.

During the course of this discussion here, we also argued the issue amongst ourselves.
Expression of e.g political opinion has no place in e.g. a honing discussion. There are other places here on the site where such things should go.
Otoh, valedictions are one form of good manners, and this being a gentlemen's site, that should not be punished.

Therefore we will have to amend the rules.
Some of you were using valedictions in the actual post, and have always been doing that. If you want to continue doing that, that's fine. Just keep it limited to that.
Some others kept their valediction in their sigline. Currently, all sig lines are still in the database so we can't just turn them on again. I'll ask the devs to clear all signatures from the database, and then reenable a limited sig line.