Really. You really don’t. Your name is clearly posted by the nice people that coded the board software. We know who you are. I understand that many on this board don’t frequent other boards… and that by it’s very nature as a paid board we’re selecting for a more educated, stable type of poster. In particular the kind that can with wild abandon toss a handful of fliff at unca ceic for the privilege of posting here. And perhaps in some cases, the kind who would never post on a message board otherwise. It’s okay, you’re new to this. But stop it.
I remember when my dad was getting used to IMing. We’d sit there and have a conversation for about 20 minutes and he’d always end it just like a letter…
I’ve actually run into a problem with that before. Left Hand of Dorkness signs his posts “Daniel”. From the time he joined the board, I used his signatory name when addressing or referencing him since, it seemed to me, that by signing his posts with it, it was the name he preferred. Suddenly, he announced to me one day (in the context of a general pile-on) that he would prefer that I not call him “Daniel”. Despite the unfortunate timing (I was dealing with enough already, thank you), I’ve honored his wishes ever since. And now every time I type out his rather long name, I do so with a shrug and a sigh.
And apart from that sig lines are an abomination. I turned them off when I realised that they were colouring my impression of the poster - “wanker”, “poseur”, “intellectual wannabe”, “only half as clever as you think”, “fascist” etc
Don’t even get me started on sigs; I turned that shit off the very second I found the option. Although I have been thrown for a loop a time or two when a poster refers to something I can’t see, but that is very rare.
Even though you’ve come to grips not to call him Daniel, if he continues to sign his posts with “Daniel”, I don’t see a problem what so ever with anyone calling him just that. If he doesn’t like it, he can sign with “Left Hand of Dorkness”. What a concept that would be.
Shodan makes a good point. The fact that he always signs his posts the same way makes him memorable to me. I don’t think I often sign posts here, unless I’m the OP, and that’s to use my actual name, to add some humanity to what would otherwise just be a jumble of words. I don’t think it’s necessary to sign posts, but it’s just one of those human quirks that adds some individuality to the poster.
I don’t necessarily mind the “regards, Shodan” thing so much because it’s clearly a sign-off. But it does irk me when people just type their username at the bottom. It can be really confusing. Like this one poster, Sailboat…I’ll be reading his post, and it will say “Sailboat” at the end…and I’ll sit there wondering what the heck a sailboat has to do with anything. It’s confusing and annoying.
I do it occasionally, when there’s some “qualification” or relevant aside to my post – like in AA-related threads, I’ll sign off “twicks, sober 21 years,” or in threads about academia, I’ll sign off “twicks, PhD.”
My Og, no one has ever brought this up before. What an original thread.
Your right, it is a terrible habit to sign off on a form of communication. No reasonable person would do this, especially for us posters whose sign-offs match our user name. Oh wait, mine does not.
Jim (Besides, where else would I include my silly little asides that have often nothing to do with the rest of my post)
Exactly. This is how I (occasionally) use signing off as well. Sometimes it’s just a nice punchy ending to a post that reads better with some “oomph” at the end.
On occaision, I find it helpful - when it’s a long post, then I don’t have to scroll back up to find out who posted it.
I confess that I don’t get the signing real name when your user id is different, but it doesn’t bug me enough to make me ask why.
I have routinely kept sig lines turned off, and have never turned it back on again, even when folks post ‘finally, a perfect opportunity to use my sig line’.
Oddly I don’t mind the sign offs like a letter (‘regards, Shodan’ is the most obvious in my eyes- though in his case, the juxtiposition between the ‘bite me’ type of thing and ‘regards’ is amusing. Not in a belly busting way, but, still).
