And it really doesn’t matter whether he keeps it or not. If I feel a poster is generally a dick, whether or not he signs his posts in any particular way is not going to significantly change my opinion - or make me care any more or less about his posts.
Don’t let the haters get you down. Keep on keepin’ on.
Regards,
mswas
Then why do people poop themselves when someone misspells a word or doesn’t bother with proper capitalization or punctuation?
It is pretentiously lame.
>Do you mean the signature, or the sign off that I type in myself?
Well, I don’t know that I can tell them apart. One has a line separating it from the rest of the posting; does that line set off signatures? Or does it have other meanings?
However, when I said I was trying to figure out whether you were actually adding those words to the post you were typing, versus them now appearing automatically because at some time you set something up, it was the automatically generated kind I was suspecting.
It’s the automatically generated kind that strikes me as obnoxious because all of us can’t automatically read it, recognize it as not being what you yourself just said, and discount it, whereas you can automatically generate it effortlessly.
For reasons I don’t think I can quite explain and certainly can’t express, there is a class of actions that I find obnoxious this way. Somebody holding their hand right in front of my face and repeating “I’m not touching you, I’m not touching you” is an example. Somebody just repeating everything I say is another. Somebody leaving their record player repeating the same record over and over all day long when they aren’t even home is another. And spam is another, a great modern example. I think there is something in common to these involving their presumptuousness and my inability to do anything about it, but don’t really feel like that explanation’s quite clear.
I guess that thinking sometimes you type out your tagline thoughtfully and sometimes it appears automatically, and therefore if I want to understand what you wrote I have to figure out which it was, would be yet another example of this.
The line demarcates the signature that a poster can set up in the UserCP. It appears when the poster checks the “Show your signature” box. Additionally, every SDMB member has the option to “Show signatures”, i.e. check a box in the UserCP to allow other users’ signatures to be displayed. Those who don’t want to view any signatures can uncheck the box and they will never see signatures.
And I think that is part of some people’s complaints about Shodan’s signature. By typing it in manually at the end of each of his posts, he has (deliberately or not) circumvented everybody’s ability to choose for themselves whether or not to have signatures displayed.
This is pretty close to my feelings on the matter. I don’t suppose it’s that bad, but I do find it vaguely annoying. Pretty much the same for other people who sign their posts (though perhaps I find it more annoying than some others for some reason. Not much more annoying, but a bit).
Czarcasm is exactly right. It’s too formal for the casual conversational style of a typical message board discussion, and thus smacks of pretentiousness. I don’t really care, but I would characterize it as “mildly annoying” for that reason.
On the other hand, I would consider it somewhat more appropriate at the end of an OP. Especially a long OP, which I would say is more like a letter requesting a response. The discussion that follows, however, is just that: discussion.
I actually find it a little annoying – not because it’s too formal for a message board (it’s not), but because it so often comes at the end of combative and/or nasty posts and is clearly, as Shodan concedes, a little “fuck you” capper.
However, I don’t think Shodan should stop using it. It’s at worst a minor offense, and it’s too much trouble to go down the path of trying to distinguish between the times it’s sincere and those it’s insulting, so we should just learn to live with the the instances in which he masks his hostility with passive-aggressiveness. It’s not as bad as what a lot of posters do, which is to mask their hostility in exaggerated outrage (or not to mask it at all).
Seconded (or thirded or whatever it’s up to now).
It’s ok.
I have the esteemed honor to remain, sir,
With the highest consideration,
Your Very Obedient Servant,
The Honorable Lord Tibbytoes III, MD, J.D, O.D, LPN, CMA, DDS, DVM, FDIC, BMOC, YMMV, LOL, SOL, BLT
I don’t mind the sig, either.
Actually, I kinda like it, I guess, as it signals the end of your post- and I don’t mean that as “I’m glad it’s over” kind of way , but more like a “You’ve reached the end, move on to the next post” sort of way.
It seems some people can find annoyance in the smallest of things. I can’t imagine anyone getting worked up by your sig line as it’s a simple “good bye/the end” and not an insult or snark or anything.
This is a funny thread.
Your posts are generally interesting and informative, so those people talking about ignoring you are cutting of their own noses.
But at the same time why put your name at the end of every post? It’s in big, blue letters right next to it.
And not that there’s any reason for you to listen to me but why not just say “regards”? Or maybe vary it up a bit?
At another board I read sigs like that are banned, mainly because they give off that whole “new to the internet” vibe.
Peace out
Theo
>Additionally, every SDMB member has the option to “Show signatures”, i.e. check a box in the UserCP to allow other users’ signatures to be displayed.
Thank you, Mister Rik. I didn’t know this and have now checked it.
>By typing it in manually at the end of each of his posts, he has (deliberately or not) circumvented everybody’s ability to choose for themselves whether or not to have signatures displayed.
This is interesting. If “signature” means “the automatically generated thing”, then he’s not circumventing anything, he’s just saying the same thing at the end of every post. I actually don’t find that annoying - or, rather, I don’t find the idea of it annoying, though of course if I don’t know whether he typed it or it was automatic, then I don’t know whether to be annoyed.
This is getting complicated. Let’s just say the idea of people automatically adding the same thing to each post annoys me, because it pretends to be something they meant to say here, and so it’s misinformation distributed with no marginal effort on their part and then interpreted with some tiny marginal effort on my part.
A sig is a sig whether it’s automatically appended or typed manually.
I don’t like it, but it makes no difference. Like others say it’s within his rights. If I had a sig though that pissed people off…I don’t know why I would keep it. I don’t think Shodan has adequately explained why he likes it. It feels a bit pretentious to me.
Actually, nevermind, I missed a few posts of Shodans…maybe he has explained it well.
I still am not a fan of it though 
Agreed.
I have the esteemed honor to remain, sir,
With the highest consideration,
Your Very Obedient Servant,
The Honorable Lord Tibbytoes III, MD, J.D, O.D, LPN, CMA, DDS, DVM, FDIC, BMOC, YMMV, LOL, SOL, BLT
↑ Top limit of what “I own”.
I say press on with it. You “own”, and are responsible, for everything contained within the arrows of your post. By signing up with these boards, paying your dues, and following the Golden Rule of not being a jerk, you ought to do as you please–hidden meaning in your signoff or not. Sometimes, it’s a good thing. As far as I understand things, everything between the arrows is not what annoys the hamsters, it’s the pre-generated sigline after the last arrow which forces the server to do extra work (however much that be).
I say, so long as you want to do it, do it. Don’t cave into the niceties of whether or not people are “annoyed” by it. You paid for the privilege, use it as you see fit.
Tripler
Regards,
[sub]Below the arrow is the signature I think we’re only asked to use once per thread.[/sub]
↓ Bottom limit of what “I own.”
I like it. I vote for you to keep using it. I see it kind of like wearing your hair in a ponytail or going to the store in a purple shirt. You want to do it, it doesn’t hurt a thing, go for it.
It kind of makes me smile, for some reason.