# Why do people sign their names after one line posts?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [December 7, 2003, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506 "2003-12-07T05:26:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Azure\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azure_Eternity)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/1 "2003-12-07T05:26:29Z")
If someone writes a page long dissertation, I think it’s a fine idea to put one’s signature at the end. But why, _why_, do some people insist on signing every post? Sometime’s it’s only a line, or even a couple of words, but they sign it nonetheless. Could someone help me with the logic here?
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/2 "2003-12-07T05:29:37Z")
It’s so you know they wrote it, and not some impostor.
-Achernar
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/3 "2003-12-07T05:41:31Z")
One of us has an obsession with Zorro.
~Z~
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/4 "2003-12-07T05:42:13Z")
They must be relatives of the people who send emails at work with their full name, job title, division etc. I sign mine with my christian name. Hell, you know who sent it before you opened it.
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### Author:  [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/5 "2003-12-07T06:00:44Z")
Some people do it out of convention, as would be done in any correspondence.
Some people do it because it’s the “accepted” form on other message boards, and while in that mode of writing make a post here.
Some people do it in an “official capacity”, like the SDMB Staff.
Some people do it just because.
And some people do it because they really like seeing their own name, and it gives their inflated sense of self-importance that pump-up they need that snorting a big greasy line of Ajax every morning won’t give them.
People are funny.
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### Author:  [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/6 "2003-12-07T08:46:57Z")
Actually, for couples it is useful, since sometimes the SO of the actual poster is logged in, which leads to no end of confusion. Putting the actual name at the end of the post immediately makes clear who the real poster is.
There’s a pun with im-poster in here somewhere.
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### Author:  [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/7 "2003-12-07T10:51:01Z")
Until yesterday, I did it out of some sort of [compulsion](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=225186) … one which I’m trying to break.
Although I have found it necessary to add a sig, to stop the shakes. 😉
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### Author:  [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/8 "2003-12-07T10:52:13Z")
… which I forgot to check! Oh, the torment …
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### Author:  [@JohnBarleycorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBarleycorn)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/9 "2003-12-07T15:48:56Z")
I think some people do it so they can search on their names and get all the threads they posted to.
Actually though, it would be more useful to not sign in that case, because then you would get just those posts that people quoted you or answered you by name without the clutter of all your other posts.
Alternate theory: It’s people who usually post on systems without the automatic sig feature.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/10 "2003-12-07T20:43:27Z")
It also lends itself to a more natural flow of reading. When I’m reading through a thread, I seldom notice anything in the left column, and distinctive sigs (and you can’t get much more distinctive than one’s own name!) make it easier to recognize at a glance who’s saying what.
And not entirely on topic, **Violet** , I think your sig is clever. Of course, folks without that font are probably puzzled by it…
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### Author:  [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/11 "2003-12-07T21:34:50Z")
Not really. Folks without that font see it as “ZZZ” and think she’s asleep. 😉
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### Author:  [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/12 "2003-12-07T21:44:27Z")
I did indeed see Zzz. Am I supposed to see something else? FWIW, they are indeed violet and shrinking.
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2003, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/13 "2003-12-07T22:37:07Z")
It’s a bouquet.
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### Author:  [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/14 "2003-12-08T05:59:01Z")
I usually do that out of habit.
And the sig looks cute.
F\_X
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### Author:  [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/15 "2003-12-08T22:34:11Z")
Moo.
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### Author:  [@Azure\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azure_Eternity)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/16 "2003-12-08T23:11:24Z")
Thanks. It’s true that I usually don’t look at the left hand column, so a signature is often helpful.
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### Author:  [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-sign-their-names-after-one-line-posts/217506/17 "2003-12-09T09:09:29Z")
Re my sig: people with the Webdings font should see violet-coloured shrinking flowers (I’ve always been very literal 😉 ), but I _did_ realise that those without the font would see ZZZs … which is a happy coincidence and just as appropriate anyway. 😃