What signatures say about you

Did you know that your e-mail signature says as much about you as the clothes you wear. Are you spreading happiness across the net or subjecting yourself to ridicule ? I'm Sure you never gave it that much thought.

As the days of handwritten letters and wax seals are overtaken by electronic communications, there’s a new kind of personalization, injecting that rather dull e-mail format with your own questionable personality. So, you might be sent a simple e-mail query to which you happily respond, until you see the customized information at the end of the message. There could be a long list of contact details, maybe a quotation, a smattering of philosophy or a witticism. Whatever lurks there can reveal more about the sender than the message alone. Of course, signatures can be informative and interesting, a light-hearted end to an otherwise ordinary e-mail. Unfortunately, some people get it horribly wrong and you’re left with a rather bad taste in your mouth…

1. One of the original purposes of e-mail signatures was for company disclaimers. These statements renounce responsibility for the opinions expressed by the company’s employees and lay down the law on privacy.

2. If you want to return a message, you simply click reply. Why then do some people often weigh their mails by huge lists of contact details like companies, departments, work numbers, secretary numbers, mobiles, web addresses – the list is endless. If you wanted that much info.,you would e-mail them surely, wouldn’t you?

3. Many of you must be familiar with the gems commonly sent by members of the computer-literate species, such as : " I haven’t lost my mind, it’s backed up on disk somewhere." These kinds of phrases are meant to lighten the content of the mail but which serve only to reveal a bad case of techie disease. A collection of such can be found at www.siglets.com.

4. Don’t have anything to say, then tell a joke. Choose wisely and your wit will be legendary. Sleazy material can be avoided for example "If I could rearrange the alphabet, I would put ‘u’ and ‘i’ closer together". Such kinds will rarely merit a response, no matter how much cash you offer the recipient.

5. Sometimes a more intelligent ending to your message can be achieved by using other peoples words and thoughts. Lot of such quotes can be found at www.quoteland.com, and also at my site right here.

Here is something I read once in an article, pretty interesting as some sample signatures from www.coolsig.com are analyzed.

Signature : "Just remember, if the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off."
Analysis : Moderately amusing, realistic with a bit of common sense. However, the initial signs of pessimism are detectable. Please watch out since there is a tendency for chronic depression as time passes.

Signature : "As a computer, I find your faith in technology amusing."
Analysis : Empathising with inanimate objects is one of the first signs of madness, and wishing you were a computer could get you taken away to somewhere safe and warm. Be careful with this one, technology has a nasty knack of getting its revenge.

Signature : "The truth is out there ? Does anyone know know the URL ?"
Analysis : See this and run. A red alert of mega-geekish proportions. This is the type of person who keeps you talking for hours in the corridor about all the interesting things they've found on the net.

Signature : "A much witter reply came to mind immediately after I clicked the 'send' button."
Analysis : How quaint, a person who understands the pitfalls of speedy technologies, but one who is basically admitting a membership to loser-ville - something that will surely deter people from bothering to talk to them, since the best conversations are in their head.

Signature : "On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key."
Analysis : At first glance, a worthy ethic to keep you out of hot water. But what signifies 'the escape key' for them ? A deeper look at this concept may reveal darker thoughts.

Signature : "The facts expressed here belong to everybody, the opinions to me. The distinction is yours to draw..."
Analysis : A good, self-confident counter attack on any company policies that might be present beneath their message. The healthy awareness of the subjectivity of their comments is also an encouraging sign of sanity.

As much as you think your own personal signature is an insignificant addition to your message, people do read them and base their opinions of you on them. Variety and taste are most definitely the spice of signatures.

All in all, customised signatures do serve to brighten up the monotony of constant e-mail messages. You don't have to stick with the same quip for too long and of course, you can choose different ones for different contacts. After all, we all have more than one personality, don't we  :-)

Click HERE for a great collection of Quotes and Signatures carefully hand-picked by me.