Re: [Sheflug] Signature File Info.

["Chris J/#6" <nospam [at] nccnet.co.uk>]

> However, RFC1855 (Netiquette) says the following:
> 
> 
>     - If you include a signature keep it short.  Rule of thumb
>       is no longer than 4 lines.  Remember that many people pay for
>       connectivity by the minute, and the longer your message is,
>       the more they pay.
> 
> It's also generally adopted convention (implemented by many proper email
> clients - and I except the one I'm using from that list :-) that a sig
> should be seperated from the rest of the message by two hyphens followed by
> a space. Clients then pick this up and don't quote the sig on replies. I use
> Turnpike at home, and that does a good job of managing that little job. Just
> because I've got a less than ideal mailer doesn't stop me being net-friendly
> though!
> 
> 

Signature convention comes from an RFC-that-never-was, known as "Son of RFC 
1036", and can be found at (amongst other places):
	http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/outerspace/netnews/son-of-1036.html

See part 4.3.2, which states within the section:
	"If  a  poster or posting agent does append a signature to an
	article, the signature SHOULD be preceded with  a  delimiter
	line  containing  (only)  two hyphens (ASCII 45) followed by
	one blank (ASCII  32).   Posting  agents  SHOULD  limit  the
	length  of  signatures,  since  verbose  excess bordering on
	abuse is common if no restraint is imposed;  4  lines  is  a
	common limit."

son-of-rfc1036 is referred to in the odd RFC (though not nessescerialy in 
association with signatures). See RFC 2076 as an example. It can also be 
noted that son-of-rfc1036 relates mostly to Usenet news messages, but the 
technique was popular enough to be filtered into email, albeit unofficially.

Chris...


-- 
Chris Johnson            \  "If not for me then, do it for yourself. If not
sixie@nccnet.co.uk        \  for then do it for the world." -- Stevie Nicks
www.nccnet.co.uk/~sixie/   ~---------------------------------------+
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