Six Line Sig Limit

[EmailNetiquettePatterns]

You are posting a message to a mailing list or to a Usenet newsgroup. People will probably see your email address, and maybe your name in the message headers, but what gets seen there may not always be the information you want them to use if they try to contact you or refer to you, or anything you wrote. You might also have some additional information regarding your profession or identity to employer (or a disclaimer required by your employer) that you wish to convey.

It is common for people to group such information together at the very end of their email messages into something called a signature. When a reader gets to the end of your posting, the signature reminds them who message is from, and how to respond to you privately (rather than publicly) if so desired. It also serves as a form of personal advertising for those who have some relevant products or services to provide.

But nobody likes immodesty or crass commercial plugs ("spam"). While you would like to modestly mention a mere modicum of material, you dont want to come off as pompous nor as a shameless marketeer of ones self or services. There is a strong desire on behalf of readers for you to keep your signature "short and sweet" which is often at odds with the amount or type of information you wish to include in it.

The actual recommended "signature length" has varied from source to source over the past 15 years or more (all at the same time too ;-). One of 'em says anything more than 2 lines is rude. Another one says up to 10 lines is okay. But both of those are two extreme and not very feasible. Two isn't always practical or feasible: a modicum of contact/reference info is often a must, more so for email than for Usenet (but keep it low-key, and no-fluff). Eight or even ten lines is way over the limit of practicality and respectability for most netizens of Usenet and mailing lists.

Therefore:

Limit your the length of your email signature to six lines at the most! Keep in mind that even six lines is really pushing the limit. Most folks who remember the older days of Usenet and mailing lists (before the WWW came on the scene) recall when folks were pretty strict about limiting signatures to between 2-4 lines of text.

Between 2-4 lines is really the ideal target length to shoot for. If it is between 4-6 lines long, you may raise some eyebrows and make a few bad impressions, but in practice, people dont seem to start getting really upset about it until it reaches about 6 lines or more. Of course things may sometimes vary from mailing-list to mailing-list, but 6 is typically the most you can get away with (and is still on the long-ish side).

From what Ive seen over the past 15 years, 2-4 lines is "just right," and you really should make every effort to try for that before resorting to anything larger. But six lines definitely seems to be the upper bound of acceptability: the bare maximum you can get away with without frequent flamage.

Keeping your signature minimal in this manner will allow you to mention the desired additional information without upsetting too many of the very same readers you are trying to make a favorable impression upon, provided you keep it short+sweet, and low-key/low-fluff on the advertising aspects.

The RequestForComments 1855 is on this topic, and it suggests 4x80:

: 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.

However, I personally find four to be quite difficult, at times; that fifth line is so frequently tempting (enough that I often use it.)

It also depends on the context; I frequently will make a sig to go with the message I'm sending; in this case, it's part of the message, and won't be repeated, so I think it doesn't really fit the rule (though it still should be a minimal mail signature, even if it is ever so slightly longer than 4x80.