Email Signatures

[MoJingly]

What do you think about email signatures? You know, where you have your email account add contact info at the end of every email:

MoJingly

Happy Graduate Program

University of Awesome

email: Mojingly@awesomeuni.edu

phone: xxxxxxxxx

fax: xxxxxxxx

name of first born: Thor

heritage: Antarctican

graduate of: University of Less Awesome, but awesome nonetheless

This is certainly an exaggeration but I feel like some people put way to much at the end of their emails. I HATE HATE HATE inspirational quotes at the end of them:

If at first you don't succeed, you probably stink at it.

And they are almost always a different color and very annoying. I feel like contact info is legitimate, especially in professional situations. But NO quotes for the love of all that is holy. PLEASE.

Actually, the real point to this was to ask you guys what you think of signatures at the end of emails sent from mobile devices. "Sent from my IPhone" for example. What do you think? Take them out? Leave them in? It could be nice to give reasons for potential typos or short emails, but I also think that you should be able to email well from a mobile device if you are doing it at all.

Teach me, oh wise GradCafe...

[studentaffairsgrad]

What do you think about email signatures? You know, where you have your email account add contact info at the end of every email:

MoJingly

Happy Graduate Program

University of Awesome

email: Mojingly@awesomeuni.edu

phone: xxxxxxxxx

fax: xxxxxxxx

name of first born: Thor

heritage: Antarctican

graduate of: University of Less Awesome, but awesome nonetheless

This is certainly an exaggeration but I feel like some people put way to much at the end of their emails. I HATE HATE HATE inspirational quotes at the end of them:

If at first you don't succeed, you probably stink at it.

And they are almost always a different color and very annoying. I feel like contact info is legitimate, especially in professional situations. But NO quotes for the love of all that is holy. PLEASE.

Actually, the real point to this was to ask you guys what you think of signatures at the end of emails sent from mobile devices. "Sent from my IPhone" for example. What do you think? Take them out? Leave them in? It could be nice to give reasons for potential typos or short emails, but I also think that you should be able to email well from a mobile device if you are doing it at all.

Teach me, oh wise GradCafe...

I agree with you - contact info is fine, but the inspirational quotes annoy the crap out of me. I also hate it when people put something such as, "Go green, only print this if you have to." I've never printed out an e-mail in my life, as I can look at it anytime on my phone if I need to. The sent from mobile device doesn't bother me. I don't want to write an essay length e-mail on my phone, and the sent from mobile bit is a good way to just acknowledge that you received an important e-mail, and you are probably out and about, and will follow-up later. I know people who would get touchy if they wrote a long, detailed e-mail and received an e-mail back that didn't address every single of the 100 issues, but the sent from indicates that the e-mail was on the fly. Also, I like it b/c if it wasn't on there, some people would probably think that my always quick response to their e-mails would indicate I sit in front of a computer all day and check my e-mail

[MoJingly]

Also, I like it b/c if it wasn't on there, some people would probably think that my always quick response to their e-mails would indicate I sit in front of a computer all day and check my e-mail

I never considered that... good thought. I don't want people to think I'm neurotic (or at least, I want to delay them finding out the truth).

[ktel]

I also hate quotes in e-mail signatures, and so many professionals I know do it. It's just weird in my opinion.

I think I nicely done e-mail signature can make you look more professional, however.

[timuralp]

I think it depends. For all the emails I send so far, I end with

--

Cheers,

Name

My advisor goes between no signature, -initial, and the full signature, which is Name, Title, Institution. I'd argue that the recipient already has the email address (primary way of communication most of the time) and anything else can be looked up on the sender's webpage. I guess the "Sent from my phone" signature is reasonable to account for typos, but either the recipient doesn't care about the typos anyway or that email should not be sent from the phone. I don't think email is an instantaneous mode of communication (there was a thread about that too, I guess?) and it's better to take the time to respond thoughtfully sometimes.

[studentaffairsgrad]

I think it depends. For all the emails I send so far, I end with

--

Cheers,

Name

I guess the "Sent from my phone" signature is reasonable to account for typos, but either the recipient doesn't care about the typos anyway or that email should not be sent from the phone. I don't think email is an instantaneous mode of communication (there was a thread about that too, I guess?) and it's better to take the time to respond thoughtfully sometimes.

I agree that it depends on the situation. I oversee a staff of 7 undergraduate resident advisers, and haven't always had texting on my phone, so if I was in a meeting and couldn't get away to answer my phone, they could always e-mail me with questions/something they need, and I could get back to them if it was urgent. In my situation, I had to use e-mail as instantaneous communication. Thankfully I have texting now, so I won't have to do that as much

But, if I had to e-mail a professor, supervisor etc. I was so worried I would make a typo, I would usually try to wait until I got in front of my computer if it wasn't urgent.

[timuralp]

I agree that it depends on the situation. I oversee a staff of 7 undergraduate resident advisers, and haven't always had texting on my phone, so if I was in a meeting and couldn't get away to answer my phone, they could always e-mail me with questions/something they need, and I could get back to them if it was urgent. In my situation, I had to use e-mail as instantaneous communication. Thankfully I have texting now, so I won't have to do that as much

But, if I had to e-mail a professor, supervisor etc. I was so worried I would make a typo, I would usually try to wait until I got in front of my computer if it wasn't urgent.

Right, that's what I was getting at. I realized I was not as clear on this. I think when email is used as an instant way of communication, personally, I expect more typos and shorter messages (also, a short or no signature and the "sent from my phone" is definitely reasonable). However, if it is the case that I received a long email with a number of points that need to be addressed, I guess I assume that the sender realizes I'll take my time to respond, as most likely I have to collect my thoughts for it (and proof read it).

By the way, the "Sent from my iPhone" and "Sent from my iPad", etc are the best way of advertising I've seen so far.

[newms]

I once got an email that was signed "sent from my laptop".

[hejduk]

I once got an email that was signed "sent from my laptop".

Absolutely hate when people don't take those signatures off! Arg! It's so annoying! But... it does make sense that it shows people that you are sending a quite restricted email, and to allow some room for spelling and length. So, maybe I'll add it back?

[Eigen]

I only add anything past my name when it's a "cold" e-mail to someone that I want to put in context.

Even then, I just write up the signature on the fly, as it's different in each circumstance.

If I'm contacting suppliers, researchers, etc. at other institutions, I want them to know I'm a graduate student, in what, and where I study. If I'm contacting someone in administration within my college, I want them to know that I'm one of their students. If I'm contacting someone in another school within my university, it's usually for something to do with our graduate student association, and I want them to know my role in that, etc.

I think the really long all purpose signatures aren't really useful, and have a tendency to annoy more than they help- but that's just me.

[neuropsych76]

I don't like overly long email signatures either. But I suppose if you include ALL of your info then you make sure that the person has everything they need to contact you just in case. Though I'm not sure I would like sending out all of my contact info more than I have to. If someone has my email, they can already have a pretty good form of contact.

I hate quotes also! I feel like it's some sort of myspace/facebook touch mixed into a professional email.

[Strangefox]

It seems I am the only person here who does not hate quotes in the end of a message but may be I just have not seen enough of them yet

[Neuronista]

I am literally sitting in shock that a post like this actually exists.

An adult literally took the time to not only think this post but then to actually post it.

No one reply to this post, just take a few seconds to let the first post resonate, then I want you to consider the people who post on this website, then you might want to consider your life.

Hmmmmmmmm

Then why don't you go consider yours? What are you still doing here posting on this site?

[MoJingly]

I've weighed the pros and cons and have to sleep on it another night... but I am leaning toward removing the "sent from my phone" signature after this discussion... hmmm....

[Mal83]

The guy that posted the other post is a troll. He's doing it all over the site. Just flag his messages and the moderators will delete them.

I don't know if he and his few accounts have been banned today or if he went around deleting all of his offensive posts, but either way, the posts are gone except for when they've been captured in our replies, I noticed after getting into it with him in another thread. MikeNTheNatti, SteveNSactown, and this one here are all obviously the same loser. Seems like he could use a few inspirational quotes in those email signatures, maybe they'll help him get his life on track.

[Robcross]

Coming from somebody who deals with Email Signatures daily, I think it all comes down to Netiquette... That, and the requirements by whatever company/legal entity overarching an individual's emails.

I wrote a blog post on this not so long ago if you wanna check it out, let me know your thoughts!!

http://everything-email.com/email-signatures-what-makes-it-ugly-what-make

[HyacinthMacaw]

I had a professor who concluded every email with "Serving the Moon Goddess since 1961." Seriously.

Personally, I haven't decided which goddess to serve just yet, but when I do I'll add my supplications to my email signature.

Or perhaps I should just close with a word of wisdom from our dignified sage, Pit Bull: "Now pump it up and back it up like a Tonka truck."

This is from another thread, BTW--link is here:

On a more serious note, I think I'll just stick with my first and last name as my signature. No initials (too brusque), no quote (too glib and possibly controversial). No address because I'm done with one stalker and don't want another. (Just kidding.) And no phone number for the same reason. It's a lot harder to "butt-dial" someone if you don't give them your phone number.

Only my two cents, of course. What you do is entirely up to you.

All the best!

-HyacinthMacaw

"Never save anything for the swim back." --from the movie Gattaca

(That last signature was for you, MoJingly.)

[jendoly]

I used to have an email contact who had a "sent from a device with glass keys" at the end of his/her emails. always liked that, for some reason - cute but not annoying.