Netiquette and Signatures

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Signatures, or "sigs" should be short, typically no more than 3 or 4 lines, and should be preceded by a "sigdash" or "sigsep" which is a line consisting of just two dashes followed by a single space, i.e. "-- ", without the quotes.

The sigdash has been around for quite a while (the earliest reference I can confirm, is from Fri, June 24, 1983 in BNews 2.10.1, where the sigdash is added on line 679 of inews.c ). 
		fprintf(tmpfp, "-- \n");	/* To separate */
The sigdash allows other programs to recognize when the body of your message is finished and where the sig begins -- this is useful for automatically removing the sig when quoting for a followup, as well as coloring it a different color, archiving, and various other things.

Below is a list of mail and news programs that use or enforce the sigdash. 
ClientNAME      Version         RelDate sigdash removesig sigmult
==========      =======         ======= ======= ========= =======
AdBuster        1.10            .          .       Y         .
AllNews         1.30            .          .       Y         .
BeInformed      0.9.4           .          .       Y         .
Datula          1.22.06         000123     Y       Y         Y
Dialog          2.0.2.1b24      021026     Y       Y         Y
Entourage       9.0.2509        001013     Y       Y         Y
Forte Agent     1.7             .         opt      Y         Y
Google.com                      .          .       Y         .
GRn             .               .          .       Y         .
Gnus            5.070044        .          Y       Y         Y
GoodNews        .               .          .       Y         .
Gravity         2.1             .          .       Y         Y
Hogwasher       1.0b6           .          Y!      Y         Y
Informant       1.0.0 PR3       000319     Y       Y         .
kexpress        0.80            .          .       Y         .
Knews           0.9.8           .          .       Y         .
Knode           .               .          Y       Y         .
Marcel                          .          Y       Y         .
MacSOUP         2.4             .          Y       Y         N
MessengerPRO    .               .          .       Y         .
MesNews         .               .          Y       Y         Y
MICE NewsReader 1.13            .          Y       Y         N
Mozilla         M16             .          Y       Y         N
MR/2 ICE        1.69            .          Y       Y         .
MT-NewsWatcher  3.0             .          Y       Y         Y
Mulberry        3.12            .          Y       Y         Y   (not by default, must set preference)
MultiMail       0.31            .          Y       Y         .
NetReader       1.16            990919     Y       Y         N
NewsBe          .               .          .       Y         .
NewsHound       .               .          Y!      Y         .
NewsCoaster     1.15            990904     Y       Y         Y
NewsReader.Com  .               980224     Y!      Y         .
NewsRog         .               .          Y       Y         .
NewsWatcher     2.2.2           .          Y       Y         N
NewsXpress      2.01            .          .       Y         .
Noworyta        1.9b            010707     Y       Y         Y
Offlite                         .          .       Y         .
OUI             1.9.1           .          Y       N         .
Outlook Express 5.0 (MacOS)     .          Y       Y         Y
OutlookExpress  5.0 Win95/98    .          N[1]    N         .
Poco            2.5(beta)       010604     Y       Y         Y
PAN             0.8beta8        .          Y       Y         .
PINT            2.2alpha7.2     .          .       Y         .
Pine            4.10            990204     Y       Y         .
Pineapple News  0.8.2           000903     Y       Y         .
Pluto           1.11k           .          Y       Y         .
ProNews/2       1.51 b4         001215     Y       Y         .
RMRNews         1.02            .          Y       Y         .
RadicalNews     .               .          .       Y         .
Slrn            0.9.5.7         .          .       Y         Y
Snews           1.3             .          .       Y         .
The Bat!        2.0             .          Y       Y         Y
Thoth           1.0             001113     Y!      Y         Y
tin             pre-1.4         980514     .       Y         .
Turnpike        1.11k           .          Y       Y         .
VirtualAccess   ?               .          .       Y         .
WinVN           0.99.12b        .          .       Y         .
XanaNews        1.12.1.2        021103     Y       Y         Y
Xnews           2.05.10         .          .       Y         .
XPN             0.1.7           .          Y       Y         Y
XRN             9.02            .          Y       Y         .
YAM             2.0             .          Y       Y         Y
YA-NewsWatcher  4.0.0           991231     Y!      Y         Y

[1] Outlook Express requires Cumulative Update for Outlook Express 6.0 SP1 to be installed in order to produce a correct sigdash.
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