Do you ever misinterpret signatures?

[Crissup]

I don't post very much at all anymore, but I do still lurk a lot. One of the things I often find myself doing is mixing people's signatures in with their posts. For instance, I will see a thread where someone's family member, pet, relative, friend, whoever, passes away, and people will reply with a frowny smilie, but then I see a clip art Mickey jumping for joy. It often causes me to do a double take until I realize that the happy, jumping Mickey is actually in their signature line.

Many years ago, before the advent of Internet based BBS systems, signature lines used to start with a simple line consisting of two dashes followed by a carriage return. This was so the reader software knew where to parse it. As a result, I've always just included that in my signature and instinctively look for it in others. Of course, most people on the net today weren't around back in those days, so they wouldn't necessarily understand what I'm talking about.

Anyway, so do you ever find yourself misinterpreting someone's signature as they emotion in a certain post?

 

[Serena]

Hey John, long time no see. And to answer your question, only a few times thank goodness. That could get confusing.

 

[CarolAnnC]

I did not realize for a long time, but one can remove one's signature for particular posts. For example, if posting to something of a more serious nature, or condolences, I would just take out the festive siggie.

It is difficult, in more ways than one, to sometimes convey one's feelings through the written word. Good food for thought John!

 

[nativetxn]

Hi John! It's great to see you here.

I try to remember to turn off my signature on posts that have a serious nature. A dancing Miss Daisy just would not convey my sympathy. I don't know if I always remember but I try.