Signing or not signing posts

[S485122]

The issue of signatures in the posts by users has been discussed recently.

One argument was that with everybody signing their posts the volume of the database would increase.

One reason for signing, is to enable others to address one by a name and not the forum account name. I for one prefer to be addressed as "Jacob" instead of S485122, it is friendlier, friendliness is a thing that often suffers in digital communications. I often realise after the fact, that my posts are too harsh.

If all users, whom's account name does not make the way to address them clear, did use the "Name" field of their user account to provide a way to address them, signing posts would indeed be superfluous.

The problem is this isn't the case. Some users know the first name of others (probably because of private messages or other communication.) This leads to another "insiders crowd" within the forum. New users and those that do not have a good memory for names would have to search the forum to try and find how to call others.

There are no problems to guess the first name with a user account like "paulunderwood", it is less evident with "Laurv", should one address him as Laurențiu (needing a web search) or should it be Laur ?
No problem neither when the name field is used as intended (tServo "Marv", Xyzzy "Mike", a1call "Rashid Naimi", ...)
One user has ambivalent data : henryzz (Just call me Henry) "David". One has to know that users can't adapt the subtitle under their account name to know the "David" is to be used.
But how should one address users like kriesel "TF79LL86GIMPS96gpu17" (kriesel ? , TF79LL86GIMPS96gpu17 ?), M344587487 "Composite as Heck", retina "The unspeakable one", science_man_88 "Forget I exist", Uncwilly """"""""""""""""""" or xilman "𒉺𒌌𒇷𒆷𒀭" (I never found out what that last name means, I must say I didn't put a lot of time in my search and I do remember Paul's name.)

In my case it was the reason I started signing my messages. Now I filled in the name field and don't sign my messages any more.

To conclude, I don't think those extra 10 characters alter the database volume significantly. In my opinion the real waste is found in the responses to trolls : there are whole threads full of answers to worthless posts by users that do not bother to even try to inform themselves. Another waste of space is repeating the explanations of a preceding post (perhaps because of not refreshing the page before answering ?) Those two things not only use up space, they clutter the forum, they drown relevant information in a lot of noise.

In the end it is the individual users choice until there is a rule, which would have to be accepted and applied to participate in the forum. At the moment I did not find a general set of rules for the Mersenne forum in any of the obvious (sticky) places one would look, I do know some sub fora have their own rules. (I might not have searched well enough but shouldn't rules be easily found ?)

[M344587487]

Worrying about signatures and unnecessary posts filling the database is like worrying that urinating in the sea will make the water rise.


No offense to people that love red tape, forum rules are basically nonsense that no one reads anyway. In general they always boil down to "don't be a dick", this forum differs from the norm only in that even minor expletives are frowned upon to the point where this sentence might raise an eyebrow. Feel free to call me whatever you like, as long as you can get past the word filter ;)

[retina]

Originally Posted by M344587487

... "don't be a dick" ...

What have you got against him?

IMO it is no disrespect to address someone by their chosen username. It is guaranteed unique, so no ambiguity arises. Unlike something like "John" which likely applies to many people.

[M344587487]

Lovely man, fond memories of watching diagnosis murder reruns when I was sick as a child. Needless to say it doesn't hold up to scrutiny now but not much does.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by S485122

The issue of signatures in the posts by users has been discussed recently.

But how should one address users like kriesel "TF79LL86GIMPS96gpu17" (kriesel ? , TF79LL86GIMPS96gpu17 ?), M344587487 "Composite as Heck", retina "The unspeakable one", science_man_88 "Forget I exist", Uncwilly """"""""""""""""""" or xilman "𒉺𒌌𒇷𒆷𒀭" (I never found out what that last name means, I must say I didn't put a lot of time in my search and I do remember Paul's name.)

My name field contains my first given name and my family name, in that order.

Don't blame me if you can't read Sumerian syllabic characters. Another poster demonstrated that he could read it easily enough, though I can't find that post right now. It is probably somewhere in the Languages sub-forum.

Found it: https://mersenneforum.org/showpost.p...8&postcount=14

[LaurV]

Do you like to sign your posts? Do sign them!
A simple 64k photo takes the same amount of space as 10500 signatures in your posts. Did you post so much rubbish since you are member of this forum? No? Well... you still have a lot of way to go... Like some guy said above (he didn't sign his post so I don't know who he was ), worrying about signatures filling the database is like worrying that urinating in the sea will make the water rise.
About calling me, I agree with the anteposters. Any name is ok as long as it is clear who you talk to.
( I just wasted 711 characters of the forum space with this message, which could have been used more efficient, for about a hundred signatures...)

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by Jacob

<snip>
The problem is this isn't the case. Some users know the first name of others (probably because of private messages or other communication.) This leads to another "insiders crowd" within the forum. New users and those that do not have a good memory for names would have to search the forum to try and find how to call others.
<snip>

One "insiders crowd" is the moderators and Administrators. They have access to information that most users don't have access to.

The English "What is your name?" is freely translated to Spanish as ¿Como se llama? The literal translation of this to English is, "What do you call yourself?" In this Forum, that would be the username. That's the name that appears in quoted passages of their posts by default.

I have experimented by replacing the default username in the above quotation with the name in the user's public profile. Success!

[greenskull]

Originally Posted by xilman

My name field contains my first given name and my family name, in that order.

Pa U Li La An

I do not fill in the Name field for one reason only. I don't like "" quotes.
The "" quotes are not needed there. They spoil the appearance of the written name.