A signature block (often abbreviated as signature, sig block, sig file, .sig, dot sig, siggy, or just sig) is a block of text automatically appended at the bottom of an e-mail message, Usenet article, or forum post. This has the effect of "signing off" the message and in a reply message of indicating that no more response follows. It is common practice for a signature block to consist of one or more lines containing some brief information on the author of the message. Note that a sig block is not the same as a digital signature. A sig block is easily forged, whereas a digital signature uses cryptographic techniques to provide verifiable proof of authorship.
Information usually contained in a signature block includes the poster's name, phone number and email address, along with other contact details if required, such as URLs for sites owned or favoured by the author. A quotation is often included (occasionally automatically generated by such tools as fortune), or an ASCII art picture. Strict rules of capitalization are not followed. Among some groups of people it has been common to include self-classification codes, though the practice is waning.
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Famous quotes containing the words signature and/or block:
“The childless experts on child raising also bring tears of laughter to my eyes when they say, “I love children because they’re so honest.” There is not an agent in the CIA or the KGB who knows how to conceal the theft of food, how to fake being asleep, or how to forge a parent’s signature like a child.”
—Bill Cosby (20th century)
“The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chess-board, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem.... I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.”
—Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968)