In some cases avatars or hackergotchis take over some of the role of signatures. FidoNet With FidoNet, echomail and netmail software would often add an origin line at the end of a message. This would indicate the FidoNet address and name of the originating system (not the user). The user posting the message would generally not have any control over the origin line. However, single-line taglines, added under user control, would often contain a humorous or witty saying. Multi-line user signature blocks were rare. However, a tearline standard for FidoNet was included in FTS-0004 and clarified in FSC-0068 as three dashes optionally followed by a space optionally followed by text. See also Acknowledgment (creative arts and sciences) Attribution (copyright) Byline Credit (creative arts) Kibo, a Usenet poster famous for his absurdly long signature Signature tag Notes and references External links , "Netiquette Guidelines" (section 2.1.1 contains guidelines on mail) , (4.3 Usenet Signature Convention) What are the restrictions for a proper signature? Information Release from Ireland's ODCE (pdf) Internet culture Internet forum terminology Signature