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Comment by Zak | Hacker News Reader

I was hoping for some serious complaints that a startup might be able to offer technical solutions for, but most of the author's issues are pretty trivial.

One point he makes does bring up an interesting question though. The author complains about people using one-letter signatures instead of their name. What's the point of signing an email with your name when you're using your own email account? The from header is generally set to include your name already.

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It's just standard etiquette. I was taught to write emails like letters, starting with "Dear Someone" and ending by signing my name. Both parts are redundant, but I guess it's supposed to make the email seem more personal. I agree that it's generally a waste of time, but I can't predict if the recipient would be offended if I left those parts out, so I usually put them in.

Nobody ever taught me to write emails, so I never got in a habit like that. I don't suppose there's any way to know if anybody has been offended by my email style, but I think I'd judge anyone who was not worth talking to. This is why I'm not in sales.

Email is an interesting beast. Most threads I'm involved in start out very formal with the requisite 'Dear So-and-so' at the beginning and some sort of formal-ish signature. But by the third back and forth, most people abandon the formalities and start signing with just their name, or not at all. I prefer not to have to bother, as it has been noted, my full name and email appear in the mail headers, and I use proper top quoting format whenever possible.

Probably the same reason one would sign a handwritten letter, even when its envelope has one's name on the return address. Could just be tradition.

Not the best analogy - you can throw away the envelope and with the letter being signed you still know who it is from, putting your name at the end does serve a purpose.

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