How do you sign your e-mails?

For some reason I’ve been paying attention lately to how people sign their e-mails and thought I’d throw out a few thoughts. I’d be particularly interested to hear from people on the strangest sign-offs they’ve received.

Below is a list of some of the more common sign-offs along with my take on what they really mean.

• Cheers! – I’m cool!
• Best – I don’t want to be locked into a specific sign-off – please interpret as you wish (best wishes, best regards, best cheers, etc.)
• All the best - When “Best” simply isn’t good enough
• Ciao! – I’m cool! and trying to act foreign
• Sincerely – I took this really great business writing class in high school
• Thanks – I really do mean thanks (when used correctly) / I can’t think of anything else to say (when used incorrectly, for example at the bottom of a flame e-mail)
• Hope all is well – Please DO NOT write back with details of whether you are well or not – I’m just trying to be polite
• Warm regards – I’ve just returned from my latest analyst session and am feeling pretty centered
• [nothing but your name] – Sometimes less is more
• [not even your name – just your full signature] – I’m so efficient/important/etc. that I don’t have time to even type in my name

With my very cheeriest and best thanks and regards.  Here's hoping all is well

                                        Sincerely,

                                                seth j. levine
                                                mobius venture capital

Comments

[Jeff Clavier]

Rgds,

J.

Has been my (signature) signature for the longest time, so I am sticking to it...

[Eric Darst]

thx
i'm crazy busy so abrevs and lc but i appreciate the info

ttfn
code for i have kids. if you understand then so do you and can identify

[Chris Bracken]

Great e-mail!

C

[Daniel Nerezov]

hehe, great topic!

I had this eccentric corporate law professor who'd sign his emails with bits of trivia.

So...instead of "Thanks", he'd write "Terima Kasih (Malay for Thank You)" and stuff like;

“The first person who tasted a crab must also have tried a spider but realized that it was not as good to eat.” — Lu Xun (translation)",

....using about 15 different font colours for just that one sentence, and squiggly lines and everything.

He'd be a good marketer.

I dunno fellas, I am as conservative as the next bloke, but I never overlook, or forget, emails from this chap. It's always fun as well to see what he says next. I bet someone could code a script with rotating messages for email signatures...

[Andrew Fife]

Kind Regards - Sounds British so it must be polite

[rob]

Regards

or

Kind regards

or

(informal)

pip pip

[Josh]

All Martin Lukes readers (Financial Times, Thursdays) can appreciate the sign-offs "bestest" or "all my bestest".

BTW, I think your characterizations are right-on. I react poorly whenever I get an e-mail from an American that closes with "cheers." I'll make allowances for Brits.

Josh

[Jeff Nolan]

As if I needed more things to be self-conscious about, thanks :)

[RC]

Daniel, when I was in college (back when we did email by logging into a unix server and using "elm" or "pine"), it seemed that inserting quotes or other tidbits in the email signature was fairly common, and in fact I wrote a script that randomly picked some text from a text file and inserted it into my email signature. The script ran every time I logged in, and I was always adding things to the text file, so my emails had a good variation of signatures.

[Vaibhav Domkundwar - iNods.com]

Seth:

I couldn't stop smiling at the accuracy of your characterization of the different signatures. I have used "Best" most often in the past few years and found it to be the best :)

[Greg]

I rather like Geo. Washington's "I remain, your humble and obedient servant." But of course I don't generally write the Continental Congress.

[volkan.ozcelik]

I'm way too lazy to add a signature.

my mail client does it for me :)

Cheers (Yep! I'm blogging! : http://www.volkanozcelik.com/volkanozcelik/blog/
+> My projects/studies/trials/errors : http://www.sarmal.com/
+> Now with a portfolio: http://client.sarmal.com/

[Usher Lieberman]

I always liked the signatures that quoted a Grateful Dead lyric, but working in enough corporate environments dissuaded me from laying too many cards on the table about my personal tastes. Hence my bland signoff.

Regards,
-Usher
(Which roughly means my regards are neither warm nor cold, they simply are what they are and you can refer above in my email for the fuller context.)

[mtv200流行音乐网站]

Quite good, similar to what me think.

[Dave Jilk]

Whatever happened to "Be well" - that was very popular for a while.

And despite your snide characterizations, all are better than

F* you,

Dave

[Pat Collins]

Regards is very impersonal.

I like to end my messages with "Peace," if I am very familiar with that person and have a semi-informal relationship with them. I've just started getting into "Cheers."

"Thanks" with no emotion behind it is the worst.

[Peter]

Seth,

What about "namaste" as a sign-off?

Namaste,

Peter