[398/441] Signoffs

North plays the 1NT card from the bidding box.

South: “Fifteen to seventeen.”

East pulls a Pass card.

South takes the 3NT card and puts it on the table.

North (to self): “That’s a sign-off. I should pass.”

West tables a green card from the bidding box.

North passes and prepares to lay his hand down.

East ends the auction with the pass card.

West leads the three of spades, North reveals the dummy, and the play of the cards begins.

However, this post is not about bridge.  I just had to introduce an auction with a well-defined “sign-off” bid to hook (or maybe drive away) some people.

As I have developed in the blogosphere, I have noticed that some of the blogs that I follow have distinctive sign-off images and/or text at the end of each of their posts.  Mine is somewhat distinctive, as I have never seen other signatures with count-offs on blogs.   So, I wanted to reflect on that a little bit.

Hand-written letters (though who writes them anymore?  They should!) are ended with a person’s autograph, along with some closing.  In e-mails, that closing, from what I see often, is “Best, (Insert Full or Part Of Name Here).”

In text messages, my sister has an automatic signature appended to all of her messages, [CW :)] (ignore the brackets).  I’ll come back to this later.

On blogs (of which most of the bloggers that I follow are women… but I would assume that blogging is a female-dominated field), I have noticed a few different sign-offs that are variants on a theme, and some which are different.  (Since I’m listing blogs, I might as well give a brief description as to why the blog appeals to me on each bullet point.  This is not intended as an awards post or a list of endorsements.)

• One of the first blogs I followed, Lorelle on WordPress, signs off on each of her posts with a “calligraphy” signature of her first name, including an image of a pen.  I followed this blog when I was learning about ways to make my blog more marketable and professional-looking.  This is where I learnt about effectively using tags, categories, and links, among others.
• A Cup Of Tay also signs off with an image-based “XO, Tay” at the end of each post.  It is an interesting general-interest blog, even though some of the posts relating to relationships and fashion are beyond my understanding.
• One of my first “legitimate” followers (unfortunately, many followers of blogs are really spammers) was Samantha of Why, Hello There.  Each of her posts ends with a text-based “xxoo.” I like reading her blog because her blog started at the beginning of college, and I like reading about others’ experiences through common situations such as school.
• Ranu, who hosts the Sabethville blog, signs off on each post with the link of the post that was just finished.  That is sort of interesting, because I would expect, given that many of her posts are responses to the Daily Prompts, would have a pingback on the Daily Prompt page.  She often has a creative take on the prompts.
• One of my friends from Northwestern who graduated last year, Steph, hosts a blog that is a slice-of-life blog.  Each of her posts ends with “Today is awesome because…” and then gives a reason.  Although she doesn’t post very frequently on the blog anymore, it is an alternative way of keeping in touch when there are posts.

So, I have listed quite a few different bloggers with different sign-off techniques.  I have several different sign-off techniques that I have used in the past, both on this blog and in other times of writing.

1. As can be seen on my blog, when I am in a sequence of planned regularity, I end my posts with a count-up of the days elapsed in the challenge.  This was inspired by Counting of the עומר (Omer).
2. On my blog posts that are directly taken from full-paragraph journal entries, I sign off the post with “>> TO BE CONTINUED…”  Despite the fact that the post doesn’t always have a true continuation, I still sign off with that.  The reason I use this: when I was younger and watched the Pokemon TV show, EVERY episode ended with “To be continued” even if it was not really a multi-part episode.
3. Early in my blog career, I tried to end my posts with a “gem” in the style of Steph’s blogs.  That wasn’t really my style, and quickly faded.
4. I may as well mention sign-offs outside of my blog.  In e-mails, after the first few contacts where I am formal, I will then sign off using “~Noah”.  Interestingly, the tilde can be thought of as an artistic representation of my name in Hebrew, נח!
5. When I took notes in college, I would end each day of notes with a line, with two tildes on the end, and above that line, sign off with “~NW.”  The “NW” was more artistic than what I can show in text here.
6. Based off my sister’s text signatures, I have added “~Noah” to the signature of my text messages.  Might as well stay consistent.

Yes, I can think of really random things to write about.  Sometimes, a person’s signature is part of their brand or personality.  Therefore, since there are only 43 days left of Mission 441, I wonder what I should use after that to sign off my posts.  I’m open for suggestions, either those that are enumerated, itemized, or even some new ideas.

My comment board is open–this might be a fun discussion!