Chael> I'm Chael> sure there are a couple, but I agree with your point that most BBS's on Chael> any mail network append an identifying "tagline" or signature. As a Chael> matter of fact, in many nets it is a requirement that your system append Chael> a tagline to all messages. Incidentally, it is preceded often by "--" Chael> on a line by itself.

I'd like to hear more about systems which do this. What is the rationale for adding the system name at the end? Do these networks not use Internet-style "From:" headers, so these automatic system-wide .sigs are used for the same effect?

The reason why they were created (IMHO) was because most PC-based BBS software only allows for a very limited space in the header for a From name and for a To name. For example, in ChaelBoard, a BBS package that I wrote, this limitation is 31 characters (in order to make the string 32 bytes long). Therefore, only names are used. This gets ambiguous if two John Smith's are sending messages to the same conference (similar to newsgroups). So, the systems started appending a line stating the origin of the message. Sometimes it's as simple as "X BBS - (222) 222-2222 Smalltown, USA" Other times it's more complex. Some nets have decided upon a specific type of tagline so that they all contain the same information in the same format. Usually they contain the phone number. RelayNet(tm) and other popular nets provide for "Receiver-only, Routed" messages. That is, the message is considered private and sent from your system to a hub and that hub only sends it on to other hubs or the appropriate node if it is connected to that hub. Unfortunately, every SYSOP between your system and the receiving system can read the message. That's why encryption is important.

I guess there must be gateways between these bbs's and the internet, for this issue to arise. It's too bad that these gateways don't convert the .sig info into a more conventional RFC-822 style Internet header.

Yes, gateways exist for many systems. Most consider the tagline a part of the message. The de facto standard is to consider "--" on a line by itself to mark the end of the message body and the beginning of the tagline. Users often append their own tagline before the system tagline. Each mail reader has its own format, usually including the name of the program on the line. Chael Hall -- Chael Hall nowhere@bsu-cs.bsu.edu, 00CCHALL@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU, CHALL@CLSV.Charon.BSU.Edu (317) 285-3648 after 3 pm EST