RFC: Splitting the signature off from the main text in replies/comment?

Hi all,

Basically, I am proposing to create a second text area/a simple selection
button that allows you to control when your signature and/or the company’s
signature is attached.

Some reasons for this, certainly not including everything:

*) Signatures on comments are useless and just take up screen real estate
*) Replying in-line is ackward as you can’t simply mark all text below the
point where you stop typing and delete all
*) Sometimes, you do not want to have a signature on replies

If I could decide when to attach a signature and when not would solve these.
Also, I think comments should default to not having a signature at all.

Richard

I’m all for elimination of drivel, but I think you will run into the problem
of many people not following the "-- " convention.

Cambridge Energy Alliance: Save money & the planet

I’m all for elimination of drivel, but I think you will run into the problem
of many people not following the "-- " convention.

What I meant is that the signature I can add in the user settings should
follow my suggestion. Also, a RT-wide signature, if such a beast exists
or is created due to this mail.

Richard

Basically, I am proposing to create a second text area/a simple
selection
button that allows you to control when your signature and/or the
company’s
signature is attached.

I’m strongly disinclined from doing this in stock RT. The reply UI is
missing many more important features and is already too complex.

Some reasons for this, certainly not including everything:

*) Signatures on comments are useless and just take up screen real
estate

That depends on your organization and how you use RT. But I could see
“Do comments get signatures appended by default” as a reasonable
config file option.

*) Replying in-line is ackward as you can’t simply mark all text
below the
point where you stop typing and delete all

That actually argues for a more “outlook like” way to handle
signatures. Appending them entirely after the fact.

*) Sometimes, you do not want to have a signature on replies
If I could decide when to attach a signature and when not would
solve these.

I, personally, have never run into that issue. I’ve never even seen a
mail client with that option.
IIRC, this is the first time in over a decade of releasing RT that
I’ve heard the feature request. Could you talk about some actual use
cases where this is an issue?

Also, I think comments should default to not having a signature at
all.

I disagree, but I’m willing to have a configuration option.

Jesse

*) Signatures on comments are useless and just take up screen real estate

That depends on your organization and how you use RT. But I could see “Do
comments get signatures appended by default” as a reasonable config file
option.

That is the idea I started from & would be most important, to me. The other
stuff was just fleshing out a ‘what if’.

*) Replying in-line is ackward as you can’t simply mark all text below the
point where you stop typing and delete all

That actually argues for a more “outlook like” way to handle signatures.
Appending them entirely after the fact.

No idea about Outlook, but appending at the very end is, for me, a Very
Good Thing as it makes replying cleanly a lot easier.

*) Sometimes, you do not want to have a signature on replies

IIRC, this is the first time in over a decade of releasing RT that I’ve
heard the feature request. Could you talk about some actual use cases where
this is an issue?

Basically, when I know people well and don’t want to mess up a perfectly
fine email by all the usual corporate stuff at the end. Not too high priority,
granted. Just a nice to have.

To summarize, the only thing I would really want is an option to not
attach anything on comments, the rest is optional/nice-to-have.

Richard

*) Sometimes, you do not want to have a signature on replies
If I could decide when to attach a signature and when not would
solve these.

I, personally, have never run into that issue. I’ve never even seen a
mail client with that option.
IIRC, this is the first time in over a decade of releasing RT that
I’ve heard the feature request. Could you talk about some actual use
cases where this is an issue?

We’ve actually implemented this feature for our Help Desk. Phone calls are
a frequent contact method, and our consultants summarize the conversations
in ticket replies. Having been a part of the phone conversation, the
customer doesn’t necessarily need to receive an email copy of the reply,
but we do want to allow them to see the reply in the ticket. So we provide
the option of suppressing email for any particular reply, and also the
option of inserting a signature.

In fact, through a queue preference, the HD queues’ defaults are not to
send mail on replies, and not to include a signature. If consultants want
to send a reply to a customer, they check a box, and optionally insert a
signature.

Making this possible is transaction-level squelching, a custom enhancement.

Steve

Stephen Turner
Senior Programmer/Analyst - SAIS
MIT IS&T