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How do you sign your e-mails?

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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

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March 29th, 2006     Categories: General Business    
  • http://blog.softtechvc.com/ Jeff Clavier

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

  • http://www.lifestylenetwork.tv 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…

  • http://andrewbfife.blogspot.com 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

  • http://www.jeffnolan.com 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.

  • http://ben.casnocha.com/2006/03/closing_message.html Ben Casnocha: The Blog

    Closing Messages of Emails and Letters

    When I was a young lad, selling gumballs to family and pens I obtained for free to my school friends (at exorbitant prices, I might add) I one day stumbled across a Microsoft Word feature that offered stock closings: sincerely,

  • http://www.inods.com 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 :)

  • http://www.costik.com/weblog 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.

  • http://www.sarmal.com/sardalya/ 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/

  • http://usherblogs.typepad.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.)

  • http://www.mtv200.com 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

  • http://leftlane.org 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.

  • http://www.antiventurecapital.com Peter

    Seth,
    What about “namaste” as a sign-off?
    Namaste,
    Peter

Seth Levine

Hi, I'm Seth Levine, a Boulder, CO based technology investor and managing director at Foundry Group. While I love technology I’m also a husband, father, avid cyclist, snowboarder and outdoors guy. I live just outside of Boulder with my wife Greeley and our three wonderful kids.