I would take issue with the statement that the "-- " demarcation for
signature blocks is widely used. A review of the archives of this list
would seem to indicate that it used by less than half the participants,
most of whom I would deem to be "smarter than the average email user".
A review of the archives of an internal list populated by "data
processing professionals" showed an even lower usage rate. It may be
"widely used" at some sites, but it doesn't seem to be "widely used"
on a net-wide basis.

There are numerous "netiquette" sources that provide guidelines for
signatures, but, to the best of my knowledge, there are no formal
standards. If I am mistaken, please cite the specific RFC, STD, or
other standards document.

--
pdr

Paul D. Russell * Senior Systems Engineer * University of Notre Dame