Artful, snarky, graceful, thoughtful, provocative, funny. Sig lines are a feature of Dkos, not a bug, (at least for many of us), part of the visible character and lovable quirkiness of the site.
But sig lines aren't just decoration, they help us associate the person with their views or previous comments. They fill out, flavor and reinforce the identity of individuals who choose to visibly define themselves or emphasize something without having to trumpet it over and over in initial conversations, "I picked the screen name before I knew..." [Tom Franks].
This is a huge, complicated site, a couple of hundred thousand active users, last time I heard, and many more lurkers. And it's pretty high profile, so it can be very intimidating for new people to begin to orient themselves and get comfortable being here, much less participating. Those little handles break up the blocks of dense text, (or flames), and give people a way into engagement. They invite people further into the site and into interaction with other members. They're conversation starters and an invitation to ask about something we feel strongly about and are thus at least instrumental in creating community.
Even more important for the less bold among us, they can give us tips on who to avoid without risking a confrontation, ('she who is easily irritated', [chicago minx], as a not-very-serious example). And they're optional. No one is pressured into using them or denigrated for not having one; they're a perk, not an obligation. Very democratic, hippy-ish and pro 1st Amendment self expression, n'est ce pais?
At DKos, new user is walking in from the wilds of the intertubes into a fair sized city of sometimes volatile people, very possibly with few or no acquaintances. Keeping something that's as user friendly as sig lines, something that differentiates people between the myriad, milling masses, is good, multilevel management.
Some of us have no trouble wending our way through San Fransisco, DC or NYC with nothing but an accordion map, or a Thomas's, but others do. Sig lines are an additional interface for the site. Some people are visual and graphic learners, some need associations to 'fix' memories. Some prefer pure text. Shouldn't we maintain style choices for the comfort and ease of as many people as possible? Isn't inclusiveness something of which most of us approve? Shouldn't we find more ways to model that approval and increase outreach & inclusiveness rather than prune them away? Pure efficiency isn't necessarily inviting and can make navigation difficult or confusing. A next logical step might be to ban handles and have everyone use assigned account numbers.
People learn in a variety of ways and text remains a second or third language even for many English speakers. By eliminating sig lines, we walk away from inclusiveness by shearing off an alternate avenue of recognition and engagement. Sigs can be a statement of personal style or belief, they can offer a quick and easy link to a site or organization that the user supports or feels strongly about. They advertise aspects of the site, (The Grieving Room, IGTNT, etc), which new users might never stumble across otherwise. So they can counter, (a little bit), the silo-ization effects of the site's growth.
People are busy, many make time to come to DKos. Making the seething morass a little friendlier to those who aren't total political junkies or have the time to spend multiple hours daily doesn't seem like a bad idea. Sigs differentiate individuals beyond the often clever text of their handles. Avatars can do this, too, but they've been banished to profile pages already, (not long after I finally figured out how to make one, dammit! lol ).
The opportunity of sig lines is inspiring, without being required.
Which is more efficient?
Which is welcoming and invites exploration?
Efficiency and esthetics are not just superficial and not mutually exclusive. The right type and amount of turbulence actually improves flow, mixing and overall efficiency.
Yes, they're too random to be tidy, they introduce a visual raggedness into the flow. For some, that's apparently an irritant, but I can also see them functioning as paragraphs & punctuation, to keep a lot of folks from getting lost or overwhelmed in monolithic, featureless blocks of text. (And I have to admit, I wonder a bit how much that randomness plucks the OCD string in some folks. ;-) )
TrueBlueMajority proposed what I thought was a great idea: We already have a toggle for subscribers to turn ads on or off, why not a toggle in everyone's preferences to opt out of seeing sigs? Those who don't like them don't have to look at'em and the rest of us can keep them. (I'd be interested to see what % of members choose which). And you'd have to be a member to opt out; that would encourage membership for those who wish to lurk but not to be bothered with seeing them, (might also encourage membership for those who want their own, so no real downside).
So, we already have a perfectly functional toggle for ads, how difficult would it be to add a toggle to switch sigs on or off? Or, swinging for the fences here, show avatars? A customizable interface at the touch of a toggle that enhances one's own visits, but doesn't interfere with anyone else's experience of the site?
Keep'em Kos, (at least the option), pretty pleeeease?