Interesting ... An Observation about Signature Behavior

So this is not a question ... not really even feedback, other than an observation about how signatures behave in SB (and perhaps ProBoards in general). I don't think this is something that changed ... I just happened to change mine, and then I saw one of my past posts and noticed it.[1]

When you update signature in your profile, it updates on all your future posts and comments (expected behavior). It also updates your signature in all your previous posts and comments.

As a recovering computer programmer / systems engineer ... this makes some sense. It is one of several ways to handle signatures. It is a bit unusual, because this means that the signature at the time of the message is not considered part of the message. It is current metadata that is linked to the author of a post/comment. This may be unexpected by the end user, but it can't be considered "wrong." Doing it this way also reduces a lot of administrative work if someone puts something in their signature block that violates the Forum standards, or might contain writing that either offends someone else, or is later regretted by the author.

As a recovering archivist slightly preoccupied with the loss of historical context in technology ... I am not sure that I like that choice. The signature block is something that is customizable because in real life, our self-perception changes over time. SB has been around since 2010, according to this history . People use their signature to describe themselves. The changes of a member's signature text reflects the changes in the life, including their collecting interests, over time. I am a relative newcomer to SB (Mar. 2, 2020) according to my profile. Had I known about SB in 2011, my signature would have changed several times, reflecting changes in my career, stamp collecting interests, etc. -- all which might contribute to the context of my posts or comments at the time. Yes, there is the Wayback Machine for SB, but it does not have a complete archive of all threads.

Well, enough about that. I have real procrastinating to do by posting in other threads.

Rob

[1] Yes, now I know that at least one person reads my posts.