Does anyone else hate the 'Regards' signature

[stevew443]

Where I work the standard is to sign every email with "Very respectfully". Since people tend to be quite lazy with emails, that quickly became "Vr". When I am writing a letter (yes, I still write letters), I will usually end with "Yours truly" unless I wish to have fun with the person to whom I am writing, then I will sign "I am, Sir, Your Most Humble and Obedient Servant:. If I am writing to a close friend, I just skip any ending and sign Steve (instead of Stephen).

 

[Michaelson]

Yep, nothing more than standard email etiquette 101. I've been using it and 'High regards' since 1996, and will continue to do so.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[sheeplady]

Hey, "Later" is what I use. Of course I use it because it's somewhat unique, easy to type, and it seems less caring or confrontational than your obedient servant, love, or some other stuff. My favorite is from Animal House:

Respectfully Submitted,
Douglas C. Neidermeyer
Sargent at Arms

LATER

lol... as long as it isn't from a student, I'm fine with later.

The most disrespectful email I ever got from a student started with "Hey" and ended with "Later." It didn't help that they were asking for a major (and unreasonable) favor. Like the kind where you think you'd want to be on my good side if you have any chance.

Although my favorite email of all time was sent by a colleague of mine. He had a student at the end of class say to his face, "**** you" and walk out of the classroom, throwing his recently graded paper in this teacher's face. So he sent this student an email the subject line of which was ****, discussed how certain behavior was not appropriate, that he was more than happy to discuss this student's paper in a civilized and adult manner, and ended with "best wishes." It was hilarious. It almost made me want a student to say that to me for the longest time so I could send an email like that. Almost.

 

[Feraud]

Yep, nothing more than standard email etiquette 101. I've been using it and 'High regards' since 1996, and will continue to do so.

Regards! Michaelson

I'm proud to say I picked up the use of "Regards" years ago from pleasant conversations I had with you Michaelson! If I recall correctly you likely gave me generous and sound advice on some detail relating to pocket watches.

I have absolutely no problem with the use of the term.

 

[Ticklishchap]

I would regard your reaction as somewhere north of bizarre.

That's because I didn't fully explain the facts. Please see my reply to Hudson Hawk. It's interesting the way use of language can be suddenly revealing and tip the balance in a relationship sometimes. It was a kind of eureka moment, when I realised that helping this person was a complete waste of time.

 

[Ticklishchap]

If you're willing to dismiss a friendship with someone because they used it, you weren't much of a friend in the first place.

You are rushing to judgement before you know the facts. That said, I should perhaps have explained them more clearly. In the case of this former friend, I spent many hours trying to sort out his problems. I took him out for meals and picked up the tab. I lent him some money to tide him over, even though he refused my suggestion that he work in a local bookshop because it was 'beneath' him ('I'm an artist', etc.). Also, I let him come and stay for a short time when he was depressed and his girlfriend wouldn't put up with him. Overall, I deserved better than 'Regards' and the cold signature was a kind of epiphany or eureka moment: I realised that I was wasting my time trying to help this person.
Fortunately, I have enough good friends not to need a sponge.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Hey, "Later" is what I use. Of course I use it because it's somewhat unique, easy to type, and it seems less caring or confrontational than your obedient servant, love, or some other stuff. My favorite is from Animal House:

Respectfully Submitted,
Douglas C. Neidermeyer
Sargent at Arms

LATER

I'm shocked, I tells ya! I, for one, and I'm sure I speak for everyone here, will never feel the same way about you again.

gents, we have officially entered Bizarro-world. And the psychology of it has the potential to be truly fascinating.

Bst Rgrds,

bk

 

[rocketeer]

If I were writing a personal letter or an official email I would try to carefully construct the letter and address it appropriately. Here, on an internet forum where most of us do not know the other members, nor are likely to meet the vast majority, I tend to write as I would if I were speaking.
Were I answering a general topic I try not to be insulting unless it is something I have had experience at, so always try to be jovial or at least not serious and sign off as such. One problem with eMails is of course the lack of emotion in words, no matter how many 'smileys' you put down they may be interpreted differently. So when I saw this

QUOTE=HudsonHawk;1700072]
If you're willing to dismiss a friendship with someone because they used it, you weren't much of a friend in the first place.[/QUOTE]

I thought, "Damn right too". But then you went on to explain your writings and I could 'sort of' see your point.
Really though I cannot see anything wrong with the informal sign offs some of us put on here at least. Do you really take your forums that seriously. And you use the term 'Naff', a term I tend to think of used by 1980s comedians like Harry Enfield, and would personally never use but I have no problem with anyone else using it.

I like it! Best to avoid typing the word at all. ... I wonder if anyone can explain why it seems to be so frequent these days. Perhaps it's just a sign of more generalised naff-ness.

So, cheers and chat here later. (Well not actually chat but you know what I mean. Well, if I am involved in a subject that interests you at least)
Now, was that genuine or was it sarcasm.
All the best, John x

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

It needs to be typed with caution. A friend of mine once signed off a work email to her senior management team 'Retards'....

That says it all.

 

[emigran]

Doesn't bother me ... as long as it's not Fond Regards... and speaking of grammar school classes I recall that a signature was significant to the personal relationship referred to... My standard line is... "Ciao for now..." or "Best..." but what do I know...

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

I have to get this one off my chest! More and more often over the past few years, I have had work-related emails and sometimes even letters that close with 'Regards' or sometimes variants such as 'Kind' or 'Best' Regards, or 'Warm'/'Warmest' Regards. In the latter case, it's as if the heat level somehow mitigates the meanness and carelessness of the 'Regards' signature.

What happened to the professional but civilized 'Best Wishes'? Or the business-like but polite 'Yours sincerely'? Or simply 'Yours' for that matter? Surely these pleasantries oil the wheels of business. You only have to say the word 'Regards' to realise how harsh it sounds - bit like 'gargle', 'gargoyle' or 'guard'.

'Regards' even slips from the business into the social arena. One of my neighbours uses it and a couple of years ago a person I considered a good friend (and whom I had helped out a couple of times) signed a postcard 'Regards, David': I have never felt the same way about him since. The signature sounds old-fashioned, but in a negative sense, like Dickens's Uriah Heep or Mr Pooter in 'Diary of a Nobody'.

Do any of you feel similarly? Or will any of you rise to the defence of the 'Regards' signature?

Incandescent Regards/Best Wishes,
Aidan

I must admit I do use regards often when signing off from an e-mail or text. I suppose modern technology has made us lazy.

We were taught at school to end official letters by "yours faithfully or yours sincerly" depending if it's addressed to "dear sir, or dear Mr Brown" etc.

I have seen copies of older letters, upto about the 1950s or 1960s being signed with something like, "Your most humble or obedient servant" etc. That was when service really was service.

I have been corrected sometimes for other poor use of grammar.

At school if we made spelling mistakes, we had to copy out the correct spelling of the word (s) 10 times.

Best wishes.

 

[Edward]

I'm shocked, I tells ya! I, for one, and I'm sure I speak for everyone here, will never feel the same way about you again.

gents, we have officially entered Bizarro-world. And the psychology of it has the potential to be truly fascinating.

Bst Rgrds,

bk

Hey there,
I completely agree.

Laters

Eddie-Baby

 

[Tomasso]

At school if we made spelling mistakes, we had to copy out the correct spelling of the word (s) 10 times.

We had to do it 100 times at my Jesuit school. And if that didn't improve your spelling they had other methods which were quite painful.

They also had us copy each and every word entry in the dictionary (3x each) in order to expand our vocabulary.

Both exercises, while extremely tedious, proved to be quite effective.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I must admit I do use regards often when signing off from an e-mail or text. I suppose modern technology has made us lazy.

We were taught at school to end official letters by "yours faithfully or yours sincerly" depending if it's addressed to "dear sir, or dear Mr Brown" etc.

I have seen copies of older letters, upto about the 1950s or 1960s being signed with something like, "Your most humble or obedient servant" etc. That was when service really was service.

I have been corrected sometimes for other poor use of gramma.

At school if we made spelling mistakes, we had to copy out the correct spelling of the word (s) 10 times.

Best wishes.

What did you have to do for the "gramma" mistakes?

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

What did you have to do for the "gramma" mistakes?

Whoops, just testing, better start writing

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

We had to do it 100 times at my Jesuit school. And if that didn't improve your spelling they had other methods which were quite painful.

They also had us copy each and every word entry in the dictionary (3x each) in order to expand our vocabulary.

Both exercises, while extremely tedious, proved to be quite effective.

Yes that is quite true, we too used to have to write out large amounts of "lines" for certain wrong doings.

 

[Michaelson]

I'm proud to say I picked up the use of "Regards" years ago from pleasant conversations I had with you Michaelson! If I recall correctly you likely gave me generous and sound advice on some detail relating to pocket watches.

I have absolutely no problem with the use of the term.

I still love 'talking shop' too, old friend! Good to 'see you'.

HIGH regards! Michaelson

 

[Ticklishchap]

So when I saw this
QUOTE=HudsonHawk;1700072]
If you're willing to dismiss a friendship with someone because they used it, you weren't much of a friend in the first place.

I thought, "Damn right too". But then you went on to explain your writings and I could 'sort of' see your point.

Thanks. In a way, I'm surprised that you could only 'sort of' see my point. ... But to be fair I think that if it hadn't been that signature it would have been something else. ... I was already tired of this 'friend' and his sponging!

Really though I cannot see anything wrong with the informal sign offs some of us put on here at least. Do you really take your forums that seriously.

I wasn't referring to anything on the forums - just getting something off my chest about a recent trend in emails, including emails from people I think I know well and would hope for something 'warmer' even if still formal.

And you use the term 'Naff', a term I tend to think of used by 1980s comedians like Harry Enfield, and would personally never use but I have no problem with anyone else using it.

Maybe not the best word. I was trying to avoid 'common'. Because that's probably what I really think about 'Regards', 'Kind Regards' etc. It conjures up an image of a sales rep or similar in a cheap blazer, with a comb-over hairstyle and a nasal accent: 'Give my regards to your lady wife'. This is, I would emphasise, an image entirely in the British context and I can accept that the word has different social connotations in the US.


So, cheers and chat here later. (Well not actually chat but you know what I mean. Well, if I am involved in a subject that interests you at least)
Now, was that genuine or was it sarcasm.
All the best, John x[/QUOTE]
All the best, Aidan x

 

[Ticklishchap]

In the British context, from which I write, I associate the rise of 'Regards' (and its variants) with the rise of an impersonal, process-driven bureaucracy that is increasingly petty and extreme, based on levelling everyone down to a lowest common denominator.

I appreciate that quite probably none of this applies to the US.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I thought, "Damn right too". But then you went on to explain your writings and I could 'sort of' see your point.

Thanks. In a way, I'm surprised that you could only 'sort of' see my point. ... But to be fair I think that if it hadn't been that signature it would have been something else. ... I was already tired of this 'friend' and his sponging!

I think everyone understands your being tired of someone's sponging. It's your burning hatred for such an innocuous signature that is bizarre.