Automatic email signatures are the worst thing in history
While I did spit up a little coffee just now laughing at this, I quickly realized Zach Weiner is conflating two issues here.
Having your email application perform an automatic action on your behalf is not a bad thing. That’s something computers are good at—doing repetitive shit for you. I use this feature in Mail.app all the time to attach a signature to my emails. Probably you do too.
But including irrelevant crap in your signature is neither witty nor useful. Worse is including random irrelevant crap—which might be what Mr. Weiner actually means here using the word “automatic.” The “At Random” feature of Mail.app is something I never use.
If your email signature is longer than your actual name, think very hard about why you’re including that additional information. For business correspondence, your title can sometimes be appropriate. Your entire business strategy and contact page is not.
If your signature is longer than your actual email content, then you’ve failed at the Internet and you must leave. Now.