A randomly selected short joke, pun, gag, or silly quote appended to the bottom of an email or bulletin board message. Generally 80 characters long or less. Sadly, after the BBS era, they all but died out, being relegated to perpetually forwarded e-mails if they survived anywhere at all.

More generally, any repeated motto or phrase that is associated with an individual, organization, product or corporation; a slogan. Also spelled as "tag line."

eot/sp

A precursor to, imitation of, or independently evolved BBS-oriented variation on the standard Internet .sig idea.

Taglines became common with the advent of offline mail readers, like those dealing in the QWK format.

BBS Taglines always had a fairly reliable format (have I got it switched?):
--- Some sort of witty saying
* A one-line ad for the BBS, mail reader software and/or echomail processor

Here are some arguably funny BBS taglines I remember. For some reason, they're all Trek-related.

I am Popeye of Borg. Prepare to be askimiligrated!
I am Madonna of Borg. Gender is irrelevant!
Resistance turns me on!
We've secretly switched their Dilithium with new Folger's Crystals. Let's see if anyone notices!
<- tribble . <- tribble.zip

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