this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
48 points (98.0% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35694 readers
1116 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I do not know if it's true for all countries, but at least the USA and the UK require your passport to be signed to be valid. And I know that when I fly, I sometimes get checked if it is signed.

Is there a practical reason for this? Does the signature get checked against anything? Or is it simply that the law says a passport must be signed to be valid, so there you go?

I googled around a bit, but only found resources on how to sign, but not why it needs to be signed.

Thank you Internet hive mind!

top 15 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 30 points 6 months ago

The theory is that you've signed your passport and it's on a type of paper that will visibly deform if you try to erase it or white paper over it - so in theory a border guard could ask for your signature and compare it to the one on the document as a proof of identity.

In the modern world this doesn't really matter because we've got a lot better ways to authenticate - including databases with your signature already in them.

However, the tradition lives on.

Oh also, it's always a good idea to get someone to sign something if they're doing fraudulent stuff - since it's absolutely trivial to prove a forged signature done in front of a witness in court... it's like getting Capone for tax fraud - easy to prove cases are easy.

[–] xePBMg9@lemmynsfw.com 19 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Legacy from a time when it was used as authentication. I guess. I sure find myself not reproducing my past signatures very well. Never got me in to trouble.

[–] Hatechildren@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I had my passport renewal denied because the signature on the renewal form didn't match the old passport. And since I no longer had the old passport to copy the signature style when I resubmitted, I had to throw in a photo copy of my drivers license (that had my signature), use that signature style on the new form, and a letter explaining that the signature on the new form matches something official and is correct.

[–] cabhan@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 6 months ago

That is a crazy process. But I'm happy that you were somehow able to get a new passport :).

[–] acetanilide@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Banks will sometimes require your signature match the original signature they have on file. I'm guessing it's not as common anymore with online banking but I know a few years ago I had to sign something a number of times because it wasn't close enough to the original.

I thought about it and it might have been around 10 years ago😬

[–] azulon@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I nearly got into trouble once. In a bank. I signed a document, the signature didn't quite match, they kept asking me to redo it ("we need it just like in the passport") but after the third or fourth try they let it through.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 9 points 6 months ago (2 children)

And how is it with people who cannot sign stuff due to some disability?

[–] Maven@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I personally have a signature stamp. I imagine that would work for anyone who has literally any range of motion, down to "can hold a stamp in their teeth and tilt their head a few degrees to press it against a document".

For people who don't have even that, I think a notary is allowed to sign on your behalf, if they can be provided documentation of your disability, but that will vary by country of course.

[–] acetanilide@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago

Yes, a legal representative can do it. I'm not sure if just a notary would suffice though, at least not where I am.

Thumbprints are another possible way. Also simple marks like an X.

[–] Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Not even a disability, but kids under 5-6 can't sign by themselves, and will nead at least another decade to come with a real signature.

Think about this 9 year old with a toddler photo on their passport and a parent signature over is

[–] Thavron@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 months ago

Had to make a passport for my (at the time) 1yo. It had "not able" where the signature would go.

[–] Toes@ani.social 8 points 6 months ago

My understanding is that the signature is required to express that you've confirmed that the document is accurate.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 4 points 6 months ago

[off topic]

Back in the day, people were told to use cursive writing on checks and other documents because it was harder for crooks to forge them.

[–] nutsack@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Just draw a picture of a frog