I'm in a long-running GURPS game on RPoL, and one of the other players used to include a "signature" in his posts -- similar to an e-mail signature, a line or lines that were appended after whatever was actually typed for the post.  It was game-useful, not just informational like most e-mail or (if you're old enough) Usenet post signatures are/were; content like "footprint" and spells being maintained (which affects casting skill for new spells), spells in effect that have game effects like buffs, etc.

That player had to (at least temporarily) leave the game due to life changes, so I can't ask directly how that was done, and I haven't found anything in the FAQs or tutorials on how to do this.  I'd gotten the impression it was a "very little known" feature of the board software, rather than something he had to manually paste into each post, and it was per-character, rather than being the same for all the player's PCs (in different groups).

Now I'm preparing to start a GURPS game of my own, and I'd like to "encourage" players to use this feature so we can do a better job of keeping track of these factors (buffs, debuffs, "spells on" footprint, etc.).  Ideally it would be something the GM can edit and that automatically appends to each post by a character.

Does anyone who reads here know how to do this and where to find documentation on this feature?

The feature isn't mentioned in the FAQs because it doesn't exist.  I suspect the player was just, literally, copying text from somewhere else, and pasting it in at the end of his post.

I used to do a similar thing in combat posts in a game, tracking health of characters, initiative, etc.

Edit: Unless you're talking about the Biography lines in the left hand column, below the character's name - a lot of people use them to keep a brief note of hit points and the like.  They can be updated by going into Character Details (link at the top left of every page in the game).
This message was last edited by the user at 13:52, Sun 30 July 2023.

also.. for the CS? yoiu can  enter things   in the  Biography 1  and  Biography 2

like  put a quote, or  name your rank or position ect ect..that will show up with your portrait on very post

If it's updated every round (and it would need to be with changes to hits and etc happening every round), it's not a signature, it's content added to  the post.

I do it as GM. I have a form set up in a notepad file for a particular game, usually just for combat. I type up the post at the top, and, underneath I have a list of characters and the resources they are lacking (ammo, spells, etc, depending on game rules), followed by the same list but with damage taken listed, followed by an initiative list, all color coded to stand out from the basic post.

This seems to be the sort of thing you are referencing. Just set up a format you like in Notepad (similar to a blank character sheet) update it as needed, then cut and paste.

I do know about tracking (in this case, for GURPS) hit points, fatigue, and energy reserve (barely fit all three) in a biography line, at the cost of some flavor text that could otherwise be there.  The GM for the GURPS game I'm in has encouraged this, though it's still annoying to have to remember to update it *before posting* each time I've taken a hit or spent fatigue.  Additionally, this is right out in the open for all to see, which seems to encourage a form of metagaming, where a signature file with spoiler tags would make it easier not to know things your character wouldn't.

I was hoping this was just a poorly-documented and little-known feature.  The main problem I see with keeping a text file with the required information (which can obviously use all the markdown formatting tags etc.) is remembering to paste it.  I plan to keep turn order (which will be the same for a good while, given a combat might take days of player time) in a read-only thread (Group Z to the rescue), but I was hoping to have players maintain their to-the-moment stats in a way that doesn't make posting harder and more time consuming.

Oh well, more time at the drawing board, I guess...

Keep it in your Scratch Pad and it's always close at hand for cut paste.

As I said, I compose my post in the same file and just above all the "signature" information. I'm pasting the whole thing, so there's nothing to forget.

I was in a D&D game for a while that requested something similar, at least while in combat.  I just ended up copying it from whatever my previous post had been, and updating the information each round.  I think it's one of those 'normal' forum features that never got added here because there are actually very few systems that encourage the use of anything like that.