Help:Signatures: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:18, 30 January 2012

When leaving a comment on a talk page or other discussion, users need to 'sign' their comments by adding their 'signature' to the end. This automatically adds the user's name, a link to their page, and the date/time of the comment.

Adding signatures is important as it makes it clear who is contributing to a discussion. Even though the page history can prove who made each edit, a signature is a much quicker and simpler method for all users.

Important: Signatures should never be added to articles - they are for discussions only.

Your signature can be edited in Special:Preferences - but it should always include your username, link to your user page, and not be excessively long, large or distracting. Images or flashing colours are generally not permitted.

Signatures of staff members will show up in a different colour with the badge for their rank. This should never be imitated by other users - keep your signature simple.

Signing your posts

The standard method of adding your signature is to add four tildes ~~~~, right after your comment, on the last line. Just like at the end of this sentence. ~~~

This will add your username and the date. If you have customised your signature in Special:Preferences, this will show instead of just your username.

You can quickly add your signature by pressing the signature button in the toolbar (4th button along). On an [[Apple Mac[[ computer, the tilde is accessed by Alt+N.

To display without the date, you can use three tildes. To display just the date, use filve tildes. These are only used in specific situations - a talk page comment would always use the standard signature.

Signature	Code	Output
4 tildes Full signature	`~~~~`	Montario (talk) 21:18, 30 January 2012 (UTC)
3 tildes Username only	`~~~`	Montario (talk)
5 tildes Date/time only	`~~~~~`	21:18, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{help}}
-Signing your posts with '''Signatures''', particularly on [[help:Talk Pages|talk pages]] is a good habit to grasp as it provides attribution to link back to the author of that comment. Other users can then follow the link, navigating them onto the talk page of that user to address their comments in reply.
+When leaving a comment on a [[help:Talk Pages|talk page]] or other discussion, users need to 'sign' their comments by adding their 'signature' to the end. This automatically adds the user's name, a link to their page, and the date/time of the comment.
+Adding signatures is important as it makes it clear who is contributing to a discussion. Even though the [[Help:Page history|page history]] can prove who made each edit, a signature is a much quicker and simpler method for all users.
+'''Important:''' Signatures should never be added to articles - they are for discussions only.
+Your signature can be edited in [[Special:Preferences]] - but it should always include your username, link to your user page, and not be excessively long, large or distracting. Images or flashing colours are generally not permitted.
+Signatures of [[staff]] members will show up in a different colour with the badge for their rank. This should never be imitated by other users - keep your signature simple.
-When editing an article/page, articles '''should not''' be signed as the page is a shared work between many other editors. The [[Help:Page history|page history]] should automatically take care of that.
 ==Signing your posts==
-;Using four tildes
+The standard method of adding your signature is to add four tildes <code><nowiki>~~~~</nowiki></code>, right after your comment, on the last line. Just like at the end of this sentence. <nowiki>~~~</nowiki>
-This is the most preferred option as it leaves both the name of the user and the time stamp, which is particularly useful for talk pages. There are two ways to use this option, each resulting in the same outcome:
+This will add your username and the date. If you have customised your signature in [[Special:Preferences]], this will show instead of just your username.
-*Signing at the end of your comment with four tildes (~).
+You can quickly add your signature by pressing the signature button in the toolbar (4th button along). On an [[Apple Mac[[ computer, the tilde is accessed by Alt+N.
-*Clicking on the pre-made code on the edit toolbar below the edit box.
-;Using three tildes
+To display without the date, you can use three tildes. To display just the date, use filve tildes. These are only used in specific situations - a talk page comment would always use the standard signature.
-This option is an alternative and only leaves the username and link to that users talk page. This is usually only used for leaving general notices on your talk page or user page. There is currently only one available option to display this signature:
-*Signing at the end of your comment with three tildes (~).
 {| class="wikitable"
 |-
-! Wikimarkup !!  Code !! Final display
+! Signature !!  Code !! Output
 |-
+!4 tildes<br>Full signature
 | <code><nowiki>~~~~</nowiki></code>
-| <code><nowiki>[[User:Montario|Montario]] ([[User talk:Montario|talk]])</nowiki> {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)</code>
+| [[User:Montario|Montario]] ([[User talk:Montario|talk]]) 21:18, 30 January 2012 (UTC)
-| [[User:Montario|Montario]] ([[User talk:Montario|talk]]) {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)
 |-
+!3 tildes<br>Username only
 |<code><nowiki>~~~</nowiki></code>
-|<code><nowiki>[[User:Montario|Montario]] ([[User talk:Montario|talk]])</nowiki></code>
 | [[User:Montario|Montario]] ([[User talk:Montario|talk]])
+|-
+!5 tildes<br>Date/time only
+|<code><nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki></code>
+| 21:18, 30 January 2012 (UTC)
 |}
-==See Also==
-*[[Help]] - The navigation to all other pages documenting help.