Editing GuildWiki:Sign your comments

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{{policy|[[GW:SIGN]]}}
When signing posts on GuildWiki talk pages, use a reasonable signature.  This policy defines guidelines for determining the reasonableness of a used signature.  The policy should be interpreted as defining when and how signatures should be used, not that signatures must be used.  '''''Unsigned comments are assigned the same [[GW:YOU|value]] as signed comments.''''' 

Signing your posts on talk pages and other Guildwiki discourse (but ''not'' on articles) is not only good etiquette; it also facilitates discussion by helping other users to identify the author of a particular comment, to navigate talk pages, and to address specific comments to the relevant user(s), among other things.  Discussion is an important part of collaborative editing as it helps other users to understand the progress and evolution of a work.  

== The purpose of signatures on Guildwiki ==
Signatures on Guildwiki
* Identify you as a user, and your contributions to Guildwiki.
* Enable other editors to recognise the user name (or IP address) of the person who made a given statement, and the date and time at which it was made
* Encourage civility in discussions by identifying the author of a particular comment

==When signatures should be used==
Any post made to
* User talk pages 
* Article talk pages 
* Other discussion pages 
should be signed.

On the other hand, signatures on Guildwiki are not intended to indicate ownership or authorship of any Guildwiki article.  Edits to articles or to the Main Page should ''not'' be signed.  There are certain other instances when posts should not be signed; in these cases, specific instructions are provided to contributors.

== How to "sign" your posts ==

There are two ways to sign your posts:

1.  At the end of your comments, simply type four tildes (~), like this:  <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>. 

(Note: Don't bother adding your name, date or anything else after the four tildes. As awkward as it may seem, the four tildes will automatically generate your signature.)

2.  If you are using the edit toolbar option (which must be enabled under [[Special:Preferences]]), click the signature icon [[Image:Button sig.png]] to add the four tildes.

Your signature will appear after you have saved the changes.

The end result is the same in both cases.  Typing four tildes will result in the following:

{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! Wikimarkup !! Resulting code !! Resulting display
|-
| <center><code><nowiki>~~~~</nowiki></code></center>
| <code><nowiki>[[User:Example|Example]]</nowiki> {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)</code>
| [[User:Example|Example]] {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)
|}

Since typing four tildes adds the time and date to your resulting signature, this is the preferred option for signing your posts in discussions.

Typing three tildes results in the following:

{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! Wikimarkup !! Resulting code !! Resulting display
|-
|<center><code><nowiki>~~~</nowiki></code></center>
|<code><nowiki>[[User:Example|Example]]</nowiki></code>
| [[User:Example|Example]]
|}

Since this does not date-stamp your signature, you may wish to sign this way when leaving general notices on your user page or user talk page.  This is also a convenient shortcut (rather than typing out the full code) when you want to provide a link to your user page.

Typing five tildes will convert to a date stamp with the current date and time, without adding your signature, like this:

{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! Wikimarkup !! Resulting code !! Resulting display
|-
|<center><code><nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki></code></center>
| <code>{{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)</code>
| {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)
|}

Note that if you choose to contribute Guildwiki without [[Wikipedia:How to log in|logging in]], you should still sign your posts.  In this case, your [[Wikipedia:IP address|IP address]] will take the place of your username. 

Your IP address might look something like this:  '''192.0.2.58'''.  Some users prefer to use their IP address instead of a user name because they think that an IP provides them with more anonymity.  In fact, a [[wikipedia:pseudonymous|pseudonymous]] [[Wikipedia:Why create an account?|account]] (that is, a registered user name) actually provides you with '''''more''''' protection of your identity.  

Note also that signing manually with a pseudonym or tag such as ''--anon'' does not give you more anonymity or privacy protection, since your IP address will still be stored in the page history.  This also makes it more difficult for other users to communicate with you.

== Customizing your signature ==

Registered users can customize their signature by going to [[Special:Preferences]] and changing the field "Custom signature".  A substituted signature should resemble to some degree the username it represents. Signatures that obscure an account name to the casual reader may be seen as disruptive. 

If you want to use a more complex signature (for instance, including your own [[Wikipedia:WP:HEP#Wiki_markup|Wiki markup]] and [[wikipedia:HTML element|HTML markup]]), you can choose the "Custom signature" checkbox in your Preferences. Just fill the "Your nickname" field with your desired signature (or a subpage from your user space), exactly as you want it to be substituted for the tildes. Be aware that even the raw signatures option treats markup very strictly, and some markup which works in normal pages will not work in signatures.

{|class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! Wikimarkup !! Resulting code !! Resulting display
|-
|<center><code><nowiki>~~~</nowiki></code></center>
|<code><nowiki>[[User:Example|<font color="Blue">'''Lead By Example'''</font>]] [[User talk:Example|''<font color="Blue">talk</font>'']]</nowiki></code>
|[[User:Example|<font color="Blue">'''Lead By Example'''</font>]] [[User talk:Example|''<font color="Blue">talk</font>'']]
|-
|<center><code><nowiki>~~~~</nowiki></code></center>
|<code><nowiki>[[User:Example|<font color="Blue">'''Lead By Example'''</font>]] [[User talk:Example|''<font color="Blue">talk</font>'']]</nowiki> {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)
|[[User:Example|<font color="Blue">'''Lead By Example'''</font>]] [[User talk:Example|''<font color="Blue">talk</font>'']] {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)
|}

== Important considerations ==

A distracting, confusing or otherwise unsuitable signature adversely affects other users.  It can be disruptive to discourse on talk pages, or when working in the edit window.  In particular, signatures that contain a lot of code ("markup") are often very long, making it difficult to read talk pages while editing (see below).

When customizing your signature, please keep the following in mind:

===Appearance and color===
'''Your signature should clearly identify the user, and not be disruptive to the talk pages.'''

* User signatures must have a link to their user page or their user talk page.
* Signature must show their user name or by other means make clear the user name.
* Advertising and inappropriate content in signatures is not allowed.
* Markup such as <code>&lt;big&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;sup&gt;</code>, and <code>&lt;sub&gt;</code> tags (which produce <big>big</big>, <sup>sup</sup>, and <sub>sub</sub> text), are not allowed, as they disrupt the normal spacing between rows of text.
* Line breaks (<code>&lt;br /&gt;</code> tags) are not allowed as they disrupt the flow of text by artificially lengthening the display space for signatures.
* Do not make your signature so small that it is difficult to read.
* Do not use <code>&lt;blink&gt;</code> or other text animations as it causes visual disruption of the text page.
* In consideration of users with vision problems, be sparing with color.  If you must use different colors in your signature, please ensure that the result will be readable by people with color blindness.

=== Images ===
'''Images should be used sparingly and not be large enough to disrupt normal text spacing.'''

Images should meet the following guidelines:
* The user's signature may include one small icon. The icon's image file should not be larger than 50 pixels wide x 19 pixels tall.
* The image must link to the person's user page or talk page. This is most easily achieved by using the link parameter, as in <tt><nowiki>[[Image:Example.png|link=User talk:Example user]]</nowiki></tt>
* If you wish to redirect the image file to your user or talk page, the icon's image file should be exclusive for the signature, not shared with anything in GuildWiki.  Note: The image can be a duplicate of another image, if it's resized appropriately.
* No animated images are permitted due to the visual disruption they cause within text pages.
<!-- commenting out - doesn't make sense at this time - can re-evaluate if in the future we don't allow non-latin in usernames
=== Language and alphabet ===
'''Signatures with non-latin script should also include latin script.'''

All signatures should consists of characters in the latin alphabet.  This is because characters not within the ASCII character set may not display properly for everyone.  This also makes it easier to search for your user name using the search function.  
-->

=== Length ===
'''Keep signatures short, both in display and markup.'''

Long signatures with a lot of HTML/wiki markup make page editing more difficult.  A 200 character signature, for instance, is likely to be larger than many of the comments to which it is appended, making discussion more difficult: 

* Signatures that take up more than three lines (at 800x600 resolution) in the edit window clutter the page and make it harder to distinguish posts from signatures.
* Long signatures give undue prominence to a given user's contribution.

=== Transclusion/template ===
'''Do not use transclusion, templates or parser functions in signatures.'''

[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Transclusion|Transclusions]] and [[m:Parser functions|parser functions]] in signatures are avoidable drains on server resources. Transcluded signatures require extra processing. Whenever you change your signature source, all talk pages you have posted on must be re-cached. 

Signature templates are also vandalism targets, and will be forever, even if the user stops contributing. Simple text signatures, which are stored along with the page content, use no more resources than the comments themselves and avoid these problems.

* If a separate page is used to store the signature, the page should not be used as a signature by including it, but by substituting.

=== Internal links ===
'''Use internal links sparingly.'''

You may include a link to your user page, your contributions, and your talkpage for people who want to discuss something with you person-to-person. Beyond that, internal links should be avoided.  If you find a particular Guildwiki page useful, put it in your browser bookmarks, favorites list, or on your userpage &mdash; not in your signature.

* Do not include links to skills, builds, campaigns, characters, weapons, personal fun pages, etc in your signature.

=== External links ===
'''Do not include links to external websites in your signature.'''

Signatures must not include external links.  Posting a link to an external website with each comment you make on a talk page is usually viewed as linkspamming.  If you want to tell other Guildwikians about a good website that you are associated with, you may do so on your user page.

== Dealing with unsigned comments ==

The template [[:Template:unsigned]] can be used at the end of an unsigned comment to attach the username or IP to the comment.

{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! Wikimarkup !! Resulting code !! Resulting display
|-
|<nowiki>{{subst:unsigned|</nowiki>''user name or ip''<nowiki>|</nowiki>''date''<nowiki>}}</nowiki>
|<nowiki>{{subst:unsigned|Example|23:59, 1 April, 2006 (UTC)}}</nowiki>
|<small>&mdash;''The preceding [[GuildWiki:Sign your comments|unsigned]] comment was added by'' [[User talk:Example|Example]] ([[Special:Contributions/Example|contribs]]) 23:59, 1 April, 2006 (UTC).</small><!--Inserted with Template:Unsigned-->
|}

<!--
The template [[:Template:unsigned2]] does almost the same as [[:Template:unsigned]] when used with two parameters, but the ordering of the parameters is reversed. This is useful for copying and pasting from the edit history, where the timestamp appears before the username. [[:Template:unsigned2]] also automatically adds the (CDT) at the end. 

{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! Wikimarkup !! Resulting code !! Resulting display
|-
|<nowiki>{{subst:unsigned2|</nowiki>''date''<nowiki>|</nowiki>''user name or ip''<nowiki>}}</nowiki>
|<nowiki>{{subst:unsigned2|23:59, 1 April, 2006|Example}}</nowiki>
|{{unsigned2|23:59, 1 April, 2006|Example}}
|}
-->

[[Category:Helping out]]
[[Category:Policies|Sign your comments]]