HammerWiki:Signature policy

From HammerWiki

This page is a proposed policy on HammerWiki. As per the guidelines set out in HammerWiki:Policy; if consensus is reached in the talk page, this notice can be removed and the policy category and template can be added.

This policy defines how and when signatures should be used, in addition to outlining what is an acceptable signature.

Contents 1 The purpose of signatures 2 When should signatures be used? 3 How to sign 3.1 Dealing with unsigned comments 4 Customizing your signature 5 Custom signature restrictions 5.1 General rules 5.2 Links 5.3 Formatting 5.4 Images 5.5 Length 5.6 Advanced signature inclusion

[edit] The purpose of signatures

When posting on talk pages using a signature is recommended. Signing your posts on talk pages 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. However, unsigned comments are assigned the same value as signed comments.

Signatures on HammerWiki

• Identify you as a user, and your contributions to HammerWiki.
• 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.

[edit] When should signatures be used?

Any post or comment made to talk pages should be signed, regardless of the namespace. Do not add your signature to an article. As attribution of content is already logged in the history of an article, attempting to claim ownership or credit by signing on an article is not allowed.

[edit] How to sign

To sign simply type four tildes ( ~~~~ ) at the end of your comments, or use the signature button in the page edit controls, which will insert "--~~~~" at the cursor. Your signature will appear after you have saved the changes. This will result in the following:

Wikimarkup	Resulting code	Resulting display
~~~~	[[User:Example|Example]] 23:48, November 10 2009 (UTC)	Example 23:48, November 10 2009 (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.

Note that if you choose to contribute to HammerWiki without logging in, you should still sign your posts. In this case your IP address will take the place of your username.

Your IP address might look something like this: 192.168.2.58. 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 pseudonymous 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.

[edit] Dealing with unsigned comments

The unsigned template can be used at the end of an unsigned comment to attach the username or IP of the commentor to the comment.

Wikimarkup	Resulting code	Resulting display
{{subst:unsigned|user name or ip}}	{{subst:unsigned|Example}}	--The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Example .

[edit] Customizing your signature

A registered user can choose to customize his or her signature, however, to keep the wiki readable, there are several limits on customized signatures, described below.

[edit] Custom signature restrictions

[edit] General rules

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. When customizing your signature, please adhere to the following etiquette:

• Clearly display your username in your signature.
  • Do not use characters that are not in your user name to represent the characters in your name. For example, substituting characters in a manner such as leet speak is discouraged, as it makes it difficult for users to interpret.
• A shortened version of your username is allowed. However, you must ensure that there is not actually another user already registered with your shortened username.
  • You are expected to register the shortened version as a new user account and create a redirect from that account to your main account's user page.
  • Should the shortened version belong to another person, you are not allowed to sign with it.
  • The shortened version must be easily recognized as being a shorter form of your user name.
• Advertisements or offensive material is strictly not allowed in signatures.
• You are allowed to use exactly one image or icon in your signature (see the section on images below).

[edit] Links

You must at least include a link to your user page or your talk page. Your signature should only contain links to your user page, your talk page, or your contributions page. Other internal or external links are discouraged in your signature.

[edit] Formatting

The most important rule for signature formatting is that they must not be disruptive to the normal flow of text on a talk page. The following are several examples of problematic and disallowed formatting:

• Line breaks (<br /> tags) are not allowed as they disrupt the flow of text by unnecessarily increasing the display space for signatures.
• Markup tags <big>, <sup>, and <sub> (which produce big, ^sup, and _sub text) are not allowed; they disrupt the normal spacing between rows of text. Note that the <small> tag is allowed.
• Do not make your signature so small that it becomes difficult to read.
• Do not use text animations as it causes visual disruption of the text page.
• Do not use any background color or background pattern in your signature.
• Do not create rainbow-colored signatures or use colors that are deemed too bright or disturbing. Having a separate color for each link is acceptable. Be aware that certain colors cannot be seen by people with color blindness.

Bear in mind that complex formatting results in complex and unnecessarily long markup code, which in turn results in reduced readability of talk pages while in editing mode. See the section on length further below.

[edit] Images

One icon is allowed as part of one's signature. The rules regarding such an icon are as follows:

• The user's signature may show at most one image (or icon).
• The image should be constrained to a maximum height of 19 pixels, to minimize visual disruption.
• The image used should be named appropriately (e.g. Image:User Example sig.png as the signature image of User:Example). Do not directly use an image or icon meant for other parts of Guild Wars Wiki or one that is used by another user.
• The image used should redirect to the user page or talk page of that user and be tagged with {{user image}}.
• The image used should not be an animated image.
• Please strive to keep images tasteful. Bright and/or garish colors are discouraged.

[edit] Length

Signatures that contain a lot of markup or code are often unnecessarily long. Long signatures with a lot of HTML/wiki markup make page editing more difficult when attempting to follow a discussion in editing mode. A 300-character signature, for instance, is likely larger than many of the comments to which it is appended to.

Strive to keep the total number of characters in your custom signature to around 150 characters. The length of the timestamp can be excluded.

If you wish to use enough custom code that it cannot fit within these reasonably narrow confines, you should choose the signature transclusion method mentioned below. This allows much more markup without cluttering talk pages, but requires you to be rather familiar with wiki mechanics.

The resulting signature (as it appears on talk pages after saving an edit) should generally be no wider than that it fits comfortably on the same line as the comment you are signing, in most cases.

[edit] Advanced signature inclusion

When creating a signature, there are three different ways to save your customized code -- making for a total of four different options when you count using the default. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, as listed below:

Using the default signature Advantages: Completely standard and hassle-free. Works for everyone. Disadvantages: Possibly a bit boring.

Inserting the signature code into the preferences "nickname" field [howto] Advantages: Minimal server load. Disadvantages: Changing signature is somewhat inconvenient. Full signature code goes on each page, each time you sign. Other notes: Old signatures remain as they were, even after you later change your current signature.

Using substitution to include your signature [howto] Advantages: Easy editing/previewing your signature. Let's others easily see your signature code and associated comments. Disadvantages: Full signature code goes on each page, each time you sign. Other notes: Old signatures remain as they were, even after you later change your current signature.

Using transclusion to include your signature [howto] Advantages: Once set up, editing your signature is easy. Let's others easily see your signature code and associated comments. Leaves a lot less clutter on talk pages than any of the two previous advanced options. Disadvantages: Most advanced solution, requires a bit of wiki knowledge to not mess up. Increased server load each time you change your signature, as all pages it is transcluded into may potentially have to be recached. You should avoid changing your signature often when using this method. Transcluded signatures are potentially a bigger vandalism target than any of the other methods. However, cleanup after vandalism is also the simplest of them all. If you are worried about vandalism, consider asking a sysop to lock your signature page when you're done editing it. Other notes: Old signatures change when you later change your current signature to always match the most recent version.