View source for Inkipedia:Policy/Signatures

{{shortcut|INK:SIG}}
==Policy==
Signatures allow users to sign off messages on pages, whether that be for talk page discussions or voting on policies. In order to reasonably maintain conversation and attribute messages to users, users are expected to '''sign their comments with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>''' on talk pages.

* User signatures are '''required''' to link to their userpage, user talk, or user contributions log. By convention, signatures link to more than one of these. 

* User signatures are '''required''' to display the name of the user or approximation or derivation thereof. For example, a display of an abbreviated form of the username, one that omits numbers, one that adds small decorations, or a romanized version would be acceptable. One that calls into question impersonation or spoofing attempts is not.

* Users should only have '''one''' signature in-use.

* Signatures must ''not'' contain:
** violations of any other [[Inkipedia:Policy|policies]]
** content larger than 30 pixels in height
** content that expands the height of the line
** contain line breaks and or spread over multiple lines
** any external links (see [[Inkipedia:Policy/Advertisement]])
** content with absolute or fixed positions
** content with extreme relative positions
** any markup that is a disruption e.g. <code>&lt;blink></code>, <code>&lt;marquee></code> etc.
** any markup that categorizes pages
** any invalid markup, e.g. unclosed tags or formatting markup

== Creating a signature ==
By default, the signature is [[Special:MyPage|{{USERNAME|Your Name}}]] ([[Special:MyTalk|talk]]). This will be displayed if you do not customize your signature.

Below is the cleanest and preferred way of creating a signature.

#Create your signature code and place it in [[Special:MyPage/Sig|User:{{USERNAME}}/Sig]].
#Go to [[Special:Preferences|Preferences]], scroll down to '''Signature'''.
#In New Signature, type <nowiki>{{</nowiki>nosubst|User:{{USERNAME}}/Sig<nowiki>}}</nowiki> into the box.
#Make sure the box marked "custom signature" or "Treat signature as wikitext" is checked.
#Press Save.
#You can now edit [[Special:MyPage/Sig|User:{{USERNAME}}/Sig]] and it will be updated throughout the wiki for each change. 

Note that this will not change any signatures you have written before following these steps.

== Signing ==
Some users may be confused or unfamiliar with the <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> mark, believing that it is a decoration or a separator of some sort. It is not. '''Type <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>''' only: you do '''not''' type <nowiki>~~~~UserName</nowiki> or <nowiki>~~~~UserName~~~~</nowiki>.

=== Do ===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|- 
!Code
!Gives
|- 
|<nowiki>~~~</nowiki>
|[[User:Example|Example]]
|- 
|<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>
|[[User:Example|Example]] 00:00, 1 January 1970 (UTC)
|-
|<nowiki>--[[User:Example|]]</nowiki>
| --[[User:Example|Example]]
|- 
|<nowiki>{{Signature|Example}}</nowiki>
|{{Signature|Example}}
|}

=== Do not ===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|- 
!Code
!Gives
|- 
|<nowiki>~~~~Example~~~~</nowiki>
|Example 00:00, 1 January 1970 (UTC)ExampleExample 00:00, 1 January 1970 (UTC)
|- 
|<nowiki>~~~~Example</nowiki>
|Example 00:00, 1 January 1970 (UTC)Example
|- 
|<nowiki>Example~~~~</nowiki>
|ExampleExample 00:00, 1 January 1970 (UTC)
|-
|<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>
|00:00, 1 January 1970 (UTC)
|- 
|}

== Signing for someone else ==
When you see that someone else has not signed their comment in a talk page, it may be helpful to sign the comment for them.

To sign someone else's comment, use {{t|Unsigned}}. First, go to the history page so that you can copy the username and time. Then paste the username and time into the template like this: <code><nowiki>{{subst:unsigned|Username|00:00, 1 January 1970 (UTC)}}</nowiki></code>

[[Category:Inkipedia policy]]