Guild Wars Wiki:Sign your comments and Guild Wars Wiki:Sign your comments/Draft 20071226: Difference between pages

{{Policy||[[GWW:SIGN]]}}

== The purpose of signatures ==

=== When should signatures be used? ===

=== When should signatures not be used? ===

== How to sign ==

Adding your username at the end of your comment counts as the most simple signature. However the wiki provides a convenient and recommended way to sign your comments - by placing four tildes <nowiki>(~~~~)</nowiki> at the end of the comment or by clicking on the [[Image:button_sig.png]] button at the top of the editing window. Upon saving the page, the four tildes will automatically be replaced with your signature and the current date and time. For more details, see the help on [[Help:Signatures#How to sign|how to sign]].

=== Anonymous users ===

Users who chose to contribute to Guild Wars Wiki without [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:How to log in|logging in]] are also encouraged to sign. Without a user name, the [[Wikipedia:IP address|IP address]] will be used for identification purposes instead.

=== Dealing with unsigned comments ===

When a talk page comment is not signed, any user can append a note to the unsigned comment to show which user made it, using <code>subst:</code> with the {{tl|unsigned}} template. If comment was made by an anonymous user, {{tl|unsigned ip}} should be used instead. To add a timestamp on the unsigned comment, {{tl|unsigned+}} is a good template to use. It works on both registered and anonymous users. These are not required but they can be particularly helpful in discussions involving multiple users who did not sign. See the help on [[Help:Signatures#Dealing with unsigned comments|how to use the template]].

== Customizing your signature ==

A registered user can customize their signature, but within reason. Read through and understand all of the following before attempting to [[Help:Signatures#Customizing your signature|customize your signature]].

=== General rules and considerations ===

It is common practice for a signature to resemble to some degree the [[GWW:USER|user name]] it represents.

* Do '''not''' add offensive or illegal content to your signature (refer to [[GWW:NPA]], [[GWW:USER]], and [[GWW:COPYRIGHT]]).

* Do '''not''' attempt to impersonate another user. Avoid having similar signatures to reduce the possibility of mistaken attribution.

* As this wiki is primarily in English, avoid excessive use of non-[[W:Latin alphabet|Latin]] characters as it may be illegible to most users or unnecessarily difficult to identify. Users with non-Latin user names should consider using a Latin version of their user name (registering an additional account to redirect one to the other).

* Do realize that the issue of user names is a subjective matter. If you see a disruptive signature and would like to ask that user to change it, please remember to be polite. If you are being asked to change your signature, please do not interpret a polite request to be an attack. Remain calm and work on getting to a mutually acceptable resolution. Make use of [[GWW:RFC]].

* Avoid changing your signature often, especially into something entirely different. Your signature is what identifies you as a user, and changing signatures may cause unnecessary confusion and misidentification.

=== Links ===

=== Appearance ===

* Markup tags or styles that increase your text size, repositions the text, or otherwise changes the flow of the text, as well as line breaks (such as <code>&lt;br /&gt;</code>) are not allowed.

* Avoid using hardly readable or uncommon font families and always provide a common alternative font family.

* Although <code>&lt;small&gt;</code> is allowed, do not make your signature so small that it becomes difficult to read.

* Do not use text animations or effects that cause visual disruption of a text page.

* Be sparing with the use of colors, especially background colors. Avoid using bright and glaring colors that disrupts the readability of a text page.

=== Length ===

* Signatures that take up more than two or three lines in the edit window unnecessarily clutter the edit window and make it more difficult to distinguish meaningful comments from the signatures.

* The presence of long signatures disrupts the reading of comments when an editor is formulating a response. A 200-character signature, for instance, is already longer than many comments.

* Long signatures that are not broken by spaces cause edit windows to widen horizontally (any user may add spaces to it).

=== Images ===

One small image or icon may be included in your signature.

* The image used is constrained to a maximum size of 19x19 pixels, to avoid disrupting text spacing and readability.

* Animated images are not allowed due to the visual disruption they can cause.

* Be sparing with the use of colors, especially background colors. Avoid using bright and glaring colors that disrupts the readability of a text page.

* The image file you use must be uniquely yours and used by you alone. Upload it under the appropriate name (e.g. ''File:User Example sig.png'' as the signature image of [[User:Example]]). See [[GWW:IMAGE]] for more details on user images. When uploading, also add {{tl|user image|<user name>}} to the image's description.

** If an image is used in your signature, include an empty alternative text for accessibility reasons. For example: <code><nowiki>[[</nowiki>File:User <user name> sig.png| ]]</code> (note the space between the <code>|</code> and <code>]]</code>). Alternatively, if the image links to your talk page, use ''"Talk page"'' or something similar as the alternative text.

=== Transclusion ===

[[W:Wikipedia:Transclusion|Transclusions]], [[W:Help:Template|templates]], and [[W:Help:Parser function|parser functions]] are generally not allowed in a signature.

* Transcluded signatures require extra processing and are an unnecessary server drain. Whenever you change the source of a transclusion, all pages transcluding the source must be re-cached.  

* Signature templates are good vandalism targets, allowing others to modify your signature without you noticing it at all. And they continue to be vandalism targets even after you have stopped contributing.

** This allows users to have different signatures on GWW and GW2W, despite preferences being shared between the wikis, by editing the sig.js pages on each wiki differently.

== See also ==

* [[W:Wikipedia:How to fix your signature|How to fix your signature]] (if your signature previously worked but doesn't now)