Help:Templated Signatures

From Ravenblack CityWiki

This is about how to create a templated signature that updates itself in any article it has been used. It also makes the usage easier once definded and keeps the article source more readable.

Contents 1 Creating your signature 1.1 Create a user subpage 1.2 Adding your signature to the subpage 2 Using your signature 3 Adding Colour 4 Things not to do 5 Good examples of templated signatures 6 Want Help? 7 Policy addition

Creating your signature

First thing to do is to generate the signature that you will sign pages with.

Create a user subpage

Create a user subpage that will hold the code for your signature in the following format: User:YourUserName/sig or some variation thereof, where YourUserName is replaced by, you guessed it, your user name (ie. the name you use to login), not your character name. Obviously, if your user name *IS* your character name, that is what you will use.

Adding your signature to the subpage

Once in the subpage, you need to fill it with your actual signature. Remember that this will appear on every page that you sign on from this point on, and other users will judge you for it. Keep in mind that there are policies governing signature usage on this wiki, so keep up to date on what's happening.

The first thing you need is a link to your userpage, through your standard wiki handle, meaning your username. So, the first text on your page should be: [[User:YourUserName|YourUserName]] After that, it's essentially up to you, within the limits of good taste and signature policy. Its common on other wikis that people use superscript for subsequent information in their signature with links to other things they consider useful. If you use a templated sig, it's considered good form to include a link to your talk page in the superscripts. For example, if you want to follow common practices and link to your talk page and something you participate in like Project Welcome with the standard abbreviations for them. The next code, on the same line as what you already have would be: ^{[[User_talk:YourUserName|T]] [[Project Welcome|W!]]}

Using your signature

1. To use your signature on the pages that you sign, you need to change your user preferences, you can alwys find this link on the very top right hand corner of the page, or just click the following link after reading this tutorial: my preferences.

2. Scroll down, until you see the Signature box..

3. Then, add the following line of code to the Signature field. {{Nosubst|User:YourUserName/sig}}

4. On your preferences page, on the first tab (User Profile) check the box labeled Treat signature as wikitext (without an automatic link)).

5. Save your preferences, then test your signature somewhere like your own talk page, and if it does what you want, you're good to go. If you want to go further, then read on:

Using superscript (^{^{links here}}) for links other than user name is common practice - such as:

[[User:Cliffburton|cliffburton]] <sup>[[User_talk:Cliffburton|T]] [[Project Welcome|W!]] [[User:Cliffburton/Projects|P]] [[RavenBlack_CityWiki:Site_support|SS]]</sup>

Would be:

cliffburton ^{T W! P SS}

Note that links to the page you are on auto bold; Such as Help:Templated Signatures which comes out as Help:Templated Signatures instead of as a link.

Adding Colour

Now it's time to add some colour to your signature (if you want). To do so, we use the color tag:

1=[[PAGE|<span style="color: COLOR">TEXT</span>]]

Note that you only want to color the text, not the page that is the link, like so:

1=[[User_Talk:Cliffburton|<span style="color: SaddleBrown">T</span>]]

So let's apply it to the whole template:

1=[[User:Cliffburton|<span style="color:SaddleBrown">cliffburton</span>]]<sup> [[User_talk:Cliffburton|<span style="color: purple">T</span>]] [[Project Welcome|<span style="color: grey">W!</span>]] [[User:Cliffburton/Projects|<span style="color: maroon">P</span>]] [[RavenBlack_CityWiki:Site_support|<span style="color: green">SS</span>]]</sup>

Becomes:

cliffburton ^{T W! P SS}

Things not to do

• Blinking text.
• Text that is too large and breaks the lines of the page.
• External links to malicious sites that do things like close the browser, etc.

Good examples of templated signatures

• Cliff Burton • Marco 02:07, 22 July 2010 (UTC)
• Archangel ^{Talk * Welcome * Support} 15:52, 22 July 2010 (UTC)
• Cora ^{-talk | vamp-} 09:57, 24 July 2010 (UTC)
• G/Upir ^Talk 19:38, 24 July 2010 (UTC)
• Coquette ^{-talk|character-} 19:43, 24 July 2010 (UTC)
• Lameth ^{Talk|Character} 19:48, 24 July 2010 (UTC)
• Majica ^{Talk|Character} 15:52, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Want Help?

• For further guidelines on signatures, go here for the official RavenBlack CityWiki policy.

Policy addition

Before anyone get's the idea (wondering that it didn't happen yet) of using the signature to show off their pride in being a clan member...

Please do not!

Because I want this signature to be what it is meant to be... a signature by the person (and not a clan member) who has written the lines it signed. This is in canon with how I treat you people (namely as people) and want you people to do treat each other in this project. Some may say that then the user name shouldn't be the characters name, but this would maybe scare people from joining (or make it at least more uncomfy or less attractive to do so), also it is a little late for that and of course would spoil the fun. Hope most of you agree with this "so to say" policy. Nevertheless, have fun. --Cliff Burton • Marco 00:04, 30 March 2010 (UTC)