A signature is a string of wikitext that identifies the author of a comment on a talk page or forum page. A user may customize their signature, but it should always include a link to their user page, talk page, or contributions page. Signatures should usually be followed by a timestamp.
Contributions to articles, help pages, policies, and other content pages should not be signed.
Example signature from a Fandom Staff member
Adding a signature
To sign a comment you are writing, type four tildes in a row:
- ~~~~
This shows up as:
- J. Random User (talk) 19:01, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
This example indicates that a user named "J. Random User" left the signature at the time indicated.
You can use three tildes (~~~) if you don't want a timestamp, or five (~~~~~) if you want only a timestamp.
Changing a signature
Your default signature will contain two links: one to your user page and one to your talk page.
- Example (talk)
You can change this signature to point to another wiki. For example, if you are signing a comment on Community Central, but you are most often on Memory Alpha, you may want a link to the talk page you visit most often. In this case, you want your signature to be:
To get this, go to your Preferences (on any wiki) and check the Treat signature as wikitext (without an automatic link to your user page) checkbox. Then enter
- [[User:Example|Example]] ([[w:c:memory-alpha:User talk:Example|talk]])
in the New signature field.
- Note: It is recommended you link only to your user talk page on your home wiki, and leave the link to your user page pointing at the wiki where you signed a comment. This allows users to access your local user page and to view your contributions list for that wiki.
- Note: Keep in mind that a link to the current page will not be displayed as a clickable hyperlink (e.g. the link to your talk page in your signature on your talk page).
Check with each wiki's community for whether there are any rules about styles in signatures.
Signatures in other character sets
If your signature is in a character set not in wide usage on the wiki you are signing onto, it may be easier for users there to recognize you if you add a version of your name in the character set of that wiki.
In addition to difficulties users may have in remembering and using a name in a script which is foreign to them, characters from many scripts (such as Chinese, Hindi, or Georgian) may display as boxes or mojibake (garbage characters) for users without the proper fonts installed.
In these cases, you might want to add an additional nickname to your signature that is more understandable on that wiki. For example, you could use something like [[User:快樂|快樂 (Happiness)]] or [[User:快樂|快樂 (Felicidad)]] in the New signature field.
Dealing with unsigned messages
You can add {{unsigned|USERNAME|TIMESTAMP}}, replacing USERNAME with the username of the user who left the comment and TIMESTAMP with the timestamp the comment was left.
More help
The English Wikipedia has various pages relating to signing comments, and to making comments in general: