Help:Signatures

Your signature is your linked username followed by today's date and the current time.

When you leave a new comment on a discussion page, always add your signature to the end of the comment by using four tildes: ~

These four tildes are a special code that will automatically be replaced with your username and the date and time when you save your edit.

Example: Typing this:

Becomes this:
 * Hello world! User: (talk), 27 August 2024 (UTC)

= Advanced tips =

Signature options
There are three default options. Four tildes are standard (full signature). Typing three tildes results in a username-only signature (without timestamp). Typing five tildes results in a pure timestamp (without username).

If you edit without logging in, your IP address will take the place of a username. Usernames and IP addresses are also stored in page histories as a record of who wrote what, so others can always verify signatures.

The common format to type a signature – two hyphens (or a long dash) followed by four tildes – is derived from the computer network Usenet, where two hyphens mark a signature block. Note that the hyphens or dash are not inserted automatically and have to be entered (unless you customize your signature to include them, see an example in the next section).

The actual signature string, the tildes, automatically get substituted with username (linked to the appropriate user page) and timestamp (time/date), when you save a signed edit. This helps other users to follow the chronological order of discussions, and to identify the author of a particular comment.

If you don't find the tilde on your keyboard, you can use the signature button text-bottom|link=|signature button of the default edit toolbar as a typing aid.

Signatures do not work in edit summaries (they do not translate from ~ there).

Note that timestamps are currently formatted by default and saved according to the default locale conventions (language, script, date and time format) used on each wiki, and not according to the conventions of your current preferred language.

Customized signatures
Registered users can customize their signature (the part between the two hyphens and the timestamp) by changing the field "" in their preferences. By default, anything you enter there will be wrapped with. To use a special linking (without this automatic link), you have to enable “Raw signatures.” Then you can add Wiki markup and also HTML (as far as allowed on the wiki) as you like. However the new signature must conform to the Signature rules.

Changing your signature will not override the username that is recorded in page histories, nor change signatures placed in the past. Remember that the primary purpose of a signature is user identification to facilitate communication, they are not an expression of your creativity.

If you enable “Raw signatures” but don't add any customized signature string, you'll sign with your unlinked username.

The most common customizations are the following:

fr:Aide:Signatures ru:Справка:Подписи zh:Help:Signatures