EverQuest 2 Wiki:Sign your posts on talk pages

              Signing your posts on talk pages (but ''not'' on articles) is not only good [[EQ2i:Etiquette|etiquette]]; it also facilitates discussion by helping other users to identify the author of a particular comment, to navigate talk pages, and to address specific comments to the relevant user(s), among other things.  Discussion is an important part of collaborative editing as it helps other users to understand the progress and evolution of a work.  

==Purpose of signatures==
Signatures on EQ2i identify you as a user, and your contributions to EQ2i. They encourage discussions by identifying the author of a particular comment, and the date and time at which it was made.

==When signatures should be used==

Any post made to user talk pages, article talk pages, or other discussion pages should be signed.  Edits to articles should ''not'' be signed, as signatures on EQ2i are not intended to indicate ownership or authorship of any Wikipedia article.

== How to "sign" your posts ==

There are two ways to sign your posts:

1.  At the end of your comments, simply type four tildes (~), like this:  <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>. 

2.  If you are using the edit toolbar option (which must be enabled under [[Special:Preferences]]), click the signature icon (http://images.wikia.com/common/skins-200801.5/common/images/button_sig.png) to add the four tildes.

Your signature will appear after you have saved the changes.

The end result is the same in both cases.  Typing four tildes will result in the following:

{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! What you type !! Resulting code !! Resulting display
|-
| <center><code><nowiki>~~~~</nowiki></code></center>
| <code><nowiki>[[User:Example|Example]]</nowiki> {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)</code>
| [[User:Example|Example]] {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)
|}

Since typing four tildes adds the time and date to your resulting signature, this is the preferred option for signing your posts in discussions.

Typing three tildes results in the following:

{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! What you type !! Resulting code !! Resulting display
|-
|<center><code><nowiki>~~~</nowiki></code></center>
|<code><nowiki>[[User:Example|Example]]</nowiki></code>
| [[User:Example|Example]]
|}

Since this does not date-stamp your signature, you may wish to sign this way when leaving general notices on your user page or user talk page.  This is also a convenient shortcut (rather than typing out the full code) when you want to provide a link to your user page.

Typing five tildes will convert to a date stamp with the current date and time, without adding your signature, like this:

{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! What you type !! Resulting code !! Resulting display
|-
|<center><code><nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki></code></center>
| <code>{{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)</code>
| {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)
|}

Note that if you choose to contribute to EQ2i without [[Special:Loginuser|logging in]], you should still sign your posts.  In this case, your IP address will take the place of your username. 

Your IP address might look something like this:  '''192.0.2.58'''.  Some users prefer to use their IP address instead of a user name because they think that an IP provides them with more anonymity.  In actual fact, an account (that is, a registered user name) actually provides you with '''''more''''' protection of your identity.  

Note also that signing manually with a pseudonym or tag such as ''--anon'' does not give you more anonymity or privacy protection, since your IP address will still be stored in the page history.  This also makes it more difficult for other users to communicate with you.  If you choose to sign this way, you should still type four tildes: ''--anon'' <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>.

== Customizing your signature ==

Registered users can customize their signature by going to [[Special:Preferences]] and changing the field "Signature". 

===Appearance and color===

'''Your signature should not blink, or otherwise inconvenience or be annoying to other editors.'''

* Markup such as <code><big></code> tags (which produce <big>big</big> text), or line breaks (<code><br /></code> tags) are to be avoided, since they disrupt the way that surrounding text displays
* Be sparing with superscript or subscript.  In some cases, this type of script can also affect the way that surrounding text is displayed
* Avoid making your signature so small that it is difficult to read

=== RAW Signature ===
If you put a check in the box for '''Raw signature''' on your [[Special:Preferences]] page you can further customize your signature with special links. For RAW mode you need to use Wiki markup, including links. Some examples are below:
{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! What you type for your NAME !! Resulting display
|-
|<center><code><nowiki>[[User:Example|Example]]</nowiki></code></center>
|[[User:Example|Example]]
|}
<br>
{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! What you type for your DISCUSSION page !! Resulting display
|-
|<center><code><nowiki>[[User_talk:Example|talk]]</nowiki></code></center>
|[[User_talk:Example|talk]]
|}
<br>
{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! What you type for your CONTRIBUTIONS page !! Resulting display
|-
|<center><code><nowiki>[[Special:Contributions/Example|contribs]]</nowiki></code></center>
|[[Special:Contributions/Example|contribs]]
|}<br>
By using the three examples above for your signature, plus formatting:<br>
 <code><nowiki> [[User:Example|Example]]</nowiki></code> '''('''<code><nowiki>[[User_talk:Example|talk]]</nowiki></code>'''/'''<code><nowiki>[[Special:Contributions/Example|contribs]]</nowiki></code>''')'''
you will end up with a signature that looks something like this:<br>
 -- [[User:Example|Example]] ([[User_talk:Example|talk]]/[[Special:Contributions/Example|contribs]]) 01:19, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

=== Length ===

'''Keep signatures short, both in display and markup.'''

Long signatures with a lot of HTML/wiki markup make page editing more difficult.  A 200 character signature, for instance, is likely to be larger than many of the comments to which it is appended, making discussion more difficult: 

* signatures that take up more than two or three lines in the edit window clutter the page and make it harder to distinguish posts from signatures,
* long signatures give undue prominence to a given user's contribution,
* signatures which have excessively long HTML/wiki markup and contain no spaces can cause a later editor's edit box to show an unnecessary horizontal scrollbar