Help:Signatures

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Users can easily sign their posts at the end of a comment. Signing is normally done on talk pages only, not on conjointly written articles.

Default 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).

Function Wiki markup (replaced when saving) Resulting wiki code Resulting display
Signature plus timestamp
~~~~

[[User:Username|Username]] 12:34, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Username 12:34, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
Signature alone
~~~

[[User:Username|Username]]

Username
Timestamp alone
~~~~~
12:34, 1 February 2008 (UTC) 12:34, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

If you edit without logging in, your IP address will take the place of a username. Usernames and IP addresses are also stored in

If you want to view a page's history, go to the page (e.g., Cat) and click the "View history" tab in the upper-right section of the screen.
10 minute video introduction to the View History feature.

A page history shows the order in which edits were made to any editable DCCWiki page, the difference between any two revisions, and a menu of special external tools. A page history is sometimes called revision history or edit history.

You can view a page's history by clicking the "History" tab at the top of the associated page (pictured right) after clicking on the pencil icon.

The page history contains a list of the page's previous revisions, including the date and time—in UTC by default—of each edit, the username or IP address of the user who made the change, and an optional edit summary that briefly describes or explains the change. For example, the page history for this help page shows that it was first created in Aril 2020, and that it has been changed a few times.

Using a history page

Overview

On a history page:

  • All past changes to the page in question are listed in reverse-chronological order.
  • To view a specific revision, click a date.
  • To compare an old revision with the current revision, go to the old revision, click cur.
  • To compare a revision with its predecessor, click prev.
  • To compare two specific revisions, click the left-column radio button of the older revision and the right-column radio button of the newer revision, and then click the "Compare selected revisions" button.
  • To undo (revert) your own or someone else's edit, click the "undo" link. See Help:Undo for more information.

See also

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 of the default Help:Edit toolbar as a typing aid.

Signatures do not work in edit summaries (they do not translate from ~~~~ there), but of course there would be no need to use this in an edit summary. The date and your user name are recorded and displayed against edits anyway.

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 "New signature:" 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, but the maximum length is 255 characters. Please note that striking signatures are often disliked by other users.

Note that if you customize your signature, you should avoid displaying the identity of another unrelated user account, unless you also own this account or are explicitly authorized by this user: the link should unambiguously point to your effective user page or talk page on the local wiki. However, changing your signature will not override the username that is recorded in page histories. Some wikis may also have defined a restricting policy about the usage of external links or images in signatures. Look at the policies documented and on enforced your local wiki about user accounts and identities.

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:

Purpose Raw signature Resulting signature display (generated by four tildes)
Embedding the dashes in the signature

-- [[User:Username|Username]]

-- Username 12:34, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
Adapting the displayed username to your convenience

[[User:Username|Preferred User Name]]

Preferred User Name 12:34, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
Adding a talk page link

[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]])

Username (talk) 12:34, 1 February 2008 (UTC)